The Go-Between - L. P. Hartley

     L. P. Hartley's The Go-Between begins with the famous first line: "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."
     The novel is the reminiscence of Leo Colston who looks back on his childhood and the events of the summer of 1900. The discovery of a battered red collar box containing mementos and a diary from the fateful summer prompt the telling of the story.
     Leo spends the summer of his thirteenth birthday in Norfolk at Brandham Hall, the home of school friend Marcus Maudsley. Leo is from a lower class than the Maudsleys and is out of place. The family attempts to make him feel at home, and Marian, Marcus's older sister, takes him to a nearby town to buy him clothes suitable for the heat of summer. Leo's mother had been unable to afford new summer clothes for him, and he had suffered through the heat.
     The excessive heat of the summer is a continuing theme, and Leo becomes obsessed with it, constantly checking the temperature on the outdoor thermometer. Leo' situation heats up when Marcus falls ill and Leo is left on his own. He is soon recruited as a go-between, carrying messages between Marian and a local farmer, Ted Burgess. Leo is unaware of the nature of their relationship and the contents of the letters he carries. He relishes the errands because he believes they elevate him to a position of importance.
     With the arrival of Viscount Hugh Trimingham, who's family formerly lived in Brandham Hall, Leo learns that Marian is meant to marry the Viscount. As he becomes more and more aware of the relationship between Marian and Ted Burgess, Leo begins to balk at his duties as "the postman." He is torn because he is fond of all three, Marian especially.
     Ultimately, Leo's role as the messenger has disastrous consequences. The events have a traumatic and long-lasting effect on Leo. He becomes an emotionally detached adult and is never able to develop intimate relationships. The story has an additional twist. As the elderly Leo looks back on the events of that summer, he becomes curious and returns to Norfolk to confront the elderly Marian. She persuades him to act as the go-between one final time.
     This is a romantic, nostalgic novel. It explores the themes of childhood innocence and its loss, family, class, and gender distinctions.

     A film version was released in 1971 starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates. It is an excellent adaptation and remains faithful to the novel.

- Frances

Hook, Line, and Sinker! (Great First Lines)

     I'm currently re-reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (for my Cornwall challenge) and reading for the first time The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley. These two books have two of the most memorable first lines in literature:

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." ~ Rebecca

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." ~ The Go-Between

     Isn't it odd how some first lines stay with you forever? First lines really do play an important part in any novel or short story. When well crafted, they pull you into the fictional world immediately. They are certainly not the deciding factor in whether or not I will finish a novel, but a glance at the first line of a book is often what triggers a purchase or a library check-out. Here are a few other personal favorites (feel free to share yours!):

"Call me Ishmael." ~ Moby Dick by Herman Melville

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." ~ Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen


"I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story." ~ Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink." ~ I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

"The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to say that it was the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child." ~ The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

"On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on." ~ Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"All children, except one, grow up." ~ Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

"Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge." ~ The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

"The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation." ~ The Secret History by Donna Tartt

     First lines also provide great fodder for book trivia. In the Neil Simon film Max Dugan Returns, Brian (Donald Sutherland) quizzes Nora (Marsha Mason), an English teacher, to see if she can name the novel from the first line. She guesses James Joyce's Ulysses before he finishes the line, "Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed."


- Frances