Someone at a Distance (Persephone Classics)

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I should mention this—there are other French figures. The “villain’s” parents are not stupid. They are aware of their daughter’s shallow behavior. Yet, they fail to adequately remonstrate or oppose her. Other French characters are drawn as being exceedingly meek. Neither is this realistic. I think of the details in the book, and I get furious. Time and time again, I reacted negatively to how the author chose to put together the story. The erring husband’s wife is so kind, self-sacrificing and wise. Their daughter is extremely naïve. Their son loyally supports his mom in every way he can. Lovely, huh? Very nice but not real! The good characters can be piled in one heap and the foolish and the meek in another. This made me squirm and feel uncomfortable. There is one unbelievably horrible villain. Guess who. “The French girl”, of course. This is how she is referred to.

Someone at a Distance - Wikipedia

Don’t forget that someone who has had a habit of trying to uphold an image for a long time, will become more and more distant over time. Because an ‘image’ is never real. The closer they get to you, the more guilt they have to feel if they take their sexual interests elsewhere. Connecting with you and maintaining a relationship may not serve their ends of achieving the image of the perfect life, or perfect personality.

If you never spend any time feeling what they have to go through right now and what their struggles are, then it’s a good idea to consider that.

BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, Someone at a Distance BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, Someone at a Distance

The principal characters are Avery and Ellen North. Avery works in London at a publishing house, and his wife, Ellen, a woman happily consumed with the daily tasks of keeping house. Ellen has little interest in entertaining or attending the literary events at Avery’s work. Even though it might be her duty as a publisher’s wife, she soon realized that “she didn’t look important and nobody wondered who she was,” and decided she was not missed. It is not here to encourage people addicted to the high they get from feeling like somebody else feels inadequate around them. For someone who values connection, distant people can be a waste of time and finite emotional energy. Ellen North is a good woman. She loves her husband, Avery, a London publisher, and her home, her garden and her children. She is kind and considerate. She prefers staying in to going out, and if she’s guilty of anything, it’s an almost naive faith in the simplicity of life. The only blot on the landscape is Avery’s mother, Mrs North, a woman who likes to complain about how neglected she is. So when Mrs North takes on a young Frenchwoman as a live-in companion, everything seems perfect. The depiction of a once happy and bustling home silenced is so beautiful, as evident in this paragraph:You can try a couple of times to reach out to a distant person, but if they still maintain their distance, you must feel. But even if nobody holds them accountable, inside, somewhere, most people know they did the wrong thing. Your “distant person” might also be a jobless person, or they might have chosen a bad person to marry, and feel shame about that.

Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple | Goodreads Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple | Goodreads

People who do not want to be revealed are more comfortable in superficial situations. They don’t have to care about anyone else too much, and nobody else has to care about them too much. Perfection! Described by JB Priestley as “the Jane Austen of the 20th century”, Whipple was the bestselling author of nine novels, many short stories and two volumes of memoirs. Her popularity waned when her understated storytelling was replaced by the much louder and pithy voices of the 1960s. (Famously her editor informed her that what the publishing world wanted was more passion, more action.) But for the modern reader, the novel poses a complex question. Who is the true instigator of this love triangle? Is it really that minx, Louise? Is it the man Louise once adored, who rejected her and set her on a path of destruction? Or is there something more progressive at play?... Avery and Ellen and their two children lead an idyllic life. It is to all eyes a charmed family. But everything changes when Old Mrs. North, Avery’s demanding mother, hires a French girl, Louise, as a companion and language coach. Louise is a fine piece of work, a girl smarting from an affair to a man in a higher social class in her hometown, who is hellbent on exacting her revenge–success. Once Louise sets her sights on Avery, things get complicated.It was a copy of Dorothy Whipple’s Someone at a Distance, originally published in 1953, reprinted by Persephone Books in London. Dorothy Whipple’s Someone at a Distance blew me away. Its simple premise, the dissolution of a marriage, is drawn in a subtle, skillful way. Whipple draws you into post-War rural England with an artist’s hand, taking you into the lives of the North family with deft, compassionate insight.

Someone at a Distance - Dorothy Whipple 9780953478026: Someone at a Distance - Dorothy Whipple

In Dorothy Whipple’s own way — quietly probing, loving and truthful — she was just as disruptive as the writers of the 1960s who replaced her.' We can barely deal with our own stress, let alone deal with letting someone in our lives, only to potentially magnify that stress even more.They are sometimes distant because they want to, deep down inside, but don’t know how (code for: terrified.) 9: They’ve been ignoring the truth their whole life and it’s too late now. In the end, the central plot is very simple, but that is what makes the novel so easy to empathize with , as you keep thinking about your own seemingly strong familial relationships. You ask – Are relationships really this fragile? Can something that seems so strong and sacred break up in a span of a few minutes? For a long time now, the western world has been a society that doesn’t respect nurturing and family. My husband, too; he hasn’t watched tv in 11 years. I believe that’s one of the secrets of our incredibly close relationship.