This is a very evocative novel, which really encapsulates the past well. We begin with Leo’s story at school, where he is bullied and his life made a misery, before somehow a chance event causes him to become something of a hero. This experience gives him a certain confidence, so he is thrilled to visit Marcus in the holidays. There is even a titled guest; a Viscount, who allows him to call him by his first name, as well as the lovely Marian, Marcus’s sister. L.P. Hartley wrote The Go-Between. Hartley was a twentieth-century British novelist and short story writer. He is critically respected but also often overlooked. Secrets are like glue. They bond their keepers. It's hard not to admire their power. At first, secrets gleam and are dexterous as young gymnasts. The problem comes as time goes on. Their weight changes. Their shape, too. They lose their grip. There's a crash. The shards they leave are us on the ground staring up at the bar from which we fell. Not long after, Marcus informs Leo that Marian is now engaged to Lord Trimingham. Leo is relieved and believes this means Marian and Ted's letters will now stop. This does not come to pass and Marian again asks Leo to take a letter to Ted. This upsets Leo greatly but he ends up acting as the couple's messenger once again.

But it is the Epilogue which made this book for me. Until then, the narrator's voice was that adolescent, seeing things with open eyes but not yet understanding. No one will tell him what 'spooning' is and conversations splinter when one says 'Hugh' and the other hears 'you'. Such is the confusion when a boy turns thirteen. What to make of lessons of 'right' and 'wrong' and what is proper and what is not when Life's joys and tragedies yet remain unexplained. But, Proustians, the Epilogue begins with this line: When I put down my pen, I meant to put away my memories with it.Though he isn’t allowed to swim yet, Leo joins some of the inhabitants of the Hall who decide to go bathing in a nearby sluice. As the group arrives, they notice the imposing physical presence of Ted Burgess, a nearby tenant farmer on the estate, already in the water. Denys, Marcus’ dim older brother, has a brief conversation with Ted, informing him that Lord Trimingham, the estate’s landowner, will arrive later that evening. Leo is fascinated by Ted’s impressive physicality, but Marian pays him no attention. Alan Radley, "Psychological realism in L. P. Hartley's The Go-Between", Literature and Psychology, 2012 L.P. Hartley was born in 1895. He had a comfortable childhood and received a good education. Hartley graduated from Oxford with a degree in Modern History. This degree took longer than expected to complete as Hartley's studies were interrupted by the First World War. Hartley worked as a book reviewer to earn money. He published short story collections and novels but was not commercially successful until the 1940s.

Knowledge may be power, but it is not resilience, or resourcefulness, or adaptability to life, still less is it instinctive sympathy with human nature; and those were qualities I possessed in 1900 in far greater measure than I possess them in 1952. spooning) που εμφανίζεται σταθερά σε όλο το βιβλίο, ξεπηδάει η έννοια του έρωτα, του αγνού πρώτου έρωτα, αυτού που κάνει το ξαπλωμένο σώμα να γουβιάσει για να υποδεχτεί την κούρμπα της πλάτης του αγαπημένου μέσα του. Δε θα το ξεχάσω αυτό. It is a masterpiece of double-speak and secrecy, somehow both ambiguous and direct. It works a magic on obviousness, so that it becomes a novel about British embarrassment and embarrassing Britishness. It's a book which subtly, almost mischievously, rejects subtlety: "the facts of life were a mystery to me, though several of my schoolfellows claimed to have penetrated it." But couched and quiet at its centre is a whole other novel at a further level of knowing, innocence and unsaidness. Now, in a reread, I can see what I certainly couldn't consciously have seen or said in 1979, that Leo, in love with both the concept of Marian and the "half-unwilling gentleness", the feather on the tiger, the "natural" body of Burgess, is a go-between in quite another way. The Novel is structured in two parts, with an older Leo reflecting on his memories of that summer when he was 13 years old and the events that took place at Brandham Hall, the country estate where he was staying. As the summer progresses, Leo becomes increasingly entangled in the affair between Marian and Ted, and he struggles to understand the complexities of adult relationships and the consequences of his actions. This dilemma between his intentions and the results of his go-between actions in the summer of 1900 will haunt Leo Colston for the rest of his life, until he is ready to revisit the place in 1952.I am a cynical bitch. I don’t read this romantic genre often - but wait - it isn’t really “romantic” in the sense of unbridled break from reality. No, this is powerful emotion grounded in harsh reality. This book moved me deeply. It’s got all the feels and it is extraordinarily beautifully written. If you want a bit of nostalgia for lost innocence and days gone by, this is spot on. The woman at the center of this story says: But they weren't our fault -- they were the fault of this hideous century we live in, which has denatured humanity and planted death and hate where love and living were. Tell him this, Leo, make him see it and feel it; it will be the best day's work you ever did. One of the most influential British novels of the 20th century, The Go-Between is a story of forbidden love, Edwardian strictures, betrayal and tragic naivety. When I started reading this book, it immediately brought Ian McEwan to mind. So it came as no surprise to hear McEwan list Hartley among his influences. There's very much an Atonement vibe about this book-- the adolescent protagonist witnessing an affair between adult lovers, the naivete of the young mind, one intense summer that changes everything... it's all there. I really enjoyed it. The weather continues to grow hotter, pleasing Leo. One day, Trimingham tasks Leo with finding Marian so she can join in a croquet game. When Leo finds her she’s reluctant to play—but she does give Leo a letter pertaining to “business matters” for him to take to Ted. Over the next few days, Leo continues to carry notes and verbal messages between Marian and Ted, unwittingly facilitating their secret relationship. Marcus begins to recover, and Leo thinks he won’t be able to take any more messages without arousing Marcus’ suspicions. Marian gives Leo another letter but is hurried by Trimingham’s entry into the room. As the envelope is unsealed, Leo looks inside on route to the farm—he’s horrified that it’s a love letter.

A romance follows a story in which two characters are in love and share a romantic relationship. The couple often face challenges along the way that make their romance more difficult and complex. Famous romances include Pride and Prejudice (1813) by Jane Austen and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1597).While naivety, and innocence and youth could all be mitigating factors in that horrible, unconscionable decision that he made, it strikes me that Hartley doesn't paint him well enough; it seems that Hartley paints him more as a "simpleton adult" rather than as a child in the in-between years of childhood and adulthood. And that is the other great fault: Hartley hasn't captured what it is to be a child; he's merely super-imposed adult sensibilities onto a shorter, younger body and pretended that it's a child's point of view.