Customer Reviews

Without Charity

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been reading too many romances recently, and decided to switch to a more novelistic romance. WITHOUT CHARITY is a find, and I would definitely read more by this particular author, a former author who now writes children's fiction (The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness). This is a story about an interesting Victorian-era house and estate, about the impact of family secrets over generations, and a historical mystery.
Readers who enjoy books about family history research might enjoy this book in particular.

Brief summary: WITHOUT CHARITY, Michelle Paver's first novel, is a story about family secrets that cuts between two different time periods and two different generations. Through the lives of an English aristocrat and his possible mistress, and through the life of their descendant, Paver describes how a cross-class romance comes about and affects later generations. Yet that romance is not what it is believed to be by the lord's contemporaries (and neighbors). A historical mystery must be solved before the truths behind the apparent facts come to light. The book is well-written, the plot interesting, and the characters complex and well-detailed. The only problem is that the generation in between is less strongly portrayed (and their actions harder to believe).

Setting:

The story switches between the Late Victorian and Edwardian era (roughly 1900-1905) and the modern era (mid-1990s by my reckoning), and is set in southern England.

Longer review:

In the space of two weeks, a thirty-five year old TV producer Sarah Dalton has lost her live-in lover (Dominic Hardy, a divorced barrister) and her job. She has fallen ill with pneumonia and spends the next two months with her mother in Coventry.

Her boyfriend's younger brother Alex Hardy offers her a job - researching and producing the history of a house and estate now owned by an American university. The house itself is a bizarre monstrosity created in the High Victorian period (1850s-1860s) by the eccentric grandparents of the last two barons. Sarah accepts the job reluctantly, disliking the idea of producing an "Upstairs Downstairs" (which appears to mean a sepia-tinted view of the British aristocracy) for an American audience. She also fears further contact with Dominic through his brother Alex.

However, she accepts the job on the advice of her brother Nick. As she researches the background of Harlaston Hall and its titled occupants, she also starts looking into her own family background. Her father Julian Dalton died when she was 16 or 17, and never spoke of his background because of his Socialist wife. Sarah and Nick grew up knowing almost nothing about their paternal grandparents who died decades before. She knew that her paternal grandmother was somehow connected with the Pearce-Stauntons, the aristocratic Lords Harlaston, of Harlaston Hall. While trying to find out more about her grandmother, she discovers several layers of family secrets.

Her search for her missing grandfather leads her to suspect that he was Robert Pearce-Staunton, the last Lord Harlaston and last owner of Harlaston Hall. She is puzzled by discrepancies in narratives about him, and by her grandmother's own life. Who exactly was Charity Fosdyke, and how did she come to be involved with a real Lord? Did Harlaston take advantage of a young innocent tenant, or was the truth more complex? Was Harlaston's reputation as a perfect gentleman based on his cousin's accounts (which had omitted his illegitimate son) and the views of persons of similar backgrounds, or was he indeed the man claimed?

As readers, we have the advantage of reading about Charity and Robert's interactions as they happened circa 1900-1905, as well as reading local residents' recollections and analyses of these interactions. Letters from the vicar's wife (a well-meaning conventional sort), a family memoir by the vicar's daughter (a suffragette), recollections by aged ladies in nursing homes are combined with what little documentary evidence Sarah Dalton can turn up. And there is precious little. The best pieces of evidence are mislaid or forgotten until nearly the end.

This is not a bodiceripper romance, nor is it an analysis of cross-class tensions (although there is some evident through the plot). What struck me was the complex social structure in a small village on a country estate, and the effects of sexual or other forms of deviance on extended families.

The background (or the past):

Lord Harlaston (Robert Pearce-Staunton) made a good marriage socially speaking in the late 1890s. In social terms, he exchanged his title, his country house and estate and his looks for his wife's wealth and great beauty. However, his marriage turned out badly; in practical terms, he may have fallen in love with his wife, who was unable to reciprocate his feelings or to understand him and his family. Violet, Lady Harlaston, was a great beauty, but someone who cared only about herself and her appearance. She was careless of the opinions of those beneath her, and not comfortable with his bizarre family home.

Because of the social mores of the time, and his own character, Lord Harlaston found it impossible to treat his wife badly (to force her to leave him) or to leave her himself. A divorce was impossible then or later (the only grounds for divorcing one's wife were adultery or desertion, neither applicable in Violet's case). Appearances had to be kept up, since they were Victorians.

Lord Harlaston's life was changed by the Boer War when he was ordered to burn the homes of Boer women and children, leaving hundreds if not thousands exposed to the elements and the dangers of enforced treks. The death of his only child and heir forced him to re-examine many of his beliefs about warfare, and eventually about his marriage and himself. It is at this time that he met Charity Fosdyke, the daughter of a newly hired stonemason. Charity's unusual traits, including her obvious intelligence, her thirst for knowledge, and her dignity, attracted him. Yet, as an honourable man, he could do nothing - even a platonic (non-physical) romance was not an option in an era when a young girl's reputation was at stake.

An accidental eye-witness to one of their rare meetings, and the inquisitiveness of Charity's emotionally unbalanced mother, set into motion events that would change several lives. It is the interpretation placed on this "evidence" that is carried through the next generations by village gossip and recollections of elderly residents. Yet the truth about Robert and Charity was far more complex. A particularly stunning fact emerges at the end, and makes sense finally of the title.

WITHOUT CHARITY was written in 2000, and appears to have been Ms Paver's first book.

Why no five stars? I found Sarah's parents' marriage (specifically her father's choice of a wife so different from him) less convincing, as well as the fact that her father shared nothing of his background with his children. I could understand why Robert was attracted to Charity and vice versa, and what Sarah saw in her former lover as well as another romantic interest. But I could not understand how Sarah's father would have chosen to marry a woman so different from him. I also found Sarah's lack of interest in her father's background (while he was alive) a little puzzling. These are minor problems perhaps, but little details that spoiled the book a little for me.

Written by "bookjunkiereviews" 16 January 2006

If you like romance, with a hint of mystery, and sweeping family sagas, this is the one for you. I couldn't put it down. It goes smoothly between present day and Edwardian England. I purchased this from the UK Amazon, on the recommendation of a friend in England. Glad to see it is now available here.

Frankly, I loved this book, even though it annoyed me to no end! The beginning of the chapters were somewhat tedious and a bit boring, but by the chapter's end I was on the edge of my seat, hardly able to read fast enough. Then the chapters ended with some of the finest cliff-hangers I've ever seen and switched perspectives to either Charity or Sarah. At the end of every chapter I was screaming "No, no! Don't go back to Charity, what happened to Sarah?!" or "What? No don't stop! I want to see what happened with Charity!". It made it impossible to stop reading. This book is wonderful, suspenseful, mysterious, and overall heart-warmingly hopeful. This was the first time I'd ever read a book like this and I most certainly haven't regretted it.

The characters were fresh, unique, and they felt like real people to me. Alex and Stephen were amazingly fun and my two favorite characters. Everyone mentioned had a part to play and played it flawlessly. Michelle Paver has outdone herself here.