The second of my Brookner reads for Brookner in July.
Providence is described on Goodreads and elsewhere as a romantic comedy –not sure that I see it in quite those terms, but it is a novel I enjoyed very much. This is an early Brookner novel – in fact it was only Brookner’s second novel. In her first novel –A start in Life, the main character believes her life has been ruined by literature. In this novel, Kitty Maule is similarly affected by her literature. Kitty wishes to be “totally unreasonable, totally unfair, very demanding, and very beautiful.” Instead Kitty is an attractive woman of thirty, she can barely remember her French mother, and spends time worrying about her grandparents, submitting herself to her grandmother’s dressmaking – and plagued by her annoying neighbour Caroline who plays her radio loudly to stave off loneliness. Kitty is a lecturer in literature working with a small difficult group on the classic French novel Adolphe. Kitty’s desire for success in her romantic life even drives her to consult a clairvoyant.
“Her main preoccupation was whether Maurice would ask her to go with him to France. She would be useful, she knew, could do all the boring things, while he got on with driving the car and getting from one place to another and being inspired by what he saw. French after all, was her mother tongue; she could save him a lot of time and trouble. But how to suggest this? The suggestion must surely come from him, and he was still bent over his maps, his hand blindly reaching for the cup of coffee she had poured for him. It seemed as if he could take the cathedrals of France without any human company to dilute them, his passion for the absolute, for God and beauty sustaining him where she herself would have calculated the moment at which she might have crept out to the patisserie.”
For Kitty has been having a somewhat lukewarm romance with fellow academic Maurice. Cool and immaculate Maurice has a sorrow in his past from which he is still suffering. Maurice also has his faith, his absolute belief in divine providence. After two years Maurice is often a disappointment to Kitty; she feeds off his occasional endearments and small kindnesses. Kitty’s romantic pursuit of Maurice takes her to France, a depressing room in a Parisian guest house where she waits for Maurice to break off his tour of French cathedrals to pay her a hurried visit. While Kitty nervously prepares for a lecture, and wonders about Maurice’s commitment, Maurice is considering his own future.
Providence is a quiet, beautifully observed and enjoyable novel, it is the kind of novel where little happens – but I like novels like that, and there is some truly brilliant characterisation. The pervading atmosphere of the novel is one I recognised as typically Brookner – just it is less bleak than some of her later novels – although there are no smiles at the end, we can hardly expect that now. I often find it hard to like Brookner’s central character, but in Kitty Maule I find she has created a character I actually rather did like. It was Maurice I couldn’t take to. Kitty is a fairly typical Brookner heroine (if that’s the right word) she does rather wait for things to happen – she compares herself with the other unmarried women that she knows – and allows herself to remain disappointed in her life and in her relationship and does nothing to further her own happiness. The ending was for me, therefore in no way unexpected. Providence would actually provide an excellent starting point for anyone coming to Anita Brookner’s work for the first time.
I’m so pleased to see good reviews of some Brookners I haven’t read (yet!) here. I’m definitely going to read this one. I love your remark about the ‘typical’ Brookner heroine – I think this is what annoys so many readers about her main characters, but I find it rather comforting.
Lovely review Ali – I’ve only ever read Hotel du Lac so this might be a good place to go to explore Brookner further.
Thanks to you and the connector blog, Lakeside Musings, I have joined Anita Brookner month by reading Hotel du Lac, which I am enjoying so much! Thanks for the nudge in the right direction. I’m more than halfway through now, and am eager to read more Brookner.
Judith (Reader in the Wilderness)
[…] Now I may need to pick-up another one of her books, her second novel Providence reviewed by Heavenali. Kitty Maule is a lonely academician who, while successful in her professional life, finds her love […]
Thank you for inspiring me a second time this year. In January I participated in your month of re-reading and I didn’t stop until I finished my list! Now I am reading A Start in LIfe and I was going to try Look at Me next but your review of Providence has me thinking I want to read it next. I particularly like the fact that literature plays a central role in these two early novels. Thanks again.
I hope you enjoy it – although I can certainly recommend Look at me too : )
That’s a very good review. I loved her central characters when I first read her – I think I felt that they were something to aspire to, lecturing in literature and living alone in London! Not what happened to me, but that pervades my re-reading of these early ones.
Thank you. There is a different feel to the earlier novels.
This sounds like a Brookner I should try.
Here’s my review for Strangers http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/strangers-by-anita-brookner.html
Thank you for the link, I liked Strangers when I read it too. You have prompted me to add your blog to my reader – sorry it has taken me so long. : )
[…] which was published exclusively as an ebook in 2011. I then read, ‘Undue Influence’, ‘Providence’ and ‘Leaving […]