Ada Leverson is a writer I hadn’t read before – this copy recently loaned to me by Liz has now whetted my appetite for more. Despite having read Liz’s review of it – I had somehow put Ada Leverson in completely the wrong time period. Having assumed she was writing in the 1930s and 40s I had to do a quick reassessment of the time period when I saw it was first published in 1908. The whole tone of the novel actually fits with it having been published thirty years later – a light, bright, witty comedy of manners. It is a quite delightful little read.
I was interested to discover that Ada Leverson was great friends with Oscar Wilde – who of us wouldn’t rather love to get the chance to listen in on their conversations. Perhaps Love’s Shadow offers a little glimpse into their world.
The novel concerns the loves and preoccupations of a group of young, society Londoners, with themes of unequal marriage and unrequited love.
Edith and Bruce Ottley live in what they consistently think of as a very tiny flat – my suspicion is, that Leverson’s idea of a tiny flat and mine might differ by several rooms. Anyway, the young couple are about two years into their marriage and now have a young son. Bruce is a little dull, he shuffles off to the office most days – what he actually does, we don’t know. Though we get the impression fairly quickly that whatever it is Bruce does he does fairly half-heartedly – and is often late, and finds the least excuse to not go in at all. For Bruce is a terrible hypochondriac – on the smallest of provocations he imagines himself quite close to death – and takes to his bed for days on end, while Edith is forced to wait upon him. It is not surprising that Edith is already a little bored.
“For the last few days Bruce had been greatly depressed, his temper more variable than ever, and he had managed to collect a quite extraordinary number of entirely new imaginary illnesses. He was very capricious about them and never carried one completely through, but abandoned it almost as soon as he had proved to Edith that he really had the symptoms. Until she was convinced he never gave it up; but the moment she appeared suitably anxious about one disease he adopted another.”
The main character in the novel however is Edith’s friend Hyacinth Verney, who really doesn’t understand why Edith married Bruce Ottley. Hyacinth is a beautiful heiress, an orphan with a fond guardian living nearby. Hyacinth has fallen for a young man called Cecil Reeve, desperate for him to notice her properly and take her seriously. However, Cecil has his own concerns, he has fallen in love with an older woman, a widow who flatly refuses to take his declarations seriously. As soon as soon Cecil is finally convinced that there is no changing Mrs Raymond’s mind he does a complete about turn and goes after Hyacinth.
Living with Hyacinth is Anne Yeo – her companion, and probably the most interesting character in the book. Anne deliberately makes herself appear older than she is, wishing to be seen as a suitable companion to a young heiress. She dresses unattractively and though she obviously disapproves of Cecil Reeves – is not above a little interference to secure Hyacinth’s happiness. Not everyone knows quite what to make of Anne, Lady Cannon, Hyacinth’s guardian’s wife, certainly disapproves of a young woman she doesn’t understand.
” ‘Tea? At three o’clock in the afternoon! I never heard of such a thing. You seem to have strangely Bohemian ideas in this house, Miss Yeo.’
‘Do you think tea Bohemian? Well coffee then?’”
Anne shocks everyone by disappearing for a while. Edith, meanwhile, has clearly adopted her own way of managing Bruce and his peculiar friend Mr Raggett who has taken a shine to Edith. Mrs Raymond decides to bestow her affections elsewhere – much to Cecil’s shock. Hyacinth is blissfully happy but jealously is destined to rear its ugly head.
“As Cecil came in, looking, Hyacinth thought, particularly and irritatingly handsome, she felt a fresh attack of acute jealousy. And yet, in spite of her anger, her first sensation was a sort of relenting – a wish to let him off, not to entrap him into deceiving her by pretending not to know, not to act a part, but to throw herself into his arms, violently abusing Eugenia, forgiving him, and imploring him vaguely to take her away.”
Not all is light fluffiness though, there is a definite brittleness to the ending I thought. Hinting perhaps, that nothing is ever quite as tidy as happily ever after. The novel ends a little abruptly – but with everything nicely in place for the story to continue.
Love’s Shadow is the first book in a trilogy – that was published under the title The Little Ottleys in the 1980s. Tenterhooks (1912) and Love at Second Sight (1916) are the titles I need to look out for.
This sounds fun! Imagine being friends with Oscar Wilde – I find the thought overwhelming! I’ve not read Leverson but I’ll look out for her.
She is fun, though not in a laugh out loud way really, there is a bit of bite to her wit.
Her name rings a vague bell with me, but I’m struggling to recall where I might have heard about her. Perhaps it was through the connection to Oscar Wilde you mention in your review. Either way, this does sound very engaging. What a lovely discovery, Ali!
Yes, a really good discovery and definitely a very engaging read.
I’ve not read the trilogy – yet – but I have read Ada Leverson’s three stand-alone novels and loved them. ‘Light, bright, witty’ is exactly the right way to describe her.
Good to hear those stand alone novels are worth looking out for too. I very much enjoyed her tone.
I’ve not come across Leverson before. The connection with Oscar Wilde is intriguing.
Oh yes, the Oscar Wilde connection is very intriguing, what a pair they must have been together.
Virago published all 3 books in one volume.Handy.I note FANTASTIC FICTION says Leverson’s THE LIMIT is similar to THE THIRD MISS SYMMONS which you did not like .
Well embarrassingly I went to look The Limit up on Good reads and discovered I have read it – in 2012. I gave it three stars. It seems I liked it with some reservations.
Ah, I knew her name was familiar, but had no idea why, it was the Oscar connection. She was one of the true friends, wasn’t she
Yes, I think she was. Interestingly Wikipedia suggests that the marriage depicted in The little Ottleys trilogy was based on her own failed marriage.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it. My review is here https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2017/04/30/book-review-ada-leverson-loves-shadow/ and I agreed with you on the satisfying bite. I managed to find a Kindle set of her books including all three of this trilogy and the others, but she’s the kind of author it’s nice to read on paper, somehow, so I still look out for her!
And now I have discovered I have read Ada Leverson before – but had absolutely no memory of it. Oops. I might cave in and get the kindle version of the trilogy.
I’m so glad you liked it – sounds very enjoyable. I have it waiting on my shelf to be read – someday! 🙂
Oh I know all about *someday* 😉
I’ve read a little Leverson in connection with Wilde, but to my shame my Virago copy of the Little Ottleys still sits unopened on the TBR…. =:o
You’re lucky to have that Virago copy waiting to read though. There are plenty of books I have had an absolute age.
I read this one earlier this year and really enjoyed it- haven’t read the sequels yet as of now.
I must try and get hold of the sequels before I forget all about the characters.
Thanks for revealing the Little Ottley’s connection; I’ve had an old book-sale find on my shelf for ages and didn’t realise it contained three volumes. And good stuff, by the sounds of it!
Ooh lucky you having the three volume edition. Very good stuff, I thought.
I read this and enjoyed her sparkling prose but, sadly, it hasn’t stuck in my memory – I’ve just had to look back at the post I wrote to remind myself of what I thought!
I can’t believe I had so totally forgotten that I had read her before. I think, that the memory of this one might last longer though.
[…] started the month reading Love’s Shadow by Ada Leverson, who in my review I said I hadn’t read before – later I discovered I had read […]
[…] read the first book Love’s Shadow a couple of years ago and having refreshed my memory by reading my review, flicking through the book and re-reading the final chapter I decided to simply go straight on to […]