A short review as I’m just off to a Eurovision party!
I think Palladian (1946) might be my final Elizabeth Taylor novel (though, now I write that, unsure I’ve read In A Summer Season) – it was one of her first and, as the Wikipedia page tersely notes, most clearly shows the influence of Jane Austen.
That’s evident from the name of the heroine onwards: Miss Dashwood (Cassandra) is a young woman whose parents have both died, and who goes off to be a governess at Cropthorne Manor. Governesses in the mid-1940s are not quite what they were in the 19th-century, of course, and she is part of the eccentric family quite quickly.
Who is there? Precocious young Sophy, who will be Cassandra’s pupil and who speaks of missing her mother, though she died in childbirth. There is Sophy’s father, Marion (!) Vanbrugh who is a charming, slightly selfish widower. His cousin Margaret is there, a woman keen to shock others, particularly her mother Aunt Tinty – the housekeeper, of sorts, who is plagued by any number of anxieties. And finally Margaret’s brother Tom, who drinks voraciously and with occasional melancholy. Between them, they feud and make up, they reveal secrets and conceal others, they make life hard for each other for both good and bad reasons. Plenty of incidents happen, but it is the sprawling dynamic between these well-drawn, infuriating and fascinating characters that makes Palladian interesting.
The plot does lean a little towards melodrama, and perhaps the influence of Northanger Abbey is as present as any other of Austen’s novels. But what makes this novel so quintessentially Elizabeth Taylor is her brilliant prose. There are lovely scenes of nature, and then there will be a slyness that undercuts every pose the characters try to adopt. Not many other authors would write ‘Mrs Turner smoothed – or hoped to smooth – her skirt’, or ‘”She has a heart of gold,” she added unkindly’. It was those moments that made this novel most special to me. Another example:
“Did you do all your cooking on it?” She looked at Cassandra with a new expression on her face, of wonderment, perhaps, or respect.
“Well, after my mother died, my father and I seemed to live on bread-and-butter.”
The look faded.
I don’t think this is among Elizabeth Taylor’s very best novels, and I will admit that a lot of the very-good-but-quite-similar ones have merged in my mind, and this will join them. But as I re-read her works, I’m sure they will each become more distinct – and now that I’m getting to the end of my Taylor shelf, it won’t be long before re-reading starts.
By an odd coincidence, I just finished reading Palladian last week, so I was keenly interested to discover your take on it. I had first read Palladian in my 20s (i.e., ages & ages ago) and dismissed it as a “governess finds love” kind of thing; this time around, however, I realized how very much I had missed. The language, for one thing; as you point out, Taylor is just such a master of her craft, even in an early work such as this (that “unkindly” mention of the heart of gold, for example. Priceless!) Heavily influenced (again, as you note) by Austen (and the Brontes), Taylor oh-so-cleverly plays with the tropes established by those writers and totally upsets expectations in doing so (the novel’s closing lines, for example, may be a twist on the ending that we expect). I agree with you that it’s far from Taylor’s best (I vote for Mrs. Palfrey for that one) but, even so, Palladian is a wonderful read.
I do envy you that Virago; my own copy is from a much more recent edition.
Isn’t that ‘unkindly’ absolutely masterful? I think my favourite Taylor might be At Mrs Lippincote’s, but Mrs Palfrey is definitely up there.
Haven’t yet read Mrs Lippincote’s (think it might be the last Taylor I haven’t); will definitely make it next!
This isn’t a Taylor I’ve read but it still sounds such a treat even if it’s not her strongest. Happy Eurovision-ing Simon!
She never wrote a dud!
I read this as part of the LT group readalong (which I think was as long ago as 2012 – gulp…) and I recall enjoying it very much, though it definitely isn’t what you’d think of as typical Taylor. But definitely fun!
Definitely Taylor finding her voice, I think – maybe written before At Mrs Lippincote’s, though published after? That’s just a guess.
Just skimming your review of this, Simon, as I’m think of re-reading Palladian over the summer, mostly because it’s one of the few Taylor’s I haven’t written about. It probably came a little too early in my reading of her work to make a lasting impression as my memories of it are very sketchy now. Hopefully, I’ll get more out of it now that I’ve read all her other novels. Lovely to hear that Taylor’s prose is as sharp as ever here, even though the novel itself is not one of her strongest.
The little details of her prose are definitely what make her special – and easy to miss.
Just skimming your review of this, Simon, as I’m think of re-reading Palladian over the summer, mostly because it’s one of the few Taylor’s I haven’t written about. It probably came a little too early in my reading of her work to make a lasting impression as my memories of it are very sketchy now. Hopefully, I’ll get more out of it now that I’ve read all her other novels. Lovely to hear that Taylor’s prose is as sharp as ever here, even though the novel itself is not one of her strongest.
(I’m having trouble posting the comment, so apologies if it goes through twice.)
I read In a Summer Season recently, and I think it ranks among my favorites of her novels along with At Mrs. Lippincotts, and Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont.
Oo those are probably my favourite two, so that is very encouraging, Aileen!
Your blog post arrived just as I was heading out to a Eurovision party here in Washington DC!
Your blog post arrived just as I was heading out to a Eurovision party here in Washington DC!
haha, excellent! Mine was hosted by Americans too, so I’m glad that word is spreading.
I enjoyed this but think I have only read it once. How lovely to have re-reading in the near future!
Absolutely!