L.P. Hartley and 'The Go-Between'
“The past is another country: they do things differently there” – so begins the haunting novel The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley. I think this is a stunning book. It is about class, illicit love, boyhood dreams versus cruel reality, and it movingly depicts growing up and the loss of innocence.
This is a novel about a secret love affair between a man and a woman who come from very different echelons of the English class system. In the middle is a boy from yet another social class, a ‘go-between’ between upper and lower class characters in the story.
It is the summer of 1900, a new century is beginning and young Leo Colston’s life as an adult is about to begin too. At Bradham Hall school the boy finds himself being used as a go-between, delivering messages from Marian Maudsley to a nearby farmer called Ted Burgess. As he delivers notes written by the lovers, he gradually grows more aware of what is going on and becomes troubled by conflicting loyalties. The summer gets hotter and hotter and storms begin to brew, leading to an explosive climax, a discovery of the pair making love, a suicide and a breakdown for Leo himself.
“I should not have cared to see it as an act of self-sacrifice even if it had been one; for there is nothing clever in self-sacrifice, nothing to pride oneself on.”
― L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between
Hartley was a prolific novelist, but his other books have not really lasted. The Go-Between has remained by far his most popular work, it has been filmed and put on stage, and is as relevant today as it was when first published in 1953.
Join me in an exploration of this modern classic – experience the heat of that summer of 1900, share the excitement of forbidden passion, and sympathise with a boy who is used and abused by those who should know better.
Here is where to buy the book in print, ebook or audio. Find the books on my recommended reading list, watch a movie version, enjoy related videos, websites and much more. Have anything to add here? Let me know.
PURCHASE
The Go-between by L.P. Hartley
Foreign country: The Life of L.P. Hartley by Adrian Wright
The Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicolson
FREE DOWNLOAD
The Go-Between – Internet Archive by L.P. Hartley Free downloadable version in various formats including Kindle, epub, pdf and others. If you are unsure of how to add these files to your ereader, look here.
FIND IN A LIBRARY (You will need to create an account and hold a library card.)
The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley National Library of Australia free public access to books in libraries at Trove.
The cloak that I left : a biography of the author, Henry Rider Haggard, K.B.E. by his daughter Lilias Rider Haggard National Library of Australia free public access to books in libraries at Trove.
MOVIES
YouTube playlist featuring the 1971 movie and the 2012 BBC Radio adaptations of The Go-Between
AUDIO
90 min. BBC Radio Drama adaptation of L.P. Hartley’s classic novel, The Go-Between
LINKS
Purchase my Literary Reader’s Guide to L.P. Hartley & The Go-Between
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I hope you find L.P. Hartley’s moving exploration of a young boy’s loss of innocence as engrossing as I do. Tell me your thoughts in a comment.
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I always love to hear what you think.
Susannah Fullerton
You did post successfully, Deb, but I am overseas on tour and have had little time to reply. Many thanks for your comments.I agree that Hartley gets inside the mind of Leo really well, seeing everything from the point of view of a developing boy. Surely the umbrella reference is to the fact that Marian and Ted are having sex? But he has never encountered anything like that before, and equates the movement of the bodies with the up and down movement of an umbrella. It’s also interesting to think about the heat, which is always mentioned as extreme, yet for those of us who know English weather, that is a rare thing! I think part of it is Leo looking back – don’t we all tend to remember the summers of our childhood as longer and hotter than they actually were?
I love the family dynamics in this book. It is definitely a case of the wrong people all ending up with each other. There’s so much to think about with this novel!
Deb
Hi Susannah and readers
(i thought I’d posted already but it seems to have gone missing! – apologies if this is a repeat).
This was a roller-coaster of a book. I spent a fair bit of it on the farenheit to celcius calculator and trying to imagine the heat of the UK summers I remember from childhood. The fun part for me in the midst of this tragic tale was the banter between Leo and Marcus, and that glimpse into the workings of the young boy mind, so influenced by his upbringing.
There was a scene that was a fore-telling of the fate of Ted when Leo found him polishing his gun which I missed so his death perhaps didn’t shock me as much as a result, but it took me a while to accept what Leo and Mrs Maudsley had come upon. I didn’t realise the rounding off by referring to them both as zodiacal characters and still haven’t figured out what the ‘shadow of an opening and closing umbrella’ was all about. Interesting that there are parallels between this and our last read: nice guys and rather wrong, or very wrong women!
Beverley Rogers
Amazingly, I have the Go-Between with me. I’m in Bangkok and it’s great to re-read this wonderful book.
I’ve borrowed the movie – it’s also great with Alan Bates as Ted and Julie Christie as the woman he loves (can’t remember her book title).
Thanks you for keeping in touch…..please send your recommendations.
Susannah Fullerton
It is a fabulous book and the old movie is gorgeous. Do think of trying the more recent film version too – I loved it!