Wowwee, a summer story about boarding school kids. Say no more!
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”
L.P Hartley deftly beckons us to the twentieth century, where young Leo Coleston has worked his way up the social ladder in the most mysterious of ways. While navigating through an, initially, fraught boarding-school experience, Leo embraces his youthful naivety, as he mistakes coincidence for the power of magic when his bullies become injured. I mean, we are talking about in the twentieth century, it is not as if he could propel himself up the social ladder with his gaming skills. An air of enigma implants itself around Leo. Elated with his new-found popularity, Leo jumps at the opportunity to spend the summer with a school-mate, Marcus Maudsley.
L.P Hartley slips into the mind of these boisterous schoolboys with compelling affect. This bawdy realm of boyhood collides with a life of wealth with an antithetical effect. Greeted with magnanimousness at every turn, and yes, there are lots of turns in the Maudlsey’s house, Leo warms to this once-foreign experience of luxury.
Central to the Maudsley family is Marian maudsley, sister of marcus madusley and a figure of enigma. An undeniably intriguing character, leo’s perspective proves her to be synonymous with elegance. Falling in love with her as quick as we fall in love with the book, marian acts as the catalyst for leo’s character development. The irony lies in the fact that while embarking on this pursuit of love, typically associated with maturation, we see Leo descend into a mindset which lacks all rationality. Leo is not the only one, though, who experiences such wishful thinking.
Desperate to fit in, Leo submits himself in the face of luxury as Marian bestows upon him gift after gift. In return, she asks for the mere favour of carrying a letter to Ted Burgess, the family farmer. Blinded by his adoration for Marian Maudsley, Leo devotes himself as a messenger to the young adults. We cannot help but find amusement in his interactions with Marian and Ted as it imposes a stark juxtaposition between internal and external perception. At once a blatant pawn to the mysterious relationship between Ted and Marian, Leo is dumbfounded by this introduction to adulthood, rendering him ignorant to the manipulation which is taking place.
During this seemingly endless summer, Leo Colston, eager to please and affable, grows familiar with the motions of the Maudsley household and all its peculiarities. Oh, by the way, if anyone is a fan of star signs, L.P Hartley is your man. With repeated references to astrology, my generation is set to be appeased.
We watch painfully as Marian implores Leo to stay on longer, failing to acknowledge the manipulation he is being met with. While we believe Leo is a fool for believing in the requited nature of his love for Marian Maudsley, L.P Hartley puts us to shame for adopting a child-like naivety akin to Leo’s. We allow ourselves to be manipulated by L.P Hartley’s writing which carves a Leo-shaped hole in our heart, tricking ourselves into believing that our young protagonist will be on the receiving end of unrequited love.
With a quirky touch to its style, L.P Hartley’s writing beams with creativity; you can really tell that he took pleasure in writing this novel. The Go-Between is, evidently, a fitting name for Leo’s role within the Maudsley household, a corporeal messenger of sorts. However, it is also, in a much broader sense, applicable to our role as the readers. While Leo’s continuous journeys between Ted Burgess and Marian Maudsley allow their relationship to advance, we (specifically our imaginations) are translators of sorts for all authors. Without us, there is just writing, but, with us, there is a story. With all its vividness, it was certainly a pleasure to carry the role of bringing this novel to life within my own little head.