Product Description

'A very good novel indeed about the fragility and also the tenacity of love' commented the Spectator recently about this 1953 novel by Dorothy Whipple, which was ignored fifty years ago because 'editors are going mad for action and passion' (as she was told by her publisher). But this last novel by a writer whose books had previously been bestsellers is outstandingly good by any standards. Apparently 'a fairly ordinary tale about the destruction of a happy marriage' (Nina Bawden in the Preface) yet 'it makes compulsive reading' in its description of an ordinary family ('Ellen was that unfashionable creature, a happy housewife') struck by disaster when the husband, in a moment of weak, mid-life vanity, runs off with a French girl. Dorothy Whipple is a superb stylist, with a calm intelligence in the tradition of Mrs Gaskell (both wrote in the Midlands and had similar preoccupations). 'The prose is simple, the psychology spot on' said the Telegraph, and John Sandoe Books commented: 'We have all delighted in this unjustly forgotten novel; it is well written and compelling.'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #285269 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 413 pages

From the Publisher
Someone at a Distance (1953) was the first novel by Dorothy Whipple Persephone Books published, although it was the last she wrote. We chose it because we think it is her best, an outstandingly good novel by any standards. Apparently a 'fairly ordinary tale about the destruction of a happy marriage,' Nina Bawden wrote in her Preface, yet 'it makes compulsive reading' in its description of an 'ordinary' family, husband commuting up to town, wife at home ('Ellen was that unfashionable creature, a happy housewife'). Disaster strikes when a young French woman visits (the scenes back in France are most beautifully described, with touches of Balzac or Maupassant) and calculatingly seduces the husband. He abandons everything for her; then there is no going back.

The effect on his wife and children, on his partner at work, the way his life is destroyed in an instant of mid-life madness, all combine to create a novel of exceptional insight. This is a strongly moral book, which shows Ellen as a fulfilled yet dangerous innocent, with a touch of smugness which blinds her to her husband's vanity. Yet neither of them are more smug, or more vain, than anyone else...which is why the novel has a universal quality lifting it out of the realm of the commonplace.
Dorothy Whipple is a superb stylist: not a 'fine' writer or a Modernist but a calm intelligence in the tradition of Mrs Gaskell and George Eliot. The first sentence, with its overtones about the tragecy to come, encapsulatges the novel's quality: 'Widowed, in the house her husband had built with day and night nurseries and a music-room, as if the children would stay there for ever, instead of marrying and going off at the earliest possible moment, old Mrs North yielded one day to a long-felt desire to provide herself with company. She answered an advertisement in the personal column of The Times.'
'The prose is simple, the psychology spot on' said the Daily Telegraph, while the Spectator called it 'a very good novel indeed about the fragility and also the tenacity of love.' Someone at a Distance was in the Evening Standard bestseller list, propelled there in part by the enthusiasm of John Sandoe's bookshop in Sloane Square, which commented in its booklist: 'We have all delighted in this unjustly forgotten novel; it is well written and compelling.' Someone at a Distance has now become one of Persephone Books' quiet bestsellers.

Excerpted from Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple. Copyright © 1999. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The tobacco plants, a cloud of white butterflies in the dark, sent out their evening fragrance. To Ellen in the sitting-room and to Avery outside the same thought occurred at the same time.
'It has just struck me,' said Ellen to Louise, dropping the mending to her lap, 'that that's what the scent is.'
'What is what my scent is?' said Louise with a deliberation Ellen sometimes considered insulting.
'The Nicotiana - the tobacco plant. Can't you smell it from the garden?'
'I smell something,' said Louise.
'Perhaps it is the same. I don't know.'
She turned the pages.
Avery, for one strange moment, felt himself enveloped in her scent. He seemed to be fighting it off, like fumes. He left the garden and escaped along the lane.

Customer Reviews

Marriage turned upside down
Dorothy Whipple is yet another unjustly forgotten woman writer of the 40s and 50s. Someone at a distance is the story of an ordinary marriage. Ellen is a little complacent, a little smug about the happiness of her life and the security of her relationship with her husband, Avery. Avery is just drifting along in his comfortable job and familiar home life. The catalyst for change and tragedy in the novel is a discontented Frenchwoman Louise, who arrives as a companion to Avery's mother and insinuates herself into the family. In one memorable scene, Avery feels he is being engulfed by Louise's strong perfume, a wonderful metaphor for her effect on his life. He is too weak to fight off the effects of the perfume, and ultimately, he is too weak to fight off the consequences of his dalliance with Louise. Ellen emerges as a much stronger, more sympathetic character as she deals with the aftermath of Avery's desertion- dealing with gossips, sympathetic yet shocked relatives, and discovering a new place for herself in the changed world she inhabits. This is a beautifully written book with a strong moral sense and the ending is full of hope. Persephone have also republished Dorothy Whipple's They knew Mr Knight. If you enjoy well-written, absorbing novels with believable characters, I can't recommend Whipple's work too highly.

Read More Dorothy Whipple
This has to be one of the most quietly brilliant novels I've read in a long time.

It tells the story of the most perfect happy family destroyed by one foolish mistake and the arts of a young French woman. It's simply heart-breaking and can make the reader, by turns, fume with anger and cry with sadness!

Dorothy Whipple's writing is without embellishments but is able to grip the reader until the very end. Louise releases a Pandora's Box full of evil and pain upon the happy North family...but at the bottom of the box was of course...hope. This is what Whipple leaves us with and it's perfect.

Wife vs Young Temptress
Continuing with my run of Persephone titles (following the delightful Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day), Someone at a Distance lives up to the high standard I have come to expect from Persephone. Dorothy Whipple puts a unique spin on the all too familiar tale of a husband going off with a younger woman - leaving his wife and children to fend for themselves. Vividly imagined, the characters' inner dialogues and outward behaviour as they react to the events unfolding around them are both realistic and insightful. The wife's response, as she struggles to cope and find new accomodation and work, is especially moving.