Description

[from dj inside flap] When Blodwen Garth disappeared from her home, she was posted all over England as the "Missing Girl," with her photograph and personal description in every newspaper. All sorts of guesses and reasons were invented for the young lady's disappearance -- all sorts, that is, except the one real reason -- which was that Blodwen was engaged to be married -- and she wasn't in love. As a matter of fact, she hated love and wanted only to finish her musical career. So, being an independent person, she quietly disappeared.

But little did she realize that in running away from one marriage which she found detestable she was racing into the arms of another lover who was to offer her marriage entirely without love. To give more than this hint of the unusual marriage between Alan Wareham and Blodwen Garth would spoil the story for the reader. This much may be told -- that THE LOVE-HATER is one of Berta Ruck's most thrilling love-stories with e ough surprises and sensations to make two or three novels and an ending which even the Love-Hater had to admit was the happiest possible.

Notes

I feel compelled to start with some (only slightly spoilerish) reassurance. Near the beginning, you are introduced to the male MC's dog, a beautiful red setter. The man adores the dog. The dog adores the man. The man is, otherwise, a jerk. The man is in dire need of a growth arc. Which arc, if you are a reader of vintage fiction, you know, so often involves the plot point of personal loss. You see how this could go. But let me save you from the outset the dread you'd otherwise feel with every appearance of the loyal Treff. It does not go! The dog survives! The dog's never remotely in jeopardy! The worst he suffers is an accidental and quickly-forgiven step on the foot. Thank you, Berta, for sparing him and us. Whew.

The Love-Hater is an interesting book. He's 34, wealthy-by-inheritance, poisoned as a young, wounded airman by a relationship with a fascinating maneater of an older society woman who loved 'im and left 'im. Now, rich and powerful, he does the loving and leaving and that's the way he likes it because "'Love' is simply the duel for the advantage...Prestige of conquest, pleasure of flattered vanity, thrill of the senses...Not a pretty state of affairs. But whose fault? The woman's." She's 21, engaged to a hearty young man she's secretly nicknamed "Beef", and wholly disgusted by the prospect of physical relations with him. She thinks she's what we'd call asexual. Having no models of healthy affection and physical touch after her mother's death, she's channeled all her "fervent warm-heartedness" into her music. When her uncongenial step-family can no longer afford her lessons, and when she realizes she won't be able to resist their pressure towards Beefy matrimony, she switches identities with a school friend, flees to the South of France, thinks she's being pursued, despairs, and tries to drown herself. Enter the male MC, who, between women, has been slouching down the coast in a beat-up tub the "Why Winifred". He fishes her out, dries her off, and, having a soft spot for animals, old people, and children (as he sees her) (plus a streak of not-unselfish whimsy) makes his startling proposal.

The romance in Love-Hater is VERY slow-developing, you might be disappointed (as I was) in the female MC's ultimate career choice, and the "one woman hurt you" is one of my least favorite tropes, but I have to say, Berta comes through even here. Blodwen is strong and principled -- she brooks no such nonsense from him -- and there's a lot of championing of female sympathy and friendship in it. Asexuality is treated as an aberration rather than a part of the spectrum of human sexuality, but it's accepted as a real thing and treated with respect throughout. Alan, the main male character is unlikable for most of the book but his growing respect for his wife -- and women -- and his realization of his leisured class's increasing superfluousness, humanize him as they humble him. The fact that many of the female characters (exes of the male MC, mainly) have had previous sexual relationships and that this in no way affects their prospects -- romantic or otherwise -- is refreshing for the time. As is Alan's history of dating age-appropriate (and older) women. Berta's complexity of characterization shines through, too. By this point in her writing, she's perfected her technique (or maybe "mannerism" is the better word) of hopscotching perspectives. On the evening of a party, we're briefly in the heads of almost a dozen attendees -- even the hired psychic, otherwise barely mentioned. Even the dog (which may be a bit of a stretch, but...) There's her usual picturesque exhortations to the reader: "Picture the scene; the kaleidoscopic throng in magpie or parrot-coloured evening dress, looking, as the throng always does look, like a handful of human confetti stirred by a warm breeze" (172) And Wales, of course, is described with so much love.

Not my top Berta, but a totally readable one.

Interesting: multiple references to "a cluster of those cheap, coloured-glass slides called Japanese joy-bells". What are these? Wind chimes? Google gives only a few other vintage popular-novel references (one from 1914).

Flags: Attempted suicide. Uncomfortable: Priory ghost is a 15-year-old bride from the 1600s who died of bliss on her wedding night and appears in approval of new marriages destined for success. What the, Berta?

Tags

1930s, English, Europe, England, Europe, Wales, Welsh, arrogant, artistic, disappointed in love, disguise, dominant, escape old life, f/m, fake marriage, family, parent, death of, female, femme fatale/maneater, forthright, hair, dark, identities, switched, independent, kind, marriage of convenience, never love again, noble/aristocrat, not the type to fall in love, one woman has hurt you, opposites attract, personal growth/becoming a better person, playboy, poor, principled, protector, pure & innocent, redemption, rich, romance, selfish, singer, single, slight, strong, strong f/f friendship, strong m/f friendship, strong m/m friendship, tall, taught a lesson, third-person, traumatized, veteran, womanhater/manhater, young

Flags

suicide