The Summer Before the War: A Novel

After having read so much WWI-related fiction and non-fiction to research my own novels, I rarely cry while reading WWI novels anymore, but I began sobbing during the final chapters of The Summer Before the War.

Beginning with Edwardian village life during the summer before WWI begins, Simonson delves deeply into the intertwined lives of two intelligent women, Beatrice Nash and Agatha Hunt, of differing ages and social circumtances, and the young men who bind them together through the first devastating year of the war.

Perfect for fans, like me, of Caroline Scott's The Poppy Wife (that's the US title; it's The Photographer of the Lost in the UK) which spotlights lesser-told character stories and Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford, which beautifully details village life. I finished The Summer Before the War last night and I'm ready to read it again today. Definitely an addition to my list of all-time favorite WWI novels.

Helen Simonson may now live in Brooklyn, but she has shown herself a masterly portraitist of small-town English life. With MAJOR PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND, she brought an Anglo-Indian old fogey into the modern age, and showed him to be not such a fogey after all. Now, in THE SUMMER BEFORE THE WAR, she goes back by a century to 1914, to Rye in Sussex, near where she was born. There is certainly a fair share of fogeys, minor aristocrats, matriarchs, and petty officials; some surprise us by how they behave, some are far worse, but through it all runs a vein of English social comedy nurtured in Austen, Trollope, and Forster. Simonson is a dab hand at dialogue, and there are enough bons mots and put-downs to keep Maggie Smith in business for a month.

Yes indeed, for the example of DOWNTON ABBEY made me realize that Simonson's latest novel is tailor-made for Masterpiece Theatre. It is longer than MAJOR PETTIGREW and has a far larger scope: England on the verge of the Great War. In some respects, it is a WW1 version of the PBS WW2 series, HOME FIRES, showing the effects of war on a small town. Though beautifully concentrated in setting, it offers a wide range of characters. These even include Rye's most famous literary resident, Henry James, though given a new name (and rather longer lifespan) as Mr. Tillingham. Writers are important in the novel: one of the major characters, Daniel Bookham, is a poet in the Rupert Brooke mold, there is a scandalous pair of popular novelists among the minor characters, and the protagonist, Beatrice Nash, is a struggling writer who comes to Rye as a Latin teacher. Her intelligence and spirit, and her utter refusal to play the shrinking violet, make her a most attractive heroine, a woman for our times, yet trapped within the patriarchy and condescension of her own.

The title is a misnomer, actually. War is declared on page 100 or so, and there is even a section in the Flanders trenches towards the end. But the first battlefront is in Rye itself. Beatrice is the choice of one of the two grandes dames of the town, Agatha West, the wife of a high Whitehall official. Much of the comedy comes from her success in scoring over her nemesis, Bettina Fothergill, the odious wife of the officious mayor. But disputes over schoolteachers are displaced by more serious things when the first refugees arrive from Belgium, and housing them becomes for some an exercise in conspicuous charity. And from there, we progress to contests over raising recruits to volunteer to Do Their Bit in France. And from there, to France itself.

Another Masterpiece Theatre quality is the mixture of narrative genres covered by the novel. Romance, of course. Beatrice Nash is quite determined never to get married, but the astute reader soon wonders how long that will last. There is also an extensive subplot involving the love between two men, though it is never called by name. Another genre is the medical story. One of the characters, Agatha West's nephew Hugh Grange, is a young surgeon; his expertise will involve him in several crises in Rye, and then take him to a field hospital in France (reminding us of yet another PBS series, THE CRIMSON FIELD). And there is a very strong thread of protest against social injustice: the undervaluing of women, lower classes, gypsies, victims of sexual assault, and people choosing unconventional lifestyles. Despite the context of romantic comedy, such moments made me angry, and very sad.

Laughter, romance, intrigue, literary comment, historical insight, and passionate indignation: this is quite a range for a single book. In comparing Helen Simonson's work to Masterpiece Theatre, I know I am labeling it as a popular novel. But it is very good indeed at what it does: Masterpiece-worthy because written by a master.

Historical fiction can be tough. Often the author approaches the task defensively, overexplaining the setting in narrative and dialogue. It’s rare when an author has the confidence to throw readers into the deep end, challenging us to accept the world as it is depicted and swim along with the characters.

Helen Simonson is an author of the latter type. We are deposited in the coastal town of Rye in 1914 and it immediately comes alive before our eyes. The mores, the values, the technology and science and preoccupations of the era are all presented without apology or concern about our ability to adapt. The characters’ dialogue is the same, witty and quick and full of allusion. And it all works, gloriously.

Beatrice Nash is a young woman who has lived a cosmopolitan youth with her peripatetic father; he has died, and she is cast out upon the world with little to go on with. She has wealthy but tyrannical and unsympathetic relatives, and would prefer to make her own way even if it means enduring the humiliations of poverty. She lands a position as a Latin teacher in the general school at Rye; there she is befriended and defended by the Kent family against the forces of conformity, which have their doubts about the propriety of a female schoolmistress.

The Rye of this book is a fully realized universe of vivid characters, petty social vendettas, and narrow insularity. The world is going to war and the people of Rye are concerned with holding patriotic parades, taking up collections, adopting a few refugees, and other largely symbolic responses to the crisis. There is a dominant culture of stultifying propriety to which the realities of the inhabitants bear little relation, requiring hypocritical contortions on the part of those who would defend the traditional ways. There are gay people and illegitimate children and adulterous relationships and all sorts of challenges to the prevailing order, and these must all be studiously ignored or explained away. The text is consistently elliptical about the various divergences from the “norm,” because the gayness or the illegitimacy or what have you are not the point—the real scandal is the essential cruelty of society’s response to them.

All of this smallness is depicted with a ruthless clarity worthy of Jane Austen. The scenes and dialogue are funny and devil-may-care at the start, but as the summer goes on and the war becomes more serious, storm clouds gather over Rye. Young men begin to enlist and not return; relationships are distorted and people crack under the strain. The hypocrisies and petty cruelties start to cut deeper, but people also rise to the occasion and transcend their limitations.

This is a wonderful book: powerful, clear-sighted, written with tact and grace. It has a clear ethical thread woven so deeply into the fabric that you never feel lectured or manipulated. And as a work of historical fiction it is superb.

Having just finished The Summer Before the War, I am grateful to the author for a wonderful book So thrilled with delightful sentences that I thoughtfully read over and over. Her characters were also enthralling and captivating as well as Managed skillfully. This is the kind of excellent writing that almost Spoils one for reading another less competent Book. Cheers and gratitude to the author.

"The Summer Before the War" (SBW) is another excellent book from Helen Simonson, following her debut novel of 3 years ago, "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand". SBW is a good bit longer (496 pages) than MP (379) but has the same elegant writing, with beautiful descriptions of the SE coastal village of Rye, Sussex, the countryside and most importantly the excellent cast of fascinating characters. The pace of the story, to state it positively is rather leisurely for the first two thirds of the book, then things jump from second to fourth gear. But by now we know the characters of SBW very well, have formed an attachment to some, and have developed a foreboding of doom knowing that WWl will breakout at any moment.

Beatrice is a young teacher who has recently lost her father and is on her own in a new place for the first time. She is teaching Latin to some of the school boys who will be joining her full class in the fall. Beatrice has befriended Agatha Kent one of the three grande-dames of Rye, and aunt to cousins Hugh (soon to be a medical doctor) and Daniel ( a poet). There are another dozen characters that the reader comes to know quite well.

The War changes everything; many of the characters in the story are slow to realize it as Europeans at the time expected the war to last only months, certainly not to drag on for more than four years. The tension ramps up quickly and SBW becomes almost impossible to put down in its last 100 pages .. The conclusion is particularly well done. I can only hope that it will not be another 3-4 years until we see Simonson's next book.

I give SBW 5 stars though it is not without its flaws. The first two thirds of the story is very slow, saved only by excellent prose and the not the slow-cooking plot. Also there is a solution which resolves the Celeste problem that seemed to me to be very far fetched, almost disappointingly so. But the story gets back on track soon after and is golden from that point until the end. Enjoy!

Written by the author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, this book also stood out for its marvelous characters—both likable and despicable—and for the author's wonderful ability to tell stories inside of stories so the reader is treated to each character's story as it is woven into a beautifully crafted whole.

As in the best historical fiction, the reader is immersed in another world—in this case a century ago in rural England, the summer before WWI breaks out in Europe and Great Britain enters the war.

John and Agatha Kent are among high society in Rye—a sleepy town in Sussex. John is a senior official in the foreign ministry and thus privy to the political dangers looming.

They have raised two nephews—cousins to each other. Hugh is just finishing his training as a surgeon and hoping to study with a great surgeon whose lovely daughter has interest in him too.

Daniel is a poet and strikingly handsome young man with a wicked wit and reckless charm. When his best friend is killed in a tragic plane accident, he rushes to enlist.

Agatha has convinced the town elders to hire Beatrice Nash as the new Latin teacher, but when she arrives, she is much more attractive and intelligent than anyone bargained for.

As the town residents brace for war and take in Belgian refugees who fled from their overtaken country after experiencing great suffering and atrocities, the underpinnings of their social structure and rigid propriety begin to come unraveled.

Beatrice, whose academic father has died and left her an orphan with her money controlled by a rigid and greedy trustee, must try to create a life for herself and maintain her own integrity and sense of morality, while encountering prejudice and unfairness baked into centuries of British culture. She battles to help a bright Romany (gypsy) student whom others would dismiss. She shelters a beautiful Belgian rape victim, whose pregnancy shocks the town and threatens Beatrice's job. And she struggles with those who would diminish her own chances in life, just because she is a woman.

As the war begins and young men—and older too—are rushing to join the fight, relationships are intensified and true love quickly distinguishes itself from shallow dalliances driven by ambition and society expectations.

One particularly poignant scene occurs when Hugh manages to talk his way to the front lines where his cousin Daniel is a foot soldier in the trenches. They share a fresh baguette. "Something about fresh bread in this place makes you want to cry, doesn't it?" asked Daniel.

Later, after a simple meal, they smoked and tended a small fire. "Is it that our needs grew smaller?" asked Hugh. "Or is it just that the fear and deprivation makes one appreciate simple things more?"

"I think our ability to be happy gets covered up by the years of petty rubbing along in the world, the getting ahead," said Daniel. "But war burns away all the years of decay, like an old penny dropped into vinegar...Here there is nothing but doing our duty; and when duty cannot turn aside the stray sniper's bullet, one gives up the hubris of thinking man can control his destiny."

I found those words haunting and powerful. This was a very satisfying read.

It is 1937 and Europe is on the inexorable path that will lead to World War II. Maisie Dobbs is in Gibraltar, the strategic position of which makes it invaluable as a listening post for many countries. Spies seem to be lurking around every corner and some of them are inordinately interested in what Maisie is doing.

And what is Maisie doing? Well, she is trying to come to terms with a recent double tragedy in her life.

She had married her lover, James Compton, and moved with him to Canada where he was employed testing aircraft that would play an integral part in any war to come. It was a happy time for her. She was eight months pregnant with their first child. Then catastrophe struck.

The plane that James was testing went down in a fiery crash and James was killed. This all happened as Maisie watched. She started running toward the crash site, tripped and fell. Her child was delivered early and was dead. On one momentous day, she lost the two loves of her life.

After she was sufficiently recovered physically, she sailed for England by way of India. She spent some quiet and peaceful time in India and then continued on, but when she got to Gibraltar, she found herself not ready to face her friends' and family's sympathy and the familiar surroundings that she had shared with James, so she disembarked and decided to spend some time there and wait for a later ship to take her home.

Placing Maisie in Gibraltar gives Jacqueline Winspear an opportunity to explore some of the events leading up to the world war, as well as some of the tangled relationships between various countries and political groups. Nearby, the civil war in Spain is raging and both the communists and the fascists are present and attempting to further their cause in Gibraltar. A Dangerous Place indeed.

Maisie soon becomes embroiled in the efforts of a group of people supporting the Republican cause in Spain. She does this by stumbling over a dead body on a dark path near her hotel one night. Having found the body, she feels a responsibility to find out what happened to the man and how he came to be struck down. This leads her down some dangerous paths as she gets to know his family and associates and tries to learn what he was doing that might have led someone to want him dead.

I felt that Winspear did a very good job of describing the setting and developing a real feel for what must have been the fraught atmosphere of those times. Moreover, since Maisie is adrift without her usual cast of secondary characters, the author introduced several strong and sympathetic new characters. Many of these characters have secrets and are not what they first appear to be. They add complexity and a new element of suspense to the story.

This was quite different from the usual Maisie Dobbs tale that we've come to know. But, again, Winspear does a good job of weaving Maisie's backstory into the plot, so she is able to recount her rags-to-riches narrative, her tragic experience as a nurse in World War I, and her time as an independent businesswoman in London and make it all come together in a coherent account. Even if one had not read the earlier books in this series, this book could easily be read as a standalone.

So, where is Maisie to go from here? She and the series are at a crossroads it seems, even as the world itself reaches a crossroads. Will she follow the world into war once again? Will she become a spy? Winspear has given us quite a lot to think about here and it will be interesting to see where she takes her character next.

A sweet charming story telling the story of the period in a small English village when the world slowly turns on its axis and they begin to feel the effects of World War I. The story is begins with the arrival of a young woman seeking to become the community's Latin instructor. Beatrice Nash has had a shock: when her father got ill with cancer, he turned to his family and gave up much for the ability to return to all that he knew — and most of it cost his daughter, who had grown up running his household. When he died, she found out that he had agreed to put her estate in trust with the family controlling her life.

When she comes to East Sussex and the village of Rye, she is striking out to escape the stranglehold of that family and she is doing it without support of the trust fund. But fortunately, she has landed into the best of families in the town as "Aunt Agatha" takes her under her wing. And coming to her attention are Agatha's nephews Hugh and Daniel, who are equally supportive to the young woman as she adjusts to her new life. But the war is bringing a change to everyone's lives and it may change the village forever.

I loved reading this short glimpse into the village of Rye and getting to know the gossips and the true leaders in this small community. It is a wonderful visit to a bygone era and one that will continue to delight.

This is written by the author who also wrote "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" and if you loved that, you will love this. These are gentle stories sharing personalities that aren't saving the world, robbing somebody or making discoveries. They are you and me — but with loads better dialogue. This is a treat for when you want to relax and just enjoy.

I loved the author's first book and splurged on the expensive Kindle edition based on that experience. As I was reading the book I heard her interview about her "sophomore" outing as an author and all the self-doubting that remains even after a successful first book. Most of the issues that plague this book could have been solved by editing. Actually, this book could have been incredibly successful written in chapters featuring different characters and using each person's voice, or as a saga or trilogy. Gripes:

1. The title declares that the book is about one summer. Actually, the book fast forwards through the war and spits the surviving characters out at the end. Unfortunately major themes, like Beatrice's financial struggle as a single woman, are left hanging, and while we readers are smart enough to intuit the resolution, there are very big questions that remain unaddressed. What happened to her money? Did she ever get it and did it impact her life? How did she live during the war? What was the school like during the war?

2. From the beginning the reader queries why Aunt Agatha loves Daniel more than Hugh. At the end the reader is teased with an idea that they have entertained all along. However the author revealed family background that would make it impossible (without a giant backstory).

3. So 2 leads to 3. The author has framed a family saga with too many characters and tried to limit the themes and the plot. Then, when she has built up steam with the theme of the single woman and her lot, she veers off to explore the aristocracy in wartime, personal vengeance and war at the front. After operating night and day, she has Hugh wander to the front lines to see his cousin; the ensuing plot seemed ridiculous during wartime.

4. Choosing to focus on the war in the trenches, completely abandoning the themes developed back in Rye, the author needlessly puts herself in dangerous territory. The scenes of the war in the trenches from Downton Abbey are fresh in readers' minds. The story of war could have been book two of a trilogy. As an attempt at closure (or climax) in The Summer Before the War, it was contrived.

So was the problem too much (too many people, too long a time line) or too little (not enough character development and character resolution and not enough backstory for so many of them). Either way, while the author is a very good narrator, she really excels in a tight, confined plot. At the end of the novel, I felt I was owed so much more!