What do you think?
Rate this book
Eustace and Hilda #1
The Shrimp and the Anemone
An evocative account of a childhood summer spent beside the sea in Norfolk by brother and sister, Eustace and Hilda.
217 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1944
10 people are currently reading
811 people want to read
About the author
L.P. Hartley
138 books193 followersLeslie Poles Hartley (1895-1972) was born in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, and educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. For more than thirty years from 1923 he was an indefatigable fiction reviewer for periodicals including the Spectator and Saturday Review. His first book, Night Fears (1924) was a collection of short stories; but it was not until the publication of Eustace and Hilda (1947), which won the James Tait Black prize, that Hartley gained widespread recognition as an author. His other novels include The Go-Between (1953), which was adapted into an internationally-successful film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, and The Hireling (1957), the film version of which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
April 26, 2016
Oh, L.P. Hartley, why are you forgotten?
This is the second Hartley book I've read (the first was The Go-Between), and if anything this one was even better. Both of the books take a double view, with a main character seeing things from childhood and the reader having access to what the adult world probably actually looks like. This is the same technique that makes The House in Paris so enjoyable, and what I wanted from and did not find in What Maisie Knew, though of course for the latter, it may just be that I find James' prose extremely heavy going, like trying to swim through some kind of boring and viscous liquid.
I think perhaps part of the attraction for this book was also that I recognize this inner state, and this theory about child-raising: that correction is more important than praise, and that praise will certainly lead to being spoiled, and that being spoiled is somehow the same as not submitted, as expressing one's own will. Eustance's various terrors seem real and convincing and even, from the point of view of such a childhood, reasonable. I'd like to read the two others in this little series of novels, though I wonder how Hartley will hold up as his characters reach adulthood. Of course, the gap between an inner life and an outer one does not disappear with adulthood, even if it doesn't take the form of nightmares and a complete lack of understanding about capital versus interest. And of course lovely prose is good for all purposes.
This is the second Hartley book I've read (the first was The Go-Between), and if anything this one was even better. Both of the books take a double view, with a main character seeing things from childhood and the reader having access to what the adult world probably actually looks like. This is the same technique that makes The House in Paris so enjoyable, and what I wanted from and did not find in What Maisie Knew, though of course for the latter, it may just be that I find James' prose extremely heavy going, like trying to swim through some kind of boring and viscous liquid.
I think perhaps part of the attraction for this book was also that I recognize this inner state, and this theory about child-raising: that correction is more important than praise, and that praise will certainly lead to being spoiled, and that being spoiled is somehow the same as not submitted, as expressing one's own will. Eustance's various terrors seem real and convincing and even, from the point of view of such a childhood, reasonable. I'd like to read the two others in this little series of novels, though I wonder how Hartley will hold up as his characters reach adulthood. Of course, the gap between an inner life and an outer one does not disappear with adulthood, even if it doesn't take the form of nightmares and a complete lack of understanding about capital versus interest. And of course lovely prose is good for all purposes.
January 18, 2016
Sometimes it seems as if it were the British who invented childhood, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries. L P Hartley's The Shrimp and the Anemone made me think repeatedly of my own childhood, of my own lack of understanding of the adult world, especially where money was concerned. At one point, Eustace thinks if he had the money, he would not have to do anything but hunt and shoot and visit foreign destinations.
Of course, I did not have what Eustace Cherrington had, a sister like Hilda who looked after him and helped him along when he fell. And I certainly did not have an ailing Miss Fothergill who left me a fortune. Somehow, I managed on my own; but I was not as disadvantaged as Eustace was. Not quite retarded, Eustace was a bit slow and had what appeared to be a weak heart.
I think of Eustace's crush on the unworthy Nancy Steptoe, and how she manages to lord it over the poor boy. Fortunately, by the end of this first volume of the Eustace and Hilda trilogy, Eustace begins to understand what is in store for him but has no idea on how it will affect the simple things he loves.
I look forward to following his adventures in the following volumes, The Sixth Heaven and Eustace and Hilda.
Of course, I did not have what Eustace Cherrington had, a sister like Hilda who looked after him and helped him along when he fell. And I certainly did not have an ailing Miss Fothergill who left me a fortune. Somehow, I managed on my own; but I was not as disadvantaged as Eustace was. Not quite retarded, Eustace was a bit slow and had what appeared to be a weak heart.
I think of Eustace's crush on the unworthy Nancy Steptoe, and how she manages to lord it over the poor boy. Fortunately, by the end of this first volume of the Eustace and Hilda trilogy, Eustace begins to understand what is in store for him but has no idea on how it will affect the simple things he loves.
I look forward to following his adventures in the following volumes, The Sixth Heaven and Eustace and Hilda.
December 7, 2025
The Shrimp and the Anemone by LP Hartley
10 out of 10
The Shrimp and the Anemone is a glorious, phenomenal, outstanding, insightful, incredible, rather short masterpiece that has been included on The Guardian 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...
the hero of the chef d’oeuvre is Eustace and the formidable access to the mind of a nine year old is a fantastic joy and the main character is such a remarkable, gentle, brave, complex, intriguing figure as to make the reading of the rather short novel an exquisite, divine pleasure.
Eustace is very close to his sister, Hilda, who is the second most important personage of the narrative, a determined, strong, intuitive, formidably intelligent and mature girl, although she is only about four years older than her brother is.
One of the favorite, if not indeed the most enjoyed, past times of the brother and sister is to spend time on the beach and work there to create something like a pond, up to the point where another girl, Nancy Steptoe comes, at the beginning of the book and she entices the boy to help her make a sand castle, to the grief of the sister who does not like the intruder at all, still less after she entreats the hero of the story with her construction.
When their father and Aunt Sarah – mother has passed away while giving birth to the youngest sister, Barbara – take them on an outing with some better off neighbors – who can afford to rent an equipage quite often, while the Cherringtons can seldom have this luxury – a tobogganing competition is won by Hilda and her brother.
Eustace is under the supervision of his elder sister, who has an immense influence on him and most of the time – if not always – she manages to make him do what she wants, one day that is to talk to an elderly woman, Miss Fothergill, who has suffered an accident and is now reduced to using a bath chair, pushed by someone in her service.
The hero is afraid of the character who is said to have “lion like hands” a face that is terrifying in that the mouth has been permanently twisted and she appears like a ghost – indeed the cruel, mean Nancy would say at one point that this lady is actually a witch and as such she loves to have a boy in her entourage, to use and subject to her power and when the protagonist says that the girl is like a witch, she says that she would not use a “second hand” boy.
The connection with Nancy is complicated, given her exterior beauty – the inside is a different, more complicated issue – she is the most sought after girl in the neighborhood, at the dancing classes she attends with Eustace and Hilda, all the boys want to be her partners, but she lies and says that she had promised the hero to dance with him, then invites him on a paper chase taking place the next day.
Nonetheless, he had accepted to go to tea at the invitation made by Miss Fothergill, when the boy obeyed to the promptings of his sister and talked to the ill woman and pushed her chair and now he is torn between the need to respect a promise made to go the rich house and the temptation to join the girl he seems to have fond feeling for on the coming challenge.
He decides in favor of Nancy and he is walking fast with her in the country, followed by others who are supposed to find the trail, when they lose their way to the church where her parents are waiting and a heavy storm makes things quite dangerous and Eustace is finally saved by Dick Staverly, another rich teenager from the area, who lifts and carries the sick protagonist to his mansion.
When the hero is convalescing, Dick visits and is charmed by Hilda, who refuses his invitation to come and ride with him, stating she does not know how to and maintains her position even if the young man offers to teach her, only the girl has no horses and refuses again what she claims to see as a pointless endeavor.
When Eustace is eventually recovered, he becomes a habitual guest at the manor house of rich Miss Fothergill, who had scared him in the first place, but now the boy is enchanted to return to a place that he enjoys, where he plays cards with the host and gets a few pennies when he wins, kisses the old lady and in fact becomes very attached to her.
Alas, she is very ill and while he is visiting one day, she suffers another severe stroke, the doctor is called, but she does not survive and leaves a fortune to the hero who is laughed at by Dick, Nancy and her brother, Gerald, who see his visits at the rich residence as a clever scheme to get the inheritance and they laugh and joke, saying that Hilda is responsible.
Even if he evidently likes her, Dick Staverly teases the girl that had refused him and says that his sitter should have acted in the same way, prompting him to visit the old lady instead of avoiding her and now he may have been in the possession of sixty eight thousand pounds – many millions of dollars in the currency of the present no doubt.
Alfred Cherrington consults with his sister after they are informed about the inheritance and decide to avoid informing his son about the wealth he now has, as not to affect his upbringing and have him become a spoiled, affected, pretentious boy – perhaps resembling Dick and the other rich teenagers of the area.
The hero is to be educated in good schools, now that he can afford it, but when his father, the coachmen and others talk about his upcoming departure, the innocent boy misunderstands this as meaning that he would die soon, given the frailty that has always been specific to him and talks to his sister about it.
The Shrimp and the Anemone is a glorious book and The Go- Between by the same extraordinary writer is on the to-read list.
10 out of 10
The Shrimp and the Anemone is a glorious, phenomenal, outstanding, insightful, incredible, rather short masterpiece that has been included on The Guardian 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...
the hero of the chef d’oeuvre is Eustace and the formidable access to the mind of a nine year old is a fantastic joy and the main character is such a remarkable, gentle, brave, complex, intriguing figure as to make the reading of the rather short novel an exquisite, divine pleasure.
Eustace is very close to his sister, Hilda, who is the second most important personage of the narrative, a determined, strong, intuitive, formidably intelligent and mature girl, although she is only about four years older than her brother is.
One of the favorite, if not indeed the most enjoyed, past times of the brother and sister is to spend time on the beach and work there to create something like a pond, up to the point where another girl, Nancy Steptoe comes, at the beginning of the book and she entices the boy to help her make a sand castle, to the grief of the sister who does not like the intruder at all, still less after she entreats the hero of the story with her construction.
When their father and Aunt Sarah – mother has passed away while giving birth to the youngest sister, Barbara – take them on an outing with some better off neighbors – who can afford to rent an equipage quite often, while the Cherringtons can seldom have this luxury – a tobogganing competition is won by Hilda and her brother.
Eustace is under the supervision of his elder sister, who has an immense influence on him and most of the time – if not always – she manages to make him do what she wants, one day that is to talk to an elderly woman, Miss Fothergill, who has suffered an accident and is now reduced to using a bath chair, pushed by someone in her service.
The hero is afraid of the character who is said to have “lion like hands” a face that is terrifying in that the mouth has been permanently twisted and she appears like a ghost – indeed the cruel, mean Nancy would say at one point that this lady is actually a witch and as such she loves to have a boy in her entourage, to use and subject to her power and when the protagonist says that the girl is like a witch, she says that she would not use a “second hand” boy.
The connection with Nancy is complicated, given her exterior beauty – the inside is a different, more complicated issue – she is the most sought after girl in the neighborhood, at the dancing classes she attends with Eustace and Hilda, all the boys want to be her partners, but she lies and says that she had promised the hero to dance with him, then invites him on a paper chase taking place the next day.
Nonetheless, he had accepted to go to tea at the invitation made by Miss Fothergill, when the boy obeyed to the promptings of his sister and talked to the ill woman and pushed her chair and now he is torn between the need to respect a promise made to go the rich house and the temptation to join the girl he seems to have fond feeling for on the coming challenge.
He decides in favor of Nancy and he is walking fast with her in the country, followed by others who are supposed to find the trail, when they lose their way to the church where her parents are waiting and a heavy storm makes things quite dangerous and Eustace is finally saved by Dick Staverly, another rich teenager from the area, who lifts and carries the sick protagonist to his mansion.
When the hero is convalescing, Dick visits and is charmed by Hilda, who refuses his invitation to come and ride with him, stating she does not know how to and maintains her position even if the young man offers to teach her, only the girl has no horses and refuses again what she claims to see as a pointless endeavor.
When Eustace is eventually recovered, he becomes a habitual guest at the manor house of rich Miss Fothergill, who had scared him in the first place, but now the boy is enchanted to return to a place that he enjoys, where he plays cards with the host and gets a few pennies when he wins, kisses the old lady and in fact becomes very attached to her.
Alas, she is very ill and while he is visiting one day, she suffers another severe stroke, the doctor is called, but she does not survive and leaves a fortune to the hero who is laughed at by Dick, Nancy and her brother, Gerald, who see his visits at the rich residence as a clever scheme to get the inheritance and they laugh and joke, saying that Hilda is responsible.
Even if he evidently likes her, Dick Staverly teases the girl that had refused him and says that his sitter should have acted in the same way, prompting him to visit the old lady instead of avoiding her and now he may have been in the possession of sixty eight thousand pounds – many millions of dollars in the currency of the present no doubt.
Alfred Cherrington consults with his sister after they are informed about the inheritance and decide to avoid informing his son about the wealth he now has, as not to affect his upbringing and have him become a spoiled, affected, pretentious boy – perhaps resembling Dick and the other rich teenagers of the area.
The hero is to be educated in good schools, now that he can afford it, but when his father, the coachmen and others talk about his upcoming departure, the innocent boy misunderstands this as meaning that he would die soon, given the frailty that has always been specific to him and talks to his sister about it.
The Shrimp and the Anemone is a glorious book and The Go- Between by the same extraordinary writer is on the to-read list.
January 22, 2021
15 jours pour lire ce roman.... Il était prometteur, titre accrocheur, couverture accrocheuse et surtout un synopsis qui avait tout pour me plaire. J’ai persisté car les avis étaient bons, je voulais laisser une chance à ce roman, jusqu’au bout. Mais ça n’a pas fonctionné. Hilda et Eustache m’ont agacée, la famille m’a agacée, un personnage intéressant est trop peu exploité... Déçue !
August 4, 2022
The story is insignificant in this book; the purpose is to portray the anxieties and misunderstanding of a child who listens and misinterprets the adult world and who life is governed by other people. It is worth reading for its descriptive paragraphs alone.
May 30, 2016
Frankly, this is gorgeous. It's a short novel, yet it took me almost a week as it asks for the slow read (the child's thoughts are unsteady and self-conscious).
I haven't come across a depiction of childhood as tender and nuanced as this since, well, David Copperfield or Great Expectations. Hartley does here what Dickens does so well - he captures the voice and perspective of a boy in an adult world. The boy may sound precocious, but the lost child is there throughout: (I kept thinking of Pip's line to Magwich: 'Also Georgiana - Wife of the Above'). Like Copperfield, Eustace is also incredibly easy to like (and a million miles away from the pompous little knickerbockered fuckers in, for example, Stella Gibbons' 'Wildwood'). To write about kids and not irritate the fuck out of the reader is no mean feat. To do so in a child-wary, knickerbockered past is amazing. This could be a child in 2016.
Copperfield - or 'Copperfield in miniature' too - because, well, here are the servants gossiping; here's the indiscrete coach driver ('an Edwardian 'Barkis is willin'') I mean, look: it's even by the sea and there are donkeys. Adults are making plans and kids don't know what's going on (Mursdtone, etc). And behold, Mrs Fothergill: a sort of Miss Havisham meets Betsey Trotwood. I found her portrayal very touching.
The handling of the theme of death was fantastic. Eustace's mother's recent death is a powerful background explainer for the set up the novel happens in; we the reader know the household is traumatised, but the children haven't absorbed this yet (they're just on a long stay in a seaside town - a sort of Indian Summer). What might superficially read as a well written tale of children growing up is actually a picture of a household coping with death. Father is a sitcom Dad who's gingerly trying to cope with his world falling apart, I suspect.
And lastly, the title. That image is almost cinematic, really and it's a really thought-provoking metaphor. We want to liberate one from what's holding it down, but in doing so we kill something in the other? Or is this more about being freed from the superstitions of childhood? I don't know. But it's an absolute charm of a novel.
I haven't come across a depiction of childhood as tender and nuanced as this since, well, David Copperfield or Great Expectations. Hartley does here what Dickens does so well - he captures the voice and perspective of a boy in an adult world. The boy may sound precocious, but the lost child is there throughout: (I kept thinking of Pip's line to Magwich: 'Also Georgiana - Wife of the Above'). Like Copperfield, Eustace is also incredibly easy to like (and a million miles away from the pompous little knickerbockered fuckers in, for example, Stella Gibbons' 'Wildwood'). To write about kids and not irritate the fuck out of the reader is no mean feat. To do so in a child-wary, knickerbockered past is amazing. This could be a child in 2016.
Copperfield - or 'Copperfield in miniature' too - because, well, here are the servants gossiping; here's the indiscrete coach driver ('an Edwardian 'Barkis is willin'') I mean, look: it's even by the sea and there are donkeys. Adults are making plans and kids don't know what's going on (Mursdtone, etc). And behold, Mrs Fothergill: a sort of Miss Havisham meets Betsey Trotwood. I found her portrayal very touching.
The handling of the theme of death was fantastic. Eustace's mother's recent death is a powerful background explainer for the set up the novel happens in; we the reader know the household is traumatised, but the children haven't absorbed this yet (they're just on a long stay in a seaside town - a sort of Indian Summer). What might superficially read as a well written tale of children growing up is actually a picture of a household coping with death. Father is a sitcom Dad who's gingerly trying to cope with his world falling apart, I suspect.
And lastly, the title. That image is almost cinematic, really and it's a really thought-provoking metaphor. We want to liberate one from what's holding it down, but in doing so we kill something in the other? Or is this more about being freed from the superstitions of childhood? I don't know. But it's an absolute charm of a novel.
August 28, 2016
3½ stars.
This first book in the Eustace & Hilda trilogy takes place during one summer in the 1930s with Eustace at 9 years old & Hilda 13. He is an odd little boy, at once fanciful and submissive, perhaps due to his poor health. Despite the fact that he is unlike any small boy I have ever known, I quickly became sympathetic to him. The book was a fast read but has some ideas in it that I am still mulling over. I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy!
This first book in the Eustace & Hilda trilogy takes place during one summer in the 1930s with Eustace at 9 years old & Hilda 13. He is an odd little boy, at once fanciful and submissive, perhaps due to his poor health. Despite the fact that he is unlike any small boy I have ever known, I quickly became sympathetic to him. The book was a fast read but has some ideas in it that I am still mulling over. I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy!
July 9, 2024
Much like Hartley’s later novel The Go-Between, The Shrimp and the Anemone achieves a tremendously tender and readable rendition of Proustian childhood. I look forward to reading the next volume in the trilogy.
April 8, 2019
This is a brilliant depiction of childhood with all its agonies and misunderstandings - Eustace is confronted with a world which is alien to him or which he thinks (mistakenly) he has understood only to realise he hasn't. There are relatively few books seen from the point of view of a child and this is one of the best I have read.
August 10, 2016
L. P. Hartley knew how to write children. The Go-Between was filled with wonderful insights into the mind of young Leo, his fears and embarrassments. This book, the first in the Eustace and Hilda trilogy, is more of the same but without the tradgedy of The Go-Between. If you are looking for excitement, drama or thrills then this really isn't for you. It's a slow thoughtful book whose events we see through the eyes of young Eustace. He's a sweetly nervous boy who wants to please everyone, most of all his older sister Hilda. As to plot there really isn't one, just a sequence of, to Eustace, notable events over the course of a few months.
As I said, it's slow and thoughtful its also occasionally beautiful and sometimes a little heartbreaking and Hartley writes children I for one can empathise with. It's no Go-Between but what book is?
As I said, it's slow and thoughtful its also occasionally beautiful and sometimes a little heartbreaking and Hartley writes children I for one can empathise with. It's no Go-Between but what book is?
May 21, 2015
Well what a most annoying book. It had such great reviews, is set in Norfolk and promised so much, and yes I know it's taken me ages to read but it was so boring and pointless! I just don't get what it was about. 217 pages of ramblings, written in the genre of children but by an adult... Most frustrating and annoying. I have no idea how the book got so many great reviews...what a waste of my time but I was determined to finish it in the hope it got better. However it is possible - I think - to see he sibling rivalry and sibling love shining through it. But that's about as pleasant as I can be - sorry!
May 17, 2016
I found this disappointing, totally unable to find much of interest, or sympathy, in either Eustace or Hilda despite the unmistakeable excellence of the writing.
February 14, 2019
On the surface, 10-year-old Eustace Sherrington's summer in early 20th century Edwardian England seems typical and uneventful: he plays on the beach with his older sister Hilda, he indulges in small fantasies while bathing and sleeping; he develops a crush on a local girl and forms a reluctant friendship with an elderly spinster. Yet Eustace is a sensitive (some might say neurotic) boy who overthinks and worries about everything--the summer is an endless stream of imagined horrors and cataclysmic outcomes. The story is bookended by two events. It begins with Eustace and Hilda trying to save a shrimp from being eaten by an anemone, and end up harming both creatures. It ends with the children rescuing their own frequently fraught bond. This tale wonderfully captures its place and time, but also plugs into the eternal challenge of growing up in an often bewildering world.
March 9, 2022
'"Eustace! Eustace!" Hilda's tones were always urgent.' As first lines go, it's not a patch on Hartley's "past is a foreign country" effort from "The Go-Between", and for me, the first part of this trilogy doesn't quite hit the heights of his more famous effort. It is however, hugely evocative and atmospheric. Hartley has an uncanny knack for getting into the heads of children. The relationship between Eustace, aged 9, and the thirteen year old Hilda is flawlessly rendered with just the right level of ignorance and experience. And you can almost smell the Norfolk coast. Charming.
November 20, 2025
Bizarre old timey book about a 10 and 14 year old who know absolutely nothing. An enjoyable slice of life of these two lower upper middle class Norfolk kids.
August 14, 2016
Having absolutely adored The Go-Between last year I eagerly sought out another book by this twentieth century author.
The Shrimp and the Anemone is the first of a trilogy about siblings Eustace and Hilda. Eustace is the younger, a mere nine years old when we first meet him and Hilda is his older sister by four years. Hilda is strongly committed in making sure young Eustace follows the path of goodness, she is his moral guardian in all things. In fact Hilda is scary in the way she both makes Eustace do things, such as talk to an old invalid lady, which I am certain she would not have, whilst also making sure he never strains himself, being in the Edwardian parlance of the day ‘a sickly child’
The book opens with a description of a shrimp being half-eaten by an anemone and the children impotently trying to rescue it with the shrimp ultimately dying but not without it having a profound effect on poor Eustace. The author shows his immense skill in not labouring the point he is making, there is not ‘see the lesson’ tone to this part but the luminance of the writing does set the reader up well for the rest of the book.
Set in inter-war Hunstanton, on the north-west Norfolk coast L.P. Hartley renamed the area Anchorstone and the children spend hours on the beach building fantastic moats with an air of seriousness of endeavour that seems to have quite disappeared in the intervening near century. Set at the time it is, there is no escaping the importance of class, and ‘knowing your place’ with the children’s father a working man, albeit in an office, is subtly compared to the man who picks them up in the trap to take them on a day-out where Eustace is allowed to sit on the box with the driver as a special treat.
The beauty of the book is in reading about the children’s pastimes, Eustace’s illness and their relationships with other members of the household whilst at the same time glimpsing the way they are both mystified by the actions of the adults around them. One thing you can’t accuse this author of is not being able to recreate the way that children view the world, which often authors spectacularly fail to capture in all its facets. As the book progresses we meet others in the vicinity, including Dick Staverly who takes a shine to Hilda who is growing to be a beautiful young lady. Hilda is aware of the effect she has, and that there is a rival for Dick’s attention so all eyes are on her method of handling this quandary which serves to lend another facet to her character.
While the characters of the two children are exceptionally vivid, the rest of the family is far more sketchy. Their father is in turns jovial and irritated by his children, their mother died soon after the birth of their youngest sister, a mere baby. The household is completed by the stern and severe aunt who bustles in and out of the story-line mainly trying to impress the father to take more interest in his offspring.
Whilst there are parallels with The Go-Between this is a far more benign tale, so whilst a secret is at the heart of the book, it isn’t of the same type of moral nature, although it’s important enough for me to want to find out what happens to this family in the next book; The Sixth Heaven.
The Shrimp and the Anemone is the first of a trilogy about siblings Eustace and Hilda. Eustace is the younger, a mere nine years old when we first meet him and Hilda is his older sister by four years. Hilda is strongly committed in making sure young Eustace follows the path of goodness, she is his moral guardian in all things. In fact Hilda is scary in the way she both makes Eustace do things, such as talk to an old invalid lady, which I am certain she would not have, whilst also making sure he never strains himself, being in the Edwardian parlance of the day ‘a sickly child’
The book opens with a description of a shrimp being half-eaten by an anemone and the children impotently trying to rescue it with the shrimp ultimately dying but not without it having a profound effect on poor Eustace. The author shows his immense skill in not labouring the point he is making, there is not ‘see the lesson’ tone to this part but the luminance of the writing does set the reader up well for the rest of the book.
Set in inter-war Hunstanton, on the north-west Norfolk coast L.P. Hartley renamed the area Anchorstone and the children spend hours on the beach building fantastic moats with an air of seriousness of endeavour that seems to have quite disappeared in the intervening near century. Set at the time it is, there is no escaping the importance of class, and ‘knowing your place’ with the children’s father a working man, albeit in an office, is subtly compared to the man who picks them up in the trap to take them on a day-out where Eustace is allowed to sit on the box with the driver as a special treat.
The beauty of the book is in reading about the children’s pastimes, Eustace’s illness and their relationships with other members of the household whilst at the same time glimpsing the way they are both mystified by the actions of the adults around them. One thing you can’t accuse this author of is not being able to recreate the way that children view the world, which often authors spectacularly fail to capture in all its facets. As the book progresses we meet others in the vicinity, including Dick Staverly who takes a shine to Hilda who is growing to be a beautiful young lady. Hilda is aware of the effect she has, and that there is a rival for Dick’s attention so all eyes are on her method of handling this quandary which serves to lend another facet to her character.
While the characters of the two children are exceptionally vivid, the rest of the family is far more sketchy. Their father is in turns jovial and irritated by his children, their mother died soon after the birth of their youngest sister, a mere baby. The household is completed by the stern and severe aunt who bustles in and out of the story-line mainly trying to impress the father to take more interest in his offspring.
Whilst there are parallels with The Go-Between this is a far more benign tale, so whilst a secret is at the heart of the book, it isn’t of the same type of moral nature, although it’s important enough for me to want to find out what happens to this family in the next book; The Sixth Heaven.
October 18, 2021
Sentiments divers. La moyenne bourgeoisie anglaise de l'entre XIXe-XXe y est peinte avec certainement beaucoup de justesse. Et sans concessions, mesquineries et petitesses maquillées sous le vernis de la plus exquise hyprocite politesse.
Eustache et Hilda font partie du décor, donc ces enfants (adolescente pour la gamine) s'expriment avec les mêmes manières que des bourgeois jouant les aristocrates, logique. Même si agaçant de voir ces mômes engoncés comme des vieillards prenant le thé dans une villégiature du sud-anglais.
Mais Eustache m'a donné tout au long une énorme et permanente envie (malgré mon pacificisme habituel): lui ficher une paire de claques pour secouer ce mouflet habité par un seul désir: ne surtout déplaire à personne!!! Pénible, le gamin...
La soeur, elle a raison, elle profite de la pusillanimité du petit refoulé pour le dominer. Pour son bien à lui, évidemment, jamais à son profit à elle. Quoique... Mais elle est un peu moins insupportable que le mouflet souffreteux...
Deux personnages sympathiques, car ils affichent leurs défauts, mais ils sont humains et non robots: le papa et la vieille dame.
Comme je crains que Eustache ne devienne pas moins apathique et subissant dans les tomes suivants, je pense que je ne prendrai pas le risque d'avoir à nouveau envie de lui filer des claques.
Eustache et Hilda font partie du décor, donc ces enfants (adolescente pour la gamine) s'expriment avec les mêmes manières que des bourgeois jouant les aristocrates, logique. Même si agaçant de voir ces mômes engoncés comme des vieillards prenant le thé dans une villégiature du sud-anglais.
Mais Eustache m'a donné tout au long une énorme et permanente envie (malgré mon pacificisme habituel): lui ficher une paire de claques pour secouer ce mouflet habité par un seul désir: ne surtout déplaire à personne!!! Pénible, le gamin...
La soeur, elle a raison, elle profite de la pusillanimité du petit refoulé pour le dominer. Pour son bien à lui, évidemment, jamais à son profit à elle. Quoique... Mais elle est un peu moins insupportable que le mouflet souffreteux...
Deux personnages sympathiques, car ils affichent leurs défauts, mais ils sont humains et non robots: le papa et la vieille dame.
Comme je crains que Eustache ne devienne pas moins apathique et subissant dans les tomes suivants, je pense que je ne prendrai pas le risque d'avoir à nouveau envie de lui filer des claques.
August 11, 2014
Having read 'The Go Between' and finding it entertaining I figured there wasn't much to lose in purchasing one of his other novel especially as it was sitting tragically alone in a sale bin for only £1, I'm glad I rescued it... The prose in this book, in my opinion far surpasses that of 'The Go Between'. Hartley manages to capture the beautiful innocence and naivety of a 9 year old boy whilst still using an expanse of wonderful vocabulary. There's something I just can't explain but the soul of this individual is just so clear in the way it is written.
It is a simple story that follows the life of Eustace and Hilda a brother and sister living in a sea side town.
There something so pure about this book and I look forward to re-reading and exploring the sequels.
It is a simple story that follows the life of Eustace and Hilda a brother and sister living in a sea side town.
There something so pure about this book and I look forward to re-reading and exploring the sequels.
December 13, 2020
A curious little tale that is an excellently executed slow builder.
This story of sibling childhood creeps up, layering emotion, experience and perspective of brother and sister over a background of restrictive society, parental control and the complicated relationships we share as siblings in our youth.
Very very clever writing from L P Hartley.
Much enjoyed.
This story of sibling childhood creeps up, layering emotion, experience and perspective of brother and sister over a background of restrictive society, parental control and the complicated relationships we share as siblings in our youth.
Very very clever writing from L P Hartley.
Much enjoyed.
July 8, 2016
was made to read this for school and ended up loving it. It broke right through my cynicism.
May 12, 2025
"That afternoon marked more than one change in Eustace's attitude towards life. Physical ugliness ceased to repel him and conversely physical beauty lost some of its appeal" (109).
"In an indoor atmosphere, prepared by affection and policed by money, youth's natural dislike of what is ugly and crippled and static had dropped away from Eustace. To find his most intimate satisfaction in giving satisfaction, to be pleased by pleasing, this was the lesson that Miss Fothergill had taught him. She did not mean to. She had tried not to. No woman, certainly no young woman, wishes a man she loves to be deficient in desire and indifferent to the call of experience. She is jealous of his emotional security even if it rests in her" (133).
"The habit of authority, which would have bidden her tell Eustace, 'Now, now, that's enough,' had forsaken Minney. She returned to the barrier of the bath, composed her face as well as she could, and forgetting where she had left off, begin again:
'I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, from henceforth blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; even so, saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labors.'
Eustace was transported by the beauty of the words. They glowed in his mind until, perhaps from some association with his present position, they turned into a golden sea, upon the sunshine-glinting ripples of which he and MIss Fothergill, reunited and at rest from their labors, floated forever in the fellowship of the blessed. He had never felt so near to her as he did now. Perhaps he was no longer alive; perhaps what he once dreaded had come to pass, and he had been drowned in the bath without noticing it. If so, death was indeed a blessed thing, buoyant, warm, sunshiny, infinitely desirable" (135-36).
"Eustace walked to his post at the far end of the pond. Their custom was to begin at opposite ends and meet in the middle, but Eustace seldom reached the half-way mark. Now that mark, thanks to Hilda's grandiose scheme, was at least two yards further off than it used to be. Consciousness of this increased his bodily and mental languor. For him the pond had ceased to be a symbol. Of old, each time it rose from the sands and spread its silver surface tot he sky it proclaimed that the Cherrington children had measured their strength against the universe, and won. They had imposed an order; they had left a mark; they had added a meaning to life. That was why the last moment, when the completion of the work was only distant by a few spadefuls, was so tense and exciting. In those moments the glory of living gathered itself into a wave and flowed over them. The experience was ecstatic and timeless, it opened a window upon eternity, and whilst it lasted, and again when they surveyed their handiwork from the cliff-top, they felt themselves to be immortal" (157).
"In an indoor atmosphere, prepared by affection and policed by money, youth's natural dislike of what is ugly and crippled and static had dropped away from Eustace. To find his most intimate satisfaction in giving satisfaction, to be pleased by pleasing, this was the lesson that Miss Fothergill had taught him. She did not mean to. She had tried not to. No woman, certainly no young woman, wishes a man she loves to be deficient in desire and indifferent to the call of experience. She is jealous of his emotional security even if it rests in her" (133).
"The habit of authority, which would have bidden her tell Eustace, 'Now, now, that's enough,' had forsaken Minney. She returned to the barrier of the bath, composed her face as well as she could, and forgetting where she had left off, begin again:
'I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, from henceforth blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; even so, saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labors.'
Eustace was transported by the beauty of the words. They glowed in his mind until, perhaps from some association with his present position, they turned into a golden sea, upon the sunshine-glinting ripples of which he and MIss Fothergill, reunited and at rest from their labors, floated forever in the fellowship of the blessed. He had never felt so near to her as he did now. Perhaps he was no longer alive; perhaps what he once dreaded had come to pass, and he had been drowned in the bath without noticing it. If so, death was indeed a blessed thing, buoyant, warm, sunshiny, infinitely desirable" (135-36).
"Eustace walked to his post at the far end of the pond. Their custom was to begin at opposite ends and meet in the middle, but Eustace seldom reached the half-way mark. Now that mark, thanks to Hilda's grandiose scheme, was at least two yards further off than it used to be. Consciousness of this increased his bodily and mental languor. For him the pond had ceased to be a symbol. Of old, each time it rose from the sands and spread its silver surface tot he sky it proclaimed that the Cherrington children had measured their strength against the universe, and won. They had imposed an order; they had left a mark; they had added a meaning to life. That was why the last moment, when the completion of the work was only distant by a few spadefuls, was so tense and exciting. In those moments the glory of living gathered itself into a wave and flowed over them. The experience was ecstatic and timeless, it opened a window upon eternity, and whilst it lasted, and again when they surveyed their handiwork from the cliff-top, they felt themselves to be immortal" (157).
April 27, 2024
Mlle Alice, pouvez-vous nous raconter votre rencontre avec La Crevette et l'Anémone ?
"J'ai beaucoup aimé le Messager, du même auteur, et je dois avouer que la Crevette et l'Anémone m'intriguait déjà depuis un certains temps alors je n'ai pas su résister à cette édition de la trilogie parées de nouvelles couvertures aux couleurs douces et harmonieuses."
Dites-nous en un peu plus sur son histoire...
"Eustache et Hilda passent des heures à jouer sur la plage. Le petit garçon vénère sa grande soeur et fait - presque - tout ce qu'elle lui demande. Alors lorsqu'elle l'incite à parler à la vieille Miss Fothergill dont il a pourtant peur, il finit par céder, sans se douter que son destin pourrait s'en trouver chambouler..."
Mais que s'est-il exactement passé entre vous ?
"J'avais quand même une petite appréhension en commençant ma lecture parce que le Messager est un roman chargé d'amertume et que ce n'est pas forcément ce que j'avais envie de lire. Je ne peux pas dire que celui-ci en soit dépourvu mais ce n'est pas le sentiment qui domine, du moins, pas dans ce premier tome. Le roman est assez court, les pages se tournent toutes seules et j'ai trouvé cette lecture charmante. La cruauté des petites filles m'a rappelé les enfants de Marcel Pagnol et j'aurais vraiment aimé que l'ont ait plus de contexte dès le départ pour apprécier Hilda à sa juste valeur, ce qui s'est avéré difficile. Les adultes non plus ne sont pas très sympathiques d'ailleurs, j'en ai peur, si ce n'est Miss Fothergill que l'on voit bien trop peu. Mais le héros, c'est Eustache de toutes façons, et c'est un petit garçon sensible, craintif et extrêmement attachant. J'espère qu'il le restera et je suis très intéressée par la façon dont il évoluera au fil des tomes mais pour le moment, je l'aime beaucoup."
Et comment cela s'est-il fini ?
"Si je n'avais pas eu tant de lectures qui m'attendaient déjà, j'aurais très certainement enchainé directement avec le deuxième tome et je suis vraiment impatiente de retrouver Eustache.
PS : un petit regret tout de même pour une énorme erreur de traduction qui a persisté jusqu'à cette édition. Si vous entendez parler de "toboggans", ce qu'il faut comprendre par là, c'est "luge" en fait..."
http://booksaremywonderland.hautetfor...
"J'ai beaucoup aimé le Messager, du même auteur, et je dois avouer que la Crevette et l'Anémone m'intriguait déjà depuis un certains temps alors je n'ai pas su résister à cette édition de la trilogie parées de nouvelles couvertures aux couleurs douces et harmonieuses."
Dites-nous en un peu plus sur son histoire...
"Eustache et Hilda passent des heures à jouer sur la plage. Le petit garçon vénère sa grande soeur et fait - presque - tout ce qu'elle lui demande. Alors lorsqu'elle l'incite à parler à la vieille Miss Fothergill dont il a pourtant peur, il finit par céder, sans se douter que son destin pourrait s'en trouver chambouler..."
Mais que s'est-il exactement passé entre vous ?
"J'avais quand même une petite appréhension en commençant ma lecture parce que le Messager est un roman chargé d'amertume et que ce n'est pas forcément ce que j'avais envie de lire. Je ne peux pas dire que celui-ci en soit dépourvu mais ce n'est pas le sentiment qui domine, du moins, pas dans ce premier tome. Le roman est assez court, les pages se tournent toutes seules et j'ai trouvé cette lecture charmante. La cruauté des petites filles m'a rappelé les enfants de Marcel Pagnol et j'aurais vraiment aimé que l'ont ait plus de contexte dès le départ pour apprécier Hilda à sa juste valeur, ce qui s'est avéré difficile. Les adultes non plus ne sont pas très sympathiques d'ailleurs, j'en ai peur, si ce n'est Miss Fothergill que l'on voit bien trop peu. Mais le héros, c'est Eustache de toutes façons, et c'est un petit garçon sensible, craintif et extrêmement attachant. J'espère qu'il le restera et je suis très intéressée par la façon dont il évoluera au fil des tomes mais pour le moment, je l'aime beaucoup."
Et comment cela s'est-il fini ?
"Si je n'avais pas eu tant de lectures qui m'attendaient déjà, j'aurais très certainement enchainé directement avec le deuxième tome et je suis vraiment impatiente de retrouver Eustache.
PS : un petit regret tout de même pour une énorme erreur de traduction qui a persisté jusqu'à cette édition. Si vous entendez parler de "toboggans", ce qu'il faut comprendre par là, c'est "luge" en fait..."
http://booksaremywonderland.hautetfor...
September 3, 2023
The Shrimp and the Anemone begins with Eustace and Hilda playing on a Norfolk beach; Eustace is a rather sickly (he has a weak heart) ten-year old boy, who is afraid of almost everything, whilst Hilda, his fourteen year-old sister, is completely different—she has almost taken over the role of their mother who died whilst giving birth to their younger sister, Barbara. Hilda is more sure of herself and used to being in control. She also likes bossing Eustace about and sometimes takes a sort of sadistic pleasure in watching him squirm. However there is a strong bond between the two siblings and they both love each other very much. The book begins with Eustace calling his sister over to a rockpool, in which Eustace can see a sea anemone in the process of eating a shrimp. Eustace, who is concerned for the shrimp, convinces his sister to try to save it. She manages to pull the shrimp away from the anemone but not in time to save the shrimp and also results in disembowelling the anemone, thereby saving neither. The sensitive Eustace sobs whilst Hilda is less concerned. As the novel proceeds we can see that the two children's relationship is similar to that of the shrimp and the anemone with Eustace as the shrimp and Hilda as the anemone. Eustace often feels subservient to his sister, as if he has no will of his own. When he does exert his will he feels guilty and becomes sick. In the novel a couple of events occur which result in Eustace and Hilda being separated and both experience this separation as painful and like a death.
L. P. Hartley portrays the children brilliantly, both their manners of speech and their thought processes. Although the concentration is on Eustace we also get to see things occasionally from Hilda's point of view. Eustace is meek and is overly concerned with pleasing others. He is also scared of trying anything new. Eustace has been told that if he meets Miss Fothergill, an elderly wheelchair-bound rheumatic lady who is often to be seen on the footpaths near the beach, then he must speak to her but Eustace is utterly scared of her. Here's a bit of dialogue between Eustace and Hilda as Hilda spots Miss Fothergill approaching on a footpath.
I read this novel in the collected edition, Eustace And Hilda: A Trilogy.
L. P. Hartley portrays the children brilliantly, both their manners of speech and their thought processes. Although the concentration is on Eustace we also get to see things occasionally from Hilda's point of view. Eustace is meek and is overly concerned with pleasing others. He is also scared of trying anything new. Eustace has been told that if he meets Miss Fothergill, an elderly wheelchair-bound rheumatic lady who is often to be seen on the footpaths near the beach, then he must speak to her but Eustace is utterly scared of her. Here's a bit of dialogue between Eustace and Hilda as Hilda spots Miss Fothergill approaching on a footpath.
Someone was walking alongside it [the cliff edge], perhaps two people. But Hilda had better eyes than he and cried at once, "There's Miss Fothergill and her companion."Eustace's protestations continue whilst Hilda makes sure he doesn't escape. Eustace ends up talking to Miss Fothergill and then, as he gets more bold, pushing her in her bath-chair. Although some of his fear has abated it returns when Miss Fothergill asks Eustace and Hilda to tea. This fear of visiting Miss Fothergill grows over the next few days, especially when Hilda reveals that she won't be accompanying him so he'll have to go on his own. Meanwhile Eustace is asked by Nancy, a girl he is besotted with, to go on a paper-chase on the day of the tea invitation. Uncharacteristically he exerts his own will, disobeys his parents, and goes on the paper-chase with Nancy—but he pays the price as he gets caught in a thunderstorm, falls ill, and is in bed for weeks. Eustace eventually has tea with Miss Fothergill and once he gets to know her, and gets used to her 'deformities', he becomes a regular visitor.
"Oh!" cried Eustace; "let's turn back."
But the light of battle was in Hilda's eye.
"Why should we turn back? It's just the opportunity we've been looking for."
"Perhaps you have," said Eustace. "I haven't."
He had already turned away from the approaching bath-chair and was tugging at Hilda's hand.
"The Bible says, 'Sick and in prison and I visited you'," Hilda quoted with considerable effect. "You've always been naughty about this, Eustace: it's the chief failing I've never been able to cure you of."
"But she's so ugly," protested Eustace.
"What difference does that make?"
"And she frightens me."
"A big boy like you!"
"Her face is all crooked."
"You haven't seen it—you always run away."
"And her hands are all black."
"Silly, that's only her gloves."
"Yes, but they aren't proper hands, that's why she wears gloves. Annie told me."
Annie was the Cherrington's daily 'help'.
That afternoon marked more than one change in Eustace's attitude towards life. Physical ugliness ceased to repel him and conversely physical beauty lost some of its appeal.There is not much of a plot to The Shrimp and the Anemone, instead it is an exquisitely executed character study of the two children—how they interact with each other, with other children, with adults and how they change over time. There is however an event that happens which changes the course of their lives and as I will reveal details of this event below, you may wish to skip the rest of this review if you are planning to read the book. During one of Eustace's visits Miss Fothergill dies and later it is revealed that she bequeathed a large sum of money to Eustace which will enable him to attend a public school and then university. Eustace is not told of this but he soon notices that his father and aunt, and others, have begun to treat him differently. The differences are subtle, but they now show him more respect, ask his views and defer to his wishes on occasions. His father makes plans for Eustace to attend a good school but when Eustace is told by a local coach-driver that he will soon be 'going away' he assumes, because of his weak heart, that he is about to die. Over the following days he becomes morose and listless and talks to Hilda of writing his will. Whilst playing on the beach Eustace tries to tell Hilda of his fears and when she realises what he means she explodes in anger and fear. She feels that he's trying to escape from them. Part of Hilda's identity is in taking care of Eustace and she feels threatened and rejected with his talk of dying.
"How dare you talk like that? I see how it is—you want to go away—you want to leave us! You tried before, the time of the paper-chase, but you had to come back. You had to come back from Miss Fothergill too. You think you'll be with someone who loves you more than we do—that's why you talk about dying! But I won't allow it! I'll stop you! I'll see you don't slip away!"It is a highly charged scene which is then quickly defused when some friends arrive congratulating Eustace on his inheritance and praising him for his foresight in getting to know Miss Fothergill. Left alone again, Eustace and Hilda discuss the money without really understanding the importance of it and then run back home care-free.
I read this novel in the collected edition, Eustace And Hilda: A Trilogy.
December 15, 2019
A very intense, atmospheric occasionally delightful if sometimes slightly creepy introspective account of a young boy's interaction with the world, his inner flights of fancy, fears & hopes and particularly his relationship with his older sister Hilda. A gem of a book that captures boyhood, family, ethics and the time beautifully. If you havens read LP Hartley before as I hadn't then give this one a go. I am hooked and looking forward to reading the other 2 in the trio.
Eustace is clearly a very sensitive often sickly little boy from a relatively well off middle class home sometime in the Edwardian era when motor cars are rare and viewed as slightly unpleasant things which frighten the horse. His 13 or 14 year old sister Edna has taken over the role of mother toward him so he relies heavily on her for moral support along with his nursemaid Minnie. Edna encourages then forces him to approach their elderly sick and deformed neighbour because it is the right thing to do, but Eustace is terrified of the invalid fancying all sorts of terrible scenarios of how she may appear under her veil. COmmitted against his will to going to tea with Miss Fothergill Eustace runs away with naughty Nancy to whom he is attracted to play paper chase instead keeping his appointment with Miss Fothergill. The subsequent drenching in the storm leaves him ill for some time but eventually he is forced to go to tea at Laburnum Cottage and his fears evaporate becoming close friend with the lonely sick woman with whom he plays cards for money and kisses. The eventual consequences of this friendship to Eustace and reaction of his family and Nancy's are the highpoint of the novel. Eustace's decision about Edna is testament to his true character.
Eustace is clearly a very sensitive often sickly little boy from a relatively well off middle class home sometime in the Edwardian era when motor cars are rare and viewed as slightly unpleasant things which frighten the horse. His 13 or 14 year old sister Edna has taken over the role of mother toward him so he relies heavily on her for moral support along with his nursemaid Minnie. Edna encourages then forces him to approach their elderly sick and deformed neighbour because it is the right thing to do, but Eustace is terrified of the invalid fancying all sorts of terrible scenarios of how she may appear under her veil. COmmitted against his will to going to tea with Miss Fothergill Eustace runs away with naughty Nancy to whom he is attracted to play paper chase instead keeping his appointment with Miss Fothergill. The subsequent drenching in the storm leaves him ill for some time but eventually he is forced to go to tea at Laburnum Cottage and his fears evaporate becoming close friend with the lonely sick woman with whom he plays cards for money and kisses. The eventual consequences of this friendship to Eustace and reaction of his family and Nancy's are the highpoint of the novel. Eustace's decision about Edna is testament to his true character.
February 21, 2022
This took me so long to get through, I couldn’t care less about the characters, couldn’t understand why this was written. I guess at best it is an attempt to shine a light on childhood confusion and emotions but on the whole I found it to be ramble of the dullest kind. Couldn’t wait for it to be over and only finished it for my book club.
December 31, 2023
Beautiful. A gently-paced story of a brother and sister, spanning a couple of years in the seaside home in Norfolk. Some really clever passages where we are immersed in the imagination of Eustace, who, aged 9, still has so much to learn about the things adults do. Looking forward to the second and third in this trilogy.
April 21, 2019
Cool, calm prose that perfectly encapsulate specific childhood feelings. A different approach from others I have read that do this well (Stephen King or Robert McCarthy), and a much more foreign setting.
The narrative was just not engrossing enough to make it timeless.
The narrative was just not engrossing enough to make it timeless.
January 16, 2019
Excellent portrayal of an Edwardian child's psyche.
April 21, 2019
I am afraid I have this one up after a few pages, just not my kind of book.
April 26, 2021
4/5
Joli roman tendre et lumineux, malgré ses zones d’ombre. Quelques lenteurs mais aussi beaucoup de beauté.
Joli roman tendre et lumineux, malgré ses zones d’ombre. Quelques lenteurs mais aussi beaucoup de beauté.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews