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The Auction Sale
The Auction Sale relates a sensitive and subtle evocation of country life in the late 1930s. The friendship between Alice Elton and Mrs. Durrant, the latter's sad love affair and the appreciation of fleeting beauty pervade. Such melancholy themes are set in contrast to the auction sale, which Kitchin brings to life through incisive and humorous depiction. First published in 1949, Lord David Cecil described the novel as 'an admirably shaped, delicately finished work of art, reflecting a deeply interesting vision of human life.'
191 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1949
About the author
C.H.B. Kitchin
22 books10 followersC.H.B. (Clifford Henry Benn) Kitchin was born in Yorkshire in 1895. He attended Exeter College, Oxford, and published his first book, a collection of poems, in 1919. His first novel, Streamers Waving, appeared in 1925, and he scored his first success with the mystery novel Death of My Aunt (1929), which has been frequently reprinted and translated into a number of foreign languages.
Kitchin was a man of many interests and talents, being called to the bar in 1924 and later amassing a small fortune in the stock market. He was also, at various times, a farmer and a schoolmaster, and his many talents included playing the piano, chess, and bridge. He was also an avid collector of antiques and objets d'art.
Kitchin was a lifelong friend of L. P. Hartley, with whose works Kitchin’s were often compared, and was also a friend and mentor to Francis King, who later acted as Kitchin’s literary executor. In his introduction to the Valancourt edition of Kitchin’s The Book of Life, King recalls meeting Kitchin after the two wrote fan letters to one another in 1958 that crossed in the mail: King had written in praise of Ten Pollitt Place, while Kitchin’s letter had expressed admiration for the younger novelist’s The Man on the Rock (1957). King wrote, ‘[B]y the time that I met him, his fate was that of many elderly, once famous writers in England. Instead of lead reviews, he now got two or three paragraphs at the bottom of a page. Increasingly critics would apply the dread word “veteran” to him, much to his annoyance.’ This frustration is echoed in his novel Ten Pollitt Place, where Kitchin portrays himself in the character of the aging novelist Justin Bray.
Kitchin, who was gay, lived with his partner Clive Preen, an accountant, from 1930 until Preen’s death in 1944. C.H.B. Kitchin died in 1967.
Kitchin was a man of many interests and talents, being called to the bar in 1924 and later amassing a small fortune in the stock market. He was also, at various times, a farmer and a schoolmaster, and his many talents included playing the piano, chess, and bridge. He was also an avid collector of antiques and objets d'art.
Kitchin was a lifelong friend of L. P. Hartley, with whose works Kitchin’s were often compared, and was also a friend and mentor to Francis King, who later acted as Kitchin’s literary executor. In his introduction to the Valancourt edition of Kitchin’s The Book of Life, King recalls meeting Kitchin after the two wrote fan letters to one another in 1958 that crossed in the mail: King had written in praise of Ten Pollitt Place, while Kitchin’s letter had expressed admiration for the younger novelist’s The Man on the Rock (1957). King wrote, ‘[B]y the time that I met him, his fate was that of many elderly, once famous writers in England. Instead of lead reviews, he now got two or three paragraphs at the bottom of a page. Increasingly critics would apply the dread word “veteran” to him, much to his annoyance.’ This frustration is echoed in his novel Ten Pollitt Place, where Kitchin portrays himself in the character of the aging novelist Justin Bray.
Kitchin, who was gay, lived with his partner Clive Preen, an accountant, from 1930 until Preen’s death in 1944. C.H.B. Kitchin died in 1967.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 21, 2014
It was chance that led me to discover C. H. B. Kitchin last year. I read 'Streamers Waving', one of his earliest novels and I discovered that he was an author with wit, understanding, and such lovely style. that book left me eager to read more of his work, and I was so pleased to discover a wonderfully diverse range of titles being reissued, some by the wonderful Valancourt Books and others as Faber Finds.
The simplicity of ‘The Auction Sale’ called me first. It’s a small, quiet story, and it tells the story of an auction over three days, just before the war. The contents of a country house were being sold; because the owner had died, he had left the home to his sister, and she had decided to sell up.
Miss Alice Elton was attending the sale, because she had many happy memories of Ashleigh Place, just outside the small town of Markenham. She had been secretary to Mr Durrant, and she had become companion and dear friend to his wife. That part of her life was over, but she remembered it with such love. For the people for she knew, and for the timeless beauty of the house itself. She just wanted to see it again, to remember, and to bid on one of two lots that held particular memories.
Miss Elton’s memories were wrapped around the story of the three days of the sale quite beautifully. Mr Kitchin captured the proceedings at the auction – the differing styles of the two auctioneers, the curious locals, the professional dealers – so very well. And as lots came and went Miss Elton remembered so many things.
She remembered her friend’s concern for the uncle who brought the house, and for her troubled orphan nephew who came to live their for a time. And she remembered her friend’s relationship with the lovely Mr Osmund Sorenius; a relationship that might have been a love affair, had they both not had an instinctive loyalty to their respective spouses. Miss Elton had been friend to both, and a chaperone maybe.
As I read ‘The Auction Sale’ two other books and a film came to mind. The love of the house reminded me of Vita Sackville-West’s 'The Heir'; the stirring of memories brought Ruby Ferguson’s 'Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary' to mind; and the almost love affair had echoes of ‘Brief Encounter.’ That was lovely, but as I read I came to love ‘The Auction Sale’ for its own sake.
Mr Kitchin writing was subtle and sensitive; he so clearly understood, his style suited his story perfectly; and he brought the house and all of those who passed through, and the auction and all of those present, to life.
I appreciated the attention to detail, the contrast between the quietness of the past and the liveliness of the auction, and way the changes at the house were set against the changes that the coming war would bring. Most of all I appreciated Miss Elton. She might have been a tragic figure, but she wasn’t; she he had lost much, she had little, but she accepted that life had changed, and would continue to change, and she carried on.
I was so pleased that she had two successful bids, and that she won a painting and a bowl. They had little monetary value, but they carried particular memories.
The story ended at the end of the third day of the auction. Miss Elton collected her purchases, and she took them home.
It was lovely to meet her, to attend the auction, and to be trusted with her memories.
The simplicity of ‘The Auction Sale’ called me first. It’s a small, quiet story, and it tells the story of an auction over three days, just before the war. The contents of a country house were being sold; because the owner had died, he had left the home to his sister, and she had decided to sell up.
Miss Alice Elton was attending the sale, because she had many happy memories of Ashleigh Place, just outside the small town of Markenham. She had been secretary to Mr Durrant, and she had become companion and dear friend to his wife. That part of her life was over, but she remembered it with such love. For the people for she knew, and for the timeless beauty of the house itself. She just wanted to see it again, to remember, and to bid on one of two lots that held particular memories.
Miss Elton’s memories were wrapped around the story of the three days of the sale quite beautifully. Mr Kitchin captured the proceedings at the auction – the differing styles of the two auctioneers, the curious locals, the professional dealers – so very well. And as lots came and went Miss Elton remembered so many things.
She remembered her friend’s concern for the uncle who brought the house, and for her troubled orphan nephew who came to live their for a time. And she remembered her friend’s relationship with the lovely Mr Osmund Sorenius; a relationship that might have been a love affair, had they both not had an instinctive loyalty to their respective spouses. Miss Elton had been friend to both, and a chaperone maybe.
As I read ‘The Auction Sale’ two other books and a film came to mind. The love of the house reminded me of Vita Sackville-West’s 'The Heir'; the stirring of memories brought Ruby Ferguson’s 'Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary' to mind; and the almost love affair had echoes of ‘Brief Encounter.’ That was lovely, but as I read I came to love ‘The Auction Sale’ for its own sake.
Mr Kitchin writing was subtle and sensitive; he so clearly understood, his style suited his story perfectly; and he brought the house and all of those who passed through, and the auction and all of those present, to life.
I appreciated the attention to detail, the contrast between the quietness of the past and the liveliness of the auction, and way the changes at the house were set against the changes that the coming war would bring. Most of all I appreciated Miss Elton. She might have been a tragic figure, but she wasn’t; she he had lost much, she had little, but she accepted that life had changed, and would continue to change, and she carried on.
I was so pleased that she had two successful bids, and that she won a painting and a bowl. They had little monetary value, but they carried particular memories.
The story ended at the end of the third day of the auction. Miss Elton collected her purchases, and she took them home.
It was lovely to meet her, to attend the auction, and to be trusted with her memories.
August 18, 2018
What seems on the surface to be a simple story of a past employee attending the estate sale of the contents of her former employer's country mansion, at a time when the world stands on the cusp of war, is actually something much deeper. Underneath it's a philosophical look at how memory, the past, and the objects or surroundings that inhabit that past affect us. It's about fear and change, about the inevitability of change and moving forward--it's about life. I was fascinated with how C.H.B. Kitchin used the auction as a means to unearth Miss Elton's memories and tell the tale of her years and relationships with the Durrants, her concerns or disappointments and her move through them, her small happinesses and the quiet joy she found in the beauty of nature. The single thing that kept this from being a 5 star read for me was the slightly melancholic undercurrent.
Fascinating and memorable. 4 stars
Fascinating and memorable. 4 stars
Want to Read
November 20, 2021Review of previously read edition: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
July 24, 2020
The Auction Sale was published in 1949, and on the surface appears to be about the changes in everyone's lives as a result of the war. The central figure, Miss Elton, spends a weekend in 1938 attending a sale of the effects of Ashleigh Place, the wealthy country household in which she has until recently worked as a private secretary. She avoids talking to the people around her because they are caught up in the European news which strongly suggests that war is inevitable. She prefers to dwell on her memories of the genteel and happy life she led at Ashleigh Place.
Superficially, the book appears to be about a subject of great interest to the British literary classes throughout the ages, the replacement of the traditional standards of the genteel classes by more democratic and supposedly heartless ones. Ashleigh Place is a symbol of the genteel life once lived in it, just as the country house has been a symbol of gentility in English literature throughout the last two hundred years.
That certainly was how Lord David Cecil, who wrote the introduction to my 1971 edition, took the book. He writes, for example: “For [Kitchin], the ideal life is a life given up to contemplation and fine feeling, and symbolized by the picture entitled The Pleasures of Love and Retirement which Miss Elton takes away at the end as a memento of her stay in Mrs. Durrant's house.”
Lord David failed to notice that the painting of which he wrote did not hang in the family rooms, but in Miss Elton's. It is not something the family wants to live with. And while the Durrant household is at least making a show of retirement, it is devoid of love.
The Durrant household is in no sense a temple of love and retirement, but The Auction Sale is not a tract, and neither was Kitchin attempting to mock the ideal of the genteel life; Kitchin describes his characters' actions objectively, and extenuating circumstances abound.
Kitchin's assessment of gentility, contemplation, and retirement is ultimately irrelevant, since he was in fact not writing about any specific ideal, but about the effects of ideals in general. "I fear those big words which make us so unhappy," Stephen Dedalus said. Kitchin fears those big words which we are told will make us happy.
Love is certainly a big word, a word which inspired a detailed code of conduct in the middle ages. This code still haunts us any time we listen to popular music or watch popular television shows. And of course love is the chief duty of the Christian to God.
Retirement has of course also been considered important for the last couple of millennia. Christ went into the wilderness, holy men lived in caves, and rich widows retired to the contemplative life of the convent. Today we no longer aspire to retirement as a way to attain communion with God, but simply as a respite from the rat race.
Kitchin wrote about a specific ideal, one which in 1949 was considered highly relevant, so that he could write about all ideals. By relating every detail of the book to a specific ideal he was even able to make his climax out of a highly abstract speech by the vicar's wife, Mrs. Rivett. By the time it arrives, we are so used to taking an academic approach to deciphering the novel that we overlook the utter improbability of anyone delivering herself of such a speech over lunch.
And what does Mrs. Rivett say? She talks about how the Church has botched the idea of immortality. Yes, that's the climax of the novel, and it works.
Kitchin's analysis of his theme is in no sense profound (I couldn't have understood if it had been), but it is intelligent and humane.
Superficially, the book appears to be about a subject of great interest to the British literary classes throughout the ages, the replacement of the traditional standards of the genteel classes by more democratic and supposedly heartless ones. Ashleigh Place is a symbol of the genteel life once lived in it, just as the country house has been a symbol of gentility in English literature throughout the last two hundred years.
That certainly was how Lord David Cecil, who wrote the introduction to my 1971 edition, took the book. He writes, for example: “For [Kitchin], the ideal life is a life given up to contemplation and fine feeling, and symbolized by the picture entitled The Pleasures of Love and Retirement which Miss Elton takes away at the end as a memento of her stay in Mrs. Durrant's house.”
Lord David failed to notice that the painting of which he wrote did not hang in the family rooms, but in Miss Elton's. It is not something the family wants to live with. And while the Durrant household is at least making a show of retirement, it is devoid of love.
The Durrant household is in no sense a temple of love and retirement, but The Auction Sale is not a tract, and neither was Kitchin attempting to mock the ideal of the genteel life; Kitchin describes his characters' actions objectively, and extenuating circumstances abound.
Kitchin's assessment of gentility, contemplation, and retirement is ultimately irrelevant, since he was in fact not writing about any specific ideal, but about the effects of ideals in general. "I fear those big words which make us so unhappy," Stephen Dedalus said. Kitchin fears those big words which we are told will make us happy.
Love is certainly a big word, a word which inspired a detailed code of conduct in the middle ages. This code still haunts us any time we listen to popular music or watch popular television shows. And of course love is the chief duty of the Christian to God.
Retirement has of course also been considered important for the last couple of millennia. Christ went into the wilderness, holy men lived in caves, and rich widows retired to the contemplative life of the convent. Today we no longer aspire to retirement as a way to attain communion with God, but simply as a respite from the rat race.
Kitchin wrote about a specific ideal, one which in 1949 was considered highly relevant, so that he could write about all ideals. By relating every detail of the book to a specific ideal he was even able to make his climax out of a highly abstract speech by the vicar's wife, Mrs. Rivett. By the time it arrives, we are so used to taking an academic approach to deciphering the novel that we overlook the utter improbability of anyone delivering herself of such a speech over lunch.
And what does Mrs. Rivett say? She talks about how the Church has botched the idea of immortality. Yes, that's the climax of the novel, and it works.
Kitchin's analysis of his theme is in no sense profound (I couldn't have understood if it had been), but it is intelligent and humane.
March 29, 2025
A curious, low-key novel – championed by Lord David Cecil, L.P. Hartley, and John Lehmann – concerning a single lady’s reflections on her time spent as a personal secretary in a prewar country house. Miss Elton’s memories are triggered by the auction of the household contents, from which she takes away two meaningful items: a painting titled “The Pleasures of Love and Retirement” and a wooden bowl inscribed with the verse “He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness”.
The novel is curious and low key because the household is not, by and large, a happy one...Miss Elton’s secretarial work is fairly pointless...and the centrepiece is a pleasant day out in which she chaperones a couple who are married, but not to each other. The tone is nonetheless nostalgic, though it is not clear to me what for. It would make sense as a sad little elegy for lost – if not wasted – time, but the novel does not support such a reading. Lord David Cecil’s introduction suggests some kind of uplifting spiritual aesthetic, uniting the two items purchased at auction, but though that may work for Miss Elton it does not work for me.
The novel is quite well written and the framing device of the auction sale is neatly done. I think this adds up to faint praise.
The novel is curious and low key because the household is not, by and large, a happy one...Miss Elton’s secretarial work is fairly pointless...and the centrepiece is a pleasant day out in which she chaperones a couple who are married, but not to each other. The tone is nonetheless nostalgic, though it is not clear to me what for. It would make sense as a sad little elegy for lost – if not wasted – time, but the novel does not support such a reading. Lord David Cecil’s introduction suggests some kind of uplifting spiritual aesthetic, uniting the two items purchased at auction, but though that may work for Miss Elton it does not work for me.
The novel is quite well written and the framing device of the auction sale is neatly done. I think this adds up to faint praise.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews