Return To Jalna

Jalna #13

by Mazo de la Roche

In Return to Jalna , the Whiteoak family reunites after a year of separation. Piers, Renny, and Wakefield return in 1943 during the Second World War. Finch has been off on a concert tour, and Maurice has come home from Ireland. Fifteen-year-old Adeline returns from school and is now the stunning reflection of her namesake. It's a time of change and strain, but the family remains united against all others.

Genres: Fiction, Historical, Family Saga, Canada, Romance

761 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 1946

About the author

Mazo de la Roche, born Mazo Louise Roche, was the author of the Jalna novels, one of the most popular series of books of her time.

The Jalna series consists of sixteen novels that tell the story of the Canadian Whiteoak family from 1854 to 1954, although each of the novels can also be enjoyed as an independent story. In the world of the Whiteoaks, as in real life, people live and die, find success and fall to ruin. For the Whiteoaks, there remains something solid and unchanging in the midst of life's transience--the manor house and its rich surrounding farmland known as "Jalna." The author, Mazo de la Roche, gave the members of her fictitious family names from gravestones in Ontario's New Market cemetery, and the story itself balances somewhere between fact and fiction. Critics think events in the novels reflect de la Roche's dreams, moods, and life experiences. As the daughter of a traveling businessman, she may have seen the Jalna estate as the roots she never had, while the character Finch, from Finch's Fortune, is thought to be a reflection of herself.

Reviews

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like RETURN TO JALNA. It's less melodramatic than its predecessor, WAKEFIELD'S COURSE, and a lot more down-to-earth. It describes the often mundane doings of the family in Canada, waiting for their men to come home from the war. Alayne tries to run Jalna on her own and she occasionally messes up, making some very human mistakes along the way. RETURN has little appeal as a stand-alone novel but much interest to those who have followed the Jalna series from the beginning. To any new readers, I'd advise that you read JALNA and WHITEOAKS first before even attempting to tackle this one.

Here Adeline Whiteoak, now 13 or 14, emerges as a viable young heroine. Beautiful and strong-willed, she practically runs Renny's stables in his absence. She wins first prize at a horse show, despite the fact that her infected knee is causing her intense pain, and we see what a little trooper this kid is. And then there's a wonderful scene where she takes possession of old Adeline's room, offering crackers to the (now-stuffed) parrot on its perch and "playing" the old lady in a cracked voice! Great fun. This young girl may even be her great-grandmother's reincarnation, who knows? As early as WHITEOAKS the original Adeline showed knowledge of Eastern lore and affirmed her own belief in the transmigration of souls...so, as I say, who knows?

But the main storyline here concerns a disagreeable new neighbor from whom someone steals a thousand dollars. Renny is blamed for the theft---and what's worse, Renny BELIEVES the allegation because of his recent memory loss. He fears, in fact, that he may be losing his mind! This soap opera plot soon turns into a real potboiler, and when the actual thief is revealed the reader will probably be very surprised...

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Whiteoak brothers return from the war (WWII) and adjust back to their lives at Jalna. They've been gone for four years and there are a lot of changes, both at Jalna and in the men themselves. It's funny that I don't really remember this book. I know I read the whole 16 book series back in the day, but maybe I read the earlier ones more often. Anyway, only 3 more to go and maybe those will be like new to me also.

[Craig Rowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Return to Jalna by Mazo de la Roche is the seventh novel I have read in the Jalna oeuvre. It takes place in 1943, right after the events in Wakefield’s Course. Again, de la Roche does not disappoint and I can count on her for a storyline that intertwines greed, romance and deception among the members of the Whiteoak family and those that surround them. The title refers to the return of five family members, starting with Maurice (“Mooey”) from his four years in Scotland where he stayed with his cousin Dermot. Dermot has died and left his fortune to Mooey, which he cannot claim until he becomes of age in another three years.

Finch returns to Jalna after a concert tour and Piers, Renny and Wakefield return from overseas where they had been serving in the war. Sadly, Piers lost a leg–we don’t know how extensive this injury is if the leg was lost above or below the knee, but we do know he now uses a prosthesis–and was in a POW camp. Renny suffered a head injury which has repercussions later in the novel when a thousand dollars goes missing and he is blamed for it. Since he is aware of his own compromised mental state he is inclined to think that the accusations of theft might in fact be true, and the novel goes through several episodes of lucidity intermixed with derangement where Renny cannot be sure if he is going insane. A plotline like this might be blown over the top on a TV soap opera but here de la Roche makes Renny’s breakdown seem realistic. The anchor of the Whiteoak family is aware that he might be losing his mind–what a plot development!

During Renny’s absence overseas his wife Alayne ruled over Jalna and was run ragged by all the children. If any woman was meant never to be a mother, it’s Alayne, however her daughter Adeline, now fourteen, has turned into a mature and responsible young woman. I was perturbed by the not-too-subtle passion expressed between first cousins, as the novel took place in the early forties when I am sure there would have been taboos about such close family relations. It is slightly easier to deal with when these intimate relationships are depicted in rural settings from a hundred years earlier but the interactions and innuendo between Adeline and Maurice in the 1940’s made me uncomfortable. Surely there are other people in their orbit that they can flirt with!

The Whiteoaks’ private world is turned upside down when dashing Eugene Clapperton moves nextdoor into Vaughanlands and starts building additional houses on the property to rent to tenants. The serenity of the secluded landscape is destroyed. This causes Renny unbearable stress, which exacerbates his mental condition and leads to multiple confrontations with Clapperton. I loved how de la Roche wrote ways for Renny to force Clapperton to cease his plans to create his own “Clappertown”, by installing a smokehouse and a pig farm on the border of the two properties. When negotiations between the two almost come to blows, Renny decides to stink Clapperton out of existence.

De la Roche has a knack for making observations that are not only poignant but also humorous, such as this description of Rags, the devoted servant at Jalna:

“The door was ceremoniously opened by Rags who that morning had had a very close hair cut and in consequence looked a hardened little criminal.”

When Piers returns from the war, maimed and now wearing a prosthesis and after spending years in a POW camp, his sister Meg cannot see past her own nose by relating to her brother how difficult life has been for her since selling Vaughanlands. The contrast between her relatively easy life at home versus the trauma that Piers endured is obvious:

“‘How well you look!’ said Meg. ‘Rested and well! But of course you’ve led a quiet, regular life. Patience and I have been through a terrible time. We’ve been thrown from post to pillar. I hardly know what a good night’s sleep is. You will find us sadly changed–living in a tiny house and doing our own work, except for a woman who comes in twice a week.'”

I was left both laughing and rolling my eyes. This level of ignorance and irony is classic de la Roche.

The mystery around the missing thousand dollars is solved, and it was not a deus ex machina revelation but a complete surprise which was wholly believable.

Again I was distressed to see spelling errors in these modern reprints, but there were fewer than usual. I winced when I saw the name of one of the Griffith sisters, Garda, written as Garcia. Someone or something misread the d in Garda as ci and gave the Welsh girl a Latina twist.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once you have entered into the rarefied world of Jalna, you are always going to be satisfied with the one you have just read. In this one, all the Whiteoak men come home from the war, and although it is still being fought, you would not know that at Jalna. When in Jalna, the world revolves very close to your geographic coordinates. Rennie is generous as always, but stuck in some pre WWI fantasy in which nothing moves forward and it is a sin to remove 100 year old wallpaper, his grandmother's old clothes, or even a wicker wheelbarrow is sacrosanct, if old Adeline's hands once touched it. You would never know two world wars had occurred. Alayne has a smallness to her which is jealous of her own daughter and resentful of an orphan child.
Assessments we would make here in the real world don't apply in Jalna. Old Adeline was manipulative and vain, but practically perfect in Whiteoak eyes. Meg is kindness and gentleness personified to a Whiteoak, but to an outsider a textbook of passive aggressive selfishness. Oh my, I can't wait to see what they will get up to next.

[Amma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just continue to read the Jalna books. The family story is good and the surrondings in Ontario Canada where it all happens is interesting. I especially like how the author tells about the children in the book.

[Martina Flasarová · Rating 4 out of 5]

Třináctý díl ságy rodu Whiteoakových. Je až s podivem, že je pořád o čem psát a hlavně psát tak, aby to bavilo. Je fakt, že tihle lidé z Jalny mají svoje chyby, ale když už s nimi prožívám skoro dva roky života, tak mi přirostli dost k srdci i s těmi jejich chybami.

[E.J. Matze · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books, I only look at what is written on the back and I'm lost. Like a recipe.

[Meg Ulmes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The surprise in the plot of this novel got me--even though I've been reading all of the Jalna books in order. I can't say that I liked it--can't say that I didn't but I'm headed on to the next book.

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Return to Jalna is the thirteenth book in the series. Published in 1946, it is 1943 at Jalna.
As the book title suggests, this book is about homecomings. Mooey, now a young man of 17 has returned to his family home where he will live until his 21st birthday.

Finch and Wakefield are the next to return. Finch and Sarah have divorced. Wakefield is home on leave after becoming a flying instructor with the RAF.

Piers returns after spending four years in a German prisoner of war camp. He returns a changed man.

Renny returns to find much changed at Jalna. None of the changes please him. Vaughnlands is now occupied by Eugene Clapperton, who plans on building a model village on his property. His secretary, Sidney Swift is tutoring Mooey who is preparing to enter college. Clapperton hopes that Swift will marry Patience Vaughn, while Swift is interested in Garda Griffith, one of Molly's three sisters.

Clapperton hopes to marry Gemmel Griffith,. She in turn, wants to help Renny end Clapperton’s dream of building a model village.

Adeline and Roma return from boarding school. Mooey and Swift invite 14 year old Adeline to see Paul Robeson’s “Othello.” Renny assaults Swift after finding him with Adeline alone on the dark driveway. Adeline is also beaten for allowing herself to be assailed by Swift and for lying about going to see Lassie Come Home. Othello is decidedly improper for a teenage girl to see.

Wakefield has returned from the war after suffering a heart attack. He is reunited with Molly in New York. They are now friends, although their thwarted engagement makes this reunion bittersweet.

An act of altruism leads to chaos and confusion among the various members of the family. This leads to the ouster of a family member.

An unexpected death and an unplanned pregnancy add two new children to the walls of Jalna.

[Elinor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I particularly enjoyed this one, the thirteenth in the series, because the three men of Jalna return home after their military service in the Second World War ends, and what a homecoming each of them receives! The joy, the relief, and the warmth of their welcome is wonderful to experience vicariously. Having said that, the women and the children and the old uncles, along with their additional responsibilities, have enjoyed some unbridled freedoms with the men away. There is adjustment on both sides -- but it feels like Jalna is whole once again.

[Jean Carlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing new I can say about this series. I enjoyed this as much as all the others. On to Renny's Daughter, then just two more to finish the series. I'll be sad. I have a cover image to get added to this entry.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming.

[Senga Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do Jalny wracają Piers i Renny, trochę rozterek sercowych, parę problemów z posiadłością.

[Fenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice relaxing read.
I think what stands out clearly in this book is the fact that it takes a VILLAGE to raise kids!!!
I did not realise, until I added it to my reading shelf, that it is the 13th book of a series. I was already a number of pages in and I felt no pressure to read 1 to 12....also because I didn't have them!

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book #13 in the Jalna series. World War II has ended and the Whiteoak brothers are coming home from war and finding life changes at Jalna. A good read but felt a bit like a catch up book, typing up lots of loose ends with characters as the men came home. I did not like the annoying new neighbor who bought Vaughanlands, Eugene Clapperton ... especially his plans to build a miniature village around the property.

[Zéro Janvier · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'avais dévoré tout Jalna quand j'étais adolescent, et si je suis incapable aujourd'hui de me souvenir de chacun des tomes qui composent cette saga gigantesque, je me souviens tout de même que j'avais pris beaucoup de plaisir à découvrir cette famille et ce domaine familial que l'on suit pendant presque un siècle.

[Carilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, it showcased some of the aftermath from the second World War back home in Canada.