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The Nature of Love
‘The Nature of Love’ was H.E. Bates’s first collection of novellas, and the first of the three in this book, Dulcima, is especially good. All three stories concern the consequences of human beings being deprived of love and beauty, and one is left wondering if the title of the collection is, in fact, meant to be ironic. The other stories are: The Grass God and The Delicate Nature.
268 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1953
About the author
H.E. Bates
278 books195 followersHerbert Ernest Bates, CBE is widely recognised as one of the finest short story writers of his generation, with more than 20 story collections published in his lifetime. It should not be overlooked, however, that he also wrote some outstanding novels, starting with The Two Sisters through to A Moment in Time, with such works as Love For Lydia, Fair Stood the Wind for France and The Scarlet Sword earning high praise from the critics. His study of the Modern Short Story is considered one of the best ever written on the subject.
He was born in Rushden, Northamptonshire and was educated at Kettering Grammar School. After leaving school, he was briefly a newspaper reporter and a warehouse clerk, but his heart was always in writing and his dream to be able to make a living by his pen.
Many of his stories depict life in the rural Midlands of England, particularly his native Northamptonshire. Bates was partial to taking long midnight walks around the Northamptonshire countryside - and this often provided the inspiration for his stories. Bates was a great lover of the countryside and its people and this is exemplified in two volumes of essays entitled Through the Woods and Down the River.
In 1931, he married Madge Cox, his sweetheart from the next road in his native Rushden. They moved to the village of Little Chart in Kent and bought an old granary and this together with an acre of garden they converted into a home. It was in this phase of his life that he found the inspiration for the Larkins series of novels -The Darling Buds of May, A Breath of French Air, When the Green Woods Laugh, etc. - and the Uncle Silas tales. Not surprisingly, these highly successful novels inspired television series that were immensely popular.
His collection of stories written while serving in the RAF during World War II, best known by the title The Stories of Flying Officer X, but previously published as Something in the Air (a compilation of his two wartime collections under the pseudonym 'Flying Officer X' and titled The Greatest People in the World and How Sleep the Brave), deserve particular attention. By the end of the war he had achieved the rank of Squadron Leader.
Bates was influenced by Chekhov in particular, and his knowledge of the history of the short story is obvious from the famous study he produced on the subject. He also wrote his autobiography in three volumes (each delightfully illustrated) which were subsequently published in a one-volume Autobiography.
Bates was a keen and knowledgeable gardener and wrote numerous books on flowers. The Granary remained their home for the whole of their married life. After the death of H. E Bates, Madge moved to a bungalow, which had originally been a cow byre, next to the Granary. She died in 2004 at age 95. They raised two sons and two daughters.
primarily from Wikipedia, with additions by Keith Farnsworth
He was born in Rushden, Northamptonshire and was educated at Kettering Grammar School. After leaving school, he was briefly a newspaper reporter and a warehouse clerk, but his heart was always in writing and his dream to be able to make a living by his pen.
Many of his stories depict life in the rural Midlands of England, particularly his native Northamptonshire. Bates was partial to taking long midnight walks around the Northamptonshire countryside - and this often provided the inspiration for his stories. Bates was a great lover of the countryside and its people and this is exemplified in two volumes of essays entitled Through the Woods and Down the River.
In 1931, he married Madge Cox, his sweetheart from the next road in his native Rushden. They moved to the village of Little Chart in Kent and bought an old granary and this together with an acre of garden they converted into a home. It was in this phase of his life that he found the inspiration for the Larkins series of novels -The Darling Buds of May, A Breath of French Air, When the Green Woods Laugh, etc. - and the Uncle Silas tales. Not surprisingly, these highly successful novels inspired television series that were immensely popular.
His collection of stories written while serving in the RAF during World War II, best known by the title The Stories of Flying Officer X, but previously published as Something in the Air (a compilation of his two wartime collections under the pseudonym 'Flying Officer X' and titled The Greatest People in the World and How Sleep the Brave), deserve particular attention. By the end of the war he had achieved the rank of Squadron Leader.
Bates was influenced by Chekhov in particular, and his knowledge of the history of the short story is obvious from the famous study he produced on the subject. He also wrote his autobiography in three volumes (each delightfully illustrated) which were subsequently published in a one-volume Autobiography.
Bates was a keen and knowledgeable gardener and wrote numerous books on flowers. The Granary remained their home for the whole of their married life. After the death of H. E Bates, Madge moved to a bungalow, which had originally been a cow byre, next to the Granary. She died in 2004 at age 95. They raised two sons and two daughters.
primarily from Wikipedia, with additions by Keith Farnsworth
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 17, 2021
A collection of 3 standalone novellas, first published in 1953, around the theme of love. This is my first foray into the work of H.E. Bates, a prolific writer who set many of his stories in rural England, and that’s the case with two of the three in this collection. Because of the time period in which he wrote, he captured the English countryside before its villages morphed into commuter dormitories.
I decided to read this because I was interested in the first story, Dulcima, which was made into a now obscure 1971 British film. I first saw the film on TV in my late teens, and it always stuck in my mind – the sign of a successful film I suppose. I recently watched it again on one of those TV channels that specialise in showing old movies that have lost their commercial value, and thought afterwards that I’d like to read the original story. It turns out the film follows the novella closely, although the character of Dulcima was played by beautiful actress Carol White, whilst in the book she is, shall we say, less conventionally attractive.
In Dulcima, the title character is a young woman who becomes housekeeper for Parker, a miserly 50-something farmer whose own wife has died. Parker becomes obsessed with Dulcima. She herself has her eye on a young gamekeeper who works on a neighbouring property, but she’s also tempted by the idea of helping herself to Parker’s fortune. A solid 4 stars for this story.
In the second tale, The Grass God, the lead character is Fitzgerald, the owner of a rural estate and a selfish man with a misanthropic attitude. He encounters a young woman who is staying with relatives in the area, and the two begin an affair. The story is told from Fitzgerald’s perspective and the young woman is a fleeting, ephemeral, presence. We learn almost nothing about her, although her impact on Fitzgerald turns out to be significant. 3.5 stars.
The third story, The Delicate Nature, is set in colonial Malaya. The Assistant Manager of a plantation begins an affair with his senior manager’s wife. This is a high-quality story, quite tense in its way. It reminded me a bit of Somerset Maugham’s stories of the Pacific islands. I was interested to see that Bates dedicated the story of Dulcima to Maugham. Four stars for The Delicate Nature.
The Kindle edition I read contains a “bonus story”, entitled Old Lady, which was first published in 1938. It’s a two-minute read that didn’t do much for me.
I was impressed by Bates’ writing. He’s descriptive but not overly so, and he doesn't pad out his stories unnecessarily. Even though these are short novellas, he conjures up some memorable characters. Possibly the settings of rural, traditional, England might be a bit old-fashioned for some, but I might check out more of his work at some point.
I decided to read this because I was interested in the first story, Dulcima, which was made into a now obscure 1971 British film. I first saw the film on TV in my late teens, and it always stuck in my mind – the sign of a successful film I suppose. I recently watched it again on one of those TV channels that specialise in showing old movies that have lost their commercial value, and thought afterwards that I’d like to read the original story. It turns out the film follows the novella closely, although the character of Dulcima was played by beautiful actress Carol White, whilst in the book she is, shall we say, less conventionally attractive.
In Dulcima, the title character is a young woman who becomes housekeeper for Parker, a miserly 50-something farmer whose own wife has died. Parker becomes obsessed with Dulcima. She herself has her eye on a young gamekeeper who works on a neighbouring property, but she’s also tempted by the idea of helping herself to Parker’s fortune. A solid 4 stars for this story.
In the second tale, The Grass God, the lead character is Fitzgerald, the owner of a rural estate and a selfish man with a misanthropic attitude. He encounters a young woman who is staying with relatives in the area, and the two begin an affair. The story is told from Fitzgerald’s perspective and the young woman is a fleeting, ephemeral, presence. We learn almost nothing about her, although her impact on Fitzgerald turns out to be significant. 3.5 stars.
The third story, The Delicate Nature, is set in colonial Malaya. The Assistant Manager of a plantation begins an affair with his senior manager’s wife. This is a high-quality story, quite tense in its way. It reminded me a bit of Somerset Maugham’s stories of the Pacific islands. I was interested to see that Bates dedicated the story of Dulcima to Maugham. Four stars for The Delicate Nature.
The Kindle edition I read contains a “bonus story”, entitled Old Lady, which was first published in 1938. It’s a two-minute read that didn’t do much for me.
I was impressed by Bates’ writing. He’s descriptive but not overly so, and he doesn't pad out his stories unnecessarily. Even though these are short novellas, he conjures up some memorable characters. Possibly the settings of rural, traditional, England might be a bit old-fashioned for some, but I might check out more of his work at some point.
August 3, 2019
Three unrelated short stories on the theme of love, by turns tragic, passionate and overwhelming. Beautifully written with depth of character and sensuous detail reflecting the emotional roller-coaster of churning feelings and in each case a twist at the end of the tale leaving heartbreak and emptiness as the transitional and ephemeral experience is brought to an end by unexpected turns of events. One feels immersed in these novellas by the expressiveness of the writer who plays well on our own sensibilities and emotions. A very good read.
September 13, 2025
Men deal with love as if it were sourced from some outlandish, nearly demonic force field that emanates from women.
In all the stories, the spiritual side of love is sharply separated from the carnal: all the relationships are consummated, passionately at first, then almost routinely. Women are “possessed” physically, but their mind and heart are elsewhere – in two of the three stories (Dulcima, The Delicate Nature) there is a rival, but he is almost a fictional figure (in a rather garish screen adaptation of “Dulcima” her love interest appears first on a photograph in a magazine, and one could argue he never actually materializes outside of her imagination), one has a name invented by the heroine, the other is referred to by his first name only in passing, with the note of estrangement made explicit: “it was like the name of an actor, a priest, an explorer or something.”
And this cleft between the tangible and the transient (summer, The Grass God), or the transcendent (stars, The Delicate Nature) seems, in this collection, Bates' conjecture on the nature of love, this is where its essence lies like a finger in a wound. From a man's perspective, even in a novella where the author inhabits a woman's head.
Interestingly (and here is the third possible grouping of two out of three), love, which makes men in the stories so sensitive to the delicate and the ungraspable side of creation, does not make them better in any other way: the farmer in Dulcima, a greedy, scarred asshole, retains his qualities and works up a murderous frenzy of jealousy; the landed gent in The Grass God, distracted and dismissive of his tenants before, becomes hateful and pointedly abusive during and after his affair. The unattainable seems so beautiful it detracts all decency and virtue in those who are tempted. In the last story the protagonist never gains enough character to act in any meaningful way anyway. It is arguable, that the effect of being at sea, literally arrived at at the close, is heightened by the hollow nature of the character, blown up by love like a dress in the wind.
In all the stories, the spiritual side of love is sharply separated from the carnal: all the relationships are consummated, passionately at first, then almost routinely. Women are “possessed” physically, but their mind and heart are elsewhere – in two of the three stories (Dulcima, The Delicate Nature) there is a rival, but he is almost a fictional figure (in a rather garish screen adaptation of “Dulcima” her love interest appears first on a photograph in a magazine, and one could argue he never actually materializes outside of her imagination), one has a name invented by the heroine, the other is referred to by his first name only in passing, with the note of estrangement made explicit: “it was like the name of an actor, a priest, an explorer or something.”
And this cleft between the tangible and the transient (summer, The Grass God), or the transcendent (stars, The Delicate Nature) seems, in this collection, Bates' conjecture on the nature of love, this is where its essence lies like a finger in a wound. From a man's perspective, even in a novella where the author inhabits a woman's head.
Interestingly (and here is the third possible grouping of two out of three), love, which makes men in the stories so sensitive to the delicate and the ungraspable side of creation, does not make them better in any other way: the farmer in Dulcima, a greedy, scarred asshole, retains his qualities and works up a murderous frenzy of jealousy; the landed gent in The Grass God, distracted and dismissive of his tenants before, becomes hateful and pointedly abusive during and after his affair. The unattainable seems so beautiful it detracts all decency and virtue in those who are tempted. In the last story the protagonist never gains enough character to act in any meaningful way anyway. It is arguable, that the effect of being at sea, literally arrived at at the close, is heightened by the hollow nature of the character, blown up by love like a dress in the wind.
February 10, 2022
This was all going so well -I enjoyed the first two stories in the book, Dulcima, (I had recently watched the film and was pleased it didn't stray too much from the book) a young woman who is no more than a drudge for her family ups and moves in to Mr Parker's home, he being a widowed farmer who neither looks to the house and regularly gets drunk. The Grass God, tells the story of a loveless marriage. Fitzgerald has wanted Cordelia to give him a divorce, but none is forthcoming and he is bored with his wife, his home, his land, the people who work the estate - until that is he meets a young woman on a train. The third story, 'The Delicate Nature' is set in Malay, in a rubber plantation. Everyone is waiting for the 'great Malan' and his wife to arrive, she being the one of the delicate nature. Simpson is heading out to work with Malan. It is a dangerous time.
I didn't quite enjoy this third offering as much as the first two, that is why 4*. Also, in this edition, (It was large print and the only one I could find that was available) there are rather too many typos, as if the proof reader had a day off, perhaps they did. As the book was quite expensive for a paperback that was disappointing -although nothing to do with the review of the stories, worth noting.
I didn't quite enjoy this third offering as much as the first two, that is why 4*. Also, in this edition, (It was large print and the only one I could find that was available) there are rather too many typos, as if the proof reader had a day off, perhaps they did. As the book was quite expensive for a paperback that was disappointing -although nothing to do with the review of the stories, worth noting.
November 21, 2008
Three Short Novels (Dulcima, The Grass God, The Delicate Nature )
November 1, 2015
Very good!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews