A Perfect Woman

by L.P. Hartley

Chartered accountant Harold Eastwood, conventionally minded, chances to meet Alec Goodrich on the train, travelling first-class with a third-class ticket. Alec is a best-selling novelist. He soon finds Harold's knowledge of income tax allowances useful and when Alec pays a visit to the accountant his wife, Isabel, who yearns for culture and literature, quickly takes up the fantasy to be his mistress. However, not she but Irma, the Austrian barmaid at the tavern, has caught Alec's wayward fancy . . .

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Literature, Classics, Novels, 20th Century, British Literature

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Leslie 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.

Reviews

[Georgia Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fuses are not what come to mind when I think of Hartley. Not unless they are slow burning ones. His works are the opposite of Mission Impossible (TV episodes or films) and their thumping sound. He never thumps but can appear to plod. Yet, the Encyclopedia Britannica uses the word "fuse" to describe his writing "as works [that] fuse a subtle observation of manners traditional to the English novel with an interest in the psychological nuance." That's a nice way of saying he writes from lives that come with tea cups, spoons, and other polished things.

His writing, too, is polished. To perfection. The spoons are mirrors. Take one and look. The round side shows you how you see yourself. The other turns this upside down. A Perfect Woman is a spoon that turns respectable Britain on its head. The taste it left me with is hard to describe and still in my mouth.

Although Hartley raises interesting thoughts about readers' tastes for the novel (see the excerpts in reading progress) AND there's a motorcycle and writer in A Perfect Woman, its affairs reminded me of tepid water. The "lovers" were shallow. In emotion just as baths, I prefer something hotter and deeper such as The Go-Between gives us.

3.5 stars

[John Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in middle class suburbia by the sea (Marshport) the book centres around 4 main characters – Isabel (A Perfect Woman?), Harold, her conventional accountant husband, Alec a novelist and 'Bohemian' and Irma, an Austrian barmaid.The combination of these four certainly does its bit to prevent sleepy Marshport from becoming comotose! There's lots of action here.

The two children, Janice and Jeremy, mirror their parents (Isabel and Harold) uncannily, both old for their years. Janice is perhaps a little too implausible in her emotional, even sexual, awareness at the age of 9? Hartley's fictional children are extremely interesting. Although painted with broad brush strokes they tend to be all seeing (even if they don't fully understand what it is they see). They often see more than the adults do – cf. Leo in The Go-Between. As such, Janice and Leo appear to me to be spiritually related.

The book exposes the moral bankruptcy of the middle class and the double standards and humbug surrounding marriage.

This clever novel within a novel, courtesy of Alec and LPH, shows Hartley as the superb craftsman he is. The characterisation is excellent; most of them are irritating apart from Irma. There's something a little too contrived about the story's culmination, though the neatness of the ending appealed to me.

I feel A Perfect Woman deserves to be better known and can bear easy comparison with Hartley's more recognised major works, The Go-Between, The Hireling and the Eustace and Hilda trilogy.

[Chiffchaff Birdy · Rating 4 out of 5]

an enjoyable and engrossing read. quite clever, especially towards the end but there were frequent lengthy sections of character analysis that I found that I skipped through and lost nothing of the plot as a result. the ending was quite surprising.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written and with an excellent plot, which had surprises right up to the end.

[Ruth Fleet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this, cutting and claustrophobic portrayal of middle class marriage in the 1950s with some drama because it is L P Hartley

[Alf Broadbean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Actual wow. So acute and thought provoking and utterly gripping. This book plunges you into 1950s suburbia and yet is unbelievably insightful and in many ways very modern. Hartley is a phenomenal writer and I was so hooked on reading this. The line about Irma not knowing how to say no, and therefore always saying yes I felt was piercingly reflective of the 21st century ‘perfect woman’. As Alex says - the undoing and the undone. This book really showcases what narratives can do, and I loved the book within a book feeling.

[Trevor Harvey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review contains spoilers.

The 1950s setting seems very dated with its servants and middle class milieu; another one of Hartley's 'foreign countries'. It also assumes knowledge of French on the part of its readers.

The depiction of the two children, aged eight and ten is jarring. Hartley gives them some clunking dialogue, with an emotional resonance way above their years; the characters are unbelievable.

The novel is technically assured in its writing but lacks soul.

There are couples and would-be couples with an ambiguity about whether any of them have a sexual relationship. This may be because novels published in the 1950s couldn’t be explicit in depicting sexual activity, but the effect here is to further distance the reader from the characters.

The novel plods along in its unconvincing way until we reach the final pages when a jarring plot development occurs. A peripheral character, Otto, carries out a shocking action but as the reader has not been given any information beforehand about the character, the event just doesn't ring true. We have been told so much about the main protagonists, but Hartley omits to say virtually nothing about Otto, so his action is unconvincing.

Overall, an odd reading experience.

[Miles Chicken · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-written book that makes sense. I realise that I don't really enjoy the experimental novel and I have read enough of those to forget that there is no shame in reading a solid well-composed story and, radical thought, enjoying it. But that's the joy of reading, it has something for everyone.

[Elizabeth Scott Tervo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Compares poorly with the Go-Between, one of the most perfect novels in the English language. Plot is excellent but marred by long dull passages.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adultery 50's style. A curious book.