In a sleepy English village in 1914, Beatrice Nash arrives to do the unprecedented: to teach Latin to the village’s students. Freethinking, attractive, and studious, her arrival uproots the villagers’ quaint notions of what a Latin teacher should be. Meanwhile, Hugh Grange is preparing to marry a surgeon’s daughter and inherit a lucrative practice. But when he is sent to pick up Beatrice from the train station, his plans suddenly don’t seem so concrete. While the town wars between notions of progress and tradition, a greater war is brewing in Europe, threatening the summer idyll of the town.
Helen Simonson’s The Summer Before the War brings readers to the charming Sussex town of Rye. On the surface, it’s your quintessential Edwardian English village: all sunshine, gardens, and bicycle rides into town, charming in its pre-war naivety. The novel takes its time, the pace as leisurely as life in Rye. But Simonson isn’t a nostalgic writer, and beneath the pretty surface she exposes the ugly truth of bigotry and small-town pettiness. And as the realities of World War I encroach on town life, these truths are thrown into sharper and sharper relief.
The Summer Before the War is reminiscent of many things. Beatrice Nash might call to mind Elizabeth Bennet in her independence, progressiveness, and ability to craft a covert insult. The plot and setting will be familiar to Downton Abbey fans, which also dealt with themes of grand families, social progress, and World War I. While Jane Austen and Downton both take shots at high society’s thin veneer of gentility, Simonson’s novel digs further into the cracks. There are suffragettes and bohemians in Rye. A woman is a victim of a war crime. An aspiring poet and an earl’s son might be more than friends. These people threaten the status quo of Rye’s social core, and so they’re all but shunned—with the utmost decorum. Simonson does an excellent job portraying the frustrations and quiet outrage of Beatrice Nash as she tries to stand ground both for herself and her friends. Simonson presents more than one war: one physical, fought on the battlefield, and one ideological, fought at home.
There’s also the timely issue of refugees, as Rye becomes home to a large number of displaced Belgians (in fact, England took in 250,000 Belgian refugees over the course of WWI). The townspeople open their doors to the Belgians, but not without comment (“It is quite impossible to ask our ladies to take absolute peasants into their own houses, however charming their wooden clogs.”) or without patting themselves on the back. It’s hard to read about the plight of the Belgians without thinking of today’s refugee crisis. Are we any less judgmental? Are we any less self-congratulatory?
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Have any thoughts about this book? Leave a comment below! Some questions to consider are:
1. Women didn’t fight on the fields in WWI, but they had their own fight at home. What sort of injustices do Beatrice and her peers face? How did life at home change after the First World War?
2. Society in 1914 England is divided by men and women, but also by social class. For example, Snout is denied an equal education because he is Romani. In what ways did society restrict both men and women before the war? What freedoms do we have now? What freedoms are we still fighting for?
3. The Summer Before the War takes place in a time when war was still thought to be glorious, but the events of WWI start to change this notion. Do you agree with Agatha’s attempts to keep Daniel home? Or is dying for your country always honourable?
It looks like a very thought provoking story with great story line. Thanks for the recommendation!
I really enjoyed her previous book: Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, very English but with an edge. I will definitely read this one.
A story offers many poignant thoughts on humanity and patriotism.
Alyssia, very thought-provoking questions, thank you for your post!
In school I learned the Romani Anthem, and the soul of it bespeaks the injustices Romani have faced. We will always fight for freedoms until every human being, regardless of who they are, how old they are, what gender they are, what sexual orientation they are, and what ethnicity they are, are valued equally and allowed equal rights and safety from harm. There is a long way to go – we are not an idyllic society even with our many advances.
I only just started the book, but already I was struck (as I always am with such works) with the societal dividers. Not just man/woman or noble/common, but also the notions of what qualifies a person for a certain trade. The idea that women are perhaps ill-suited for the role of schoolteacher because they are perhaps too soft and would not be able to control the students. And mostly, the idea that a woman may only possibly be suited for the position is she is plain-looking. It made me uncomfortable, not only in terms of the narrative, but also because it is still happening today. There is still this notion that people in certain professions should look/act a certain way or be of a specific gender..
I am hoping that Beatrice challenges that 🙂
Talking about WWI and women, I would like to mention that Russian women were participating not only as nurses, but as military force, as well. There are so many books and movies on this subject in Russia, as the whole Russian history is based on wars. The word “fight” Alyssia used in her post, is not only related to the suffering brought by the war itself, but women had to fight their own fears, which could be, sometimes, even more difficult. Do you think Beatrice had to fight her personal demons?
Thanks for your comments, everyone!
It’s very true that we still have a long way to go before we reach true equality. We hope that as a society we’re moving in the right direction, but it’s always a struggle with many setbacks. As for women, even in the 21st century we still have to fight to be taken seriously in many professions, and a woman’s looks are often a lose-lose situation (too pretty is bad, not pretty enough is also bad). It’s interesting to read about women facing this in an even more sexist society. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for women like Beatrice! I didn’t know about Russian women fighting in the military back then; in Western countries (especially during the World Wars) the most a woman could do was nurse and raise money at home. Very different.
Alyssia, it is so true: “too pretty is bad, not pretty enough is also bad”! 🙂
I actually thought a lot about your question 3 while reading the book. I understand Agatha’s desire to protect Daniel. I don’t think what she does is right, as it essentially, if it succeeds, takes away his right to decide his own fate. No one has a right to take away another’s agency. That said, I get why she does it and I also understand his anger at her interference. I’m not sure Daniel’s desire to fight was all that well thought out. It had more to do with what was happening in his personal life than an understanding of the what the war was about, or what was happening, or what he was fighting for. That said, we all make decisions for a number of reasons, never just one, and he did clearly have an understanding, at least, of what the invasion of Belgium had meant to the Belgian people.
I’m looking forward to reading this book a second time in the future. I think there is a lot of nuance to the exploration of how each character fits into the society of the day, and also of how the war in many ways helped to change some of the more restrictive aspects of the expected norms.
Jennifer, I agree with everything you said about Daniel. I think if my close family member decided to jump headlong into war because he was heartbroken, I’d be very upset as well. I don’t know that I’d go to the extent Agatha did, but who knows! That said, Daniel had every right to be angry with her. It was his decision to make, after all. And I felt sorry for Hugh, that his aunt would fight to keep Daniel home when he was also going to France. But maybe there was a reason for that…?