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The Gentle Powers (1946)

by Stella Gibbons(Favorite Author)

3.5 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Dodd, Mead & Company

review 1: [Vintage sent me this as a prize in a twitter challenge]A bit of a lightweight comedy, but still charming. It's set in wartime Highgate and was written in 1946. High Point gets a mention (I think she calls it 'High Rise') and even the Woodman is there (as 'The Woodcutters'). I'm a sucker for that kind of local domestic detail: the Lyon's Corner Houses / 'Old Vienna Cafe' and the 'British Restaurant’ (you can't read a 30s-50s London novel without stumbling across a Lyon's Corner House). It’s humorous too, in a gentle ‘English’ way; full of misunderstandings and awkwardness (Margaret, for example, assuming the shufflings of an older man mean he’s going to propose to her; everyone seemingly in a flap about something). I love the moment when Lady Challis can’t c... moreome to the phone because of ‘The Business with The Plums' - fine rendition of speech there. I also like the take on England of the American GI as small and disorganised (to misquote badly). There are some fine characters here too. Gibbons captures the disarming ghastliness of the upper classes very well (with the fine exception of the Clarissa Dickson Wright-like Lady Challis - who's a thoughtful battleaxe). Hilda is 'tart with a heart' (I kept seeing Barbara Windsor or Miss Brahms). Very interesting too to see a German Jewish refugee among them (pretty progressive as a portrayal, actually). And then there are the children. I really struggled here. This lot are the finest argument for infanticide you'll find in 20th century literature (I was actually hoping it'd sign off with Margaret drowning that little fucker Barnabas in one of the Hampstead ponds). I am determined to use the name ‘Barnabas’ as a stock ‘horrible child’ name ever more. Indeed, the children were the prime weakness in the novel for me: I couldn’t really believe in Margaret's doormat devotion to them. Sure, she’s got low self-esteem. She’s thoughtful, yes. She’s starstruck and sees an elevated world in Westwood. But you're a teacher. You're tired. There’s a war on. And you're putting their toddlers to bed - and they're at a ball. It didn't entirely work for me. Is anyone that dim? Oh, and the American accents (all that ‘vurry pleased, Miss Steggles’). Bad move, editor. That should not have slipped through. So, a light addition to your lesser London novels collection. Evidence enough too - as everyone says - that Stella Gibbons really shouldn’t only be known for Cold Comfort Farm.
review 2: Stella Gibbons is famous for her comic classic of rural life, 'Cold Comfort Farm', which has always been one of my absolute favourites. Anyone who hasn’t read it should definitely add it to their ‘to read’ list. However, until Westwood appeared in my Christmas stocking this year (thank you Santa), I had thought that Gibbons was a one-hit wonder. This turns out not to be true – she actually wrote many other novels, and Westwood has been recently re-released.The first thing I have to admit, is that it took me a long time to read. I read it in fits and starts, abandoning it to read books that gripped me more, returning to it after being tempted back by its pretty cover, and finally enjoying it far more than I thought I would at the beginning. None of the characters are very likeable – the heroine, Margaret Steggles, is an extremely ordinary girl who is desperate to be a part of the bohemian, artistic Challis family, and is harbouring a major crush on the playwright Gerard Challis (who is one of the most unappealing, selfish, misogynist fictional men I have come across for a while). You just want to shake her as she tags along after them like a lost puppy, working as an unpaid nanny just for the privilege of being part of their world. She constantly misses out on finding love, (the men she meets all drift away and become engaged to other girls), and she is self-absorbed and rather naive. But she does seem very human, and that makes her sympathetic despite her flaws. I particularly liked that Gibbons hasn’t written a traditional romance – Margaret does not find the love that she had been dreaming of, but she definitely has grown as a character by the end of the novel, and to be honest, none of the men are suitable candidates for Prince Charming.Westwood is not as funny as 'Cold Comfort Farm', but there is a certain amount of humour. This is mostly derived from the fact that whilst Margaret is hopelessly in love with the awful Gerard Challis, Challis himself is hopelessly in love with Margaret’s friend Hilda, a girl so sensible and cheerful that she absolutely refuses to be made into a romantic muse. In fact, she literally refuses to go and see a play he has written about her, as it would be too depressing!This was a slow read, and sometimes the story lost its pace and interest, but it’s worth persevering with as I got much more involved with the second half of the novel, and parts of it are extremely clever, humorous and observant. And if you haven't read 'Cold Comfort Farm' yet, go read it! less

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