The Fortnight in September

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At one point in the novel, Mr. Stevens considers “what a very happy place the world would be if people could lead each other quietly aside, and gently but firmly tell each other the little things they unconsciously do that irritate and annoy their fellows” (p. 103). Do you agree with this sentiment? Yet now, as she busied herself with the supper, as she lifted the saucepan lid and forked the boiling beef, she was happy—almost elated at the unexpected sunlight of the evening: happy because the holiday brought such joy to the others. She looked forward to their coming home this evening: bursting to be off next day, yet reluctant to leave home now that it had become for one night the anteroom to freedom. Goodbye, Mr. Chips – which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay along with his co-writers Claudine West, Eric Maschwitz Mary fell in love. And Mrs Stevens broke with convention to sit down with he landlady, to offer a sympathetic ear when she spoke of her concerns about the future.

This first chilly weekend of autumn has forced me to drag out the super soft blanket a dear friend gave me for my birthday last year. That fleecy throw wasn’t needed while reading The Fortnight in September earlier this month, yet the novel offered all the same snug comforts of that prized possession. I haven’t been to the beach in five years, but I feel I’ve been there for a short while through the sublime writing of R.C. Sherriff. With clear, uncomplicated prose, he vividly evokes the feelings one has while anticipating, preparing for, traveling towards, and arriving at one’s longed-for destination. The “Seaview” guest house where Mr and Mrs Stevens stayed there on their honeymoon is shabbier than they remember it from their last visit. The linoleum flooring is worn bare in some places, the bedroom curtains frayed at the edges and the sitting room exudes a “faint, sour atmosphere, as if apples had been stored in it.” The widowed proprietor Mrs Huggett isn’t as cheerful as on past visits; now she looks drawn and maybe a little tearful. The Fortnight in September was a very brave book to write because it was not obviously ‘about’ anything except the ‘drama of the undramatic’. And yet the greatness of the novel is that it is about each one of us: all of human life is here in the seemingly simple description of the family’s annual holiday. Thus, for reasons we do not have to explain to regular Persephone readers, this is a book which fits fairly and squarely on the Persephone list. Mrs. Stevens almost gives up her annual bottle of port citing its expense, but Mr. Stevens insists she buy it, and she relieves her conscience by considering how it was recommended by her doctor as medicinal. Later in the novel, we learn that the hour she spends drinking it alone each night is the one part of the holiday she truly enjoys. Why do you think she feels obligated to justify this small pleasure? How have traditional roles for wives and mothers shaped her sense of duty to prioritize her family’s happiness over her own? To what extent do these gendered pressures exist today?

Wordle Helper

Consider the theme of anticipation in the novel. How does it influence the Stevenses’ enjoyment of their holiday? Discuss the following passage that comes shortly after their arrival at Seaview: “With a touch of panic you wonder whether the holiday, after all, is only a dull anti-climax to the journey” (p. 100). Have you experienced a similar emotion upon reaching at a highly anticipated moment? The sea had frightened Mrs. Stevens, and she had never conquered her fear. It frightened her most when it was dead calm. Something within her shuddered at the great smooth, slimy surface, stretching into a nothingness that made her giddy. For their honeymoon they had taken apartments with Mr. and Mrs. Huggett in St. Matthews Road— called “Seaview,” because from the lavatory window you could see the top of a lamppost on the beachfront. Discuss the character of Mrs. Haykin, who watches the Stevenses’ canary, Joe. What do we know about her and her relationship with the family? Why does Mary dread visiting her when it’s time to drop off Joe? I can't imagine reading this book any other way! I read about the characters excitement for the holiday ahead, as I was excited for my own. I finished it as the characters were saying goodbye to their seaside town, as I'm saying goodbye to my own! A quietly powerful family novel, The Fortnight in September dives below the surface of everyday life to explore marital roles, parent-child relationships, financial troubles, class differences, nostalgia for the past, and hope for the future. It’s an ultimately uplifting story about the parts of ourselves we keep secret and the small pleasures we share with those we love.

Well, this was delightful! The beautiful cover is what made me stop and read the summary of this book. I didn't realize when I requested it that itnwas a re-release from 1931, but once I did I felt that almost added an extra charm to it. Kind of like the feeling I get when I watch Downton Abbey. Things are very much different, but then some things are still exactly the same. Human beings worry about what we are wearing, what we are going to have for dinner, about our jobs and our families...so I thought why not? Let's see what life was like for the Stevens family as they prepare for their two week vacation (annual holiday) to Bognor in September. That powdery old metaphor is deliberate because The Fortnight in September is set at the seaside. It's about a lower-middle-class family, the Stevens, who live on the outskirts of London, making their annual two-week holiday pilgrimage to the coastal resort town of Bognor Regis. The parents, who, in the more formal custom of the times, are known as Mr. and Mrs. Stevens — first stayed there on their honeymoon at a guest house called "Seaview."The best novel I know about social distancing is Joseph Conrad’s Victory, published in 1915, in which Axel Heyst, with the object of his affections , moves to an island called Sambouran, where they attempt an extreme form of social distance. The aspect of the novel that offers us comfort is its form. Many scenes are narrated twice from the perspective of two different characters. Conrad’s genius is to make this engaging. And that is hard to do in literature, but it is even tougher in life when you start to notice, in this time of social distance, that today’s soup is merely the second half of yesterday’s soup, and that pasta will pass its sell-by date if you don’t eat it today, even though you ate some of it yesterday. So it is too with wine and movies and press conferences on television. There is always a feeling that this happened yesterday as well. It is our sad fate that it has to happen again today and so into the futureless future. Deborah Levy This reminds us that, despite the freedom of their holidays, the Stevens family normally live in a world of strict hierarchies and manners. They come from the rather prim suburban world of the 1930s, in which people are anxious to abide by the rules of a middle-class they might only recently have joined. I was fascinated to read that the Stevens’ neighbours, the Bullevants, ‘ were looked down upon by some of the people in Corunna Road because Mr Bullevant always breakfasted without a collar ‘. And these delicate echoes of class arise throughout the book. Mr Stevens, whose father was a plumber, has raised himself to the middle class by his own merit, and cherishes those little moments which show that he has become a man of standing – the moment when a porter calls him ‘sir’ in front of the family, or his role on the Football Club committee. Sherriff is brilliant at these tiny touches, so very English in their subtle evocation of class and character, lighting on details which enrich our understanding of the whole. En het is net die bijna lethargische, maar heerlijk geformuleerde traagheid die je - hoe je ook tegenstribbelt - uiteindelijk tòch het boek in zuigt. At the end of the book, an author’s note providing insight into his writing process came as a surprise topping to this reading experience. It felt like the vacation in the novel was also a metaphor for the process of creating this story.