The Go-Between

Hello, it’s Heather here, hope you all are looking forward to a great new year! The girls and I have all studied this book in our A-Level English Literature class, so I thought I’d write a short review on the prologue – partially for close analysis revision purposes and so they can also review it if they wish to do so without repeating similar things.

Author: L.P. Hartley

Published: 1953

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton

This book is in a framed narrative; thus, the prologue and epilogue is narrated by older Leo (technically his name is Lionel but he thought that sounded fancy so calls himself Leo after the zodiac symbol). In the prologue, Leo finds a box of his older possessions and, after rummaging through it and listing some very symbolic items, he finds his diary. When composed, he decides to read a little bit of it. This is never a good idea, I read my diary a few years ago, and still feel scarred at how whiny eight-year-old me was. Anyway, I could sympathise with Leo when he read about how he was traumatised at having used the word ‘vanquished’, earning himself a bad reputation for having used such a peculiar bit of language. Young Leo is very amusing, he has this odd infatuation with the Zodiac, particularly the Virgin; this belief in fate and his dallying with magic makes the prologue engaging – who doesn’t like a good bit of magic?

His reactions are a bit immature, he spends little time engrossing in self-remorse: for instance, when two boys are hurt and Leo claims it was his spell that caused their accident, he labels himself as a hero and has very little pity for them. I reckon most children would at least feel a tad dejected at someone else being hurt – but it’s vital to grasp that Leo is not what most children are like. In many ways, he’s stereotypical, having just reached that age where he starts to ponder about girls (especially in the main narrative) and being cautious about fitting in at his school. But he’s also completely oblivious to sex at the same time, though given the time era, they were a bit more prude about these matters, yet in a boarding school you’d have thought he’d know the basics. He also seems to read very deeply into things, again this is seen more later in the book, like when he is disgusted at being given something green (because it must be symbolic, right?). I quite liked this, it gives away that vulnerable, self-conscious side, those natural feelings that most children display through not wanting to do certain things anymore, but Leo showed through his analytical mind.

The first line is pretty spectacular; “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” It’s amazingly tempting to use this line after confessing scandalous deviances (for instance, “HEATHER, DID YOU STEAL MY CHOCOLATE ORANGE” … well, you see dear brother… the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.) The meaning is also quite interesting to consider; look at how much we change as we grow, when you were younger you’d be deemed normal to go to a ball pit and hang out in the park and read picture books but the older you get, the stranger these little things become, imagine a forty-year-old in a ball pit. These changes aren’t the only ones that occur though, most people change their moral coding as they mature, so their customs and norms are like different countries. I could write an entire essay on whether or not Leo has actually changed though, because to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure if he ever did. It’s obvious that his loneliness and craving to fit in is something constant. He queries where the Virgin, his representation of a female companion, is. And on the first page, there is so much symbolism from various items in the box to imply isolation and a loss of meaning: magnets that have lost their magnetism, a couple of empty sea urchins. It’s perfect for the exam, if ever you have a block in ideas, you can simply turn to the prologue and pull some metaphorical meaning out of something.

I remember doing our first essay in English Literature on how Hartley had presented the narrator in this book and being very excited to write it because there’s so much to say! I found the prologue the best part of the novel; literally every other line can be closely analysed, and the charm of older Leo reminiscing about how younger Leo was intrigued with magic and destiny made it a great start to the story. Apparently, this is now a musical, my friends and I were rather befuddled as to how they’ve added musical numbers to this book, but if anyone has had the chance to see it or has read the book then let us know what you thought.