Early Autumn

EARLY AUTUMN
by Louis Bromfield

 Award: Pulitzer 1927

 Dates Read: December 22, 2009 & April 21, 2019

 Early Autumn focuses on the Pentland family, particularly Olivia Pentland, an "outsider" that married into this prestigious family that prides itself on their Massachusetts Bay Colony heritage. The Pentlands, specifically Anson and Aunt Cassie, loathe outsiders almost as much as they loathe change. 

All of the women of this novel (Olivia, Sybil, Sabine and Therese) seem trapped by their gender, unable to aspire to anything beyond being a wife, their lives entirely defined by which man is on their arm. Further, in order to be considered a lady at all, women had to let parts of themselves die - inquisitiveness, vivaciousness, intellect. Being so limited in their choices, all of the relationships in Early Autumn seem forced and lack genuine connection. 

 Olivia married Anson Pentland because she didn't find him repulsive, an incredibly low bar for marriage, particularly in light of the irritation they cause each other deep in their marriage. Anson didn't love her either, but being so awkward and boring couldn't attract anyone else. He had to marry to produce an heir, an heir that doesn't survive. All of this makes me swoon with romance!

 I take serious issue with Bromfield in his depiction of the "old woman" that lives in the north wing. John Pentland explains that his wife lost her mind and her innocence during their honeymoon, which the reader is left to infer losing her virginity causes her to literally lose her mind. Seriously? He draws this woman as so weak that sex makes her go mad? I just don't buy it.

 Nevertheless, this is a lovely novel where the heroine strives to feel alive and to really live, tired of the isolation she feels in a loveless marriage. And she almost gets there. Almost.

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