A SENSITIVE STUDY OF ADOLESCENCE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 72, 17 December 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

A SENSITIVE STUDY OF ADOLESCENCE

Triumph Of Delicate Craftsmanship

“The Death of the Heart,” by Elizabeth Bowen (London: GoJhincz.).

Most studies of adolescence are tinted with tragedy, for adolescence is a diflicult phase of youth, and the young are inevitably buffeted in their first contacts with the grim realities of the adult world. Miss Bowen’s story is no exception. Her study ol Portia, the “sweet little kid” of sixteen in the house of her half-brother and his selfish wife, is full of pathos. It is too clever, and the character analysis is too telling, to be sentimental, and there is much wit and humour in the incisive dialogue, but essentially the theme is melancholy. Portia is a sensitive child, utterly out of touch with Thomas and Anna, the halt-brother and his wife. She has spent her sixteen years trailing round cheap hotels in Europe with a not very respectable, but very lovable, mother. It is not a suitable prelude to life in Regent’s Park. Anna*is antagonistic from the beginning. She is intelligent, but aimless and restless. Thomas is well-meaning enough, but in love with his wife in a puzzled manner, and to him Portia and most other peonle arc de trop. Portia is spiritually bewildered by the lack of stability in the household. She turns to Matchett, the spartan housekeeper for support. Matchett sees the position clearly, and behind hetforbidding exterior does her best to help the child. Portia, with all youth's indiscretion, falls in love with an impossibly moody and difficult young man. She confides in a diary, and all the uncertainties of her day are put down faithfully. Her diary is herself. The book leads from one emotional entanglement to another, till Portia discovers that Anna has been reading hetdiary. This, and her blighted love affair, induce a crisis in the girl’s spiritual development. She suffers with ail the agony of file very young, who cannot realize that the end of the world has not come with their first hurt.

The reader will have much sympathy for Portia. She is obtuse and makes herself uninteresting to her elders because she. is shy, but she is longing for affection and is capable of deep devotion in return for little kindnesses. However, from the beginning the situation looks hopeless, because Anna cannot refrain from mental cruelty towards the child. Her spiritual extermination in such an atmosphere is certain. There are several, though not too many, minor characters in the book, all defined with skill. “Death of the Heart” is a. triumph of delicate craftsmanship, though the theme leaves a taste of dissatisfaction. There is no solution to the problem of Portia.