Love At All Ages - Angela Thirkell

This is a record for me in terms of the gap between finishing a book and writing about it - I finished the next to last of Angela Thirkell's novels about 15 minutes ago.  Love At All Ages is the last of the books that Ms. Thirkell finished - the final work Three Score and Ten was finished by C.A. Lejeune after the author's death.  Like most of these latter Barsetshire novels, there is a sense of last things in the air.  Witness the following passage:

"Time may gallop with a thief en route to the gallows, but as we get older, he gallops faster and faster with ourselves as we watch friend after friend, enemy after enemy and even bore after bore, being borne along on what is less an ever-rolling stream than an endless, passionless convectorbelt (if that is the word we mean) -- and we also are on it."

I think the word she meant was conveyor belt, but we get the meaning all the same. 

I noted in my last Thirkell related post that I had previously thought I found signs that Thikell's was losing track of her story and her characters, but was proven wrong at the beginning of this book.  Alas this is the book where she does start to lose it in some fairly obvious ways.  The most obvious is when Lady Agnes Graham describes her nephew Martin Leslie as having lost a foot in Italy during World War II.  Any Thirkelite worth his or her salt knows that it was Robin Dale who lost a foot, Martin received a leg wound that caused him to limp, but not have to go suffer with all the access issues that are described in this book.

But in spite of obvious mistakes like this, Ms. Thirkell still retains enough of her faculties to provide some memorable lines.  The best example is when the aged (and ageless) Lord Stoke is talking with Lavinia Merton and says, "Read all you can while you are young.  Doesn't matter if you understand it or not.  You'll have made friends that you can always come back to, and every time you meet them you'll like them better."
That's a good line at any time, but especially in this book which seems to be even more full of allusions to Dickens, Scott and, of course, Shakesepeare.

My comments about last things shouldn't be taken to mean this is a book about death and dying because the real focus (as in most Thirkell books) is romance, in this case, two romances, one of two people who might be considered too old and the other of a couple who are clearly too young.  The first has to do with Rev. Caleb Oriel who has appeared in these stories many times and Lady Gwendolyn Harcourt - sister of the Duke of Towers.  The Towers family only appears in these last stories,  among other things to provide a husband for Edith Graham and a wife for Rev. Oriel.

The romance of those who are clearly too young concerns Lavinia Merton who is only 16 and Ludovic Foster (known as Mellings) future heir of Pomfret.  When he first appeared in these novels, Ludo appeared to lack the strength and the personality for the responsibilities that await him at some future date.  Gradually he has grown up both physically and emotionally, but life will still clearly be a struggle for him, much like it has been for his father.  Towards the end of this book, he and Lavinia clearly care for each other, but, if nothing else, Lavinia's youth prevents any real conclusion.  Interestingly part of Ludo's side of the story is told through an encounter with his Aunt, Alice Wicklow, who was so painfully shy in Pomfret Towers as Alice Barton.  This is one of the few times we have encountered her since and she gives valuable support to her nephew. 

The book ends with the Pomfrets and the Mertons wondering about where all of this will lead and which, in turn, leads to them looking back on their own lives and love for one another.  It is nice as we move towards the end of these books to be connected with some of the more sympathetic characters.  I look forward to Three Score and Ten to see what kind of closure there is on this and other parts of this long literary journey.