There were three in this marriage …

When Julia Parry’s uncle died she inherited a series of love letters which revealed the long-running affair of her grandfather with the writer Elizabeth Bowen. In The Shadowy Third she tries to reconstruct the lives of the parties concerned and determine what effect this love triangle had on them.

Humphry House was a well-known literary critic and academic. He was married to Madeline who assisted him in his work but was not recognised as a contributor. House was a misogynist who believed that each sex had a specific role in marriage and life. When he became attracted to Elizabeth Bowen he thought that he had the right to pursue those feelings and he didn’t do a lot to hide the affair from others – this was not the only affair that he had in his married life and Elizabeth also had many lovers.

This story is a study of the literary world between the two world wars but also a detailed look at the interactions of these three people. I had never heard of any of them before I read this book and I have never read any of Elizabeth Bowen’s stories but I still found the book fascinating. Humphry House and Elizabeth Bowen appear in this narrative as rather privileged middle-class people who felt that the work they did and the standing that they had in the world gave them permission to act as they pleased even to the detriment of others. Madeline comes out of the book the best of all of the parties and it is a shame that her obvious intelligence and creativity wasn’t recognised at the time.

I liked how the author showed how these events were determined by social and cultural views at the time. The political climate and a new sense of social change sidelined both of the main characters and challenged their views. Even without knowing the work of any of the participants I found this book interesting. It also reminded me of Possession a novel by AS Byatt – you can read my review of it here.