A view of the harbour (original 1947; edition 2006)

A quiet book that unfolds slowly but in a wonderfully interesting way. The ending is breathtaking. Elizabeth Taylor is a remarkable author. ( )

Lovely descriptive writing, plenty of period charm, some great lines, and an interesting group of characters. There is a story of sorts, but it doesn't really matter much: this is all about the momentary interactions between the characters and the setting.

In her introduction to the Virago edition, Sarah Waters draws attention to how visual Taylor's imagery is, with a lot of references to shapes and colours. But it's not just visual: sounds and smells play a very important part too. And we keep coming back to the passage of time:

Children know, too, those long periods of watching light as it fans out across ceilings, descends the walls. The ghost against the door returns to dressing-gown, the chest-of-drawers stands forward at last, so prosaically, a piece of furniture merely. Then, somewhere in the house, a bed moves, a grating, a creaking, prelude to the day. (Ch.15)

It would be a mistake to write it off as quaint and charming. There's a lot more going on here than a sleepy season in a decayed seaside resort. Taylor wants us to reflect on life and death, on expectations about the role of women, on the limitations of art, and on the gap between reality and imagination, among other things.

Someone else here already pointed out that there is a flavour of Under Milk Wood about A view of the harbour. I suppose a lot of that is simply down to the setting: one small fishing port is much like another. We are always going to find priests, landlords, retired captains, washerwomen and the rest. But there is also a strong similarity in the way so many of the characters have not-quite-intersecting stories, and the sense that there is a huge, exciting imaginative world concealed behind their rather prosaic lives. The two overlap in time, so either could conceivably have influenced the other, even if there's no evidence that they did — Dylan Thomas first put together some of the ideas he would use in Under Milk Wood in a short story called "Quite early one morning", broadcast in 1945; A view of the harbour was published in 1947; Thomas completed his work on Under Milk Wood in May 1953, and it was first broadcast (after his death) in January 1954. ( )

This lovely novel is a snapshot of an old, decaying harbor town in post World War II England, mostly during the tourism lull of early spring. Primarily a character study of the town’s inhabitants, the author introduces us to a fascinating group of people. There’s Bertram, the amateur painter and serial flirt, who bops around helping everyone, but has a hard time with real commitment. There’s the paralyzed Mrs. Bracey, who attempts to control her two adult daughters from her sick bed. There’s Lily, the terribly sad and painfully lonely proprietor of a dilapidated wax museum (I found her story particularly heartbreaking). And, finally, there’s Tory and Beth, two old friends and current neighbors, who end up in a love triangle, although Beth is seemingly oblivious to the turmoil going on around her.

What makes the novel wonderful is the vivid descriptions and beautiful language, perfectly capturing the loneliness and desperation of the characters. There are numerous scenes of observation, with characters watching their neighbors through windows, trying to deduce their motives and intentions, often incorrectly. There’s a lot of boredom and repetition in their lives, and it almost seems a bit claustrophobic. I recommend this and look forward to another Elizabeth Taylor novel this year, probably Angel. ( )

A different kind of book focusing on a handful of characters living in an old fishing village in England. The town is dying and those left are remnants of a by-gone era. Lots of introspection, judgement, and speculation paint a sad picture of what this town and its people have become. You begin to wonder if any of the townfolk can be saved from themselves.

The writing is wonderful. It starts out scattered and all comes together like a woven tapestry. Even better, there are lots of zingers in what this author wants you to think about and notice. I loved several quotable passages - this following being one of my favorites:

"The day comes in slowly to those who are ill. The night has separated them from the sleepers, who return to them like strangers from a distant land, full of clumsy preparations for living, the earth itself creaking towards the light."

Not action-packed - no violence, sex, or superheros- this is a perceptive look at what it is to be human in a forgotten little town. Slowly unfolding, but not boring... ( )

I live in one harbour-town, I work in another, and Elizabeth Taylor swept me away to another harbour-town in another age. To Newby, a small town on the south coast just after the war.

Bertram Hemingway, a retired naval man, was a newcomer to the town. He intended to spend his days painting views of the harbour. He enjoyed the company of women, he enoyed being involved in the life of the town, but he gave no thought to the possibility that some would read much more than he meant into the interest he showed.

That was what happened to Lily Wilson, a shy and lonely war widow, struggling to cope with her responsibilities as proprietor of the town’s waxworks museum. Of course the was going to read things into the attentions of a man who bought her drinks, walked her home, sympathised with her.

But Bertram was more interested in the rather more sophisticated Tory Foyle. She and her husband had moved into their holiday cottage during the war, and when they divorced Tory chose to stay when her former husband returned to their home in London.

Tory was flattered by the attention, but she was caught up in an affair with, Robert Casubon, the town doctor. They had known each other for years – they were neighbours, and Robert’s wife, Beth, was Tory’s best friend – but, quite unexpectedly, something had somehow changed between them.

Beth hadn’t noticed. She was caught up in the writing of her new novel, and rather more interested in the characters in her head than her husband and daughters. She loved her family, of course she did, and she did what she should, but she felt detached and guilty at the way her work called her away from them.

But Prudence, the elder of those two daughters, had noticed.

And maybe Mrs Bracey would notice too. She observed the comings and goings of her neighbours so carefully, she loved to gossip., and her failing health often gave occasion to call out the doctor.

These, and other lives, go on behind the closed doors of this faded seaside town. And they are painted so beautifully, with understanding, with wit, and with wonderful clearsightedness.

Elizabeth Taylor’s characters are not, in the main, sympathetic, but they are intriguing. Flawed human beings, each one utterly real, and each one a product of a history that is not entirely revealed and would maybe explain much.

And so I was fascinated as I read of their overlapping lives, set out so beautifully. Wonderful prose carried me along, and so often I was touched by moments of pure insight and moments of vivid emotion.

I felt Lily’s pain as she realised she was not going to be rescued from her lonely life. I understood Prudence’s resentment as she had to fetch her father from Tory’s drawing-room when a patient called. And I smiled at the wonderful letters Tory received from her son, away at boarding school.

What didn’t ring quite so true was the portrayal of the town. There is a camaraderie and spirit among seafaring folk that spreads through seaside towns. And there are many buildings and activities around harbour-towns that you don’t find in other towns by the sea. All of this was missed, and the view was that of a visitor, not a resident.

But maybe that was deliberate; because if there is a theme running through this novel it is that we so often see a less than complete picture, or a distorted view, of the world around us.

And as a study of human lives, in showing that, this novel works quite beautifully. ( )