Hetty Dorval

I was so excited to read this book in its Persephone edition which I bought in April in the actual Persephone Books in Bath, UK. Going to Persephone Books was definitely a highlight of my trip. It's sort of amusing that this Canadian reader went all the way to England to buy a book by a Canadian author.

This first novella starts very strongly: the descriptions of the landscape of British Columbia are masterful. The story isn't really about the title character (Hetty Dorval) but of the maturing of a young girl, Frankie (Frances) Burnaby. When Frankie, aged 12, first meets Hetty Dorval, she is infatuated and pulled into a secret 'quasi-friendship.' With the help of her parents and her own maturation process, she comes to see the selfish show more and destructive side of Hetty. No spoilers, but the novella's descent into melodrama in the second-last chapter (and, perhaps, into bathos in the last chapter) really took me by surprise and somewhat undermined my view of the book as a whole. I can picture this story as a bad 1940s film starring Bette Davis. It's a shame because the writing itself is so strong, and the story so readable. The story ends very suddenly and I'm thankful that Wilson didn't tie everything up with a neat little bow. show less

I have read Ethel Wilson's later book, Swamp Angel, but nothing else by her. Although she is not so well known now, during her career Wilson was recognised as a gifted writer. She was awarded the Canada Council Medal in 1961 and the Lorne Pierce Medal of the Royal Society of Canada in 1964. Northrop Frye in the afterword to this book edition says that this book, her first, establishes Ethel Wilson's world and that many themes "are embryonic that are more deeply explored in later works." So it was interesting to me to read it after Swamp Angel which is a book that fully explores the themes of nature that are first developed in this book. Another common theme is the idea of a woman running away to hide in the interior of BC to get away show more from a bad situation.

Hetty Dorval is a beautiful woman who comes to the small town of Lytton when Frankie Burnaby is about twelve years old. She rents a house on a hill overlooking the Thompson River with only her housekeeper for company. Well, that's not exactly true; every so often a man comes to visit her and, as later events show, this man is not her husband. Frankie encounters Hetty when she is riding back to Lytton from her parents' ranch. Hetty is also riding and she starts a conversation with Frankie. Both of them are exhilarated by the sight of a skein of geese flying south overhead. Hetty invites Frankie back to her bungalow but she tells Frankie she doesn't want to have visitors so she asks Frankie to keep her visit a secret. Throughout the year Frankie visits when she can get away without arousing suspicion and thinks she hasn't been seen. But, in fact, one of the local Indians (as they were referred to when this book was written) has seen Frankie there and he mentions it to her father when he goes to do some work for him. This occasions a scene between Frankie and her parents and they tell her in no uncertain terms that Hetty Dorval is not a woman a young girl should be having contact with. Frankie agrees to stop seeing her but goes one last time to tell Hetty she won't be visiting any more. A few years pass while Frankie goes to a boarding school in Vancouver and then her parents decide to send her to school in England. On the boat to England they see Hetty once again. Hetty pleads with Frankie and her mother to not indicate they know her as she is about to be married to a nobleman. They do as she asks and some time later receive a brief letter thanking them. Frankie's mother has a godfather in Cornwall and that is where they head when the boat docks. There Frankie meets two people who will become important to her. Molly and Richard had been orphaned when Molly was five and Richard was eighteen. Their father's older brother, Mrs. Burnaby's godfather, took them in. Soon all three young people were as close as siblings. Frankie was probably in love with Richard and she felt like an older sister to Molly. A few years later they happened to encounter Hetty in London and, to Frankie's dismay, Hetty became close with the brother and sister. By this time Frankie knew some more of Hetty's history and how she made herself attractive to men and then used them. Frankie decides to confront Hetty to tell her to lay off Richard or she will disclose the sordid details of her life to him. Hetty decides to do her usual tactic of disappearing from scandal. She takes up with a rich Austrian and leaves for Vienna with him. This time she might not manage to create a new chapter in her life. It is 1939 you see and Austria is very shortly after invaded by the Germans.

Although the title is the name of one of the main characters the book is really a coming-of-age story about Frankie Burnaby. We see how she matures from the entranced young girl who thinks Hetty Dorval is wonderful to the wiser young woman who recognizes how dangerous Hetty can be. It's not a story that could be told now in the 21st century but for the time it was written it would have been reflective of the life of many young inexperienced girls. Its good to be reminded that the "good old days" had their perils too. show less

My third Ethel Wilson and the best so far. A perfect ten, in my view, with prose so beautiful I re-read pages at a time. A lovely young woman, Hetty Dorval, selfish, opportunistic, psychopathic, moves from Shanghai, through Canada, to London, in the years before the Second World War. In her wake she leaves a trail of discarded lovers, their outraged women folk, and Frankie Burnaby the 12 year old narrator of the novel with whom she regularly crosses paths. In a more than satisfactory final paragraph Wilson hints at a particularly ghastly ending to Ms Dorval's picaresque lifestyle. I gasped as I read it and yet my money remains on Hetty turning even that situation to her own advantage.

Frankie Barnaby, the narrator of Hetty Dorval, is just entering adolescence when she meets the vivacious Hetty Dorval, a new arrival to Lytton, the small British Columbia town where Frankie lives and attends school during the week, going back to her parents on weekends. Mrs Dorval welcomes Frankie into her home, but warns her not to tell anyone of these visits, lest Hetty’s neighbors get the idea that she wants visitors, and the last thing she wants is visitors. “I will not be called upon. I will not have my life complicated here,” she declares. “I do not propose to spend my time paying attention to all sorts of people.”

Although Hetty claims the title of this book, the story is really all about Frankie’s growing up and her show more eventual understanding that people aren’t always what they seem. When Frankie is young, she can see Hetty’s glitz, glamour, and independence, but she does not see anything beyond the fun times they spend together. In fact, it’s not entirely clear to the reader whether Hetty is the “Menace” Frankie’s parents believe her to be. I couldn’t quite decide myself until the final chapters of the book.

Eventually, however, Frankie does learn the truth, and she must choose how to respond. Unlike Hetty, Frankie realizes that, as stated in the book’s epigraph by John Donne, “no man is an Iland, intire of it selfe.” Our choices, even seemingly trivial ones, do matter because our actions affect others. This is a “small” story of ordinary dramas, but it illustrates a big truth that is easy to forget in a world that prizes the independent spirit.

See my complete review at Shelf Love. show less

Narrated by Frances (Frankie) Burnaby, looking back on her girlhood from the perspective of her acquaintance with the seemingly glamorous r Hetty Dorval.
Frankie is just twelve, when the woman - and a stern female companion (?) come to live in her town in Canada. Inveigling invites, Frankie glories in her new companion; yet despite Hetty's instructions to keep their friendship secret, her parents find out...and find out, too, that Hetty has a "past" ..and end the association.
Yet as the years roll by, the two come into contact a few more times....
Hetty is the same throughout- though Frankie only gradually comes to gain a true picture of who Hetty Dorval is with maturity...

I thought this an above average first novel. The descriptions of the landscape surrounding Lytton was especially captivating.

Not my favorite Persephone but then, none of them are terrible.

Well, there was the one that I really didn't like. Maybe two. Anyway, three stars for Hetty Dorval.