Book Review: "The Ladies of Lyndon" by Margaret Kennedy

Margaret Kennedy is one of those authors I have recently discovered and the first book I read by her was The Constant Nymph. I really enjoyed that book, containing tragedy and farce, morals, ethics and more, these books seem to be an emotional argument between what is more important - is it honour and reputation or fulfilment? When reading The Constant Nymph, I found that Margaret Kennedy's writing was filled with introspection and philosophical commentary and so, when reading The Ladies of Lyndon - I sought the same thing and got exactly what I wanted. Great amounts of introspection, great amounts of philosophical contemplation and great amounts of argument between reputation and fulfilment.

We follow a character called Agatha through her arrangement to be married to Sir John Clewer, the head of the Lyndon manor. All of the events of this book somewhat link up to the women who live at the Lyndon manor, including the brutish sister named Cynthia (whom I wasn't too fond of in the book). We get to see all the different episodes of Agatha's life, beginning when she first gets engaged to John and then when she is in her newly wedded life and then finally as she approaches being in a long-term marriage. Her boredom with John is almost personified by her longing for the past. There is this underlying nostalgia that makes the reader think about the character of Agatha each time she is lost within introspections from before the war and before her marriage.

In walks a character called Gerald. He is Agatha's cousin (or at least something like that) who seems to take a shine to Agatha whilst she is in her relatively unhappy marriage and there are talks about whether they are in a relationship of infidelity (I know, it's a bit incestuous but we have to remember that this is the early 1900s). There is a lot to unpack here. The first thing is that this is relatively expected - if I had a penny for every time I read a book about an unhappy wife going to look for love from somewhere else then I would be a millionaire. But the other thing is that even in this book by Margaret Kennedy, it is still fairly surprising seeing that there are so many societal pressures for Agatha to be contented with what she has since she is in such a good position. It is a storyline of 'be grateful that you got a rich husband because not all women get that.' And I have to admit myself that Agatha really does have it all. She doesn't need to lift a finger as long as she is with John - but then again she is willing to give that up for love. I don't know whether I find that sweet or silly.

Written beautifully, this book is filled with farcical arguments, tragic characters and brilliant introspections, passages that are complete with all the workings of a modernist novel without a fixed genre. I think that Agatha's character is truly one that resembles other great characters of literature who are discontented - there is definitely a bit of Clarissa Dalloway and a bit of Daisy Buchanan coming through, but then again there are relations to much older characters such as the upset and loss of Elizabeth Lavanza and the headstrong nature of Elizabeth Bennett alongside the introspection of Jane Eyre. It is all blended together perfectly to create a novel filled with excess and extremities in which the main character must choose between two things that have such incredible downfalls from the other side since one leaves her upset and the other leaves her poor. It truly is a one-of-a-kind novel.