The opening of To the North is deceptive: leaving Italy is not, in itself, to be of importance. Cecilia Summers, the 'young widow' waiting for the train, is not to be the heroine. Its tone is significantly odd and ambiguous. The satirical treatment of a carefully demarcated social world is apparently anticipated, and this is borne out by the ensuing emphasis on manner and properties…. Affluent people lunch, dine, and go to parties; we are often told what they are wearing. The fashions are exactly registered…. (pp. 129-30)
Nevertheless, there is a discomforting tone to the first paragraph of the novel, strongly suggesting that the material world in which it has its being is to be undermined. The knowing information about the Anglo-Italian express sounds a little ominous. The season, like the travellers, is 'uncertain'. Suspended between anticipation and loss, they lunch 'uneasily', awaiting their journey to the north. They are not moving yet, but the … violent, repetitive images precipitate them towards movement, and, even, with 'brass-barred' and 'girdle', towards an idea of imprisonment. That they sit 'facing the clock' hints most forcibly of all at the idea of a train journey as a journey out of life, into the after-world…. There is no doubt (we are told that 'neither had nice characters') that Cecilia and Markie are a punishment to one another for being what they are. The image of a journey in hell is not insistent, but the language keeps edging into unaccountable ferocity…. The climactic last page of the novel, Emmeline's desperate drive with Markie (whom she loves and who has betrayed her) 'to the north' and to their deaths, is prefigured in the oddly sinister tone, the incipient violence of the first chapter.
This is a free excerpt of 287 words. There are 1,867 words (approx.
6 pages at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Bowen, Elizabeth 1899–1973: Critical Essay by Hermione Lee Access Pass.
