[L. P. Hartley's] experiments in form and technique … are limited, and it is not unfair, I think, to speak of him in these respects as an Edwardian writer, although his main inspiration goes back still farther. His impetus from the beginning has been romantic, and in particular he has always been drawn to the substance as well as the devices of the "Gothic" writers. It is in the light of this, I think, that one can usefully view an important aspect of his work.

Hartley published a volume of short stories in 1924, and a novelette, Miss Simonetta Perkins, in 1925. There were a few other stories after that but there was no novel until 1944. The eleven novels of these last seventeen or eighteen years are remarkably finished works, and it seems indeed that a long period of the most intelligent apprenticeship had prepared for them. I think we can...