[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]

PRECIPICE by Robert Harris Random House Canada, October 2024 464 pages $C25.95 ISBN: 0735282145

The precipice in question in Robert Harris's latest historical novel emerged in the summer of 1914, as the Liberal government of Britain deliberated whether to engage in the war that was rapidly enveloping Europe. Unlike Harris's earlier novel MUNICH that deals with a decision to engage in a war that is a consequence of this earlier one, there is only one fictional character present in this account of the lead-up and early days of the Great War and that is Paul Deemer, a policeman recently elevated to the secret service in order to look into whoever in government seems to be strewing the landscape with discarded copies of highly sensitive documents.

All the other named characters are authentic and grounded in Harris's thorough scholarship. At the centre of the narrative is the cache of surviving letters from H.H. Asquith, the Liberal prime minister, then in his early sixties, to twenty-six-year-old Venetia Stanley with whom he had been enjoying a warm friendship for several years. Unfortunately, Venetia's letters in return have disappeared and Harris is careful to keep his replacements to a minimum. But Asquith was not at a loss for words–he left behind 560 letters to Venetia, amounting to some 300,000 words.

By 1914, the relationship between the Prime Minister and a baron's daughter had developed into one that was extremely close but difficult to characterize from the standpoint of the present. In 1914, the sexual constraints of the Victorian period had been relaxed to a certain degree, especially among members of the upper classes and would be further modified by the war and its aftermath. Male homosexuality was still illegal (and would remain so for decades); lesbianism was not subject to legal sanction and was generally ignored pretty much on the assumption that women were on the whole affectionate but not very sexual. Thus Asquith may not have thought much of his daughter Violet's passionate correspondence with Venetia.

While the relationship between the prime minister and young Venetia would almost certainly be questioned today and until quite recently lead at least to a premature retirement for the elder statesman, the ability of the upper classes of the day to ignore sexual scandal when convenient protected Asquith, even when he was scribbling his letters to Venetia in the Commons while appearing merely to be taking notes. Today, opinion is divided among scholars about whether or not it was ever fully consummated and Harris devotes very little space to the question. It is, after all, insignificant compared to his investigation of the role the affair occupied in a period when the government Asquith headed was making a decision that would affect the lives of the entire nation.

Why, one might well ask, is this book being reviewed on a site devoted to crime fiction? Partly because it is billed in the ads as a "thriller," partly because Harris has written actual historic thrillers before. But PRECIPICE hardly qualifies as genre fiction in any respect. It is, instead, an engrossing account of the relationship between private and public lives, based not in highly imaginative speculation but on the actual words of the prime minister of a country on the brink of deciding to enter a war that would change the lives of every citizen. And yet, as Harris effectively makes clear, it was Asquith's obsession with the young woman he loved that occupied his mind as much.

The correspondence between the two did not proceed at the stately pace of our post today. The characters would very likely be less than impressed had they been told of the wonders of email. London enjoyed twelve deliveries a day and Asquith hoped for at least one missive from Venetia at every one. He might fire off two or three in the same delivery. He would include highly classified information in some, actual original documents or copies in others. Whereas Venetia was worried about this behaviour, Asquith thought nothing of crumpling some of these papers into a ball and tossing them out of the car window clearly not believing that England was awash in German spies, a popular fear. It is this concern that leads to the only fictional main character in the book, Paul Deemer, who is charged with overseeing the correspondence, steaming the PM's letters open, photographing the contents, and getting them delivered to Venetia without arousing suspicion.

There is not, nor should there be, any real suspense in a book so grounded in real facts as this. What we have instead is a balanced account of the interplay between public and personal in the mind of someone charged with being a good governor, a person who might have other concerns important only to him. One can only wonder if Asquith had been paying complete attention, if he had noticed that too many in his cabinet were, like Winston Churchill, then a Liberal, a bit enamoured with dreams of glorious war, perhaps England would have stood aside and history would have been changed and for the better. Well, maybe, and maybe we can hope better choices will be made if a precipice should appear before us in the next few years. Harris has produced an engrossing and extremely sensible book about the past that could be of future help.

§ Yvonne Klein is a writer, translator, and retired college English professor who lives in Montreal. She's been editing RTE since 2008.

Reviewed by Yvonne Klein, November 2024

[ Top ]

QUICK SEARCH:

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)

[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]