A review by robinwalter
Harlequin House by Margery Sharp

funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

"The refining influence of natural beauty, particularly upon members of the Anglo-Saxon race, is a fact universally admitted, particularly by Anglo-Saxons."


The opening sentence of Harlequin House delivered a laugh. I'm giving the book 4.5/5 for delivering plenty more. The story was offbeat, the characters very nearly more so, but it all hung together because Ms Sharp was not building a story built on a narrative, she was providing entertainment. That opening sentence did set the tone for the rest of the book - gently satirical, wryly amused, and very amusing. A few examples that tickled my funny bone:

She did not stop to enquire why her fiancé had not let her know of his return, it was enough that he was there, at hand, obviously willing and competent to take all responsibility from her shoulders. It was an attitude which Mr. Partridge highly approved: he liked women to be feminine, and it pleased him to discover that Miss Campion’s true character, now revealed, was that of a clinging vine.

I laughed at this passage because it highlighted the difference between Ms. Sharp's writing and that of other middlebrow authors I've read. Some middlebrow books have had characters express more or less exactly this sentiment in complete earnest, an attitude that seriously irks me. Because Ms. Sharp on the other hand made it patently clear she was mocking the attitude, it was funny. 

 At the very start of  Elizabeth Crawford's very  informative introduction she mentions that " the Manchester Guardian intimated that she was second only to P.G. Wodehouse as a comic novelist" .  That is VERY high praise and I'm not sure I'd go quite that far, but there were passages in the book that definitely reminded me of the style of PGW. These two, for example:

The unmarried Victorian uncle, unlike the unmarried Victorian aunt, had played but little part in the nation’s domestic economy: his passing left a gap outside the stage-door rather than a gap in the kitchen or nursery.

He had no foolish scruples about leaving the ladies behind: he came from a walk of life in which the pleasures of the male did not admit of interference.


And finally a line that really made me chuckle because of the context in which I read this book. It was the fifteenth and final book of my Dean Street December 2024, in which I read only books from Dean Street Press.  Since nine of the other books were detective stories, I found this parenthetical  statement amusingly apposite.

(Lisbeth encouraged detective stories; they all had such moral endings.)

In summary this was a delightful read.  Satirical without being acidic, laughing at its characters but making sure we knew it was ok to do so because they did too. Sweet without being saccharine,  and ending on a positive,  literally life-affirming note. Love, life, and laughs - all were to be found in Harlequin House.