The Harder Right

Like most people (I think), when I read fiction I like happy endings and I like to see people get what they deserve or not get what they don't deserve. That seems only normal, we wish well even to fictional characters and few of us like to see someone get something they don't deserve even in a make believe world. At the same I time I am troubled by books, or more accurately series of books that have only happy endings where everyone gets what they deserve. This especially bothers me in Jane Austen's work and to a much lesser extent in Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire novels.

That being the case, it is not surprising that I loved "An Autumn Sowing" by E. F. Benson, which, once again, I discovered through the good work of Elaine over at Random Jottings. In "An Autumn Sowing" no one, especially the two main characters, seems to have a happy ending or get what they deserve. In his introduction to the edition I read, John Norwich suggests that Benson started out to write satirical light fiction and the book somehow got away from him and that certainly seems possible.

This is not to say that the book is a deep tragedy with people losing their lives or anything like that gruesome. Rather it is about finding true love (as opposed to physical passion), but then losing it because of choosing the hard right over the easy wrong. The latter line is from the cadet prayer at West Point - "Make us choose the hard right over the easy wrong." In this case it is more a question of choosing the hard right over the hard wrong, but that decision eliminates any happy endings.

Yet it is interesting that while he doesn't have happy ending, the main character, Thomas Keeling is a better person because of the love he both gives and receives (again love, not physical passion). In one instance, after taking a harsh vindictive response to being wronged he reverses himself making him more the "gentleman" than the "gentlemen" who wronged him. More important, however, is his relationship with his daughter Alice who at the end of book has her own unhappy ending. Up until his own experiences, Keeling, no doubt thought of himself as having a daughter, at the end of the book he is more concerned with being a father. Having and being are concepts developed by the philosopher, Eric From - the point being that, in my case, I cannot have a son, I can only be a father. While Keeling doesn't articulate it this way the book ends with him playing a much more positive role in his daughter's life.

I am not trying to suggest that from this point forward, I only want to read books without happy endings, but rather that I like to see some kind of balance. After all in real life there are many people who don't have happy endings or get what they deserve in certain aspects of their lives. - I certainly know my share and I am sure others do as well. That doesn't mean, however, that their stories are tragic or without interest - in fact, their stories are part of what life is all about and are of interest in their own right. I understand that E. F. Benson wrote almost 40 books, "An Autumn Sowing" was my first, but it certainly won't be my last.