The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner was first published in 1948. I read a 2012 reprint which has an introduction by Philip Hensher. I borrowed it from a library.
The setting is a 14th century Benedictine convent at Oby in rural Norfolk. It had been founded two centuries earlier by an abusive husband in memory of his dead wife who had despised him and been unfaithful, so not the usual pious act of remembrance. To begin with the community had done well and had been a comfortable destination for young women who had either taken the decision to dodge the difficulties that women typically had in those days, or had been sent there by their parents. In more recent times though nothing had gone well. The head nun has an ongoing vanity project to build a tall steeple which would be seen for miles around in the flat countryside of Norfolk, it’s eating up any spare money.
Things are even worse for Ralph Kello though as he has no money as he has drunk it all. He had been brought up in a convent as his mother had been a nun, so he has been taught Latin and knows how to conduct a mass, so when he pitches up at the convent feeling very sorry for himself and meaning to beg for food the nuns assume that he is a new priest, something they’re desperate for. As he’s illegitimate Ralph could never have been a real priest, but he can pass for one and despite knowing that he’ll be damned to hell for his behaviour he becomes part of the community.
I can’t say that I found this to be a gripping read, it’s a bit of a long meander, just an account of life in a 14th century convent but it is almost certainly a very true account, with nobody being particularly religious or worried about the amount of sins they commit. In fact I’m pretty sure that among all of the characters all ten of the commandments are broken! I’m wondering if this was deliberate, nobody else seems to have mentioned it.
I had to laugh though when I read this bit:
For all men are alike; if one asks a direct question they reply with a treatise. Edmund Gurney the mason had been just the same, wrapping himself in long discourses about the natures of different kinds of stone. That is how men are made, and that is what they expect women to put up with.
Mansplaining. – However I think that the author could have gone further and had the men explaining how the washing or embroidery should have been done!
The introduction by Philip Hensher is interesting, he points out that the seven novels written by Sylvia Townsend Warner are all very different, so you never know what you’re going to get from them, but I feel that she really enjoyed writing this one, which is probably why it’s so long at 399 pages (it seemed longer). She even managed to get in a bit about medieval choral music, something which she was interested in. However I didn’t really like any of the many characters, and that’s always a problem for me.
