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| 1932 novels | |
| scottish novels | |
| masterpiece theatre | |
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PLOT INTRODUCTION The central character is a young woman, Chris Guthrie, growing up in a farming family in "The Mearns" ( Kincardineshire ) in the north east of Scotland at the start of the 20th Century . Life is hard, and her family is dysfunctional. PLOT SUMMARY Her mother, broken by repeated childbirths, commits suicide and poisons two young twins she has. Two younger children go to live with relatives, leaving Chris and her father to run the farm on their own. Soon after this, her father badly injures his back, leaving him bedridden. For a time he tries to persuade her to commit Incest with him, but as he is badly weakened he is not able to force her. He dies shortly afterwards. Chris, who has had some basic education, considers leaving for a job in the towns, but instead marries a young farmer called Ewan Tavendale and carries on farming. For a time they are happily married, and they have a son, who they also call Ewan. However when the First World War breaks out Ewan senior and many other young men join up. When he comes home on leave he treats Chris badly, evidently brutalised by his experiences in the army. Later she hears that he was killed in the war. Shortly after this she finds out the true story from another soldier from the area on leave: Ewan was shot as a deserter, but he died thinking of her. She keeps this to herself, and soon after the war, when a war memorial is erected in the village, Ewan's name is included by mistake. MAJOR THEMES The novel touches on several issues, including the nature of Scottish national identity, and the "peasant crisis" i.e. the coming of modernisation to traditional farming communities. LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE & CRITICISM When it was first published, some readers were shocked by its realistic treatment of sex and childbirth, and its sometimes negative portrayals of family life. Some wondered if it had been written by a woman using a male Pseudonym . Even now, some women have been known to refuse to believe that the description of childbirth at one point was written by a man. The novel is written in an essentially artificial form of Scots intended to capture the colloquial speech of the Mearns peasants without being inaccessible to English speakers. Many readers find it strange at first, but get into it after a few pages. FILM, TV OR THEATRICAL ADAPTATIONS It was turned into a famous BBC Television series, with Vivien Heilbron as Chris. The novel is written in the third person, but they made the important change of turning Chris into the narrator. There are also a number of adaptations for the stage. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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