Rumour of Heaven by Beatrix Lehmann
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Beatrix Lehmann (1903 - 1979) was an English stage actress, well-known in her own right, and sister of novelist Rosamond Lehmann (1901 - 1990). Rumour of Heaven (1934) was Beatrix's second novel, and it initially starts out strong, centering around the Peacock family and its troubled matriarch, former dancer Miranda Mirova. There are many themes to explore here including mental illness and ideas of isolation. We are prepared for a novel about the children--Clare, Hector, and Viola--all of whom survive, but hardly thrive, at the remote country estate known as Prince's Acre. These three characters are fairly vivid, as is Mrs. Humble, the housekeeper. The father flits in and out of the mist.
The middle of the book feels a bit of a misstep. The focus shifts to two (well, three, actually) new strangers who come to Prince's Acre. Gillian Tindall's introduction to the Virago edition notes that Max Ralston is a "Conradian character" and he might have been, but he fizzles out of the narrative, so I suppose in that way he operates as a Kurtz a bit, but I would have liked him to be a bit more present and Paul less so. Once this secondary set of characters enters, things feel a bit off the rails and the ending speeds up with a bit of desperation to tie things together.
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Challenges on Storygraph (@rebcamuse):
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Tackle your Physical TBR 2026: no. 6
#192030 Challenge: 1934
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