Pages:
314
Original
date of publication: 1950
My
edition: 1979 (Virago)
Why
I decided to read: For All Virago/All August
How
I acquired my copy: April 2012, from an LT member
The
Lost Traveller is a continuation of the story that was told in Frost in May;
although the names have changed (“Nanda” is now “Clara”), the characters are
essentially the same. When her grandfather passes away, Clara is sent home from
her convent school. The reader watches her grow into adulthood, strongly
influenced by her Catholic parents, while the first world war rages. The Lost
Traveller is the first of a proper trilogy that continues with The Sugar House
and Beyond the Glass.
Clara has a rather intense relationship
with her parents, particularly her father, and a lot of the novel focuses on
how she struggles with reconciling her childhood with her future, as uncertain
as it is. As with Antonia White’s other novels, the theme and story are based
on personal experience; White was heavily influenced by her Catholic
upbringing, as is Clara. There’s more fiction in The Lost Traveller than there
is in Frost in May (Clara’s relationship with Charles is an example). Therefore,
the characters are much more fully developed and seen more objectively from the
reader’s point of view. When I first started reading this book, I thought it
was going to be yet another coming of age story, but I was pleasantly
surprised. There’s so much depth to the story and its implications.
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