Back in July 2022, I decided to embark upon reading the novels of Anita Brookner in order; I’d not got on that well with her best-known title “Hotel du Lac“ over a couple of reads, but I was determined to give her a fair chance. So I started with her first published novel, “A Start in Life” and absolutely loved it; I was hooked in by her characters, setting and writing, and considered it a success. Needless to say, as with so many of my reading projects, it’s taken me a silly amount of time to pick up with second one; but when I was in the middle of my recent French book binge, it called to me, and so “Providence” came off Mount TBR. I’m happy to report that my experience with this book was just as good as the first!

First published in 1982, the book has just as striking an opening sentence as Brookner’s first novel; here, the reader is met with “Kitty Maule was difficult to place”, a sentence which intrigues from the start (and actually, thinking back, I realise that ‘place’ is quite important in this story). Kitty, whose real name is actually Therese, comes from an intriguing background; her late father was English, her mother Marie-Therese and grandmother Louise are French, and her grandfather Vadim is Russian. The family, dominated by Louise’s dressmaking skills, decamped to London where the latter made a living in fashion houses for years; but as our tale begins, Marie-Therese has died, leaving Louise and Vadim ageing in London, and their granddaughter taking her initial steps into a career in academia.

Self-contained, beautifully dressed and very restrained, Kitty is in love with her fellow academic, Maurice Bishop, who regularly pops round for a visit and a meal (whether things go any further than that, I’m not really sure…) However, it’s clear that of the two, she is more invested in the relationship, and Maurice indeed has a skeleton in his past which, when it’s revealed, seems to explain why he keeps Kitty at a distance. Kitty is temporarily teaching the Romantics, in particular the book ‘Adolphe’ by Benjamin Constant, and there are fascinating explorations of that work and indeed romanticism built into the narrative.

So she teaches her small group of three students, and as they continue to explore ‘Adolphe’, it strikes the reader (or it did me, as I’ve read it!) that the book has resonances with Kitty’s situation. She attempts to spend time with Maurice in France, while he’s visiting cathedrals, but they barely have time to meet. As Kitty approaches the delivery of her first lecture, a crucial event which will decide her academic future, she hopes to also cement her personal life going forward.. but let’s not forget that this is Anita Brookner we’re dealing with!

Pauline was a gifted and honourable teacher but she was admired rather than liked, for years of hiding her feelings had made her sarcastic, unsentimental, in a way that was good for departmental efficiency but bad for students looking for the sort of glamorous governess figure they were prepared to tolerate in a female tutor.

“Providence” is just as rich and involving a novel as was “A Start in Life”, and the background to Kitty’s life, as well as the supporting characters, are brilliantly drawn. In particular, her neighbour Caroline, who drags Kitty off to an ageing fortune teller at one point, is a wonderful contrast to the main protagonist! There are the academics: Kitty’s colleague Pauline, who lives in the country with her ageing mother; Professor Redmile; and the wonderfully-designated Roger Fry Professor, who adds plenty of dry humour. The academic setting is as convincingly conjured as before, and I loved the scenes where Kitty was interacting with her three students, Larter, Mills and Miss Fairchild.

Brookner is brilliant at constructing her story, and the gradual build up of the novel to the end scenes is done in a masterly fashion, with a final reveal which I should have seen coming, but didn’t. I don’t want to go into the plot in any more detail, because the joy in it is watching events unfold; however, what strikes me looking back on the book now is how important class is. Despite the book being in relatively modern times, it’s quite obvious that Maurice comes from a completely different background to Kitty, with his country house and the like. She, however, has no real roots; she doesn’t quite belong in either England or France, she never knew her father and has lost her mother, her grandparents are out of touch and in many ways so is she. The beautifully made clothes which Louise produces for her are in effect garments that contain her; if she was able to relax and wear ordinary, modern clothing her personality might follow. But she would never be of the same class as Maurice and unfortunately that’s really important.

There’s so much more I could say about this book, but this post would get very long and as I’ve mentioned, I don’t want to reveal too much about the events. As for the title, both Kitty and Maurice seem to believe in a kind of providence which will guide them and arrange their lives; well, maybe his is organised nicely, but for Kitty, being a Brookner heroine, things are going to be a little different and her life may not follow the path she would have wished for. Brookner is no sentimentalist and is happy to provide a ruthless description of a country cafe or of Caroline’s clothing and make-up; though interestingly takes a more sympathetic approach towards ‘Madame Eva’, the fortune-teller; really, there’s so much to consider here. So “Providence” was a wonderful read, brilliantly written and so evocative, and I’m really learning to love Brookner’s books; as long as I approach them with no expectations of a conventional ending, I absolutely love them, and I can’t wait to read the next one!