''Testimonies'' is a 1952 novel, set in
North Wales
North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia N ...
, by the English author
Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian, CBE (12 December 1914 – 2 January 2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of sea novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, and cent ...
. It was first published in the UK under the title ''Three Bear Witness,'' and in the US as ''Testimonies''.
Although the book's first English reviews were not encouraging, its American reviews were quite different and in an influential article
Delmore Schwartz
Delmore Schwartz (December 8, 1913 – July 11, 1966) was an American poet and short story writer.
Early life
Schwartz was born in 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, where he also grew up. His parents, Harry and Rose, both Romanian Jews, separated when ...
highly praised the book at the expense of
John Steinbeck,
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...
,
Angus Wilson
Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson, CBE (11 August 191331 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for '' The Middle Age of ...
and
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
.
Plot
The story is constructed from the testimonies that three witnesses give to an unnamed divine inquisitor: Joseph Aubrey Pugh, an Oxford don; Bronwen Vaughan, the woman he comes to love; and Mr Lloyd, a schoolmaster.
Pugh says that he had been expecting the visitation, and that he will do his best to set down in writing what had taken place. According to his testimony, having become exhausted and demoralised by his academic life in Oxford, Pugh decides to rent a small cottage in North Wales for an extended break, intending to spend his time walking in the hills and reading. He throws himself into his new life, becoming friends with Emyr, son of the elderly owners of the neighbouring farm of Gelli, Mr and Mrs Vaughan. He helps out at Gelli to the best of his ability, though he disapproves of Emyr using strychnine to poison the foxes that threaten the farm’s lambs. Gradually Pugh finds himself falling in love with Emyr’s wife, Bronwen. On receiving an unexpected bequest, he abandons his academic career and takes the cottage as his permanent home.
The schoolmaster, Mr Lloyd, tells the inquisitor that Bronwen had been brought up in a different valley and that she was "not our sort". After marrying and coming to live at Gelli with Emyr and his parents she had been considered "proud" and was unpopular with the local women.
Bronwen testifies that her marriage was initially good, and she had a child, but that she became scared of Emyr when he became violent toward her one night. As her fear and hatred of Emyr became increasingly evident, his mother turned against her and daily life at Gelli became very difficult.
Pugh falls ill and moves to Gelli to recuperate. There he spends hours talking to Bronwen, and his love for her deepens. Mr Lloyd’s cousin, a famous preacher by the name of Pritchard Ellis, comes to stay. He is revered by the local people for the power of his public oratory, but in private he is a hypocrite and sexual voyeur. After sexually touching Bronwen when they are alone, and being repulsed, he retaliates by spreading false rumours that Pugh and Bronwen are committing adultery. He preaches a powerful two-hour sermon in chapel denouncing Bronwen and Pugh's "wickedness", though without mentioning them by name, which results in their being ostracised by the community.
One night Emyr is sexually violent to Bronwen again, and she tells the inquisitor that her husband nearly killed her. Pugh sees her the next day and realises what Emyr has done. He departs for a long and nightmarish walk through the mountains, contemplating suicide. Seriously injured, Bronwen is put to bed and a doctor is called. Old Mrs Vaughan comes in with some medicine and Bronwen, after taking a sip, realises immediately that it is laced with strychnine. She drinks it and dies. Pugh returns, utterly exhausted, and lies unconscious before being awakened to learn of Bronwen’s fate.
Background
The novel's setting is closely based on
Cwm Croesor in
North Wales
North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia N ...
, where O'Brian and his wife had rented a small cottage in 1946 as an escape from post-war London. The character of Pugh is semi-autobiographical, and his intended monograph ''The Bestiary Before Isidore of Seville'' was a subject that O'Brian later said he had himself been working on before the war. According to his step-son and biographer
Nikolai Tolstoy, the fiction provided "the flimsiest of veils for
he author'sdeepest personal concerns". He notes that Pugh – like O'Brian himself – "sets himself up as a gentleman and adopts a name more appropriate to his improved status, concerning which he resents being questioned."
Publication
The novel was first published in 1952, the UK version appearing under the title ''Three Bear Witness''
as O'Brian's publishers
Secker & Warburg
Harvill Secker is a British publishing company formed in 2005 from the merger of Secker & Warburg and the Harvill Press.
History
Secker & Warburg
Secker & Warburg was formed in 1935 from a takeover of Martin Secker, which was in receivership, ...
were of the view that his preferred title ''Testimonies'' would be difficult to sell. In the US it was published by
Harcourt, Brace as ''Testimonies''.
Unaware that O'Brian had changed his name in 1945 from Richard Patrick Russ, many reviewers assumed the novel to be the author's first.
In 1994 the UK version was renamed ''Testimonies'' and re-published by
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...
with new cover art by
Geoff Hunt
Geoffrey Brian Hunt, (born 11 March 1947), is a retired Australian Squash (sport), squash player who is widely considered to be one of the greatest squash players in history.
He was ranked the World No.1 squash player from 1975 to 1980. He ...
,
the cover-artist for the re-issued volumes of the
Aubrey–Maturin series. Hunt illustrates a cottage almost identical with the real-life cottage in Cwm Croesor that O'Brian and his wife had rented in 1946. In the US the novel was reissued in 1993 by
Norton Norton may refer to:
Places
Norton, meaning 'north settlement' in Old English, is a common place name. Places named Norton include: Canada
* Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan
*Norton Parish, New Brunswick
**Norton, New Brunswick, a ...
.
Literary significance and criticism
The first English reviews were not encouraging. On 10 May 1952, an unnamed
''Times'' reviewer called the book "a slight and technically immature piece of work, loose-jointed and clumsy in construction to the point of amateurishness", though conceding that the book "leaves an impression of genuine talent". On 16 May the
''Times Literary Supplement'' called it "a quiet little story of much merit", while likewise considering its central literary device to be "clumsy".
The US reviews were entirely different. In an influential omnibus review in ''
Partisan Review
''Partisan Review'' (''PR'') was a small-circulation quarterly "little magazine" dealing with literature, politics, and cultural commentary published in New York City. The magazine was launched in 1934 by the Communist Party USA–affiliated Joh ...
'',
Delmore Schwartz
Delmore Schwartz (December 8, 1913 – July 11, 1966) was an American poet and short story writer.
Early life
Schwartz was born in 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, where he also grew up. His parents, Harry and Rose, both Romanian Jews, separated when ...
praised the book at the expense of
John Steinbeck,
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...
,
Angus Wilson
Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson, CBE (11 August 191331 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for '' The Middle Age of ...
and
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
. Schwartz said "To read a first novel by an unknown author which, sentence by sentence and page by page makes one say: he can't keep going at this pace, the intensity is bound to break down, the perfection of tone can't be maintained - is to rejoice in an experience of pleasure and astonishment ...
tmakes one think of a great ballad or a Biblical story ... The reader, drawn forward by lyric eloquence and the story's fascination, discovers in the end that he has encountered in a new way the sphinx and the riddle of existence itself." He concluded by comparing O'Brian's prose to the lyrics of the great Irish poet
W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
.
[Schwartz, Delmore, 1952, reprinted as preface to ] In later editions of the book, part of Schwartz's review was reprinted as a preface.
The ''
New York Herald Tribune'' Book Review called it "one of the finest books to come along for some time".'', while
Saturday Review'' said that "Mr. O'Brian has made a story that moves to its end with the rightness and inevitability we think of as Greek."
[La Farge, Oliver '' Saturday Review'', 23 August 1952, quoted in ]
''
The New York Times Book Review
''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'' dubbed the book "A rare and beautiful novel, deceptively modest in form, never faltering in the unobtrusive skill of its poetry and dramatic dimensions". The character of Bronwen was singled out for particular praise as "an altogether touching and marvelous woman, so persuasively and sympathetically portrayed that she deserves a place among great heroines - for all the differences of setting and scale,
hehas some of the stature of an
Anna Karenina
''Anna Karenina'' ( rus, «Анна Каренина», p=ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Widely considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever writt ...
". The reviewer noted the author's expert pacing of the story, his extraordinary gift for the visual scene, and his brilliant ear for the subtle counterpoint of sound in speech.
On the book's first publication,
''Kirkus Reviews'' considered the novel to be of "unassuming proportion and immaculate design". Reviewing the 1993 US re-issue, the magazine noted a "chaste and disciplined prose
hat lendspurity to a quiet, tragic idyll for the discriminating reader".
Adaptations
A dramatised adaptation of the book by Colin Haydn Evans was broadcast on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
in 2002.
Relationship with later works
The surnames Aubrey and Maturin – later to be used for the protagonists of O'Brian's
Aubrey–Maturin series of nautical historical novels – both appear in ''Testimonies''.
References
Bibliography
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External links
*
{{Patrick O'Brian
1952 British novels
Novels by Patrick O'Brian
1952 in Wales
Novels set in Wales
British autobiographical novels
Secker & Warburg books
HarperCollins books
Harcourt (publisher) books