Expiation

A novel which has been entirely overlooked and yet is by a well-known writer. Most of Elizabeth von Arnim’s novels are in print with other publishers; yet Expiation, that Persephone published ninety years after its first appearance, has been ignored. Why? Well, the title (a synonym for atonement) is not very catchy. The theme is faintly shocking, or was in 1929, since the book is about adultery: a 'happily married' woman has, it transpires, for years been meeting her lover once a week. (This is not a plot spoiler as the reader learns this early on.) And, although nowadays we read the novel as a satire, at the time the characters and their milieu may have seemed rather tame. 

A satire of middle-class prudery and closed-minded cruelty, what was mostly ignored in the years after Expiation’s first publication was how laugh-out-loud hilarious it is. It is also extraordinarily atmospheric and perceptive about the English. I