Nous sommes en 1905, sous le règne d’Édouard VII. A dix-neuf ans, Sébastien est le cinquième duc de Chevron, l’héritier d’un titre et d’un domaine parmi les plus prestigieux en Angleterre. Viscéralement attaché à Chevron, il n’envisage pas alors d’autre voie que celle tracée par la société et les conventions : une maîtresse, un mariage, les chasses annuelles et les saisons à Londres. Lorsqu’il rencontre Leonard Anquetil, aventurier solitaire qui lui montre la vanité de son existence et lui propose de partir avec lui, Sébastien refuse, persuadé qu’il tient son destin entre ses mains, à Chevron, au milieu de ses pairs. Néanmoins, cette rencontre le marquera à tout jamais, comme sa soeur, Julia. Sébastien se laisse cependant entraîner dans le monde et devient l’amant de la meilleure amie de sa mère, Lady Roehampton.Sébastien est le personnage central de ce roman, mais sa richesse vient aussi des autres personnages qui permettent de décrire cette époque de différents points de vue : bien sûr, Sébastien évolue dans la haute-société londonienne où se mêlent ducs et duchesses, ambassadeurs, jeunes filles en fleurs et parfois le roi lui-même (le milieu de prédilection de Vita Sackville-West), mais on suit aussi tour à tour les domestiques de Chevron, un couple des classes moyennes, le docteur John Spadding et sa femme Thérèse, ou encore Phil, la jeune maîtresse bohème de Sébastien… En quelques pages, avec son style toujours juste et élégant, Vita Sackville-West nous entraîne dans un tourbillon, passant d’un personnage à l’autre et perçant d’un mot le secret des coeurs de chacun : l’importance pour Lady Roehampton de cette liaison, où luisent les derniers feux de sa jeunesse passée, l’admiration envieuse de la jeune Thérèse devant le grand monde, la confusion des sentiments de Sébastien face à Léonard Anquetil (et le choix de ces mots est justifié) ou encore la fierté toute maternelle de Lucy, la mère de Sébastien, de voir son fils se lancer dans le monde au bras d’une si belle femme ! Le roman se termine sur une scène que j’ai trouvé magnifique par sa symbolique : Sébastien assiste au couronnement du nouveau roi George V : dans son carrosse tiré par huit chevaux et sa tenue solennelle de duc et pair du royaume, il se trouve ridiculement anachronique et cependant c’est là, dans Westminster Abbey, au son des Vivat !, alors que tout le poids de la tradition pèse sur ses épaules, que se joue son destin : « Il sentit la longue lignée de ses ancêtres se dresser autour de lui comme des fantômes, le montrant du doigt et lui disant qu’il n’y avait plus moyen de s’échapper. »Cette période qui précéda la guerre est pour la haute-société un vrai paradoxe : jamais le respect des conventions mondaines et des traditions familiales n’a été aussi fort – les titres, les alliances, les conversations, les entrées dans le monde, tout est corseté par un code de conduite extrêmement rigoureux, auxquelles sont notamment soumises les jeunes filles. Dans le même temps, une certaine décadence s’empare de cette même société : une fois le mariage passé, les liaisons extra-conjugales y sont encouragées comme remèdes aux mariages de convenance et instruments de plaisir autant pour les hommes que pour les femmes.Cette nouvelle lecture de Vita Sackville-West fut un enchantement. On y retrouve le ton irrévérencieux et souvent sarcastique de Toute passion abolie, bien caché derrière la description des passions de cette période riche et foisonnante. Malgré cela, Vita Sackville-West ne peut pas cacher complètement une certaine nostalgie pour cette société mondaine toute en contraste et c’est sans doute ce qui plut tant au public lors de sa parution en 1930. En tout cas, après avoir lu plusieurs de ses romans, on sent que l’auteur atteint ici une apogée dans la maîtrise de son sujet et c’est sans aucun doute le plus remarquablement bien construit et, osons-le, le plus chic.
The Edwardians is my first foray into the work of Vita Sackville-West. Prior to this all I knew of Miss Sackville-West was her firm association with Virginia Woolf. Shame on me for not seeking out her own personal brilliance sooner.The Edwardians is a in depth look into high society of Great Britons Edwardian period. The novel is supposedly based on many a true fact and figure. Set mainly, in the country estate house of Chevron the book deals with the highly guarded relationships of the social set of the era and their many first world issues.The language and the imagery brings this not so distant past into close focus. It's easy to get swept away in a world so far from ones own but at the same time knowing that the actual relatability of the characters is far from accessible.Not much happens in the way of plot points but it takes a step back from the reading process to really notice. The characters thoughts and opinions are such that they take over your conscious thought.While highly enjoyable, I found the novel unsettling at times. Being dragged into a place where loveless marriages of convenience are more than acceptable and where no one can really be trusted is a little dubious but overall I found being swept away to 'a more civilized' time wonderfully distracting.My particular edition was purchased at Shakespeare and Co in Paris and it has the famous stamp to prove it. I've looked forward to reading this book for years now but have continually put it off for one reason or another. I'm glad to have finally finished its pages and even more pleased that they didn't prove a dissapointment.For anyone yet to sample the lyrical prose of Vita Sackville-West, I highly recommend you do so as soon as possible.
Do You like book The Edwardians (2003)?
First edition, Doubleday 1930. First owned by Newcomb Cleveland, then sold for $3 to R H Sinister in 1963, and added to Ath collection in '91. Unpleasant crinkle-acetate cover over the jacket, original brown buckram, black figuring.Did I read this before? I rated it, but did I ever read this before? I have no recollection of it. Sackville-West refers to herself, twice, as a male author. While musing on Sebastian's teasing of Teresa with the secrets of upper crust life, V SW inadvertently exposes her own toying with her readers. She must have known that the middle classes, coming into their own, would be curious about all the details. She feeds the same lust for intimacy with pre-war Edwardian upper class life that Sebastian feeds in Teresa.She betrays her own love of the old estates through Sebastian's attention to the running of Chevron. She reveals her own adoration of the arcana of the Coronation, even as she pokes fun at the folderol. She, like Sebastian, is torn.When V SW gets thoroughly into a scene--Sebastian with his dog on his lap, talking with Viola--she engages us. But too often, she slides into repetitive exposition, so that we long to shout, "OK, we get it, now let's move on!"
—Nina
I found the book extremely dreary except for a few sections about nature. The young Duke(and his mother: picture the step-mother of Wives and Daughters) are awful except for his love of nature and his respect for those who work the land. It is satire of a "fruitcake" kind ie not leavened with JA's wit and humor. Too heavy. The Duke's sister is much more likable(a bit of a Lady Sybil) but she only appears a few times in the book. The part where she rips his hedonic lifestyle is worth part of the dreary reading....no Mary Crawford is she!!!! 2.5 out of five regency teacups. 1.25-1.5 for most of the book.
—Kirk
On a recent visit to Sissinghurst, we thought we should get an idea of Vita Sackville-West's writing as much as her gardening, so we got a couple of her books in the local gift shop. I picked "The Edwardians" as the Edwardian era strikes me as a fascinating time in British history - and the book promised to be about just that.It isn't in any way brilliant as a novel, but it's great as a memoir of the customs and mentality of the times. Scriptwriters from "Upstairs, Downstairs" to "Gosford Park" might have picked entire passages straight from this book. Sackville-West brings Edwardian life of various social classes to life with the ease of the participant and the skill of the writer.Unfortunately, there isn't much in terms of a story here. Most of the characters are rather annoying and suffer from a somewhat confused and deluded outlook on life; the characters are really just there for each to represent one aspect of society, but nobility or bohème, they all seem too mindless and immature to be worthwhile, the only exception (for me) being (quite surprisingly, really) the middle-class couple.Interesting, for me, was the contrast to "The Picture of Dorian Gray", which I read not too long ago. While Wilde's portrayal of contemporary aristocratic life and society made it feel sultry and ugly, Sackville-West's, in spite of being quite frank about the less-than-pretty characteristics of hers - its lack of morals and meaning, its wasteful luxury - is never either of these; if anything, she makes it feel sophisticated and elaborate. I wondered (supposing that the sultriness in Wilde isn't meant as a comment on the society he portrays) if that was because the Edwardian age really was a bit less stifling, or whether it has to do with the differing perception of one born into this society as opposed to the observer that Wilde was.
—Truehobbit
