A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor

I have a confession to make. I often write reviews, planning to post them at some future date—after I have let my thoughts on the book simmer a little longer and given the review a final edit—but often those reviews don’t get posted at all. My review of Elizabeth Taylor’s A View of the Harbour is one of them. I loved this book and thought about it long after reading it. I had planned to share my review in the summertime. Well, summer came and went, and what do you know? This review was still sitting in the drawer. So this is a book that is set in the warm weather, but I actually think Elizabeth Taylor’s writing lends well to the quiet, still days of winter. I will explain. 

A couple of years ago I read another of Elizabeth Taylor’s novels, Palladian. At the time, I thought it was very well written, but maybe a bit dull. 

Perhaps the setting of my reading was partially to blame, as I mostly read it while sitting down at the harbour in St. John’s, Newfoundland. I honestly can’t remember a thing about the novel now. Even reading the blurb doesn’t ring any bells. It’s quite likely that, for me anyway, Elizabeth Taylor novels are best read in a quiet, distraction-free environment.

Anyway, I’d heard wonderful things about Elizabeth Taylor so decided to keep trying. I’m so glad I did!

She wanted to watch the great dappled waves riding in to the foot of the cliffs, breaking and crumbling and scurrying back in confusion, to be conscious of the pulse of the lighthouse, to see once more visitors with folded raincoats stepping into rowing-boats named Nancy or Marigold or Adeline; the moving water, the sauntering people, the changing sky, the wrinkled moonlight on the sea, and fishermen coming out of the Anchor on Saturday nights, standing round the lamp-post singing Sweet Genevieve. 

A View of the Harbour is a subtle novel. At first, I thought it might be a great deal too subtle for me. But by about the end of chapter two I started to get the characters straight and I realised that because this is a novel where not too much happens in terms of plot, you start to pay attention to all the little things that get missed in easier to read books.

By the time I finished this book I was wondering why in all my time at university I had never heard Elizabeth Taylor mentioned. I hear you Elizabeth Taylor fans saying, “You must have been taking the wrong courses.” Well, quite. She is a writer that is meant to be studied. Although, the casual reader could enjoy this book just fine. I know I did!

This book is set in the seemingly sleepy coastal village of Newly, where everyone knows everyone, and knows everything about everyone else. Well, almost.

Tory is divorced and involved with her neighbour and best friend’s husband. Beth is so absorbed by her writing that she doesn’t notice her husband is in love with Tory. Their teenage daughter is more perceptive than her mother and is disgusted by the two.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Bracey, an invalid who drives her daughters to distraction with her changeable moods and thirst for information on the goings on in the village. There is a real sense of claustrophobia in the houses around the harbour, but especially in theirs. 

When a retired naval officer visits the town with the intention of painting the picturesque harbour, he can’t help but stir things up.

There are so many real moments of both humour and longing in this novel. It’s heartbreaking and beautiful. Oh, and terrifically well written. So well written that I need to go back and reread Palladian and see what it is that I missed. This time I will take my own advice and read it in a more distraction free setting, because Elizabeth Taylor's writing is something to be savoured.

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