An Autumn Sowing

An Autumn Sowing by E.F. Benson

E.F. Benson's An Autumn Sowing opens in Bracebridge, where Thomas Keeling, a prosperous self-made tradesman about to become Mayor, sits through Dr Inglis's fire-and-brimstone farewell sermon at St Thomas's with his family: his son Hugh, whose engagement to a Miss Pemberton has just been announced from the pulpit; his plain, romantically susceptible daughter Alice, aged twenty-five; his schoolboy son John, seventeen; and his placid, unimaginative wife Emmeline. The new incumbent, the effusive and flirtatious Cuthbert Silverdale, immediately fascinates Alice. A tense Sunday lunch follows with Emmeline's spiteful mother, Mrs Goodford, who provokes Keeling with jibes about his origins as a fishmonger until he sharply rebukes her. Keeling's private passion is revealed to be his library, a "secret garden" of fine illustrated books that sets him apart from his commercially-minded family and associates. His chief companion there is Charles Propert, head of the book department at his Stores, whom Keeling treats with unusual warmth and generosity. That evening Silverdale dines at the Keelings' and captivates Alice and Emmeline with tales of slum visits and deathbed conversions while irritating the skeptical John. At his office, Keeling reflects on having reached the summit of his business success and wonders whether to expand into the town of Nalesborough or retire into his books. He is visited by Lord Inverbroom, chairman of the County Hospital, who seeks a loan to complete a new wing; Keeling instead anonymously offers to fund the whole wing himself, wishing only to be revealed as donor at its opening during his mayoralty. That same day he hires Norah Propert, Charles's sister, as his secretary, and is soon struck by her efficiency, beauty, and cool detachment. Overhearing her tell her brother that working for Keeling feels "horrid" because he is "a cad," he is stung, and begins subtle, uncharacteristic courtesies toward her. Their relationship develops through a shared love of books: Norah and Charles begin cataloguing Keeling's library on Sunday afternoons. A dispute over the price of a workplate Norah designs, followed by Keeling's unusually humble apology, marks a turning point, deepening a mutual, unspoken attraction neither openly acknowledges. Meanwhile Alice's infatuation with Silverdale intensifies into secret nightly rituals of devotion, though he treats all his female admirers with the same indiscriminate, sentimental affection, including her rival Julia Fyson. At a dinner party, Norah unexpectedly arrives alone (her brother being ill) and is briefly seen crossing into Keeling's library, then introduced into the drawing-room at his insistence; this stirs jealous suspicion in Emmeline, sharpened by the gossiping Mrs Fyson. That night, unable to rest, Keeling secretly walks through the snow to Norah's house merely to confirm she has arrived home safely, recognizing in himself a depth of feeling his marriage has never supplied. The same day he privately arranges to purchase the freehold of the County Club, to which he does not yet belong, and, meeting Lord Inverbroom again during a visit to Inverbroom's estate, learns he is likely to be offered a baronetcy for his hospital gift and asks Inverbroom to propose him for Club membership through the ordinary channel rather than by right of ownership. Inverbroom senses the club's likely prejudice against Keeling's tradesman origins but agrees. Emmeline, delighted by the prospect of becoming "Lady Keeling," nonetheless grows increasingly suspicious of her husband's interest in Norah, and a charged exchange between them over the catalogue work reveals how far apart they truly stand. As Christmas approaches, Keeling arranges for Norah to continue her cataloguing work at his house despite his wife's unspoken jealousy, and tries, awkwardly, to persuade Norah and her brother to take a paid holiday, offering to advance her wages — an offer Norah instinctively resists, unwilling to be paid for work that has become, for her too, something other than mere business.

By E.F. Benson · First published 2023 · Genre: Fiction, Historical, Romance · 11 chapters · 95,245 words

First lines

Mr Keeling had expected an edifying half-hour when Dr Inglis gave out as his text, ‘There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth,' and as the discourse proceeded, he felt that his anticipations were amply justified. Based on this unshakable foundation, and buttressed by other stalwart pronouncements, the doctrine of eternal damnation wore a very safe and solid aspect. It was the justice of it that appealed to Mr Keeling. Mankind had been warned in a perfectly unmistakable manner that if they persisted in certain courses of action and in certain inabilities to believe, they would be punished for ever and ever. That was fair, that was reasonable: rules were made to be obeyed. If you were truly sorry for having disobeyed them, a secondary principle, called mercy, came to the succour of the repentant. But Dr Inglis did not say so much about that. He was concerned with the inflexibility of his text.

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fiction · literature · novel · drama · relationships · family · love · loss · society · class · nature · autumn

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