Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge
This novel came to me as part of a subscription from Mr. B's Emporium, a bookstore in Bath, England. It was originally written in 1935 and was a popular read at the time.
The main character Grace Kilmichael is married with three adult children. Her husband Walter is a well-known economist. Before she was married, she studied art, and she gave it up when she married. Once the boys were grown and her daughter Linnet away at school, and her husband travelling a lot for work, she started up again, studying at the Slade, and spending some time in Paris with another artist Moru. She became a success, with her first important picture ending up at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. She's won awards. She's made sure not to inconvenience her family, working around their needs and expectations, and painting under her middle name as 'Grace Stanway,' to avoid drawing undue attention to the family. But she feels her successes have been belittled by her husband, with he and the children teasing her about her art.
Lately Walter has been spending a lot of time with a female economist, Rose Barum, and extolling her intelligence and accomplishments. Even Linnet, who she had a close relationship up to recently, has been pushing her away, growing irritated at her suggestions, and spending less time at home.
As the book starts Grace is leaving, planning a long getaway for herself, going first to Paris to see some galleries, then on to Venice to visit Tortello, and then for a long stay on the Dalmation coast in Croatia. She has put it about that she is visiting her mother in Antibes, and she has accepted a commission for drawings for American papers. She had not planned to paint, and had not brought her painting things, but she changes her mind and has her mother send her things to Venice after all.
At Torcello she meets a young man who helps with a technical drawing she is doing for her son, and the two reconnect on a boat as she makes her way to Dalmatia.
The novel is a telling of their journey, their art, their growing closeness, and how it affects their lives in significant ways.
This is a lovely novel, in some ways of its times, but in others much ahead of them. I truly enjoyed it.
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