LIVING ON YESTERDAY

by Edith Templeton

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Edith Templeton was born in Prague, in 1916, in what used to be the Austro-Hungarian Empire but is now the Czech Republic. She died in 2006. She wrote both short stories and novels. She also used the pen name Louise Walbrook.

Reviews

[Side Real Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe I first became aware of Edith Templeton back in 2003 when I read an extraordinary interview with her upon the re-issue of her (autobiographical) S/M novel ‘Gordon’. That is a book I have yet to read but the interview is well, quite something, to say the least. You can read it here:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...

However I did read her book of short stories (‘The Darts of Cupid’) issued a few years later but only now, fifteen or so years later again have I got around to reading this wonderful novel which, according to Anita Brookner, is supposedly her finest.

It is set in the upper echelons of post-WWI Bohemian Society (a milieu Templeton, born in Prague, seemed to have experienced in real life) and concerns the machinations of Baroness Kreslov to marry off her rather plain daughter Hedwig. When Ferdinand Szalay, a penniless but charming Hungarian Count comes into the baroness’ orbit she makes her move to achieve this and Hedwig acquiesces. However, all is not what it seems.

Now my synopsis might make this seem a dull read but, believe me, it is way beyond a tale of the upper classes. Just below the surface, it is a sharp social satire in which almost every encounter from lowliest maid upward, is jockeying to at least maintain (or preferably enhance) their societal position and (by extension) society. Everybody is playing a part. Everyone knows that they are and everybody else knows they are, but the omertà of society (manifested as extreme good manners) forbids anyone to break ranks.

But a little deeper it is a novel primarily about power, who wields it and how. Here is one of the main characters talking to Count Szalay about his deceased wife, a former actress:

“I often wished women were more like horses — you see your horse when you want to see it, and then you shut it up in the stable when you've had enough of it. You don't trail it about with you, round to parties and all day long, if you see what I mean.'

The Count looked down at his feet with one eyebrow raised high.

‘Stage?’ he asked. 'Or the stage of life?’

‘Bit of Both. But she was a better actress off the stage than on.’

This is obviously a world away from the amusing society satires of say, Jeeves and Wooster (The Blackshorts et cetera) or the malapropisms of social rivals Miss Mapp and Miss Lucia (“Au reservoir!”). If you enjoy, say, Reggie Oliver’s use of sly humour when describing a person (see my review of ‘A Maze for the Minotaur’ recently posted for my comments on this) you will like 'Living on Yesterday', But I believe Templeton is more exact(ing) surgeon than Oliver. If Oliver takes a dagger and stabs it in the back of a character, Templeton takes a scalpel and after making sure the victim sees it, plunges it into their face:

“Mr Simek was not a stranger to the house of Baron Kreslov. Like all good chefs he was as vain as a primadonna, as sensitive as a mimosa and as easily roused to anger as a turkey. From June to September of every year he directed the kitchen of the Hotel Royal at Karlsbad.

But in the winter months he led a life similar to that of a famous actress - he rested. And in between his rests he was willing - although reluctantly, if one was to believe him - to give what may be called ‘guest performances’ in the houses of the wealthy.”

How beautifully this instrument is honed. Every. Word. Exactly. In. Its. Place. It is perfect prose for this novel where your Place. In. The. Pecking. Order. Is. All.

The similarities to S/M are obvious and at times overt. Here is the Countess concluding an anecdote about her being knocked down by a car after making a visit to someone; “When I came home afterwards I indulged in a great luxury. I lay down for half an hour…it was so beautiful that I felt my little accident had been worthwhile.” She has suffered, but she has survived and it is apparent that she will suffer again. It is a game of sorts. But Hedwig will play the game a different way...

I enjoyed this novel hugely finding it both very funny and utterly terrifying at the same time. One part of me cannot understand why Templeton is not more highly regarded than she appears to be at present and yet, reading the interview again, I can understand exactly why she might not be held in higher esteem. At this moment she is certainly riding very highly in mine. I am certainly not waiting fifteen years before my next volume by her.

[Pascale · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderful find for those who've already read everything by Henry James and Edith Wharton. Set in Prague at an unspecified point between the world wars, this is the story of a con artist who manages to marry a wealthy heiress, Hedwig Kreslov, by masquerading as the last surviving son of a Hungarian Count who was very kind to Hedwig's uncle in the past. Most people suspect there's something a little bit off about "Count Ferdinand Szalay", except Melanie Kreslov, a snobbish, hypocritical domestic despot who is desperate to marry her eldest daughter into "real" aristocracy, since Kreslov became a Baron solely due to the success of his sawmills. Hedwig herself isn't duped by Ferdinand, but goes along with the wedding because she is desperate to escape her mother's iron rule. However, she quickly finds that being Countess Szalay doesn't broaden her horizons enough. Ferdinand neglects her in favor of his job at his father-in-law's factory, and her mother expects her to carry on following her orders. Therefore, Hedwig deserts her husband and elopes to Paris. Why she doesn't give away Ferdinand's secret is a little unclear to me, since this would make her mother's humiliation complete. Ferdinand exacts a huge sum from Melanie to disappear from Prague, and we last see him planning further metamorphoses. For me the weakness of the novel is in the under-analyzed complicity between Hedwig and Ferdinand. In other respects the book is well-paced and the secondary characters are sufficiently interesting.