Deep Summer by Gwen Bristow, for the #1937Club

Title: Deep Summer
Author: Gwen Bristow
Publication: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., hardcover, 1937
Genre: Historical fiction, late 18th century

Description: Fifteen-year-old Judith Sheramy is traveling by flatboat with her family from Connecticut to Louisiana where they have a royal grant to establish a homestead. When handsome Philip Larne, an adventurer from South Carolina, pulls up alongside on the Mississippi, the inexperienced girl is captivated, although her father and brother Caleb distrust him on sight. It disturbs Judith to learn he is a slave smuggler, carrying human cargo he will use to establish his own plantation but his charm and attention sweep her off her feet. Once they reach Louisiana, she elopes with Philip. Over the course of their marriage, she learns charm does not mend a leaking roof in their first home (or worse challenges) but eventually he produces a prosperous plantation and builds the beautiful home and she bears him three sons, beginning the dynasty they dreamed of. A family tree shows her descendants and those of her brother’s ill-fated marriage – their story is continued in The Handsome Road and This Side of Glory, which concludes in the 20th century.

My Impression: Gwen Bristow’s Celia Garth is one of my favorite historical novels, so Deep Summer, first in a trilogy, seemed a good choice for my final 1937 Club selection. Bristow does a great job describing how a girl who had never been kissed or left her small New England town before traveling to Louisiana is captivated by a dashing stranger:

“Don’t do that!” she cried. “You’re a pirate – a thief – a murderer–”

Philip moved back as though to keep himself from touching her again. His smile was no longer amused, but very tender and sweet. “Yes,” he said. “But you’ll never find anybody else who loves you as much as I do.”

Tears were rushing into her eyes. “You dear girl,” said Philip. He took her hands in his, tangling the topaz chain through her fingers. “Don’t you love me too?”

“I don’t know,” she returned brokenly. “Only I know – if I do it’s wrong. You’ve done such dreadful things – you must have broken all the Ten Commandments–”

“Every single one,” said Philip promptly. “And I’ll break them all again for your sake, or keep them for your sake, which is harder. . . .”

There is a deep fatalism that Bristow shares with Frances Parkinson Keyes that boys will be boys and hearts will be broken.  Philip is a charming rascal and his flaws are predictable, so when Judith goes to New Orleans with a friend for a visit, I not only knew something bad was going to happen, I also guessed he would sleep with her maid, a slave with whom Judith has a close relationship, and that Angelique would become pregnant (either I have read too many books set on plantations and stately homes - see also China Court - or I read this book long ago; maybe both). The ramifications of that selfish decision by Philip are upsetting to read: Judith cannot forgive her husband and in her pain, refuses to recognize Angelique had no choice in the matter and blames her. She threatens to sell her into worse bondage than her current situation, finally agrees just to banish her from the house, and is revolted every time she sees the child. The child, in turn, is mocked by other slaves for his parentage and grows up confused and resentful, leading to other problems.

However, that is just one episode in the Larnes’ mostly successful marriage. Having grown up in South Carolina and lived in Louisiana, Bristow was very familiar with the deep South and creates a strong sense of place in her novels. Both the Sheramys and Philip Larne have to clear heavily wooded and swampy lands in order to plant crops, and both Judith and her mother have difficulty adjusting to the heat and humidity (this week, coincidentally, I visited Shreveport, at the other end of the state, so experienced the humidity but thankfully not the insects or rats Bristow describes vividly), so it is a hard life in the summer, the winter is damp, and she is pregnant and fearful:

In January the fogs cleared and the days were cold and bright, and Judith began to feel better. Then, all of a sudden, it was February.

Nobody had told her to expect February, except as the name of a month. But she woke up one morning to a day so blue and gold that she leaped out of bed and leaned her arms on the window-sill, wishing her body was not so heavy because she felt like dancing. The sun was blazing on the oaks and magnolias, brilliant as summer though the air was still cold. The days went by and the glory was still there. . . . What a strange splendid country, in which February was the peak of beauty.

Modern readers will be disturbed by the depiction of slavery and use of the n-word but Bristow is focused on the development of Louisiana and the role all its people played, affluent whites, poor whites, and slaves in this compelling historical novel, which was a bestseller. Her biographer, Billie J. Theriot, believes that she deliberately did not take a stance on slavery that would be anachronistic, choosing instead to depict the institution as her research revealed it to her. She does not ignore atrocities such as the sexual exploitation by white men over black women or the separation of families but considered slavery a “reality of the times” (Gwen Bristow, A Biography with Criticism of Her Plantation Trilogy (1995) 178-180).  However, the characterization of most black characters is uncomfortably of their time, and Judith's family is unaccustomed and very fearful of them at first.

Mystery fans may recognize Bristow’s name as the author of The Invisible Host (1930), a mystery co-written with her husband, Bruce Manning. It was recently reprinted by Dean Street Press so I own and plan to read it soon. Her marriage to Manning, a writer, director, and producer, took her to Hollywood, where she lived from 1934 until her death in 1980, but their first address was 627 Ursuline Street in New Orleans (I like this because I am sure I have strolled past this address).  Deep Summer was written after they moved to California and it earned a $250 advance. Three years later, Crowell would publish Betsy-Tacy, which I reviewed for the 1940 Club.

Three of her books were made into movies: Tomorrow is Forever, starring Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles; The Invisible Host (as The Ninth Guest; and Jubilee Trail, set during the California Gold Rush. 

Source: Library. This is my ninth book for Marg's 2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.