Vita Sackville-West's writing is so smooth and beautiful! I have just finished reading this collection of five longish and shortish stories. Hesperus reprinted the title novella as a stand-alone, but the 1922 publication included several other stories as well. Virago reprinted the title novella with a story from another collection. I was happy to read the original collection. I found her writing compulsively readable.

I like the subtitle of the title novella because it sends a clear signal where the story is going, and no, a woman does not figure in the plot. Nope, the object of the heir's love is a 16th century English manor.

"The Christmas Present" about an older woman's, uhm, abnormal psychology had an abrupt ending after increasing tension throughout.

"Her Son" is also about an older woman; she welcomes her son after his five year absence in the Argentine. A vague disappointment descends; can it be that Henry does not want the things that Mrs Martin wants?

"Patience" and "The Parrot" were short and a bit puzzling (or, what just happened here?).

I will be seeking out more books by Sackville-West. ( )

This is a lovely little book which makes clear Sackville-West's love for the land, and made me long to visit England again. ( )

Tells the tale of a young man born with every advantage nature and fortune can give him, who is yet unhappy and unfulfilled. Sebastion, who is born a duke, struggles against society’s assumptions in a quest for meaning and wholesome goodness. He is alternately assisted and hindered by an old adventurer and his various love affairs.
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(4 stars for the long-short "The Heir," itself, 3 stars for the collection overall) ( )

Vita Sackville West is definitely someone who’s writing I feel I should know better. A few years ago I read All Passion Spent in a small ancient penguin paperback and thoroughly enjoyed it. Prior to that I had been fascinated by the hugely enjoyable memoir ‘Portrait of a marriage’ written by Vita’s son Nigel Nicolson of his parent’s marriage. Reading Violet Trefusis’ beautiful letters to Vita, in the collection called Violet to Vita, I found that Vita actually remains frustratingly elusive, as the letters are all Violet’s. I am determined now though, to read more of Vita’s work, especially having finally got around to reading this beautiful little story.
The Heir is a 1922 novella, attractively re-issued by Hesperus in 2008. Having read a couple of excellent reviews of it last year – I immediately wanted to read it.
Beautifully and sensitively written The Heir is the story of Mr Chase, a lonely insurance clerk from Wolverhampton, the heir of the title, who, upon the death of his aunt, has inherited an estate seemingly impractical and burdensome. It would appear its worth lying only in what its various parts can be sold for. Mr Chase; anxious to get back to his office; is, at first somewhat uncomfortable in the beautiful house of Blackboys Estate. Chase’s discomfort is not made any better by the frequent presence of Mr Nutley – one of the partners in the firm of solicitors and estate agents handling the forthcoming auction. Nutley is a wonderfully malevolent character, actually delighting in the distress of estate tenants under threat of losing their homes. In the weeks leading up to the sale, Chase spends more and more time at Blackboys, he starts to feel rather at home in the place, making friends with some of the local tenants and enjoying the company of an old greyhound and the peacocks that live in the grounds.
“And as his vision widened he saw that the house fused very graciously with the trees, the meadows, and the hills, grown there in place no less than they, a part of the secular tradition. He reconsidered even the pictures; not as the representation of meaningless ghosts, but as men and women whose blood had gone to the making of that now in his own veins. It was the land, the farms, the rickyards, the sown, the fallow, that taught him his wisdom. He learnt it slowly, and without knowing he learnt.”
The Heir is surprisingly emotional; Vita Sackville West apparently drew very much on her own experiences of inheritance and loss when she wrote it. She is said to have worried that the story was too sentimental when she was first approached for permission to reprint it nearly thirty years after first writing it. The Heir is not to my mind overly sentimental – it is though deeply poignant and I simply loved it.
This is a small book – which the reader cannot but help race through, anxious to know what will become of Chase and the Blackboys estate. It is certainly possible to read in one sitting, I read it in two, punctuated by a trip to the post office and pharmacy, and some other domestic chores. It made for a delightful afternoon read however, when I was able to sit down and read the majority of it quietly , delighting in the wonderful language and wishing more than anything that there was much more of it. I wanted to know Mr Chase better, follow his progress beyond the events of this beautiful little novella. Maybe it is better, that I imagine it all for myself instead. ( )