Early Autumn is a novel by Louis Bromfield about the Pentland family, specifically Olivia who married into the family. Olivia is almost 40, on the edge of the autumn of her life, in a loveless marriage (her husband spends his time writing the family’s genealogical tome), and tending the Pentland estate alongside her father-in-law, John, who is in love with another woman but stays married to his insane wife out of duty.
Olivia looks at her beautiful daughter Sybil who is in the spring and summer of her life. The book is set in the summer and many images are used to enhance the novel’s title, recognizing that the time for love happens in the summer of one’s life but that soon, middle age (aka autumn) catches us.
During the story, Sybil falls in love with a boy visiting from France who doesn’t know his father (a no-no for the Pentland family) and Olivia begins spending time with an Irish immigrant named Michael O’Hara who has come into great political power. O’Hara wants Olivia to run away with him and she wants to, but in the end, she decides not to because John Pentland has died and left her (not his son) as the heir of the Pentland estate. Olivia realizes she needs to let her daughter Sybil marry for love and use her new position to help move the family into the future. Olivia also discovers (through a moment of clarity from her insane mother-in-law) that the Pentland family’s cherished past is a sham; their ancestor was also a bastard child who reinvented himself when he came to America. Olivia sees the hypocrisy of her family, but determines she will change their future for her daughter.
The story reminded me of Age of Innocence in many ways, though it was not quite as moving. I did really like it though and this would be a book worth reading!
