| Synopsis: |
First published in 1968, The Four Beauties is Bates's last collection of novellas offering a mixture of comedy, adventure, a semi-autobiographical piece and an exploration of a dark love triangle.`The Simple Life' is set at a country cottage offering the joys of a humble existence, and focuses on a bitter alcoholic wife who finds temporary pleasure in a seventeen-year-old boy. A reminiscence of newspaper reporter, reflecting Bates's own experiences at the Northamptonshire Chronicle, `The Four Beauties' concerns the narrator's complicated relationship with three lovely and highly-sexed daughters, as well as their mother. A television adaptation Country Matters was aired in March 1973.'The Chords of Youth' sees Bates revive the character of Aunt Leonora, first introduced in the 1965 story `The Picnic', in this comic novella in which she entertains a visiting German, mistaking him for an old flame. Linguistic confusion, abundant food and wine, and a pompous English bureaucrat contribute to the humorous unfolding of the story.In contrasting tone, `The White Wind' is a late novella featuring a young man coming to terms with life's realities, with considerable action and violence and an irascible man serving as the captain of a boat. The element of a dedicated doctor vainly trying to get Pacific islanders to take their medicines is based on Bates's own Tahitian travels. |