"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."Summering with a fellow schoolboy on a great English estate, Leo, the hero of L. P. Hartley's finest novel, encounters a world of unimagined luxury. But when his friend's beautiful older sister enlists him as the unwitting messenger in her illicit love affair, the aftershocks will be felt for years. The inspiration for the brilliant Joseph Losey/Harold Pinter film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, The Go-Between is a masterpiece—a richly layered, spellbinding story about past and present, naiveté and knowledge, and the mysteries of the human heart. This volume includes, for the first time ever in North America, Hartley's own introduction to the novel.

Richard Doyle

Rick

Shawn Baldwin

Jane Holland

Calum Johnston

The Go-Between

they do things differently there'  When one long, hot summer, young Leo is staying with a school-friend at Brandham Hall, he begins to act as a messenger between Ted, the farmer, and Marian, the beautiful young woman up at the hall. He becomes drawn deeper and deeper into their dangerous game of deceit and desire, until his role brings him to a shocking and premature revelation. The haunting story of a young boy's awakening into the secrets of the adult world,  The Go-Between  is also an unforgettable evocation of the boundaries of Edwardian society.  Leslie Poles Hartley (1895-1972) was born in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, and educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. For more than thirty years from 1923 he was an indefatigable fiction reviewer for periodicals including the  Spectator  and  Saturday Review . His first book,  Night Fears  (1924) was a collection of short stories; but it was not until the publication of  Eustace and Hilda  (1947), which won the James Tait Black prize, that Hartley gained widespread recognition as an author. His other novels include  The Go-Between  (1953), which was adapted into an internationally-successful film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, and  The Hireling  (1957), the film version of which won the  Palme d'Or  at the Cannes Film Festival.  If you enjoyed  The Go-Between , you might like Barry Hines's  A Kestrel for a Knave , also available in Penguin Modern Classics.  'Magical and disturbing'  Independent    'On a first reading, it is a beautifully wrought description of a small boy's loss of innocence long ago. But, visited a second time, the knowledge of approaching, unavoidable tragedy makes it far more poignant and painful'  Express

Books like The Go-Between

The Go-Between

Cross-category suggestions

Liked by