"Deep Country" 1933 HARE, Amory
$750
HARE, Amory
[303] pp.
Charles Scribner's Sons
1933
7 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Jacket design by Paul Brown
*jacket spine/ top edge w/ tape reinforcement*
VG/ VG
IN "Deep Country" Amory Hare presents an authentic and vivid picture of the life of the fox-hunting set of Pennsylvania. As the wife of the master of the foxhounds in that section she knows whereof she speaks, and she dwells with loving care on all the minutiae of hunting, racing, hunt balls and hunt breakfasts. For the benefit of the uninitiated she explains that the red coats of the hunters are called "pink" in the daytime and "scarlet" at night, and that the difference between foxhunting in America and England is that here the fox is saved to hunt another day.
To a lover of horses this book will be of interest because of the author's knowledge of everything pertaining to them, but to the student of human nature the train of dramatic events which constitute the plot will seem to be based on a misunderstanding of the young men and women of today.
Evelyn Wren and Peter Kilgarry have grown up together, hunted, raced and danced together in complete amity and understanding. At the moment when it is quite obvious that marriage is the next step for them to take Peter decides that he will study art in France and leaves Evelyn without a word of explanation. In these days of utmost frankness in the younger generation such stern, Victorian reticence is beyond belief, and it is at this point that the machinery of the book creaks, because the events which follow depend upon the hero's silence for their existence. Two unhappy marriages, a divorce, a suicide and accusation of murder are a result of Peter Kilgarry's unnatural silence as to the state of his affections, and the exasperated reader becomes conscious of a wish that the young man had displayed more "horse sense."
If Miss Hare knew as much of human nature as she does of the equine, she would have created a more credible plot than that of "Deep Country." It is in her descriptions of the Pennsylvania countryside and what she writes of the horses for whom she has such real affection that her book has value.