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The Great Lover (novel)

The Great Lover AuthorJill DawsonCountryEnglandLanguageEnglishGenreBiographical novelPublished2009PublisherSceptrePages310ISBN978-0-340-93565-1
The Great Lover is a 2009 biographical novel by Jill Dawson. The novel follows the fictional Nell Golightly as she encounters the eccentric poet Rupert Brooke in Grantchester, Cambridgeshire. Set from 1909 until 1914, in the novel Dawson examines Brooke's relationship with Nell, and his growth as a poet and individual. The novel is based on the biography of Brooke during that period, incorporating opinions, ideas, and excerpts from Brooke's letters and other primary sources documenting his life.

Much of the novel emphasises Brooke's sexuality and his understanding of love. Additionally, the novel contrasts the various elements of English upper- and lower-class life during the Edwardian period. Other notable elements of the novel include the vivid descriptions of the life in Grantchester and the borrowing of themes from Brooke's poetry such as beekeeping.

Generally, reviews of the novel are positive, noting the complexity of the characterisation of both main characters and the ease which the novel communicates Brooke's life. Additionally, the novel was also featured in the 2009 Richard & Judy Summer Reads and The Daily Telegraph's "Novels of the Year" for 2009.

Plot
A 1910 photograph of The Orchard in bloom
Note on names: Throughout the novel Rupert Brooke is referred to as Brooke and Nell Golightly is referred to as Nell. That convention is maintained here.
The prelude of the novel begins with a 1982 letter from the elderly daughter of Rupert Brooke by a Tahitian women to Nell Golightly, asking Nell to help the daughter better understand her father. Nell responds, including a narrative of the time spent by Brooke at The Orchard in Grantchester from 1909 until his retreat in Tahiti in 1914, which becomes the rest of the novel.

Nell's story alternates between the perspectives of Nell Golightly, a seventeen-year-old girl, and the poet Rupert Brooke. The novel begins as Nell's father dies while tending to the family's bee hives. Because she is the oldest child and her mother is long dead, Nell Golightly decides finds a job as a maid at The Orchard, a boarding house and tea room outside of Cambridge which caters to the students at the University there. There she, along with several other young women, serves guests and cleans the facilities. She also helps a local beekeeper tend his hives.

Soon after Nell begins working at The Orchard, Rupert Brooke becomes a resident. As he enjoys his summer working on papers for Cambridge societies and composing his poetry, Brooke leads a social life flirting with various women and enjoying the company of artists and other students. Brooke soon lusts for Nell, and his increased interest in her leads to unconventional encounters. They develop a friendship in which both Nell and Brooke hold secret admiration and love for the other, but are unable to express it because of social conventions. Brooke also desires to lose his virginity because he feels that being a virgin is disgraceful. Because he cannot convince Nell or any of several other women to succumb to his wooing, he loses it in a homosexual encounter with a boyhood friend, Denham Russell-Smith.

After the encounter, Brooke returns home to comfort his mother at his father's death bed. After his father's death, though Brooke desires to return to the Orchard, Brooke is forced to stay at the school where his father worked as headmaster, retaining the post until the end of the school year. After a brief period, Brooke returns to The Orchard. Meanwhile, Nell's sister Betty becomes a maid at The Orchard and another of Nell's sisters has a still birth. Brooke continues to become closer to Nell, and they covertly go swimming together in Byron's pond, a local swimming hole named after the poet Lord Byron. Afterwards, Brooke departs on a tour advocating for workers' rights, which does not go very well. At the end of the tour, Brooke proposes to Noel Oliver, one of the wealthy girls whom Brooke had been courting during his stay at The Orchard. Upon his return to Grantchester, Brooke also finds himself expelled from The Orchard because of his wanton social life. Brooke then moves next door to another boarding house, the Old Vicarage.

A photograph of Brooke (right) and Noel Olivier; Maitland Radford; Virginia Woolf (n�e Stephen) circa 1911, during the period when he was staying at Grantchester.
Brooke does not marry Noel, but rather spends a brief period in Munich where he tries to become intimate with a Belgian girl in order to lose his heterosexual virginity. This relationship also fails, and he returns to England confused about his sexuality. He and Nell continue to remain close until he goes on a vacation with his friends, where he again proposes to another of his friends. Brooke is refused resulting in a psychological breakdown and an extended absence from Grantchester while he is treated by a London doctor. After a few more months, Brooke returns to the Old Vicarage briefly before departing on a trip to Tahiti via Canada and the United States. The night before he leaves, Nell realises that she still loves Brooke and goes to Brooke's bed the night before he leaves.

While in Tahiti, Brooke suffers an injury to one of his feet, and is nursed by the beautiful Taatama, a local woman. Then Brook and Taatama romance each other, eventually having sex and impregnating Taatama. After several months of exploring the island, Brooke decides to return home. Before his departure Brooke leave writes Nell a letter which contains a black pearl. Nell, now married to a local carter, receives the pearl and letter soon after she gives birth to a child by Brooke.

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