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Dark
Palace by Frank Moorhouse, Penguin
2000. |
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 Anyone
expecting the second part in a trilogy about the League
of Nations may be concerned to see the description on
the front cover of Dark Palace as a 'companion
novel' to Grand Days. However, any disappointment
rapidly dissipates as we begin to read as the novel is
very much the next stage in the life of the wonderful
Edith Campbell Berry, although — as the publishers
rush to assure us — Dark Palace stands alone
as a novel in its own right.
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Grand
Days won my heart with the young and somewhat green
Edith who took on and charmed Geneva and the newly formed
League of Nations with her honesty and forthrightness.
And, thankfully, Dark Palace once again finds Edith
a heroine of the most romantic and inspiring type. She
is older now, with all the cynicism and sophistication
she knew she lacked when she originally arrived in Geneva,
but she has retained her adventurous spirit and commitment
to the League and their mission. Now, however, the 'grand
days' of the League are over as it battles to maintain
harmony between its current members and convince the USA
to join its ranks. And while Edith's personal life is
similarly tumultuous, her role at the League becomes increasingly
important as she moves through its ranks.
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The
political upheavals of the mid-twentieth Century (the
rise of Fascism, the Spanish Civil War and the outbreak
of hostilities in 1939) serve as a wonderfully dramatic
backdrop as Edith explores gender boundaries with the
irrepressible English Major Ambrose Westwood. This relationship
allows Moorhouse to examine societal norms, and indeed,
by projecting the bending of traditional gender roles
against the massive political changes of the time, effectively
questions why such borders (both individual and national)
exist. When questioned by Ambrose about her loyalty to
the league, Edith declares:
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