The Fortnight in September
‘The Fortnight in September’ by R.C. Sherriff beautifully portrays the emotions of an English family anticipating their annual holiday by the sea. Written in 1931, RC Sherriff captures the slowness of a time without technology. The plodding plot might not appeal to every reader, but after a few chapters, I was hooked. R.C. Sherriff takes us to an era before televisions, computers, and cell phones and reveals the beauty and dignity of a simpler life.
Mr. and Mrs. Stevens and their three young adult children are in a state of high anticipation about their upcoming trip. After two decades of making this journey, their travel plans have evolved with military precision. Each family member knows his or her responsibilities for their departure and happily visualizes the Inn where they will stay and the beach where they will wade.
Like layers of paint, the memories of this year’s trip will be coated onto prior trips, and their sparkling recollections will sustain them in the coming year. The novel offers insights, observations and reflections about what the family members see and feel. One theme is that when they are on Holiday, they have time to reflect on their lives. For example, Mr. Stevens likes to take solitary walks on vacation, “He liked to have a good think – a good, connected think without anything to disturb him, and almost always he came back from his lonely walk with a firmer grip upon himself, and renewed confidence for the future.”
Discretionary money is scarce and the young adults contribute to the family’s finances. As a middle manager, Mr. Stevens’s mobility is limited. His children are on a similar path, an understood, but unspoken truth. Yet, the Stevens make the most of what they have. Their carefully prescribed routines are a way to anticipate every Holiday expenditure. Spontaneity, after all, is a luxury of the upper classes. When the family is invited to the grand home of a wealthy work associate, the children of Mr. Stevens more clearly comprehend the stellar moral character of their father.
The trip goes off without a hitch and nothing bad happens to any of the characters! Not a common theme in today’s novels. Though I don’t want to romanticize the limits of this family’s life, they have created a sacred space from the sameness of their daily routines. There is a quiet dignity to these characters. R.C. Sherriff’s ‘The Fortnight in September’ is both time travel and writing at its best.