A Game of Hide and Seek

Elizabeth Taylor’s fifth novel A Game of Hide and Seek, first published in 1951, is a love story, but, in typical Taylor fashion, it tells of a love which is never quite fulfilled. Harriet and Vessey are thrown together by the friendship between Harriet’s mother, Lilian, and Vesey’s aunt, Caroline. They have known each other since childhood, and, at eighteen, Harriet has become a little infatuated with Vesey:

“Her inclination at this time was only to lie and think of Vesey at night before sleep…”

Both are a disappointment to their parents. Harriet “through inattention, lagged behind at school”:

“ ‘What brilliant career to choose for her,’ became ‘what to do with her at all’ when she left school.”

Vesey, meanwhile, confesses to Harriet on a walk they take together (“boredom had driven them to it, they decided”) that he wants to be a writer. The fact that he has never told anyone this indicates a closeness not previously evident, enhanced when he places his hand over hers:

“She seemed to have stepped over into another world; confused, as though the demarcation had been between life and death, she imagined herself swimming, floating in a strange element where hearing and sight no longer existed.”

Taylor captures the ecstasy of the moment as well as any metaphysical poet, but it is short-lived. Harriet freezes and later wishes she had that moment again:

“She could not believe that caution and uncertainty could have so wickedly crippled her happiness at such a time.”

They have one further moment of closeness, again brilliantly described:

“…all her vague yearnings, dissatisfactions, disturbances were resolved so suddenly she felt goaded and overthrown.”

(The insertion of ‘goaded’ is both unexpected and perfect). Caroline, however, has noticed their growing closeness and arranges for Vesey to leave earlier than planned, with a suitable excuse. And so we enter a period of the novel where they live quite separate lives: Vesey goes to university and Harriet gets a job in a clothing shop. Contact between them is minimal, and Harriet begins a relationship with an older man, Charles Jephcott (“an elderly man of about thirty-five” – an indication, one hopes, of how Taylor allows her character’s viewpoint into the narrative). Charles is everything Vesey is not – devoted, dependable – and he possesses a good income. Harriet rarely even hears of Vesey:

“Vesey had been blown away like a leaf in the wind: he left no mark, it seemed: no remembrances.”

When she does receive news of Vesey, she discovers he has left Oxford, leading her uncle to comment, “I foresee a sad future for him unless he pulls himself together.”

The second part of the novel is set almost twenty years later. Harriet and Charles have married and have a daughter, Betsy. Vesey, who is now a (minor) actor, struggling to make a living, reappears and Harriet must decide whether to risk the comfort and stability of her marriage to be with the man she really loves.

Though this sketches the main story of the novel, as usual Taylor refuses to neglect her minor characters. Children are particularly brought to life in A Game of Hide and Seek with an especially memorable scene where Harriet and Vesey take Caroline’s children, who have been brought up vegetarian, to a restaurant and Vesey insists that they order chops. While the scene is designed to illustrate Vesey’s character, the children are fully present: “I don’t know what is a chop.” Later, the character of Betsy, Harriet’s daughter, will provide the viewpoint for sections of the narrative. Her infatuation with Vesey after she sees him on stage creates an echo of her mother’s feelings, but, again, she is a fully-rounded character, immersed in the misery of adolescence, and with her own relationships quite unknown to Harriet. (Consider, in contrast, how often children simply vanish from the narrative when inconvenient to the main story).

Objects also play an important part in Taylor’s work without ever quite tipping over into something as obvious as symbolism, and here photographs and books are of particular significance. Harriet steals a photograph of Vesey from Caroline’s album and keeps it sealed in an envelope until it is opened by Betsy. Charles proposes to Harriet after looking at a photograph of her as a child:

“…staring at the anxious little face and brushed back hair.”

Books, too, are reminders – not only the diary Harriet keeps, but the copy of The Roadmender left out in the rain by Vesey and thrown out years later by Hugo and Caroline just before Caroline marries:

“After all, we said we’d be ruthless and we must be. It’s useless to harbour it.”

A Game of Hide and Seek is one of Taylor’s most poignant novels. Vesey and Harriet’s love for each other is inconvenient but sincere. As the novel heads towards its conclusion, and they must decide whether to take their second chance, the tension is almost painful, but happiness for either one of them is not an obvious choice, and may not even be possible.

Tags: a game of hide and seek, Elizabeth Taylor