Brian Moore’s first novel, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne published in 1955, was not actually his first novel – he had already written a series of pulp thrillers and would go on to write three more after. It is, however, very far from the thrills implied in A Bullet for my Lady and This Gun for Gloria despite sharing the author’s love of a female-centred title. There is nothing in the way of violence in Judith Hearne unless one counts the violent passions that arise in Judith, a middle-aged spinster, on the appearance of her landlady’s brother, James Madden, from New York where he has spent most of his adult life. (Moore similarly left Ireland for Canada in 1949, and would later live in New York).
Hearne lives a lonely, unfulfilled life, moving from boarding house to boarding house (we think, initially, as a result of her high standards), counting every coin she spends as her pupils (she teaches piano) dwindle in number, and unlikely ever to marry now that she is in her forties. Watched over by a picture of the aunt she nursed through the prime years of her life, and Jesus with his Scared Heart, she seems content with her limited existence until she meets Madden:
“He was a big man. He alone had risen when she entered… Who else but an American would wear that big bluestone ring on his finger.”
His manners (important to Hearn who has earlier dismissed her landlady’s son, Bernard, as having “no manners, staring like that”) and the glamour of his stateside life are attractive to Hearne; her interest in that life pleases Madden. Yet, she immediately fears rejection:
“He would, see her shyness, her stiffness. And it would frighten him, he would remember he was alone with her… he would see the hysteria in her eyes, the hateful hot flush in her cheeks. And he would go as all men had gone before him.”
This fear is rooted in her desperate loneliness, which Moore exposes in the pages which follow. Her meagre budget is such she cannot afford to eat lunch, describing hunger as an “expensive little rascal”. She meets an ex-pupil only to discover he has a new music teacher:
“You’d think I had the plague or something. That’s four pupils gone in the last six months.”
The only bright spot in her week is Sunday, “the great day of the week,” her only social occasion when she visits the O’Neill’s. The visit is viewed as a chore by their children, Shaun describing it as “the advent of the Great Bore” before disappearing to study, as does his sister, Una. The routine nature her visit is emphasised by their mimicking of her greeting, “It’s only me,” and her regular refusal of a third glass of sherry. Hearne is both aware of this but unable to break free from the straitjacket of her repetitive existence:
“There! She’d done it again, saying something she always said. She saw the small cruel smile on Una’s face…”
It is this awareness that prevents Hearne being simply a figure of fun to the reader as she is to the children. Where they assume that she is contented with her unchanging routine, we sense that she still hopes, as she does with Madden. At the same time, Moore suggests from the beginning that her feelings are not reciprocated:
“Friendly, she is. And educated. Those rings and that gold wristwatch. They’re real. A pity she looks like that.”
The emphasis on her expensive jewellery and dismissal of her looks indicate that, though Madden may admire her sophistication, he does not view her romantically. Throughout the novel, Moore will allow the reader glimpses of Hearne from the point of view of other characters, enhancing the essential tragedy of her story. Her weakness for alcohol is also hinted at on her first visit to the O’Neill’s:
“The first sip was delicious, steadying, making you want a big swallow. But it has to last.”
Even the language (“a big swallow”) suggests the loss of decorum that will come with drinking. As Hearne loses the tight control she attempts to hold on her life by constantly denying herself there is something to admire as well as regret. Moore’s ability to write the life of a middle-aged woman is quite remarkable and though the novel may not be a ‘thriller’ the narrative tension is, at times, exquisite.
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