Forgotten Book - The Eternal Journey

There is no doubt that The Eternal Journey, a novel of 1930, is a forgotten book. I've not found a single review, nor any analysis of the story in a reference book or online. Nothing too unusual in that, except that the author was famous enough to be honoured with a blue plaque on her former home in Abergavenny. Yes, I'm referring to Ethel Lina White.

This was White's third novel. It followed The Wish-Bone (described by one reviewer as 'a charming little romance') and Soon 'Twill Be Dark ('the love interest is strong') and although there is quite a lot of romance in the story, it's probably best described as a cross-genre novel, with elements of the supernatural and also fantasy. The first section is set in 1794 and the third in 2331 (that's not a misprint!) - these shortish segments sandwich the main body of the book, a contemporary story set in 1930.

I don't want to say too much about the story for fear of ruining it, but it begins promisingly from the crime fan's point of view. The second sentence on the first page, which follows a paragraph introducing a young woman called Ursula Pike reads: 'She had committed murder.' This is not in any sense, however, a conventional mystery novel.

This book marks, I think, a significant stage in White's development as a novelist. She was moving beyond the conventional romance-dominated story to a more ambitious style of writing. There are some interesting musings on the role of women in society, and it's striking that the male characters are much less engaging than the female leads. Women consistently take centre stage in White's fiction. Her next book was Put Out the Light, which clearly qualifies as crime fiction. I don't claim that The Eternal Journey is in any way a masterpiece - I think that White had an unusual idea for a story which she executed imperfectly. But I definitely found this novel intriguing and I'm glad I read it.