Published as volume seven in Snow’s 11-volume series Strangers and Brothers, the events of this story actually place it immediately after the action of the introductory novel of the series.

The year is 1927 as the story opens, with the recurring character of Lewis Eliot serving as the first-person narrator. Eliot is in London to take the bar examination that will enable him to enter the profession of law as an apprentice practitioner. At the exam, he encounters Charles March, an acquaintance he wishes to know better, and the two of them have tea afterward.

Eliot is virtually impoverished, having spent his entire inheritance in the pursuit of his education to this point, and now his future hinges on achieving the excellent marks that will win him a scholarship for the next year. In contrast, Charles March is from a wealthy family, but Eliot knows little more about him, and Charles is not inclined toward self-revelation. As they enter their legal apprenticeship, they become best friends, and eventually Eliot is invited to visit the March home.

As the story unfolds, Eliot is primarily an observer of this wealthy way of life in which he was not reared but to which he aspires. His outsider status is reinforced by the fact that the March family is Jewish. Eliot is a welcome guest, but he is not an eligible candidate for the courtship of Charles’s sister Katherine, a charming young woman who has reached marriageable age.

Eliot witnesses the stresses that develop in the March family as the children begin to establish themselves as independent adults, making choices that break with family tradition and that especially displease the family patriarch, Leonard March. Charles becomes involved with Ann Simon, a radical young Jewish woman actively supporting the Communist Party, eventually marrying her. Leonard March is displeased; when Charles decides to leave the legal profession to become a doctor, Leonard retaliates financially, restricting Charles to a small allowance.

At stake is Charles’s “independence,” not from the family but from the obligation of working for a living. Leonard’s dissatisfaction with his children multiplies when Katherine marries outside the faith, choosing a young scientist, Francis Getliffe, the brother of Herbert Getliffe, the lawyer who supervises Eliot’s apprenticeship.

The focus of the story widens from these family disputes to political and financial intrigues fanned by Ronald Porson, a former admirer of Ann Simon. Porson wishes to get revenge on both the March and the Getliffe families. As the plot thickens, loyalties are strained, and some individuals must choose whether to cleave to their blood relatives or their marital choices, while others must choose whether to advance the interests of their ideological connections or protect the advantages of their loved ones.

Relatives issue ultimatums to one another, and emotions are at odds with ideas. Tradition digs in its heels as innovation strains to bring about new ways of being human, conducting business, and controlling government. Eliot relates the unfolding events with sympathy both for the defenders of tradition, such as Leonard March, and for the exponents of change, such as Ann Simon.

As with many modern novels, irony sits at the heart of this one. Family members who should be contributing to one another’s success instead wind up in isolated hostility. Acts intended to punish, such as Leonard’s eventual disinheriting of Charles, instead have an emotionally liberating effect. Determination to improve the lot of the many, such as Ann’s support of the Communists, can only come about at a cost to the beloved few.

Good intentions not infrequently lead to bad results, and bad intentions lead to worse results still. Snow’s sensitive and sympathetic narrative illustrates how difficult it is for anyone to know how to act in the world, and yet how impossible it is to avoid taking action.

Analysis of C. P. Snow’s Novels

Bibliography

De la Mothe, John. C. P. Snow and the Struggle of Modernity. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992.
Karl, Frederick F. C. P. Snow: The Politics of Conscience. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1963.

Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis

Tags: 20th century fiction, Ann Simon, British Literature, C. P. Snow, C. P. Snow literary themes, C. P. Snow's The Conscience of the Rich, Charles March, class and society, class mobility in fiction, Communism in literature, English novels 1920s, family conflict in novels, ideological tension in novels, interfaith marriage in fiction, irony in modern novels, Jewish family in literature, legal apprenticeship narrative, Leonard March, Lewis Eliot, literary analysis, modern British fiction, modernity and tradition, political ideology in fiction, Snow’s narrative style, Strangers and Brothers series, The Conscience of the Rich, tradition vs change