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442 The twentieth century: 1900–45
1950s, and is an important link between Arnold Bennett early in the
century and those writers of the post-Second World War era.
Forrest Reid has been called the greatest Ulster novelist, but he
does not allow the troubles in his province to colour his writings.
Rather, Reid uses his novels to explore an ideal world of innocence.
His Tom Barber trilogy, comprising Uncle Stephen (1931), The Retreat
(1934), and Young Tom, (1944) traces the passage from innocence to
awareness in the hero, Tom, as he grows from the age of 10 to 15.
These are not novels of childhood, however. They are full of classical
references, explorations of consciousness, and realism which make a
potent mixture, producing a ‘paradise lost’ of modern times.
He was not offended; he had been talking really, towards the end,
as much to himself as to his companion; and now he felt too drowsy
to wonder at what point Pascoe had ceased to hear him. That, he
would learn tomorrow, and in the meantime he was content to lie
in dreamy contemplatation of a world shifting uncertainly between
recollection and imagination. Nor was he surprised to see, amid
drifting scenes and faces, Ralph himself standing between the
window and the bed. By that time, too, he must have forgotten
Pascoe, or surely he would have awakened him, whereas all he did
was to murmur sleepily; ‘Why have you come?’
The voice that answered him was faint and thin as the whisper
of dry corn. ‘I don’t know. I don’t think I have come. I don’t
think this is real. . . . Or perhaps I can only come when you are
dreaming, for I think you are dreaming now. . . .’
There was a silence – deep, wonderful, unbroken – as if all the
restless murmuring whispers of earth and night were suddenly
stilled. . . .
‘Listen!’
Tom listened, but somehow Ralph was no longer there; and far,
far away he could hear the sound of waves breaking, and surely
he had heard that low distant plash before – many times perhaps,
though when and where he had forgotten.
(Young Tom)