It can be unnerving starting to read a book knowing a number of other people really didn’t like it at all. I plucked Four Frightened People off the shelf – not even sure where I had got it – intrigued by the title and the blurb, I think it was one my sister found me in a charity shop, alerted to it by the dark green Virago spine. A few pages in and I discovered it was referred to as ‘that book’ by members of the Librarything Virago group – whose opinion I trust. My heart sank. I had started a dud; the trouble was I couldn’t put it down. Well I suppose by now we are all very well aware of how opinions on books can differ greatly, and Four Frightened People is a case in point. Although I do understand why some people dislike it and there were elements which made me uncomfortable, I enjoyed it a lot.

Four Frightened People propelled its author E. Arnot Robertson to literary fame in the early 1930’s- she had already enjoyed some success with her previous novels, but it was this novel that was highly acclaimed and re-printed numerous times. I can see why it was such a bestseller.

Judy Corder a no-nonsense, twenty-six year doctor, recovering from a broken love affair, is travelling with her cousin Stewart on a slow ship to Singapore. The heat is almost unbearable, 107◦ in the shade, and there is no shade, and here these two now cynical, old childhood playmates are incarcerated with their fellow passengers who include the slightly pompous Arnold Ainger – a married civil servant, and linguist and Mrs Mardick a hearty, managing woman, whose persistent good cheer and garrulousness soon sets all their teeth on edge. Furtive activity under cover of darkness among the Chinese crewmen alert Judy and Arnold to the danger on board – plague has broken out, and the terrified crew are already disposing of the bodies out of sight of their western passengers. Judy has selfishly hidden her profession from her fellow passengers – doesn’t want to have to hand out free medical advice – nice girl!
Judy, Arnold and Stewart hit upon the idea of leaving the ship at the next port and then travel over land on foot through the Malay jungle to Kintaling from where they can secure safer passage back to England. Stupidly Judy dresses for the jungle in silk stocking and some kind of flimsy sounding shoes – which she soon has cause to regret. At the moment of departure they find they must take Mrs Mardick with them, whose cool acceptance of the situation is almost unnerving.

“…after we had watched the ship sail, a thing of such beauty in the night, jewelled with tiers of light, that it was hard to believe that she carried the pollution and wretchedness we knew to be aboard. She was not far from us, but before we heard the rattle of the cabl;e coming home we saw the phosphorescence, a thin ghost of fire, a milky radiance just discernible against the black water at that distance, light faintly under her stern and drip from the stem as the anchor came up. I have never seen this living gleam in the water in the water, before or since, as brilliant as it was that night.”

Once on land things never ever get any easier. Their proposed journey of a few days – turns into weeks, weeks of adventure and peril in an inhospitable environment. They hire – ‘a guide’ Deotlan who is later joined by his former lover Wan Nau, Deotlan is part Malay, part European, his English is passable, his knowledge of the Malay jungle only slightly better than that of his clients, he is staunchly proud of his European heritage, although this has left him somewhat isolated from both communities.

Here, deep in the Malay jungle, civilisation has been abandoned to an extent, and the true natures of each of the group are brought to the fore. In the midst of their trek, they encounter wild animals, sickness, hunger, and come to make some shocking decisions which impact on others in the group. Judy recognises and ruminates on her own sexual desires, especially as they may relate to the two men who are her companions. Judy can appear arrogant, at first I found her cool, and not very likeable – but I warmed to her as the novel progressed. She is in many ways a modern woman, she knows what she wants, she’s intelligent and she is certainly unlike many female characters of this period, she chooses her own lover, and accepts the likely transitory nature of their relationship.

Which all brings me to the many reasons that a lot of people won’t like this book – and I acknowledge they are very real reasons – I’m not even sure why I didn’t react differently to the book than I did. Firstly – and one of the most unlikeable things about the book is what I can only call its racism. I have read many books of this period – and whenever there are western people in a non-European setting I know to take a deep breath and expect the inherent racism that was an everyday accepted thing at this time. That such language is so prevalent in 1930’s literature tells us a lot about the society in which it was written, however it remains uncomfortable for us today, and it was the one thing in this book that I disliked strongly. There is a definite, and unpalatable feeling in this novel that westerners are superior in all things to the poor stupid Malay people – which is deeply offensive – and would usually be enough to make me dislike a book intensely. However there was so much of the adventure and the interplay between these characters that fascinated me that I really did have a job putting it down. Another criticism seems to have been that characters are unlikeable – I found Judy improved as things went along – and although I quite liked Stewart I was constantly irritated by him, I rather liked Arnold, and Mrs Mardick is well drawn and not as unlikeable as she is probably supposed to be. I wanted to know Deotlan and Wan Nau more than I was allowed to – they were infinitely more interesting to me.

There is a slight sense at times that Robertson was out to shock a little, certainly she never romanticises trekking through the jungle – things do get realistically dirty and unpleasant, although even Robertson shies away from any details of how Judy manages the period she blithely informs the reader Judy feels coming on. So there is a little bit of ickiness, and pages and pages of trudging through jungle, really why did I like this book? And yet I did. The one section of the novel that jarred perhaps was the end – which just seemed a little off kilter with the erotic, malevolence and survival of the fittest nature of what had come before.

This is certainly not a faultless book, I am rather surprised I enjoyed it at all, but I did so while recognising its faults and considering it as a social document for the times in which it was written it is interesting. It also happens to be very well written, but this is not a novel for everyone, that much is clear. ( )

Four Frightened People opens on a very slow boat to Singapore. Although it is primarily a cargo ship – and its cargo predominantly Chinese “coolies”, being shipped for cheap labour – also on board are a handful of European travellers forced onto this uncomfortable means of transport because they can’t afford better or faster – although only one or two of them are prepared to admit that distasteful fact. Among the passengers are Judith Corder, an English doctor called to the region to settle her father’s estate; Stewart Corder, her cousin; Arnold Ainger, a socially awkward yet intelligent man with an aptitude for languages; and Mrs Mardick, a garrulous middle-aged woman who drives her companions to despair with her relentless cheerfulness and determination to make the travellers one big happy family.

Gradually, Judy and Ainger become aware that something is very wrong on the boat. Its doctor is taken ill, and although the official explanation is cholera, Ainger overhears a conversation that makes him suspect that there is bubonic plague amongst the Chinese. One night, while talking together in the darkness on deck, Judy and Ainger see the boat’s crew throwing certain dark bundles over the side – one of which is still moving... As their suspicions harden, Ainger makes a startling proposition: that he, Judy and Stewart slip off the boat at its next stop and make their way on foot to a port some thirty miles away, where they can find alternative transport. Ainger’s fear is that when the boat reaches its destination it will be quarantined, with everyone held on board – and in that case, there will be little hope of survival for anyone. Despite the watchfulness of the captain, who has a vested interest in maintaining silence, the three succeed in making a deal with the local owners of a small boat, who row out to trade with the passengers. When the boat returns under the cover of dark, Ainger, Judy and Stewart try to slip away unobserved, only to be caught by Mrs Mardick, who is determined to force everyone to attend a party she has planned. In a moment of desperation, Ainger seizes her, hastily explains the situation, and almost compels her to accompany them. The four succeed in reaching the shore, where they spend an uncomfortable night. As day dawns, they watch the boat disappearing down the coast – and then must confront a difficult and increasingly dangerous overland journey...

Four Frightened People first came to my attention via the review of Elaine (Liz1564) – or rather, the discussion that followed her posting of it. The fact that this novel had provoked a member of the eminently civilised Virago group into going medieval on it (in an eminently civilised way) was enough to get me interested. However, I put off reading the review in question until I had read the novel itself, so that my own reaction wasn’t too coloured by it. Having now finished both, I’m in a slightly odd position. I find that I like this novel more than Elaine did – while at the same time hating it even more.

My overriding feeling about Four Frightened People is that it was written deliberately to shock. Challenging and provocative fiction can be a powerful mean of confronting society’s shortcomings and hypocrisies, of course; and while there is a measure of that here, for the most part this book struck me as being more like a small child who says rude words in public in order to embarrass its parents. Four Frightened People is, inarguably, a novel with a point – up to a point – but beyond that point, was it has to say is either ridiculous or appalling, and occasionally both. I don’t know: perhaps this is a satire so cleverly disguised, you can’t tell it is a satire. If so, Novel 1, Reader 0. For myself, I can only confess that I got no sense at all of an intended gap between what Judy, our narrator, was saying, and what the novel itself was saying...which made reading it a thoroughly unnerving experience.

I did say I liked some aspects of Four Frightened People. There is certainly some powerful writing here, and some sharp observation. It is evident that Robertson set out to do a calculated de-romanticising of the adventure tale, and the physicality of her descriptions of the jungle, with its relentless heat and dirt, creates an oppressive atmosphere that is almost palpable. Others may feel differently, but I have to say I admired the fact that Robertson was willing to deal with the practicalities of the situation, having her characters make toilet stops and, at one point, be stricken with diarrhoea. She even dares have Judy get her period during the jungle trek, something that even to this day writers (whether for print or screen) tend to be absurdly coy about; but having raised the subject, Robertson fails to reveal how Judy copes – so again, finally there is a disappointing sense of an inclusion for shock value rather than realism.

It is not hard to imagine that, as a young woman writing in 1931, Robertson provoked a great deal of harrumphing with her frank discussions of sex, and female sexual desire. Here, too, the modern reader might rather be inclined to admire her honesty – but again, only up to the point of Too Much Information. Judy’s smugly complacent assertion that it is only a matter of time before Stewart and Ainger start fighting over her, and her cool weighing up of which of them will have the privilege of having sex with her, possibly marks the point where our already unlikeable “heroine” becomes intolerable. And when, despite being disease-ridden and unwashed for weeks, Judy and Ainger do Get Down To It, this novel crosses over into a territory best described as “squick”.

(Of course, some of you might find my squeamishness on this point inconsistent with my admiration of toilet stops. I suppose it’s a question of the Unavoidable vs the Avoidable. I might also say that my response to Judy’s preening over being the sexual prize in a primitive battle was to indulge a fantasy about Stewart and Ainger ending up together, with Judy left out in the cold. Alas, it seems that this was one area too “shocking” even for Robertson.)

A post-WWI English novel, the early stages of Four Frightened People simmer with anger against those who, too old to go to war themselves, unhesitatingly drove others to do so, and who look back upon the slaughter as “glorious”. (Both Stewart and Ainger are veterans.) One of Robertson’s main targets here is English hypocrisies and pretensions – the kind of things about which it might be said, It just isn’t done or It isn’t cricket. This is where the novel gets itself into disturbingly muddy waters. Robertson takes great pleasure in having her civilised English characters express the most uncivilised opinions, and commit the most uncivilised acts; demonstrating how thin the veneer is, and how we’re really all just savages underneath. The problem is, this attack on “civilisation” sits cheek-by-jowl with a frank and unconcealed hatred of the “uncivilised”, with not only the Malaysian people but the land itself condemned as "poisonous" and "loathsome".

Even for an English novel of this vintage, the racism in Four Frightened People is ubiquitous and profound, from its sneering attitude towards the “coolies” on board the boat (whose mostly-naked bodies Judy ogles even while expressing how disgusting she finds Asian people), to its contempt for the half-caste guide, Deotlan, with his white-blood pretensions, to its cheerful anticipation of the “inevitable extinction” of the jungle tribe that captures the adventurers. But there’s something in this book that goes beyond even racism: a sense of loathing of humanity generally that grows increasingly chilling. Reading Four Frightened People is like being trapped in a confined space with a professional cynic, the kind of person who enjoys nothing more than explaining why life is pointless. There’s an amazing negativity about this novel, a slow accumulation of odium that ultimately wears down the spirit – particularly, I think, for the female reader, as it grows increasingly clear that for all her many and various prejudices, there was nobody that E. Arnot Robertson despised more than her own sex. That this novel has some strengths and virtues is undeniable; but in the end they cannot hold back the inrushing tide of misanthropy.

One last thought: who exactly is the fourth person of the title? The novel really isn’t interested in anyone outside of its central triangle. It barely accepts that non-Europeans are people at all, and not even Deotlan’s white blood is enough to save him from tacit dismissal. Of course, from my synopsis up above, you’d probably assume it was Mrs Mardick - and maybe you'd be right. She may not know it herself, but as things turn out Mrs Mardick has more reason than anyone else in the novel to be frightened...

I really, really, really reveal spoilers for this one, so don't read this review unless you want to be thoroughly spoiled. Really!



Poll for anyone who has read this novel:

a. This is a rollicking adventure story!
b. This is the worst book published in the Virago Modern Classics catalog.
c. This HAS to be a satire or a spoof of rollicking adventure stories!

Once upon a time a ship was sailing down the east coast of the Malayan Peninsula bearing our stalwart heroine and her heroes to Palimban where they will connect with the vessels to carry them to their final European destinations. And these characters are:

Judy Corder, a 26-year-old doctor, who doesn't let anyone know she is a doctor because she just hates to be asked for free medical advice while she is on holiday. She keeps her secret even when she sees the ship's doctor being tossed overboard in the middle of the night...but I am getting ahead of the story.

Stewart Corder, Judy's cousin, a newsman and sometimes writer whose work is not appreciated. For good reason. He is a really bad writer.

Arnold Ainger, a government functionary, whose wife pays more attention to her children than her husband.

And

Mrs Mardick, a relentlessly cheerful woman who never stops talking and giving advice where it is not appreciated. Oddly, her advice is almost always right and that is what is so irritating about her, I guess. Think Cosmo Topper's wife and you will have a good idea of how the character acts except that Mrs Topper is really flighty and Mrs...oh, never mind.

THE PLOT (more or less, actually less than more, because there is a lot of plot, most of which makes little sense unless you chose answer a from the poll.)

Our four characters are sailing the mysterious South Pacific seas, not humming Bali Hai because Rogers and Hammerstein haven't written the song yet. Anyhow, clever Arnold discovers two things. One, Judy is a doctor. He deduces this from the way she hands her cousin a scissors to slit some book pages. (Tidbit for youngsters ...This is a time when book pages have to be slit apart. If you go into a library and find an old book with unslit pages you know the book hasn't been read, no matter how many times it may have been checked out. But I digress ....). Apparently Judy slapped the scissors into her cousin's hand the way a surgeon would. And clever Arnold concluded Judy was not a surgical nurse because she looked more like a doctor. Okay..... The second thing Arnold discovered was that "THERE WAS PLAGUE ON THE SHIP." Now, to give Judy some credit here, she noticed that bodies were being dropped overboard after dark and thought something was odd, especially since some of the bodies, including the doctor, weren't really, most sincerely dead. Besides, a rat dramatically expires at the entrance to the dining room. Most of the passengers just figured it had eaten some of their dinner.

WHAT TO DO!!!! Should Judy reveal she is a doctor and come to the aid of the passengers who are becoming sick??? Not our Judy!! Screw the Hippocratic Oath! Let's get off this damn ship! So Judy and the two heroes plan their escape when the ship docks at a small village. They have to sneak off the ship because there is a cholera epidemic in the village so passengers can't disembark! (Talk about the headache and upset stomach dilemna....plague or cholera, maybe even both!) Quietly, Judy prepares. She takes some quinine, lots of money, and dresses in her prettiest outfit with silk stockings and lovely dancing slippers. Then they hail a passing canoe and climb aboard, only to be discovered by Mrs. Mardick. Afraid she will blow the whistle on their escape and thwart them (neat word, thwart), they force her into the canoe. Didn't think to tie her up and stuff her in a life boat where she would be discovered the next morning. Nope, much better to bring her along.

THE VILLAGE The plan was to hire a fishing boat to sail up the coast 30 miles to a port where they can get connections to Europe. They will be on their way home before their passenger ship gets out of quarantine. Now they face their first major obstacle. The village fishermen won't sail them up the coast because they are "fighting" with the fishermen up the coast. Now, considering this is a very, very poor village and that our heroes' pockets are stuffed with money, wouldn't it be sensible to "rent" or even "buy" one of the little fishing boats? It would probably be more money than the villagers saw in a lifetime and both Judy and Stewart are world-class sailors.. Noooo... There would be no novel if this happened. Instead, they hire a guide who speaks a sort of English and head into the jungle!!!!! Let me stress, THERE IS NO REASON TO HEAD INTO THE JUNGLE!!! So our six adventurers.. ..Deotlan the faithful Indian companion, the faithful guide and his beautiful native girlfriend Wan Nau......and our four Europeans head into the deep, dark, dank, dim, dismal, damp and dangerous jungle. (Guess which two do not survive, bearing in mind that "white is right".)

THE JUNGLE The jungle is full of all kinds of dangers. Killer ants, wounded killer panther-like animals, killer plants, mosquitoes, bogs, screeching birds, screeching other things, mysterious eyes (these last attached to the dumbest natives ever written, but they do have poisonous arrows! ) Now we come to the FEMINIST angle. Judy has to decide which of the two men, Stewart or Arnold, will eventually be her lover. Why would either want to bed her? Well, because IT'S THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE where males become overheated and want to ravage females. She, being a modern girl, will be the one who decides the ravager. (I digress again. Why would insect bites, sweat, rashes, ingrained dirt, scratches, swollen ankles make anyone attractive to the opposite sex. Well, maybe stinky is an aphrodisiac). Judy also hints that she has PMS, really! That is why she is irritable. Unfortunately, she neglects to mention how she is going to handle the lack of sanitary supplies. I really was curious....

(By the way Arnold is the ravager. But he makes it clear that it is only while he and Judy are in the jungle because his wife, although she cares more for his children than for him, still adores him and would be devastated by any infidelity. Arnold does not like his children at all. Apparently, they are boring conversationalists. Stewart pretends not to notice the noise coming from behind the bushes when the ravager and ravagee are ravaging.)

Our six wander in the jungle, meet the natives who are awed by the Europeans. These sublinguil inhabitants only attack them sneakily, not face to face like real men! Brave Judy goes into a village to get supplies from the women while Arnold and Stewart fend off the men outside the village. Judy is amazing at pantomime so she gets what she wants and even bargains for it. What a woman!

Wander through the jungle...get caught in bogs...get menaced by snakes...native girl who has lived in the area forever gets bitten by poisonous snake and dies a horrible death.... faithful Indian companion guide gets hauled off by natives and is never seen again....AND have you forgotten about Mrs.Mardick? She who is unfailingly cheerful, does not complain about bad food and enjoys a tasty monkey , isn't bothered by her insect bites, and talks happy talk all the time? What happens to her? She gets on their last nerve, so Judy and Arnold and Stewart wake up early one morning and sneak off. LEAVING HER ASLEEP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE JUNGLE!!!! That's right, just abandoning her.....oh, well.

THE RESOLUTION More slogging ... broken ankle... stumbled out of jungle onto beach ... see boat... hail it... rescued. Back home Stewart loses his job and will become a serious writer. I suspect he will die of starvation . Arnold's wife dumps him when he confesses his ravaging in the jungle. She is apparently ticked off that he used his manhood to ravage someone else; even though she didn't care much for his manhood , it was her property , damn it! (Thanks, LD, for pointing this out; I had forgotten) Judy and Arnold are free to marry and bore everyone with their story of the Malayan jungle adventure.

That is an outline of this book.

Racist? You bet!
Feminist? Well there was the PMS thing and Judy choosing her lover.
Authentic? The best descriptions of the Malayan jungle the National Geographic, the Royal Geographic Society lectures and Cooks Tours brochures could supply.

So is it a really bad book? A good adventure story? Or did Robertson sit herself down and deliberately put every adventure story cliche into a novel, mix it with some sex, add a sprinkle of jingoism, and hope the recipe would make her money? And was it her cynical little joke that, even if she made her characters absolutely awful with no redeeming qualities, she knew the public was gullible enough to buy it?

It was a huge best-seller. ( )

I am very torn with this one - there were many aspects that I genuinely hated, but also some that were very good indeed. The negatives first - really very unappealing characters, loads of casual (and not so casual) racism, rather dull plot - 'ooh, we're lost in the jungle for NO REASON, blah blah blah isn't this terrible blah, let's have sex, blah, jungle blah, jungle jungle terrible blah.' The (white) characters continually manage to survive their endless near-death experiences basically unscathed, but since they are all self-absorbed, insufferably superior, massively irritating yawn-fests, I sometimes wish they had died.
The writing, however, is often genuinely beautiful, and the characters were sympathetic enough that I only *sometimes* wished death upon them. As a reflection of contemporary 1930s social attitudes it is probably very good, but then I personally would have hated to live in the 1930s - and there, I think, is where the issue lies. ( )