All Our Worldly Goods by Irène Némirovsky

The novel – novella, almost – opens in 1911, when prosperity has the upper hand over misery, at least for the Hardelot family and their comfortable, well-fed friends. The Hardelots own a paper mill in Saînt-Elme, a dull, respectable town near the Somme; they more or less run the place. They holiday in Normandy, maintaining careful class distinctions even on the beach: “the bourgeoisie didn’t mingle with the lower middle classes…Each built itself a fortress out of spades and folding chairs.”

Review: All Our Worldly Goods by Ir̬ne N̩mirovsky РTelegraph.

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