The Go-Between. Illustrated

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” With this iconic opening line, L. P. Hartley’s The Go-Between introduces a haunting tale of lost innocence, memory, and the irreversible consequences of adult betrayal as seen through a child’s eyes.

Set in the sweltering summer of 1900, the novel follows Leo Colston, a shy and impressionable 13-year-old boy who is invited to stay at the grand country estate of his school friend, Marcus. Among the languid rituals of upper-class English life, Leo finds himself captivated by Marcus’s older sister, the beautiful and aristocratic Marian Maudsley. Unwittingly, Leo becomes a messenger — the “go-between” — carrying secret letters between Marian and her forbidden lover, Ted Burgess, a tenant farmer far below her social station.

As Leo’s sense of importance grows, so too does the danger of what he is facilitating. The heat of the summer mirrors the simmering tensions beneath the surface of Edwardian society — class, repression, and unspoken rules. When the affair is tragically exposed, Leo is left shattered, and the events of that summer mark him for life.

Hartley’s prose is rich, restrained, and deeply moving. The Go-Between is more than a coming-of-age story; it is a powerful meditation on memory, guilt, and the devastating consequences of secrets kept too long. First published in 1953, it remains one of the most acclaimed British novels of the 20th century — a masterpiece of subtlety and emotional depth.