Thoughts on The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane

Published: Mon, 20 May 2019

Many thanks for this engaging reflection on The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane. A bit like yourself scouring used book shops a few decades ago, I now prowl Project Gutenberg looking for some out-of-the-way reading material. (Particular favourites have been a set of lesser-read Trollopes, and some of Mrs Oliphant’s Carlingford Chronicles.) My guide for some of these choices has been George Sampson’s Concise Cambridge History of English Literature (3rd edition; Cambridge, 1970) which I picked up used from Blackwells in the mid-80s for (wait for it!) £7.50!

In a chapter dealing with ‘other novelists’ of the 19th century, Sampson has this to say about ‘Mark Rutherford’ (p. 648):

One exceptional person, entirely outside the main stream of romance, is William Hale White (1829-1913), who as “Mark Rutherford” delineated a noteworthy phase of English life, the deep disturbance of provincial Dissent by the theological growth of the more sincere ministers beyond the understanding of their congregations. The perplexity and misery of the pastors are revealed with insight and sympathy in The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford (1881), Mark Rutherford’s Deliverance (1885), The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane (1887), and Catherine Furze (1894). Emotional sincerity, descriptive power and critical restraint distinguish the work of this singular writer, whose work, never popular, will continue to attract those whose feelings about ultimate things lie deep.

Of course, the “perplexity and misery” described extends well beyond that of “pastors” in Tanner’s Lane! I’ve now read the two “Rutherford” books, and have just finished reading Tanner’s Lane. I went looking for some interaction with it, and ran across this post, and glad I did. I’m a fairly “naïve” reader, especially on first read of a novel, but this reflection resonates strongly with my own impressions, and provides some helpful insight into aspects of the book that I would have struggled to identify, let alone articulate.

The symmetries between the two halves of the book are readily apparent, at least in terms of Zachariah’s and George’s first (or only, in the latter case) marriages. The sappy part of me was quietly expecting (hoping for?) that parallel to be extended in George’s case with Pauline II. White is much wiser, and the abrupt ending not only shortcircuits a sentimental turn, it also promotes the ‘historical’/biographical quality of “Mark Rutherford’s” writing.

Well, these are very amateurish thoughts coming close on the heels of a first read of this compelling novel. I’ll be coming back to it for a re-read at some point, and that different enjoyment of a second reading will be deepened through the encounter with your essay here. So again, many thanks for it!