The Realms of Gold by Margaret Drabble
"The Realms of Gold" is a novel by Margaret Drabble that features Frances Wingate, a successful archaeologist in her forties, who grapples with personal and professional challenges. Having achieved notable acclaim for her archaeological work, particularly in the Sahara Desert, Frances navigates the complexities of her life, including a troubled marriage and the independence of her grown children. The narrative primarily explores her yearning for reconciliation with Karel Schmidt, a university lecturer and her former lover, from whom she had distanced herself to seek change in her otherwise stable life.
Set against the backdrop of international travel, Frances’s journey leads her to a conference in Africa where she encounters new relationships and reflects on her priorities. Through a series of events, including a delayed postcard expressing her feelings, the story unfolds with themes of love, regret, and the search for happiness. The novel presents a diverse cast of characters, highlighting both the struggles and resilience of individuals amidst life's complexities. Ultimately, "The Realms of Gold" conveys a sense of optimism, as many characters find their paths to fulfillment, including the nuanced dynamics between Frances, Karel, and others in their lives.
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The Realms of Gold by Margaret Drabble
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1975
Type of work: Novel
The Work
The Realms of Gold is Drabble’s most optimistic novel and the one in which she seems most relaxed as a writer. Her central figure, Frances Wingate, is about forty years old, a respected professional in the field of archaeology. Years before, she had correctly predicted the location of the ruins of an ancient trading center in the Sahara Desert and had led in its excavation, and consequently she has enjoyed a highly satisfying career. Her marriage to a wealthy man did not turn out well, but her children have become independent, and she is able to leave them for extended periods while she attends professional conferences and other meetings important to her.
The problem in Wingate’s life is her broken relationship with Karel Schmidt, a lecturer at a small university, who had been her lover. Separated from him, Frances realizes that she had broken off their relationship for frivolous and foolish reasons. Her life, she believed when she made the break, had become too regular, too contented, and she needed change. The change that she manufactured has separated her from the only man she has loved, and she wants nothing more than to get him back. Very early in the novel, she sends him a postcard from an unnamed Mediterranean city, announcing that she misses him and loves him. She assumes that this will lead to a reconciliation, but when she does not hear from him she swallows her disappointment and determines to go on with her life. Because of a postal strike, the card does not reach Karel for weeks. In those weeks, the action of most of the novel takes place.
Frances travels to Africa for a conference, at which she becomes friendly with a cousin whom she had not known before, David Ollerenshaw. She enjoys flirting with a handsome Italian archaeologist and finds it satisfying to be an important figure among her contemporaries, but she also realizes that Karel is more important to her than this adulation and attention. Karel, having finally received her message, tries to join her in Africa but fails. After some comic errors, they are finally reunited in England.
Frances and Karel are sympathetic characters, but so are many of the others who populate this long book. The exceptions are Frances’s parents. Like the parents in most Drabble novels, these characters are somewhat cold and distant; her father is head of a small university, while her mother, a lecturer on birth control and a sexual counselor, does not like sex. Her brother, Hugh, is an alcoholic who is successful in business but needs alcohol to dull his sensibilities. Hugh’s son Stephen, a university student, has fathered a daughter and has become obsessed with the dangers that await her as she matures. Stephen’s young wife has had a mental collapse and has had to be institutionalized. In the end, to avert the suffering that he believes is in store for her, he kills his daughter and himself. Frances’s second cousin, Janet Bird, has no such fears. She tolerates a bad marriage and enjoys the company of Frances when fate brings them together, but she is not fearful for her child. In her quiet courage, she is like David Ollerenshaw, a geologist who the narrator says was intended for a large role but assumes only secondary importance.
Except for Stephen and his daughter, all the major characters in The Realms of Gold survive and, in varying degrees, find happiness. Even Karel’s discontented wife finally finds her place in life and permits Karel and Frances to live together. She and Frances, although they do not like each other, learn to get along.
Bibliography
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Khogeer, Afaf Jamil. The Integration of the Self: Women in the Fiction of Iris Murdoch and Margaret Drabble. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2006.
Moran, Mary Hurley. Margaret Drabble: Existing Within Structures. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983.
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