The couple share a strong intellectual connection and commitment to working towards “the New Life” as Henry feels “we must live in the future we hope to make”. Running parallel to John's story is that of a shy young man named Henry who enters into a non-traditional marriage with Edith.
In doing so, it causes readers to ponder their own assumptions about what is just and what is right. How do you change laws which criminalise such desire without first dispelling widespread prejudice? How do you change the attitudes of the public without first changing the laws? How do you reconcile your own innate desires within the framework of a society which teaches you to repress them? How much are you willing to obstruct the happiness of others' to achieve your own? Many scenes in this novel are more concerned with the way such questions intrude upon moments of these characters' lives leaving them in a tense state of ambiguity and uncertainty. What's so engaging and innovative about this novel is the way it shows the full complexity of trying to obtain such happiness. Obviously John's life has been painful and we want to see him find happiness. The consequences of such laws were made famous by Oscar Wilde's 1895 trial which casts a shadow over this story. Most modern readers will naturally recognise that John has repressed his homosexuality because of Victorian attitudes which not only condemned gay relationships but criminalised them. After he meets a man named Frank at a nude swimming pond in London he longs for the kind of domestic closeness any couple in love wants. The few sexual encounters John's previously experienced resulted in repentance and a return to the sublimation of his desires. They have multiple children who are now adults themselves. He's middle aged and married to a woman named Catherine. Crewe's debut novel begins in the summer of 1894 as John Addington makes the important decision that he won't deny his sexual and romantic longing for men any longer.
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