Robert Aickman's Go Back At Once

"It seems likely that Cressida would never have encountered the greatest man of his age (some, including the man himself, said, of any age) but for Vivien's enthusiasm and drive in the early stages of the project."

Cressida Hazeborough and her friend Vivien Poins have just finished school. "Both Cressida and Vivien were perfectly clever enough to go on to university and, having arrived there, to excel; but there was no question of that for either of them." It's 1920, and Cressida is expected to go home and wait to get married. This does not appeal. Cressida decides to get a job in a shop instead, because that's her only alternative; Vivien, of a wealthier family, does the same, because it's something to do. They both settle in London, moving in with Vivien's Aunt Agnes, scandalous because divorced.

But the 'greatest man of his age' (self-proclaimed) is Virgilio Vittore, and he's just taken over the city of Trino, which he proposes to govern according to the laws of music. Vittore, ugly but magnetic, once had an affair with Aunt Agnes, and when he takes over Trino, he invites Aunt Agnes to come to Trino and do something useful, maybe nursing, not that Aunt Agnes has any particular experience nursing. Vivien--and Cressida--encourage Aunt Agnes to go, because...adventure!

I found the book a riot. I don't really remember where I came across it, but the library could deliver it. It came out last year from And Other Stories press. I'd never heard of Robert Aickman before, but he's supposed to be best known for his tales of the supernatural. He wrote this in 1975, but died in 1981 with it unpublished. It was eventually discovered among his papers and issued at last. I was giggling away as I read it, and The Other Reader picked it up subsequently and has now nearly finished it, and found it just as enjoyable as I did.

Virgilio Vittore is clearly based on Gabriele D'Annunzio, also ugly but magnetic, a precursor of Italian Fascism, who invaded the neutral Fiume (modern Rijeka, in Croatia) in the aftermath of World War I. He wanted to give it to Italy, but the Italian government, embarrassed by this clearly illegal gift, wouldn't take it. 

But, while that's all true, that makes the book sound heavy in a way that it's not. Cressida and Vivien and a few other nice English girls looking for adventure meet a bunch of oddballs, a few of whom aren't very nice, in Trino, but are perfectly capable of dealing with them. Does Cressida meet Vittore? And is he all he's cracked up to be? Well. I do recommend you find out for yourself!