Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay was my spin pick for The Classics Club. I read the lenghty forward and it seems there was a question about the author's first hand knowledge, or is it entirely a work of fiction. It is labeled as historical fiction with a setting in 1900 at a girl's college in Victoria Australia. The locations Hanging Rock and Macedon ranges are real.
Mrs. Appleyard established a girls college and boarding school insisting on a very English "uniform" and forms of etiquette. When the story begins it's Valentine's day, the girls exchanging cards and planning a picnic at Hanging Rock. Mrs. Appleyard is a strict head mistress and very unyielding, trying to keep with "proper" English customs in an unsuitable environment regarding clothing.
It is mentioned how the governess, teacher and young ladies are required to wear gloves, voluminous dresses and hats in spite of the scorching Australian heat. Appleyard did not believe in adapting for the heat. The description of the landscape, flora and heat are well written, placing you in the scene.
" Insulated from natural contacts with earth, air and sunlight, by corsets pressing on the solar plexus, by volumious petticoats, cotton stockings and kid boots, the drowsy well-fed girls lounging in the shade were no more a part of their environment than figures in a photograph album, arbitrarily posed against a backcloth of cork rocks and cardboard trees."
A few of the girls napped while several of the senior girls decided they would like to walk and get closer to the Rock. Miss McGraw, the mathmatics teacher, wanted to take measurements and so it was agreed they could walk but be gone no more than one hour. It should be noted everyone's time pieces stopped at noon.
Over an hour later one girl came screaming down the path and couldn't recall what had actually happened but the senior girls and Miss Mcgraw were missing. After searching as long as possible the coachman returned to the college. From there on, the scandal of it blackened the college until it's ruin.
There are many more characters who played a large part; Albert the stableman and Michael, a young artistocrat living with his aunt and uncle, forming an unlikely friendship with Albert. The two of them went lookng for the missing girls independent of the police investigation. One of the girls was found, close to death, but she could not remember a single thing about the walk after the picnic or anything about the missing girls and teacher.
There is an otherworldly and eerie atmosphere about the disappearances and the subsequent events which seemed to touch on the lives of anyone involved with this picnic.
As Joan Lindsay attended a girl's boarding school in the same vicinity it has been suggested this is very loosely based on a true story. That is never revealed to be true and I think this novel was a brilliant fiction Lindsay created. As the author stated when asked, "Whether Picnic at Hanging Rock is fact or fiction, the reader must decide for themselves...it hardly matters."
It should be noted there was a final chapter which the editor asked Lindsay to delete, leaving things ambiguous rather than explaining. I'll be looking for that version called The Secret of Hanging Rock, it would include chapter 18, to see how our author wanted to end this.
4 stars
Sharing with The Classics Club for the spin.
