An entertaining novel of social class in England by a writer long forgotten

Nigel Balchin is a British author so obscure that (to my knowledge) not a single R.I. library has a copy of any of his (dozen of so) books, but a blurb on the English edition pb of A Way Through the Wood (1951) that friend DC recommended and kindly sent to me notes that in his time he was among the most popular English literary novelists, so go figure - sic tempus gloria, or some such phrase. Judging from this novel - the title is a reference to the opening lines of the Inferno - Balchin is a skilled writers with a fine sense of plotting and it's no surprise to also read in the blurb that he wrote several screenplays and several of his books including this one were made into films. That said, he falls a bit short of the standard that his contemporary Graham Greene set, in that this novel, intriguing as the plot may be, doesn't go beyond the plot, at least in the first 100 pp. or so; the characters, a 40-something prosperous Sussex couple, Jim and Jill Manning (Jim is the narrator) don't seem especially complex characters and aside from the social milieu - upper crust - he isn't that interested in establishing a sense of time and place: compare this w/ say The Quiet American or The Heart of the Matter (or even Brighton Rock, a mere "entertainment" acc GG). That said, Way Through the Wood does grab our attention and hold it. Narrator Jim begins by telling us his world fell apart in one year and he will tell us the story (he references Dante; another possible model could be Job). Some spoilers here, but any attentive reader will pick this up in the first 20 pp or so: a working-class man who lives nearby is struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver; Jim quickly determines that the driver is a friend, who had just attended a party at their house. He pursues this information and over time learns that the man - Bill Bule - wasn't driving his own car. Anyone who's read The Great Gatsby has by this point in the novel figured out who the driver is. This fact raises certain moral and ethical issues, which the novel will play out - all against a background of British upper-crust snobbery and repression. When Jill tells Jim what is obvious to all readers, that she's been having an affair, his reaction is so calm and blase - Oh, dear, were you terribly bored in our marriage? I suppose we shall have to tell him that it's all off from here on - and so forth - as to be a form of dark comedy. Socail class is a huge theme of this novel, made paramount when the Mannings visit the decrepit cottage of the man who was killed: this is one in a long history of scenes of the benevolent aristocrats visiting the peasants and offering a few drops of charity - see Dickens, Hardy, Eliot, even H James (The Princess Cassimassima) - I wish I could summon all the examples from memory, but a see a potential doctoral dissertation in this. 

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