'A place where cruelty dwelt under the guise of discipline, and corruption beneath a mask of beauty and moral tone'

Set in the late 1920s, this is the story of 16 year old Rachel - the author crosses from first to third person and back quite suddenly in the narrative. A pupil at a Somerset boarding school, 'where many of the staff were morally corrupt, the physical standards those of Dartmoor, the religion perverted and the games mistress a sadist', she immerses herself in her studies and the beautiful, decaying grounds of the school. When she discovers a forgotten Chinese garden, she goes here to be alone.
But the garden is also known to her friend Margaret, who hides her copy of 'The Well of Loneliness' in the pagoda, and meets up with another girl, Rena, while prophesying what will happen:
-Rachel, tell me why the most beautiful things are often evil?....
-This garden isn't. It's perfect in a ruined, desolate way. I can't see that it''s evil.
-Yet I found a snake in it...It's a symbol of evil. And it's an omen. You'll see. They'll find us out and then they'll tear back the fence and admit evil - they'll turn it all into something foul.
Very readable work, enhanced by the afterword by Patricia Juliana Smith. ( )