Characters What We Can Know Ian McEwan

Harry Kitchener: The Biographer Who Walked Away

Overview

Harry Kitchener is a supporting character in Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know, a novel that interrogates how we reconstruct the past from fragmentary records. Harry is the brother-in-law of poet Francis Blundy and a respected poetry editor. He agrees to write Francis’s biography but later abandons the project—a decision that ripples through the story and leaves the narrator, a future historian, searching for clues about the lost poem “A Corona for Vivien.” Harry embodies the tension between professional ambition and personal loyalty, and his archive in northwest Scotland becomes an unreachable lure for the narrator.

Plot Role

Harry appears primarily at the Second Immortal Dinner, the October 2014 birthday celebration where Francis reads his secret sonnet sequence. He delivers an exaggerated toast to Francis, praising him in terms that strike other guests as “over the top, fulsome to the point of satire.” Moments later, Harry’s speech is cut short when Francis retrieves the scroll from behind the mantel clock and begins reading his Corona.

After the dinner, Harry writes a letter to The Times Literary Supplement that launches the poem’s public odyssey. He also sends Francis a private letter of extravagant praise—a gesture many readers interpret as guilt-driven, since Harry has already decided to withdraw from the biography. Harry dies in 2016, and his personal papers, moved to the University of Ardnamurchan at Roshven, remain largely unexamined by English scholars due to hazardous travel conditions in the novel’s future setting.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Harry is driven by a mix of ambition, insecurity, and a desire for harmony. He promotes Francis’s poetry publicly but is “jealous of him too.” His extramarital affairs and his wife Jane’s tolerance—she throws him out “more than once”—suggest a restless nature. His decision to abandon the biography stems from fear of Francis’s controlling personality: Francis would want to “see drafts of every chapter” and sanitize the past. Harry “dislikes confrontations,” so he delays telling Francis, hoping to smooth the blow with overblown praise. This passive approach reveals a man who avoids direct conflict, even when integrity demands it.

Chronological Arc

  • Before 2014: Harry and Francis agree on a biography. Harry secretly decides he is “not the man for this” and postpones the difficult conversation.
  • October 2014: At the dinner, Harry delivers a fulsome toast. Francis interrupts to read the Corona. Harry listens, takes notes, and later writes two letters: one to TLS and a private one to Francis praising the work.
  • December 2014: Harry sends an email extending his thoughts but, in a draft, begins “In love? We must be mad. But I don’t think we”—an incomplete confession never sent.
  • January 2015: Harry’s TLS letter goes public, coining the term “Second Immortal Dinner” and placing the Corona in the tradition of Keats and Wordsworth.
  • Late 2015–2016: Harry retreats to a cottage at Glenuig, where he dies in 2016. Jane’s messages suggest inadequate medical care may have shortened his life.
  • Posthumous: His papers move to Ardnamurchan. The narrator cannot make the dangerous journey, leaving the possibility that Harry’s archive contains a copy of the poem—or at least a fuller record of its reception.

Relationships

  • Francis Blundy: Brother-in-law and primary subject. Harry simultaneously promotes and resents Francis. The biography project becomes a fault line: Harry cannot bear Francis’s control, and the Corona reading confirms his decision to step away.
  • Jane Kitchener: Harry’s wife, a potter. Their marriage is strained by his infidelity but survives, possibly for the sake of their three children. Jane’s grief at his death is “anguished.”
  • Vivien Blundy: Harry communicates with her sparingly after the dinner. He may have sought a copy of the Corona through her, but no email trail survives. Vivien’s journals show no record of such a request.
  • Graham Sheldrake and others: Harry participates in dinner conversation but is not especially close; his role is that of the literary insider.

Key Decisions and Consequences

  1. Abandoning the biography: This decision frees Harry from a difficult relationship but also denies posterity an authorized account of Francis’s life. The narrator later laments that “the weight of my material” overwhelms him—a burden a biography might have organized.
  2. Making the fulsome speech: By praising Francis excessively, Harry hopes to soften the later confession that he will not write the book. The strategy backfires: Francis interrupts, and the speech becomes a source of speculation for future scholars.
  3. Writing the TLS letter: This act launches the Corona into public consciousness. Without Harry’s intervention, the poem might have remained entirely private, known only to the dinner guests. The letter is the first documentary trace of the work’s existence.
  4. Not completing the draft email: The abandoned message “In love? We must be mad” hints at an emotional entanglement—possibly an affair—that never culminated. It remains a dead end for researchers.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Harry’s incomplete biography and the narrator’s failed attempt to access his papers together illustrate Knowledge and Uncertainty. Even the most promising archive may remain out of reach, and the past resists complete recovery. Harry’s jealousy of Francis connects to Love and Betrayal: he loves his brother-in-law as family yet betrays him by abandoning the project. The Corona itself symbolizes Art and Ephemerality; Harry’s praise confirms its greatness, but his early death leaves the poem’s fate uncertain. Finally, his withdrawal reflects a broader Environmental Collapse and Derangement: the journey to Scotland becomes dangerous as the world unravels, echoing how climate catastrophe severs our connection to the past.

Book-Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why does Harry Kitchener decide not to write Francis Blundy’s biography?
He believes Francis would be too controlling—demanding to see drafts and sanitize unpleasant details. Harry also resents the personal turmoil a family biography would cause and prefers to avoid confrontation.

2. What does Harry’s unfinished email draft suggest about his inner life?
The words “In love? We must be mad. But I don’t think we” hint at a repressed romantic desire, possibly for Vivien or another person. The draft was never sent or deleted, suggesting Harry left it as a private echo of a feeling he could not act on.

3. How does Harry’s TLS letter shape the Corona’s public reception?
By naming the evening a “Second Immortal Dinner,” Harry links it to the famous 1817 Haydon dinner, elevating the poem’s status before it was even published. The letter spurs curiosity, leading first to a blog, then to Harriet Gage’s Guardian article, and eventually to a worldwide search for the lost poem.

4. Could Harry have possessed a copy of the Corona?
The narrator finds no evidence in the surviving emails or letters that Harry ever held the manuscript. Harry’s letter to Francis in December 2014 describes the poem from memory, suggesting he did not have a copy. However, his personal archive—unexamined—might contain notes or even a transcription.

5. What does Harry’s relationship with Jane reveal about his character?
Jane tolerates his infidelity and takes him back, likely for the sake of their children. Harry’s willingness to strain his marriage for affairs underscores his restlessness and inability to commit—traits that also prevent him from completing the biography, a far-reaching commitment he ultimately avoids.