# Neville Bendish — Dangerous Ages character guide > Neville Bendish in Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay. **Role:** supporting **Also known as:** Neville, old Neville, poor old Neville, III Neville, VII Neville, IV Neville **First appearance:** 0003-i-neville-s-birthday ## Snapshot A poet and mother turning forty-three, who measures her own irresponsible youth against her children's earnestness and receives Nan's adoring, unguarded confidences. ## Who they are Neville's forty-third birthday gathers the family and prompts her wry reckoning with the remote twenties and the extraordinary forties, ages she can hardly believe she has reached. She is the one person Nan has always told the darker secrets of her life, and their garden colloquy—'you're looking very sweet, aged one'—is the book's warmest, most unguarded exchange. Her poems, her age, and her clear-eyed tenderness make her the still centre around which the younger generation's loves and ambitions turn. ## In the story ### [Dangerous Ages](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/dangerous-ages) Celebrates his 43rd birthday and struggles with resuming medical studies, feeling the weight of aging. ### [I: Neville's Birthday](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/i-neville-s-birthday) Celebrates her 43rd birthday, reflects on aging and wasted time, bathes at dawn, receives gifts from family. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/i) Protagonist; wakes on her 43rd birthday, bathes in a woodland pool, climbs a tree, and reflects on aging, wasted potential, and envy of her siblings. ### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/ii) Celebrating her 43rd birthday; reflects on her youth and the differences between her generation and her children's. ### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iii) Celebrates her 43rd birthday, reflects on her past and her children's future, and engages in a discussion about love and marriage. ### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iv) Celebrating her 43rd birthday, reflecting on aging and her lack of literary achievements. ### [Mrs. Hilary's Birthday](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/ii-mrs-hilary-s-birthday) Neville worries about her mother's despair and contemplates her own future, hoping to find work and interests to avoid a similar fate. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/i) Attends Mrs. Hilary's birthday gathering. ### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/ii) Neville arrives early to comfort her mother, reflects on her own future, and resolves to find meaningful work to avoid a similar fate. ### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iv) Leads the swimmers, is the best swimmer, and eventually returns to check on her mother. ### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/v) Shows affection by slipping his hand into his mother's, silently supporting her birthday pose. ### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/vi) Stays at The Gulls to massage her mother's rheumatic joints; agrees with Rodney's politics. ### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/vii) Expresses concern for her mother's happiness and lack of occupation; gently manages Mrs. Hilary's jealousy. ### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/viii) Goes to the seashore after settling the elderly women, reflects on aging and resolves to defy life. ### [III: Family Life](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iii-family-life) Struggles to resume medical studies at forty-three, finding her brain atrophied from years of domestic and social life; envies her children's ease with work and battles indolence. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/i) Resumes medical studies at forty-three, struggles with the difficulty, and asserts her need for a personal vocation. ### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/ii) Struggles with indolence and distraction while trying to study for her medical course; contrasts her lack of focus with Kay and Gerda. ### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iii) Observes Nan and Barry's friendship, suspects they are in love but does not interfere. ### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iv) Neville drives Grandmama to church in the pony carriage and is described as cynically patient, not listening to the sermon, similar to Grandmama in her acquiescence. ### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/v) Engages in a conversation with Mrs. Hilary about Nan, marriage, and psychoanalysis; shows affection for Grandmama. ### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/vi) Reads the news aloud to the family and is questioned by Grandmama about Nan's friendship with Barry Briscoe. ### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/vii) Mentioned as the reason Mrs. Hilary leaves the group; his claims about 'The Breath of Life' curing depression are recalled. ### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/viii) Recalled in Gerda's memory for a past conversation about the overemphasis on sex in the younger generation. ### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/ii) Mentioned as an angelic figure at Windover, subject of Rosalind's jealousy. ### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iii) Mentioned as having roots, unlike Nan and Mrs. Hilary. ### [V: Seaweed](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/v-seaweed) Mrs. Hilary watches Neville play tennis with pride, noting her youthfulness and skill. Rosalind later mocks Neville's medical studies. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/i) Mrs. Hilary's son; she recalls how he cherished and cared for her, and she loves him beyond anything but Jim. ### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/ii) Neville is playing tennis, and Mrs. Hilary watches her with admiration, recalling her childhood pneumonia. ### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iv) Discussed by Rosalind as 'poor old Neville' taking up medical studies again; Mrs. Hilary defends her. ### [VI: Jim](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/vi-jim) Neville is studying for examinations, looking tired. She interacts with Jim, defends Nan's writing, and mentions Kay and Gerda helping Barry Briscoe. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/i) Her daughter, toward whom she feels a jealous passion. ### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/ii) Studying for examinations; described as looking exhausted; Jim believes her brain has lost its former sharpness. ### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iii) Struggling with medical studies, feeling inadequate and questioning her purpose beyond being Rodney's wife. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/i) Engaged in conversation with Mrs. Hilary. ### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iii) Observes Gerda's appearance and decides to let her work for Barry despite knowing her tendency to fall in love. ### [The Pace](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/ix-the-pace) Mentioned as Kay, one of the Bendishes, who participates in the cycling and diving. ### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/ii) Mentioned as less competent in diving than Nan and Barry, but still able to dive head first. ### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iv) Referenced as 'Kay' (a nickname), chants a psalm and taunts Gerda about falling. ### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/vi) Referred to as 'Kay'; has a weak heart and faints after the rescue; is helped by Nan. ### [X: Principles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/x-principles) Tired and cross from overwork, she plays the conventional mother, trying to persuade Gerda to accept marriage. She maliciously suggests Aunt Rosalind might agree with Gerda's views. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/i) Reads aloud to Gerda from Mallock's Memoirs and Disraeli's Life, and discusses literature with her. ### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iii) Argues with Gerda about marriage, calling her views sentimental and muddle-headed; suggests she consult Aunt Rosalind. ### [XI: That Which Remains](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/xi-that-which-remains) Suffers a nervous breakdown, confronts middle age, vanity, and loss of purpose; worries about Nan and Gerda. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/i) The central consciousness of the chapter; she is recovering from a nervous breakdown and grappling with the onset of middle age, lost ambitions, and vanity. ### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/ii) Convalescent, finds critical appreciation in music and people, disgusted yet engaged with politics, seeks direct human action to ease his unease. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/i) Opens the chapter by confessing her fear of aging and her ambition for recognition; discusses Rosalind's gossip about Nan and worries about Gerda's role in Nan's romantic situation. ### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iv) Walks away from Pamela's street, reflects on Nan's situation, and decides to go to Rome. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/i) Mentioned as one of the subjects Mrs. Hilary dwells on in her sessions. ### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iii) Mentioned as being ill and unable to travel; her close bond with Nan is a source of jealousy for Mrs. Hilary. ### [XIII: The Daughter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/xiii-the-daughter) Reported by Mrs. Hilary as 'extremely ill' and worried about Gerda's refusal to marry. ### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iv) Mentioned as being 'extremely ill' (untrue) and worried about Gerda. ### [XIV: Youth to Youth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/xiv-youth-to-youth) Observes Gerda's happiness with gladness and wistfulness, noting its cost. ### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/iii) Observes Gerda's happiness with a mix of gladness and wistfulness, hinting at its cost. ### [XV: The Dream](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/xv-the-dream) Neville reflects on her marriage, her ego, and her search for purpose, traveling to Italy and Greece before returning home with a new resolve. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/i) Recovered from illness, she plunges into social life and reflects on her marriage to Rodney and her own egotism. ### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/chapters/ii) Travels to Italy and Greece, returns home in April, reflects on wealth and personal liberty. ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/characters/neville_bendish - Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se - All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dangerous_ages_se/characters