Category: Classic Novels
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The Hours Before Dawn by Celia Fremlin
This is a Virago that I’ve had for a few years and finally grabbed off the shelf one night when I was in the mood for a mystery. It is set in the late ’50’s, in a middle-class London neighborhood and focuses on Louise Henderson, the mother of two school-age girls and a baby, Michael.…
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The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins
I bought The Tortoise and the Hare not really knowing very much about it, but with the knowledge that it has been admired by several bloggers and by Hilary Mantel. And who could resist that cover? This fifties novel of marital discord turned out to be remarkable and one of my favorite reads of 2012.…
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Mini Book Thoughts
Since I can’t seem to gather enough thoughts together these days to write about books in any lengthy fashion, I am going to give you three brief thoughts on books I’ve finished lately: A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark -Set in 1950’s Kensington, this darkly humorous novel is told in the first…
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Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Most of you probably know that Wide Sargasso Sea is a prequel to Jane Eyre. It tells the story of Bertha Mason, Rochester’s mad wife in the attic, and her childhood, family and how she came to be married to Mr. Edward Rochester in Jamaica. Jean Rhys wrote the novel in the 60’s as she…
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The Priory by Dorothy Whipple
This is my second Whipple of the summer and a very entertaining read it turned out to be. I saw this described somewhere as 1930’s chick lit and I wouldn’t dispute that. It is very dramatic, emotional, concerned with families, marriage and children and is slightly neurotic. It wasn’t what I expected, but I enjoyed…
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Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
I started reading Little Women on a day when I was feeling down and really needed something uplifting and inspiring to bring my thoughts up. The adventures and relationships of the four March girls was the perfect antidote to my desolate state. I read this book many years ago when I was a young teen,…
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Madam, Will You Talk? by Mary Stewart
For my fifth Mary Stewart novel I decided to read the very first book she published, in 1955, Madam, Will You Talk? This action-packed thriller is set in the South of France and is the first-person account of Charity Selborne and the trouble she finds herself in just for being nice to a little boy.…
A Certain Fondness 