Much like the film this book by Elizabeth Von Arnim inspired, there is something peaceful here on these pages. This is a gentle novel about the gradual internal changes brought about by the beauty of our surroundings. It is a book that reads itself as much as it is read, the author writing with the flow of the characters thoughts and feelings as their hearts are changed by the suprise of beauty.

An ad to rent a castle in San Salvatore on the Italian Riviera will prompt two British women, Rose and Lottie, with only a passing acquaintance, to inexplically leave their husbands behind for a summer that will change their lives and their marriages forever.

Joining Rose and Lottie for this holiday is Mrs. Fisher, an older woman living in the past, and Lady Caroline Dester, a grey-eyed society beauty tired of being gawked at like a majestic statue, not allowed to be human. Diverse in nature and temperment, not to mention background, they interact uneasily together until the flowers and the sea bring about a change in their souls.

Surrounded by fig and olive trees, plum blossoms and Tamarisk daphnes, and the scents of fortune's yellow rose and blooming acacia, the women slowly find their roles at this castle by the sea, and in doing so find themselves as well. New insights will prompt Rose and Lottie to send for their husbands. Lady Caroline, or 'Scrap' as she is known, will find love in spite of her wish to be alone and her great beauty. Mrs. Fisher will form a friendship with Lottie and her husband, and discover a renewed zest for creativity in this heaven by the sea.

This is a novel about life and love, told gently through the emotions of these women, as the the suprise of beauty and the warmth of being suddenly admired and seen as beautiful, when they had not been before, changes their simple lives, which were not so simple at all. You will definitely enjoy this novel if you enjoyed the film. It is about love restored, and love discovered, along the wistaria covered steps leading down to the sea.

"Enchanted April" is one of my favorite books. It is such a warm, witty, wonderful story, full of hope and romance. I hear it is going to be a Broadway show this April! (fittingly) I cannot wait... I know I'm going to be the first one on line for tickets, that's for sure. All you other "Enchanted April" lovers out there, I urge you to come see this show! I'm sure this will be one of the finest shows on Broadway in a long time!

Yay "Enchanted April!"

This is a delightful story...one of my favorite books! Gives you a little faith that even seemingly irreconcileable situations can be restored or transformed, that drastically different people can find common ground and become friends, and that people can change their lives for the better! A sunny read for a dark winter day!

Muriel Spark is one of those writers I'd heard about for some time, and for an unknown set of reasons, I just didn't get around to reading her novels. But then recently, I decided that I wanted to try a 'new-to-me' author, and so I picked up "A Far Cry From Kensington." To my delight, I've found another author to add to my treasured list. Spark's tightly-written novel is full of the black humour and odd characters that I enjoy so much.

"A Far Cry From Kensington" is set in post-WWII England and is the story of Mrs Hawkins--a sizeable war widow in her late 20s who resides in a boarding house in Kensington and works at the publishers, Ullswater and York. The eminently sensible Mrs Hawkins occupies respectable positions in both her private life and in her professional life. At work, people confide in her--including her employer, the desperate Mr York who is madly, busily forging his way to a hefty prison sentence. At home, fellow tenants also look to Mrs Hawkins as a confidante, so when nervous boarder, Wanda Podolak, a Polish refugee receives an anonyomous threatening letter, Mrs Hawkins becomes involved in more ways than she could imagine.

This excellent novel is full of deliciously odd characters--Martin York, the publisher whose life is spiralling out of control; Emma Loy, the famous novelist who dresses in grey and insists on promoting nasty Hector Bartlett--a would-be author; Mackinstosh and Tooley--the publishers who seem to have a predilecation for employing peculiar people, and Wanda Podolak, the hysterical dressmaker who has something to hide. "A Far Cry From Kensington" is part mystery, part drama--but all highly entertaining. Particularly amusing, are the scenes in which Mrs Hawkins deals with novelists. She offers frank advice to those who seek publication, and then there are also those who refuse to listen. The insights Mrs Hawkins possesses about some of the writers are priceless. This is my first Spark novel, and it certainly won't be my last. I am delighted by her characters and her style--displacedhuman.

Delightful, suspenseful, hilarious, and wise.
Told from the point of view of Mrs. Hawkins, looking back on her years in a failing London publishing house during the years following WW II. It mixes a tale of deceit within the publishing world with the eccentric characters of her seedy boarding house. Spark's scathing wit and marvelous way with words is sprinkled lavishly over everything, like salsa on an already terrific plate of nachos.
Wonderful.

Muriel Spark is a writer's writer. Don't miss this quirky book with unforgettable characters that come together in a boarding house in odd and touching ways.
By turns hilarious, witty, sarcastic, and wryly endearing, it's a masterpiece.

"The Feast of July," although recently filmed (the book is so much better than the movie!) doesn't draw much attention to itself nowadays. H. E. Bates, one the most talented novelists in the English language, is undeservedly forgotten. This short novella is Bates's masterfully written exploration of the "life-within," of the interior struggle. Commencing with an excruciatingly beautiful scene that depicts the protagonist's inner loneliness, the book introduces us to Bella, a young seduced girl, who is looking for the man who dishonored and left her. As she is harbored by a family of shoemakers, Bella finds herself attracted to three young men who fall under her charm: the handsome Jedd, the soft-hearted Matty, and the hot-temprered Con. She flirts, not to say toys, with at least two of them, yet the third, for whom she feels nothing, becomes her paramour. Things develop from there, and the novella climaxes in the return of Bella's former lover, a man she once loved and suffered over, the "seducer." His arrival is rather predictable, but the reader is somewhat stunned by his decease, which ensues after Bella and her lover/accomplice meet the unfortunate fellow on their nature-ramble (the "deflowerer" came to town to take a break from work and went fishing to rest his soul- how ironic). After that there's an absolutely gripping sequence of gorgeous scenes, "the runaway" scenes, I might call them, which culminate in a death. "The Feast of July" has one of the most memorable and haunting last lines ever written! Highly recommended.

Catherine is middle aged and Christopher a young man but she is brave enough to accept the challenge and the unexpected gift life has in store for her. Love is more important than the disapproval and the hypocrisy of society. An intelligent,well written,subtle novel,which is also extremely modern.

Along with William Trevor and Penelope Lively, Muriel Spark is a master storyteller. Though she is best known for her novels (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie), these stories make for lovely reading. I would take this book to the beach, on a plane or just to bed. Spark is a wondrous companion---you'll laugh aloud constantly.

I have read nearly all Joanna Trollope's books and this book is one of her best. The story was complex without exaggeration. I especially enjoyed the intergenerational weave of relationships.

I often wonder why the brilliant Ms. Trollope gives such deceptively fluffy titles to all her books, when every book she writes contains such richness. Is that why, in a recent review, I saw her described as "cozy"? I almost fainted!

Therefore, let me say it here and now: If you are looking for cozy and comforting romance (and there's nothing wrong with that!), Joanna Trollope is not your author. If, on the other hand, you enjoy reading about likeable, oh-so-human characters who try, in their own muddled way, to slog through the complexities of everyday life, you will love "The Men and the Girls," another Trollope masterpiece.

The "men," in this case, are James and Hugh, both successful, urbane friends who are now in their 60s, and who have known each other over 40 years. Theirs is a friendship made indescructible by time and understanding, even if there are times when each grates horribly on the other. Each man, as it happens, has chosen a companion very much younger than himself. James, an academic, has been living with Kate, a lovely and artless woman in her 30s who prefers menial jobs (such as waitressing) so she can pursue her true passions, such as helping out at a home for battered women. She has an impossible teenaged daughter, Joss, the product of a brief and hurtful romance gone wrong. Kate and James are very happy; their household is completed by James' elderly uncle, Leonard, whose cantankerous bellowing belies a tender heart. The heart of the house is Kate, who keeps everything going and who manages her horrible teenager and the equally horrible Leonard with love and aplomb.

Hugh, a minor TV personality, lives with the prim and proper Julia, also in her 30s, a lovely woman who has given birth to Hugh's only children, impeccable twin boys. Their picturebook life is lived in a beautifully decorated and spotless house with a gorgeous garden, all the work of Julia, who keeps her six-year-old twins equally clean and perfect. Julia also works in television, but devotes the majority of her time to Hugh, her boys, and her house and garden.

In both relationships, James' and Hughs', the men take wholeheartedly of their women's love and nurturing, and age seems to be no problem whatsoever. Enter a totally unlikely catalyst: a plain and elderly spinster names Beatrice, whom James has accidentally knocked off her bicycle on a dark and rainy night. Beatrice is unhurt, but James, understandably upset, becomes involved in her life, first out of guilt, and then out of real interest.

It is at this point that Kate suddenly and cruelly decides that she cannot live with James another minute, and uproots herself and her daughter with no thought to the consquences other than the need to escape. A similar situation occurs with Julia and Hugh (too complicated to describe in a review), and they, too, separate. And suddenly, our preconceived ideas about who are the givers and who are the takers are completely reversed, as the four protagonists must shift their lives and their expectations in completely unforeseen ways. In the end, all of our suppositions about James, Kate, Hugh and Julia are radically different, as we realize that none is truly a whole adult. And that Joss, the nasty, self-centered teen, is the most truly well-rounded of them all.

Interesting reading, fascinating to think about. Happy ending? Not exactly. A REAL ending is more to the point, as lives sort themselves out, not always for the better, but as they inevitably must. "The Men and the Girls" is another Trollope triumph, well worth reading and keeping on one's shelf of well-loved books.
--Calyndula

Trollope has become one of my favorite authors and this book is one of the reasons why. Her characters draw you in with their everyday humanity; none of them are perfect and you feel you can relate to most of them.

With a title like The Men and the Girls you might think you know where Trollope is going with this -- some kind of modern morality play -- but that's never the case with her stuff. She paints a lively, honest picture of what's real and complicated about our daily modern lives, including all the little things we do that can be so telling. Her endings are rarely contrived or completely happy, and so seem all the more real.

And even though some of her characters seem a bit too quirky for their own good, the end result is one of embracing what's different and hence "normal" about us all.

This book should appeal to all kinds of people...women in relationships with older men, and men of the same age... men in relationships with younger women, women of the same age, and older women! (OK Ms. Trollope can u spin us a yarn next time with a woman and a younger man?!).

This American reader is devoted to this British author. Enjoy!

"Daniel Deronda" is George Eliot's last and, perhaps, most ambitious novel. It has great literary merit, but I do not think it is her best work. The novel contrasts the lax moral attitudes of the British aristocracy with the focused dedication of the Jewish Zionists. Given the typical anti-Semitic sentiments in Victorian England, and the little known world of the Jews and the Zionist Movement, Ms. Eliot's made a brave and idealistic effort by writing this book.

Ms. Elliot describes the lives of British Jews, a society-within-a-society, of which most of her contemporaries were oblivious, through her hero Daniel Deronda. Through her heroine, Gwendolyn Harleth, who marries for money and power rather than love, Eliot explores a side of human relations that leads only to despair.

Daniel sees Gwendolyn, for the first time, at a roulette table. He is fascinated by her classical, blonde English beauty, and vivacious, self-assured manner. When Ms. Harleth is forced to sell her necklace to pay gambling debts, Deronda, a disapproving observer, buys back the jewelry, anonymously, and returns it to her. This is not the last time the deeply spiritual and altruistic Deronda will feel a need to rescue Gwendolyn.

Daniel was adopted by an English gentleman at an early age. He has received affection, a good education, and to some extent, position, from his guardian. However, Deronda has never been told the story of his true parentage, and sorely feels this lack of roots and his own identity. Not content to play the gentleman, he always appears to be searching for a purpose in life.

Daniel's and Gwendolyn's lives intersect throughout the novel. They feel a strong mutual attraction initially, but Gwendolyn, with incredible passivity, decides to marry someone she knows is a scoundrel, for his wealth. The decision will haunt her as her life becomes a nightmare with the sadistic Mr. Harcourt, her husband.

At about the same time, Daniel inadvertently saves a young woman from suicide. He finds young Mirah Lapidoth, near drowning, by the river and takes her to a friend's home to recover. There she is made welcome and asked to stay. She is a Jewess, abducted from her mother years before, by her father, who wanted to use the child's talent as a singer to earn money. When young Mirah forced her voice beyond its limits, and lost her ability to sing, her father abandoned her. She has never been able to reunite with her mother and brother, and was alone and destitute, until Daniel found her. Daniel, in his search for Mirah's family, meets the Cohens, a Jewish shop owner and his kin. Deronda feels an immediate affinity with them and visits often. He also comes to know a Jewish philosopher and Zionist, Mordecai, and they forge a strong bond of friendship.

Daniel finally does discover his identity, and has a very poignant and strange meeting with his mother. He had been actively taking steps to make a meaningful existence for himself, and with the new information about his parents and heritage, he leaves England with a wife, for a new homeland and future.

One of the novel's most moving scenes is when Daniel and Gwendolyn meet for the last time. Gwendolyn has grown from a self-centered young woman to a mature, thoughtful adult, who has suffered and grown strong.

The author is one of my favorites and her writing is exceptional. This particular novel, however, became occasionally tedious with Ms. Eliot's monologues, and the book's length. Her characters are fascinating, original as always, and well drawn. The contrast between the lives of the British aristocracy, the emerging middle class, and the Jewish community gives the reader an extraordinary glimpse into three totally different worlds in Victorian England. A fine book and a wonderful reading experience.

George Eliot's final novel is both riveting and problematic. Many critics have called it "two books in one" -- some have even said that the two strands of the book should have been *separated*. One plotline follows Gwendolen Harleth, a spoiled and beautiful girl fallen on hard financial times, and what happens when she marries a soulless aristocrat...the other plotline concerns the title character, Daniel, who is drawn into the revelation of his true Jewish ancestry. George Eliot is a Novelist of the Mind...she dissects the motivations and psyches of her characters, setting them against the society they inhabit and examining interaction both with that society and with the other people it encompasses. This is a stirring novel, with sharply-etched characterizations : not a melodrama or a potboiler, yet still with the drive of a thriller.

Daniel Deronda is a brave piece of literature. It attempts to chronicle the budding Zionist movement and anti-semitic attitudes of Victorian society, and combine it with a more traditional George Eliot soul-searching story of a young woman (a gentile who has a complex relationship with Daniel Deronda, the young Englishman who discovers he is a Jew). While many people have quibbled about various details of the story, with some justification, the overall impact is one of awe. It's amazing how an accomplished writer defies popular criticism and explores a subject matter which was, at the time, politically incorrect.

Strictly speaking, Daniel Deronda isn't quite the same level of immaculate fiction as Middlemarch. So I think George Eliot fans will be somewhat disappointed. But on the positive side, the book is much more accessible (ie, easier to read). And the subject matter makes it required reading for everyone interested in modern Judaism/Zionism. It's fascinating to compare how Jews were perceived during the mid-1800s relative to today (..in western Europe).

Finally, the Penguin Classic edition of Daniel Deronda has both great Notes and Introductory sections (which, oddly, is supposed to be read AFTER reading the book).

This book was a favorite of mine in my childhood, and, when I returned as an adult to re-read it to my own daughter, I discovered it all over again.

This is a story about a different kind of princess than one might imagine; a princess that is an orphan - lonely, cold, hungry and abused. Sara Crewe begins life as the beloved, pampered daughter of a rich man. When he dies a pauper, she is thrown on the non-existent mercy of her small-minded, mercenary boarding school mistress. Stripped of all her belongings but for one set of clothes and a doll, Sara becomes a servant of the household. Hated by the schoolmistress for her independent spirit, Sara becomes a pariah in the household, with only a few secretly loyal friends. But through her inner integrity and strength of will, Sara Crewe maintains the deportment, inner nobility and generous spirit of a "real" princess.

It is a fabulous story of the triumph of human will, and good over evil.

This story is a real classic, and needs no re-writing to be as enjoyable and readable today as it ever was. Ask my 8-year-old daughter, who has already re-read it twice. Accept no substitutes, re-writes, abridgements or copies! This is a work of art, and should not be tampered with.

I first read this book when I was ten years old. I still remember being transported from my Boise, Idaho sunroom, circa summer vacation 1976, back to the foggy gaslit streets of Victorian London. I don't believe that I moved off that sunroom couch until I had devoured this entire book. I loved the whole idea of A Little Princess -- the beautiful clothes (watered silk and petticoats!), the food (gruel!), and Sara's suffering in the garrett. Sara's life was so different from mine. Reading this book was like travelling to a different continent.

In some ways, this is a formula book for girls -- although it might be fair to say that this book invented the formula: plucky, mistreated orphan (mysteriously stripped of her fortune), who never loses hope and remains truly good transformed through a mysterious benefactor into a girl rich beyond her wildest dreams (see also: the Boxcar Children; Little Orphan Annie, etc).

Sara is an extremely engaging character. She is almost too good to be true -- kind to the servants, smarter than the headmistress, and able to tell stories that ensnare her listeners. Sara's stories enable her, first to make friends, and then later, to cope with the rather significant blows that life (and the author) deal her.

And, in the best of tradition of this type of story, Sara is rescued, her wealth is restored, she remains a perfectly lovely little girl, and the horrible headmistress who mistreated her gets her comeuppance. All is right with the world once again.

Title: A Little Princess
By: Frances Hodgson Burnett
Reviewed By: ...
Period: 4

There is a young girl named Sara. She is a very smart, kind and clever girl. Sara likes to read books and imagine things. Her father had to go off in India for a job so he left Sara at a school. They were a very rich family. Sara always wore the fancy clothes and she got everything she desired. At the school, everyone always looked at her. She made some friends but very few. A few Years later, her father dies. She becomes a poor, dirty maid who cleans at the school. She still has contact with her friends but very few. She met a neighbor that just moved in. It turns out that he is looking for her because he was a close friend of her dad. The neighbor doesn't know that Sara is the girl at the school next door.
Later on they meet, and Sara's life becomes a lot better.
I liked this book because it kept making me want to read on. I didn't want to stop. It was such a interesting book. I've never read a book like this one. It's so fun how she is very happy at first and then sad later on. " Nobody but Sara herself ever knew what had happened in her room after she had ran upstairs and locked the door. In fact, she herself scarcely remembered anything but that she walked up and down, saying over and over again to herself in a voice which did not seem her own: 'My Papa is dead! My papa is dead!'" That was the sad part.
This book always made me think about how nice of a girl Sara was and what a kind heart she had. I was crying when she had become a poor, maid after her father died and left no money. She always cared for others and was an excellent student at school. "'Ah, Madam, ' he said, ' there is not much I can teach her. She has not learned french; she IS french. He accent is exquisite." That is what her french teacher told The head mistress.(She is very smart)
My favorite part of the book is when she meets friends. Although she had kind ways to talk to people, she always met people in a strange way. For instance, when she met one of her friends, Lottie,it was when Lottie was crying. Lottie was screaming out that she had no mother. Sara never really met her mother. Then, Sara offered to be her adopted mother.I thought that was strange but nice of her. It stopped Lottie from crying so hard and she became very close friends with her. That is what I liked about the book.

I seldom laugh out loud as I did reading this highly entertaining tale of a young hairdresser's inept search for love. I made the mistake of lending the book and of course it has been passed on and on so I've lost it!

Gavin, a 31 year-old virgin who works in a non-hip London hair salon, is looking for love in all the wrong places. His best friend, who is gay, thinks Gavin may be, as well. His sister, who has the best intentions, tries to set him up with her unsuitable pal. And his parents are no help either. Gavin romances the most exquisite girls ever created ... in his dreams. With his head in the clouds, it takes him awhile to realize that true love may be right before his eyes

I must admit I cheated and saw the movie before I read this book. I've had the novel for so long, but never got around to it. The film was stunning and I was sobbing at the end. Now after the reading the book - I am pleased to say the film follows the book closely and Gillian Anderson really captures the moral complexities of Lily Bart. I love how Wharton was able to find the hypocrisy in nineteenth century high society. Not only did she expose its follies, she also unveiled its fragility. Lily could have easily maneuvered her way out of nearing poverty, but she possesses a kind of morality that her privileged, back-stabbing friends do not. It is only by turning their backs on the truth do her peers hold up their shameful facade. I do find it disturbing that Lily believes her only way out is death...that she has nothing else to offer the world. Wharton uses this tactic, though, to symbolically represent the rich snubbing the poor - how they exist without even seeing them.

However, the most intriguing part about this novel is Lily's relationship with Seldon. In the beginning, he seems to always remind her of her vain attempts at marrying rich men. She can't go through with her designs, though. He strings her along, all the while he's having this under-handed liason with one of the most pretentious women of their social circle. Lily never gets to tell him how much she really loves him. Her pride reverts to bravery as she realizes she must face her future without his companionship. Does she die for an empty purse or a broken heart? I choose the latter.

Prior to reading The House of Mirth, I had read both The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome. The House of Mirth deals with moneyed New York families, as does The Age of Innocence, but The House of Mirth has a more serious tone and a more tragic storyline, in that the main character is a woman who is a victim of her times. Lily Bart lives in an era when to be poor is the worst punishment of New York society. The idea of having to work for a living is untenable. Her goal in life is to marry well, but she struggles with the idea of abandoning her goals for true happiness just to marry well. The story deals with her misadventures in society, and the sometimes painful price her relatives and friends extract from her in exchange for financial support. This is a very enjoyable, although sad, novel, and I recommend it particularly to those who have already read some Edith Wharton and wish to round out their selection of writing.

I stumbled upon a review of the recent film of THE HOUSE OF MIRTH in the TLS and, in order to have the novel firmly fixed in my mind (that is, before the lush, seductive images of film forever eradicated Wharton's novel from me) I dragged my copy off the shelf for a re-read. It had been 16 years since I last read of Lily Bart and her life, and I didn't realize how much I had missed her. For me, this is one of the great reading experiences, one of a handful that make reading a book the deeply moving and human exchange that it is. Despite the distance of wealth, property, time and manners, Wharton manages to make Lily's world and life palpable to anyone who will listen. The clash of money, morals, personality and circumstance is infinitely developed and played out in front of a never fading natural world. Once again, I was deeply moved by Lily Bart and at the end, felt I had lost someone myself.