There are three main characters in this novel: Anne and Edmund Cornhill are an idyllic couple living safe and secure in their private world; Arabella, a distant relation of Edmund's, is the stereotypical poor little rich girl but with an interesting twist. When the Cornhills open their home to Arabella, a complicated web of love, longing, and unexpected emotions erupt. All Arabella wants is "a peaceful happy life with - people who want that too - with me in it." All the Cornhills want is the domestic bliss they have known and cherished for the past ten years. What transpires is shocking and damaging, but written with the passion and intensity that make Elizabeth Jane Howard highly readable and every page of her book alive with tension and excitement. When one of the characters proclaims at the end "I'm truly sorry if I've made either of you feel unhappy," the reader is torn with the moral dilemma expressed in this novel. There are no black and white characters here, only gray, and when you have read the final page you will feel relieved it was only a novel and didn't really happen.

having myself mistakenly believed in a romantic situation where there was none, i found myself invested in this book...howard juxtposes one couple's safe relationship ("like an island") with the solitude of a young girl's quest to be loved. although few can resist loving arabella, no one seems interested in keeping her. yet, when she moves in with the cozy couple, readers watch the characters' emotions and insecurities unravel. every odd girl out will love this book, and every member of a 'safe' couple should read it for vicarious thrills.

Not to say wesley has austen's genius, but one reads her with the same sense of delight.
This is an extremely sexy book, but without the extreme explicitness of romance novels, which I always think ruins it.
Wonderful light reading.

Amazing. Very sexy and exciting but not explicit and gratuitous. We meet Flora as a young lonely girl of ten on vacation with her selfish, neglectful parents. We follow her life as she matures to a beautiful woman. Three men love her but which does she love and which one will she choose. This is one book hard to put down.

I am currently reading all of Mary Wesley's books, they are addictive. She creates excellent, sympathetic characters, sets them in interesting situations, and makes the plot move along, without resorting to caricatures or unbelievable coincidences. Plus, she knows how to write GOOD.

This is possibly the saddest novel I have ever read. I have been thinking about it ever since I finished it. Few novels have evoked so much emotion in me. Tess makes me feel sad, frustrated, and angry.
Tess of the Durbervilles is the story of Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of poor, alcoholic parents who learn that they are of a noble bloodline and send Tess off to work for her noble "cousin" Alec Durberville. While there, Alec rapes Tess and she has his illegitimate baby. This event ruins Tess's life. She is no longer pure, and virginal, and therefore brings shame upon her true love Angel Clare when her past is revealed.
It is hard to believe, in this day and age, that Tess is shamed and ostracized because she was the victim of a horrible crime. Hardy's novel is a powerful statement on the questionable morality of Victorian society. Tess, who is a heroic, brave, caring, selfless woman, is not worthy of Angel because she is somehow impure due to the rape. Angel, who has lived with a woman out of wedlock and is clearly not a virgin himself, feels justified in punishing Tess when he learns of her past.
The writing is beautiful, but the story tragic. It will stay with you a long time.

Please ignore the immature high-school student reviews and understand that this book is a masterpiece. Hardy analyzes the relationship between human desire and society's mores to an unprecendented degree. The characters are multi-faceted and very life-like. Hardly aptly avoids the mistake of creating mere carciatures of the pure woman, idealistic intellectual, and spoiled playboy. Moreover, his use of religious allusion is excellent although this may alienate the modern, secular reader. And perhaps this is the problem with some readers. Finally, Tess is an admirable and strong woman who had difficult circumstances. How many people would act as admirably in her circumstance? Not many! The reviewers that criticize her actions should realize this and that they ignore one of Hardy's key points: Don't be so judgemental! This is one of the best books I have read and believe me, I have read a lot of the "good" books.

I'm many years out of college and thought I should start reading some more of the classics. Previous favorites of mine have been The Sound and the Fury, Jane Eyre, and Pride and Prejudice. I saw Tess of the D'Urbervilles on my sister's bookshelf and for about a year I considered reading it. Finally, I picked it up and began. Wow! I read it in about three days. I never expected I would feel so much by reading this book. I cried when she baptized Sorrow herself. Her concerns that he be buried in the churchyard and her efforts to ensure he was were touching. I wanted to help Tess Durbeyfield. I thought she was a very complex character--she was sweet and unworldly but she wasn't actually stupid. And she was strong in many ways--for example, her family relied on Tess for so many things--eventually even their support. In fact, I hated her family for not working harder and making their own sacrifices. All the burden was on poor Tess. I also wanted to shake some sense into Angel. He really did wrong by Tess--although he eventually realizes this, it comes too late. The only thing I really did not care for was the sudden inclusion of a minor character (who we met earlier)into the end of the book and the implication that she would play an important role in the future of a major character. I barely knew this minor character and NOBODY could compare to Tess of the D'Urbervilles. If you are reading this to find a good book, ignore the negative reviews by high-school students and buy this book NOW. It's unforgettable.

The mood is definitely melancholy in this story of Caro, an American transplant to the English farming country whose funeral we attend on the very first page.

Caro's friends, neighbors and family are devastated by her too-early death (a brain tumor), and one could accurately say she is gone but not forgotten. In Trollope's own trademark way, we learn that Caro profoundly affected everyone in her extended circle--and not always for the good.

Who was Caro? Did she love her silent, taciturn farmer husband Robin, who bears a weight of responsibility that would break most people? And what about Robin's charming, but ultimately feckless brother Joe? What was between him and Caro, and why can he not find solace in his young family?

Solace is not to be had for Judy either: The twentysomething adopted daughter of Caro and Robin is beside herself with grief, and deeply angry at her father for seemingly neglecting his perfect wife.

As Trollope does so brilliantly, she lets us view the re-shifting and uncomfortable emotions of Caro's family from a child's eye point of view, in this case, the sensitive, 3-year-Hughie, Joe's son. There are only two people in the book who grab life to the fullest, as Caro is purported to have done. One is little Hughie's baby sister, Rose, whose sturdy little soul brooks no interference. She is, simply, a force to be reckoned with. Her adult counterpart is the hippie-ish Zoe, flatmate of the self-pitying Judy, and the ultimate, unlikely catalyst for the family to come to terms with its grief and see Caro for what she really was, warts and all.

This is one of the darker of Trollope's books, but as always, well-written and, in my case, hard to put down. It makes the reader think hard about perception and reality, and the intangible nature of love--both romantic and family.

This is a good read, a little reminisent of some of the Catherine Cookson books. The story evolves around the death of the American wife of Robin and how her life impacted on his family and the neighbors in this English village. The arrival of a young friend of his step daughter adds a nice touch. The arrival of Zoe brings about a great many changes in the family and a growth of charachter in Robin. However, this is not a new book. It was first published in 1996 and readers should probably check their shelves before rushing out to purchase this book I wish I had. Because now I have the hardover novel I purchased in '96 and a trade copy.

I discovered this author while in England in 1997 and again in Canada in 1998. I am glad to see her now being actively published and accepted in the U.S. Her books are not rapid action; they are slow and thoughtful, developing the personalities and emotions of the characters through their reactions to real life occurrences. They leave the reader with much to ponder. Of the two books I have read, this is my favorite so far, and it is totally different than the other book in character, circumstance, and theme.

"Falling Slowly" is Anita Brookner's 18th novel in as many years, and one has to wonder: How many ways are there to say that a human's lot is a lonely, desultory one? This is the story of two middle-aged sisters, Beatrice, a stately romantic, and the younger Miriam, a hard realist. Even lovers and marriage offer the sisters no relief from loneliness and their state of being "mysteriously isolated from the world." It is tempting to compare Brookner to Barbara Pym, for they both write about women in that same segment of London society-- intelligent women of "comfortable" circumstances, always assessing how "suitable" everything is and turning to cups of tea in moments of crisis. But while Pym's women seem old fashioned, they are really quite game as they look to catch the vicar's eye at a church "jumble sale." Brookner's women-- and men-- although more modern, are more thoroughly introverted and repressed. When happiness dangles before them they invariably find an excuse to return to their self-imposed solitude. Oddly, however grim Brookner's outlook, one continues to read her novels for their beautiful, precise prose, and for her quiet snatches of humor.

In Henry James's The Ambassadors, the aging protagonist urges his young friend to "Live! Live all you can; it's a mistake not to." Anita Brookner is often compared to James and Brookner's isolated and often friendless heroines inevitably make the quietly tragic mistake which James's character decries. In one finely-drawn novel after another over two decades, she has explored the fascinating consequences of such mistakes, finding drama and passion in what from the outside may seem like very undramatic lives.

In the moving and intelligent Falling Slowly, English translator Miriam Sharpe actually turns to readings Henry James after death and disappointment mar her life. She is a woman whose central imperative in life has been to avoid risk and alarm in whatever form. Raised by difficult, dismissive parents in a bleak household, neither she nor her sister Beatrice had been prepared to be welcomed by the world, let alone loved. Though she tried to enjoy her youth, Miriam found itdisappointing. That time of her life wasn't just a letdown in itself, it never led--as she assumed it would--to a brand new and glorious chapter of her life, "one that was to obliterate botched beginnings."

With "no particular calling," Miriam drifted into working as a translator of contemporary French novels, thanks to her gift for languages and her speed. Though this work means frequent trips to Paris, that city itself holds no romantic promise for her, existing simply as a scene for business. And her translating doesn't seem much more than a kind of intellectual drudgery. While her old-fashioned accompanist sister--whose career is unfulfilling--dreams of a man right out of a Silhouette romance, Miriam longs for a real home, a place bustling with life where she feels connected.

For Miriam, an affair and even a five-year marriage pass as if she were drugged by time itself. Her relationship with her sister fades in and out, growing more like that of her parents. In Brookner's novels, the clash between expectations and reality tends to play out on a field where overly careful people get entangled with the careless. Here, the conflicts are more muted than usual.

Falling Slowly may not be as striking or as focused as last year's stunning Visitors, in part because of POV switches. But it still showcases Brookner's strengths in registering the nuances of lives suffused by resignation and longing. She charts the sad passage of time in changing faces and fortunes, fading dreams and chintzes, better than almost any other contemporary novelist, which gives her small books an unexpectedly expansive feel. And her elegant, insightful prose is so admirably balanced, so consistently pleasurable, so seductively witty that you're often likely to reread passages or even feel moved to read them aloud to others. Like Austen, with whom she is also often compared, Brookner works on a small canvas, but with a profound understanding of the tragicomic potential of desires gone amiss.

Lev Raphael, author of LITTLE MISS EVIL, 4th in the Nick Hoffman series. www.levraphael.com

I should confess at the outset that I harbor the same unbounding love for Anita Brookner's writing that I do for the acting of Anthony Hopkins -- that is, I would be awestruck to see Hopkins on stage merely scratching his head or filing his nails, and I would probably wait on line to see a cheque written by Brookner! My bias notwithstanding, this has become my new favorite Brookner novel, as Miriam is the Brookner heroine with whom I have identified most strongly. She is definitely 'typical' of the somewhat repressed, guarded and alienated upper/middle class women whom Brookner has crafted, but at the same time, Miriam has a spark and feistiness that went far to balance out some VERY sensitive moments vis-a-vis her more delicate sister Beatrice -- think Anna from "Fraud" with a stronger backbone! I expect all Brookner fans will share an enthusiastic reaction to this book, and I believe that it's more contemporary vibe and heroine will attract new readers to the Brookner fold!

THE EUROPEANS IS NOT ONE OF HENRY JAMES BETTER NOVELS. NEVERTHELESS, FOR FANS OF JAMES, IT'S QUITE READABLE.
THE NOVEL IS ABOUT 2 EUROPEANS - A YOUNG MAN AND WOMAN, BROTHER AND SISTER, WHO TRAVEL TO AMERICA (BOSTON) TO VISIT THEIR LONG LOST AMERICAN COUSINS.
THE PLOT INVOLVES THE AMOROUS ENTANGLEMENTS OF THE COUSINS AND THEIR AMERICAN FRIENDS.
MUCH OF THE STORY DEALS WITH CONTRASTING THE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN "WAYS" AND "LIFESTYLES" - A FAVORITE TOPIC OF JAMES.
THE BOOK IS NOT A COMPLEX READ LIKE SOME OF HIS LATER NOVELS. IT'S QUITE ACCESSIBLE AND MILDLY ENTERTAINING.

THE EUROPEANS IS NOT ONE OF HENRY JAMES BETTER NOVELS. NEVERTHELESS, FOR FANS OF JAMES, IT'S QUITE READABLE.
THE NOVEL IS ABOUT 2 EUROPEANS - A YOUNG MAN AND WOMAN, BROTHER AND SISTER, WHO TRAVEL TO AMERICA (BOSTON) TO VISIT THEIR LONG LOST AMERICAN COUSINS.
THE PLOT INVOLVES THE AMOROUS ENTANGLEMENTS OF THE COUSINS AND THEIR AMERICAN FRIENDS.
MUCH OF THE STORY DEALS WITH CONTRASTING THE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN "WAYS" AND "LIFESTYLES" - A FAVORITE TOPIC OF JAMES.
THE BOOK IS NOT A COMPLEX READ LIKE SOME OF HIS LATER NOVELS. IT'S QUITE ACCESSIBLE AND MILDLY ENTERTAINING.

THE EUROPEANS IS NOT ONE OF HENRY JAMES BETTER NOVELS. NEVERTHELESS, FOR FANS OF JAMES, IT'S QUITE READABLE.
THE NOVEL IS ABOUT 2 EUROPEANS - A YOUNG MAN AND WOMAN, BROTHER AND SISTER, WHO TRAVEL TO AMERICA (BOSTON) TO VISIT THEIR LONG LOST AMERICAN COUSINS.
THE PLOT INVOLVES THE AMOROUS ENTANGLEMENTS OF THE COUSINS AND THEIR AMERICAN FRIENDS.
MUCH OF THE STORY DEALS WITH CONTRASTING THE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN "WAYS" AND "LIFESTYLES" - A FAVORITE TOPIC OF JAMES.
THE BOOK IS NOT A COMPLEX READ LIKE SOME OF HIS LATER NOVELS. IT'S QUITE ACCESSIBLE AND MILDLY ENTERTAINING.

What a tiresome trudge it was to get through this slim book. In a mere 220 or so pages the writer manages to repeat the same boring, navel gazing tosh several times over. The Bay of Angels has nothing of any interest to say and the ennui filled mood of the characters and plot did nothing positive for me. Anita, your characters need to get a life! (I would have liked to give this book zero stars.)

I've been listening to the book on tape, and am giving up. The characters are totally self-absorbed, shallow and uninteresting. A story may develop as time goes on, and Zoe may find some gumption and energy by the end of the book, but Brookner takes too many pages for me to persevere. Sorry.

This writer has got to be the best wordsmith around. In each novel the sentences stand alone, dynamic, fresh and gleaming in intensity. The story is important, the characters are profound but these are often upstaged by the absolute pleasure of reading such sharp writing. I can't be the only person buying the latest novel of Anita Brookner every year as soon as it hits the shelf.

Much has been said about Brookner's lonely women and feminist approach and I will leave that to others who are better informed than me to remark upon. What I look for in every novel is the dramatic turn which never fails to be exciting. In THE BAY OF ANGELS, there are several but the most outstanding is the moment when Zoe returns to reclaim her stepfather's house in Nice and finds it already occupied, cocktails in hand, by his greedy relatives. The attitudes and survival tactics of the women who share the clinique with Zoe's sick mother are searing. Best of all is the moment by the sea when Zoe's reflects on the angels flying up from the bay and inward to land where they will reinforce the already celestial commercialism of earth.

A friend of mine in London once remarked to me that he sometimes sees Anita Brookner early in the morning on the Kings Road heading towards Waitrose supermarket. I was astounded, "doesn't anyone stop her," I asked imagining that she would be beset with fans. "No," said my friend, "nobody knows who she is." I would prefer to think that London is so vast that it renders one anonymous and invisible which is often the very dilemma ensnaring her characters.

I love Edith Wharton and have read many of her books, but this one is just BORING. It goes on and on and nothing ever happens. If the people in it could just be honest with each other instead of lying to try to avoid confronting difficulties the story would have been a lot better and a lot shorter. It is agonizing to read.

Whatever you think of "The Reef," it contains one of Edith Wharton's most wonderful scenes. Our "hero" has been dallying for a while in a hotel with the young girl he picked up on the boat dock, and he's wearying of her. We see his boredom and disillusionment through his reactions to the mere sounds she is making in the next room. He is so familiar by now with her habits and movements that he knows what she's doing without actually seeing her. A gem of a scene, in a strange jewel of a book.

Yes, Wharton was just a tad mean and crude in writing the male counterpart of this book, but that's what makes this book so interesting. These characters had flaws! Actually flaws! I am so sick of reading books with perfect little characters with just one evil villian. This book shows you that no one is perfect, and everyone has a little evil in them.

A charming, poetic, lyrical, and beautiful book to read. Wonderful descriptions, vivid images, lovely constructed sentences.

The cover of THE REEF is also beautiful. The text and lay out enhances the story, the elegance of the past, the wrong and the right. The cover was also rather of a matte type of thing, not glossy, which reminds the reader of ceramic and the older days when they turn the pages and old the book open.

Another lovely read by my favorite female author of the 20th century, Edith Wharton.

Anyone who adored Pride and Prejudice should stay far away from this book! The plot was very predictable and hardly entertaining at all. Worse than that was the fact that Emma Tennant seemed to re-write the final chapter of "Pride and Prejudice" to suit herself. Although in "Pride and Prejudice" Jane and Elizabeth were married on the same day, in "Pemberley" Jane had a 1 year old child and another on the way when Elizabeth had been married only 1 year. And Lydia had 4 children by this stage! Mr Bennet was quickly killed off in "Pemberley" before he or his wife had been invited to visit Mr & Mrs Darcy, but in "Pride and Prejudice" it says he delighted in going to Pemberley. Also disappointing is what Emma Tennant does to Georgiana, who seemed so devoted to Elizabeth in "Pride and Prejudice" but teamed up against her fairly easily with Miss Bingley in "Pemberley".
Going straight from "Pride and Prejudice" to "Pemberley" I found these discrepancies extremely annoying, but it may not seem quite so bad to someone who hasn't read "Pride and Prejudice" for a while. Even so, I don't think these changes can be justified, as they certainly did nothing to improve the plot.
Although I don't think anyone could truly do justice to a "Pride and Prejudice" sequel, I enjoyed "Presumption" by Julia Barrett far more than "Pemberley".

A truly disappointing attempt at a sequel to Pride and Prejudice. Although Ms. Tennant's language is acceptable, it does not hold a candle to Jane Austen's smart prose. Pemberley's plot is similar to a bad TV movie; the denoument is so poorly written, it seems as though the author wrote it in the lobby of her publisher's office on the same day of her deadline. Elizabeth Darcy (nee Bennet) was made to look too insecure and, in contemporary terms, "clingy." I was so disappointed that I literally tossed the book across the room after reading it.

If you love Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and are hungry for more, keep looking. This book is a terrible rip-off of Jane Austen's masterpiece. Do not be fooled by the title of Emma Tennat's book, just because the names of the characters are the same, as is the setting, it does not necessarily qualify it as a sequel. If you are looking for a book that more closely mirrors Jane Austen's style, and character development, read Julia Barrett's PRESUMPTION. But, whatever you do, do not waste your time or money on this book, you will be sorry you did, I know I am. I also feel that I need to add that I rated the book as one star, this being due to the lack of negative stars.