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A Note In Music: A Novel (Virago Modern Classics #243)
by Rosamond LehmannGrace Fairfax lives with her dull, conventional husband Tom in a grey manufacturing town in the north of England. At thirty-four she finds that her external life of dreary routine fails to match up to her lush, wistful and dreamy internal life. Norah, her energetic and chaotic friend, is equally settled in her own marriage to an irritable university professor.Then Hugh Miller and his sister Claire descend upon the quiet town. On all four, the hypnotic charm of these two visitors exerts an enchanting spell. And after their departure, life - having been violently disrupted - will never be quite the same again . . .
Warning Hill: A Novel
by John P. MarquandA poor boy falls in love with a privileged young woman and learns a bitter lesson about the haves and the have-nots in this dramatic tale from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Late George Apley As a young boy, Tom Michael walked with his father, Alfred, along the streets of Michael's Harbor, Massachusetts, and gazed across the water at the stately mansions on Warning Hill. Imagining the lives of the families inside those majestic homes was an enjoyable distraction, a cherished bond between father and son. Years later, after the shocking tragedy of his father's suicide, Tom holds the memory of those walks dear. When he meets and falls in love with Marianne Jellett, daughter of the self-made millionaire Grafton Jellett, he is thrilled to know one of Warning Hill's most prominent families. He is wholly unprepared for the pain that Marianne will cause him, and for the discovery of a connection between the ruthless Grafton and his father's death. A mesmerizing tale of passion, power, and vengeance, Warning Hill was the first of John P. Marquand's novels to be set in the stratified New England landscape that defined his legendary career.
Eight Little Faces
by Kate GosselinBecoming the parents of eight children in less than four years has definitely presented both trials and blessings to Jon and Kate Gosselin. In this very personal close-up of their family life, Kate comments on the life lessons God has taught her. Featuring themes like trust, perseverance, joy, and encouragement, each two-page spread includes a photograph from the Gosselin family album, words from Kate, and topical Scripture verses. This book makes the perfect gift for any fan of the Gosselin’s television show Jon & Kate Plus 8, which is featured on TLC, as well as any mother struggling with the demands of small children.
The Fortnight in September: A Novel
by R.C. SherriffThis charming, timeless classic about a family of five setting out on their annual seaside vacation is &“the most uplifting, life-affirming novel I can think of...the beautiful dignity to be found in everyday living has rarely been captured more delicately&” (Kazuo Ishiguro).Meet the Stevens family, as they prepare to embark on their yearly holiday to the coast of England. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens first made the trip to Bognor Regis on their honeymoon, and the tradition has continued ever since. They stay in the same guest house and follow the same carefully honed schedule—now accompanied by their three children, twenty-year-old Mary, seventeen-year-old Dick, and little brother Ernie. Arriving in Bognor they head to Seaview, the guesthouse where they stay every year. It&’s a bit shabbier than it once was—the landlord has died and his wife is struggling as the number of guests dwindles every year. But the family finds bliss in booking a slightly bigger cabana, with a balcony, and in their rediscovery of the familiar places they visit every year. Mr. Stevens goes on his annual walk across the downs, reflecting on his life, his worries and disappointments, and returns refreshed. Mrs. Stevens treasures an hour spent sitting alone with her medicinal glass of port. Mary has her first small taste of romance. And Dick pulls himself out of the malaise he&’s sunk into since graduation, resolving to work towards a new career. The Stevenses savor every moment of their holiday, aware that things may not be the same next year. Delightfully nostalgic and soothing, The Fortnight in September is an extraordinary novel about ordinary people enjoying life&’s simple pleasures.
Highland Fling
by Nancy MitfordIn Highland Fling--Nancy Mitford's first novel, published in 1931--a set of completely incompatible and hilariously eccentric characters collide in a Scottish castle, where bright young things play pranks on their stodgy elders until the frothy plot climaxes in ghost sightings and a dramatic fire. Inspired in part by Mitford's youthful infatuation with a Scottish aristocrat, her story follows young Jane Dacre to a shooting party at Dulloch Castle, where she tramps around a damp and chilly moor on a hunting expedition with formidable Lady Prague, xenophobic General Murgatroyd, one-eyed Admiral Wenceslaus, and an assortment of other ancient and gouty peers of the realm, while falling in love with Albert, a surrealist painter with a mischievous sense of humor. Lighthearted and sparkling with witty banter, Highland Fling was Mitford's first foray into the delightful fictional world for which the author of The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate later became so celebrated.With an Introduction by Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey.
The Loving Spirit (Vmc Ser. #548)
by Daphne Du MaurierDaphne du Maurier's lushly written novel . . . is a rapturous celebration of the beauties of the Cornish landscape - Michele Roberts----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cornwall, 1900s. Plyn Boat Yard is a hive of activity, and Janet Coombe longs to share in the excitement of seafaring: to travel, to have adventures, to know freedom.But constrained by the times, instead she marries her cousin Thomas, a boat builder, and settles down to raise a family.Janet's loving spirit - the passionate yearning for adventure and for love - is passed down to her son, and through him to his children's children. As generations of the family struggle against hardship and loss, their intricately plotted history is set against the greater backdrop of war and social change in Britain. Her debut novel, The Loving Spirit established du Maurier's reputation and style with an inimitable blend of romance, history and adventure.
The Loving Spirit (Virago Modern Classics #128)
by Daphne Du MaurierDaphne du Maurier's lushly written novel . . . is a rapturous celebration of the beauties of the Cornish landscape - Michele Roberts ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cornwall, 1900s. Plyn Boat Yard is a hive of activity, and Janet Coombe longs to share in the excitement of seafaring: to travel, to have adventures, to know freedom.But constrained by the times, instead she marries her cousin Thomas, a boat builder, and settles down to raise a family.Janet's loving spirit - the passionate yearning for adventure and for love - is passed down to her son, and through him to his children's children. As generations of the family struggle against hardship and loss, their intricately plotted history is set against the greater backdrop of war and social change in Britain. Her debut novel, The Loving Spirit established du Maurier's reputation and style with an inimitable blend of romance, history and adventure.
Mad Puppetstown (Virago Modern Classics #225)
by Molly KeaneIn the early 1900s Easter lives with her Aunt Brenda, her cousins Evelyn and Basil, and their Great-Aunt Dicksie in an imposing country house, Puppetstown, which casts a spell over their childhood. Here they spend carefree days taunting the peacocks in Aunt Dicksie's garden, shooting snipe and woodcock, hunting, and playing with Patsy, the boot boy. But the house and its inhabitants are not immune to the 'little, bitter, forgotten war in Ireland' and when it finally touches their lives all flee to England. All except Aunt Dicksie who refuses to surrender Puppetstown's magic. She stays on with Patsy, living in a corner of the deserted house while in England the cousins are groomed for Society. But for two of them those wild, lost Puppetstown years cannot be forgotten.
Conversation Piece (Virago Modern Classics #219)
by Molly KeaneWhen Oliver visits Pullinstown, he is introduced to wild days of hunting and shooting, and to characters like his cousins, with their passion for horses and trickery, and Sir Richard, elderly, but a match for his headstrong offspring. The author has also written under the pseudonym, M.J. Farrell.
I'll Never Be Young Again (Virago Modern Classics #116)
by Daphne Du MaurierA COMING-OF-AGE TALE OF ADVENTURE AND LOVE, FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA'The iron of the bridge felt hot under my hand. The sun had been upon it all day. Gripping hard with my hands I lifted myself on to the bar and gazed down steadily on the water passing under . . . I thought of places I would never see, and women I should never love'As far as Richard's father, a famous poet, is concerned, his son has no talent as a writer and will never amount to anything. In a moment of crisis, Richard decides to end his life, but is saved by Jake, a passing stranger. The two men, both at turning points in their lives, set out for adventure, jumping aboard a ship to Norway. Their travels take them through Europe and they form a passionate friendship. But in bohemian Paris Richard meets Hesta, a music student who inspires him to follow his artistic dreams.No other popular writer has so triumphantly defied classification . . . She satisfied all the questionable criteria of popular fiction, and yet satisfied the exacting requirements of "real literature", something very few novelists ever do - Margaret Forster
The Olivia Curtis Novels: Invitation to the Waltz and The Weather in the Streets (The Olivia Curtis Novels #2)
by Rosamond LehmannTen years separate these two poignant novels featuring the same young woman, by the New York Times–bestselling “novelist in the grand tradition” (Anita Brookner). British novelist Rosamond Lehmann “has always written brilliantly of women in love” (Margaret Drabble). In her pair of novels featuring Olivia Curtis—a shy, romantic, and hopeful seventeen-year-old looking forward to her first dance, and later, a sadder young woman in her twenties who still longs to capture lost passion—Lehmann creates “a completely compelling intimacy” that lingers long after the stories are over (Hermione Lee, The Guardian). Invitation to the Waltz: Seventeen-year-old Olivia Curtis has been invited to her first dance. She is thrilled and terrified. In her diary, she confides her hopes, doubts, and fears—about her pretty, confident older sister, Kate; her precocious baby brother, James; her eccentric country neighbors; and of course, the upcoming party, which she is sure will be the crowning event of her life. Divided into three parts—Olivia’s birthday, the day leading up to the dance, and the event itself—Invitation to the Waltz beautifully captures the conflicting emotions of a teenager on the threshold of womanhood. “Utterly charming and so desperately true that it almost hurts.” —The New York Times The Weather in the Streets: Ten years older with a failed marriage behind her, Olivia runs into Rollo Spencer, her girlhood crush from the ball, on a train, and is swept up in a heated but clandestine affair, since Rollo is married. Lehmann’s “honest” and “powerful” novel charts the tempestuous course of Olivia and Rollo’s forbidden relationship, from the first throes of passion through the toll of their deception on Olivia as she confronts the harsh reality of being the other woman (Kirkus Reviews). “A vividly realized, painfully convincing story of a love affair, written in Lehmann’s characteristic spare, poetic prose.” —Joyce Carol Oates
The Physiology of Marriage
by Honoré De BalzacMarriage is not an institution of nature. The family in the east is entirely different from the family in the west. Man is the servant of nature and the institutions of society are grafts, not spontaneous growths of nature. Laws are made to suit manners, and manners vary.
Private Life
by Mary Ann Newman Josep Maria De SagarraPrivate Life holds up a mirror to the moral corruption in the interstices of the Barcelona high society Sagarra was born into. Boudoirs of demimonde tramps, card games dilapidating the fortunes of milquetoast aristocrats - and how they scheme to conceal them - fading manors of selfish scions, and back rooms provided by social-climbing seamstresses are portrayed in vivid, sordid, and literary detail. The novel, practically a roman-à-clef for its contemporaries, was a scandal in 1932. The 1960's edition was bowdlerized by Franco's censors. Part Lampedusa, part Genet, this translation will bring an essential piece of 20th-century European literature to the English-speaking public.From the Trade Paperback edition.
As It Happened: A Novel
by David StoreyA wry and deeply affecting novel about a man's ruminations on art and death by the Man Booker Prize-winning author of This Sporting Life Matthew Maddox is an art historian and professor emeritus at the Drayburgh School of Fine Art. Nearing 70, his 3 sons are grown and his ex-wife, Charlotte, has remarried. After a failed suicide attempt in front of a moving train, Maddox attends art therapy classes in order to find new meaning in his life. Although he is isolated, Maddox does have his champions. Simone, his lover and partner, is returning shortly from an analysts' conference in Vienna. She has her own baggage, but Simone feels responsible for Maddox. Others who genuinely care about Maddox include his former mentor Daniel Viklund, whose wartime past fascinates Maddox; his older sister, Sarah; and his younger brother, Paul. There is also Eric Taylor, once his most promising student, now a convicted murderer, in whom Maddox sees echoes of his own life. An unabashed novel of mental illness, As It Happened tells of the prisons in which we find ourselves, the anxieties that exert their hold, and the desperate search for purpose in how we live and how we die.
Flight into Camden: A Novel
by David StoreyA miner's daughter leaves home to make a new life in London with a married teacher in this beautiful love story that won the 1961 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize Most of Margaret's family is graveside when they lay her grandfather to rest. Although everyone is in the same place, they are not really together. Margaret descends from Yorkshire coal miners, stoic people who have mastered the art of burying their feelings deep underground. Her relatives may be content to live this way, but Margaret yearns for something more. A secretary at the Coal Board, she gets a glimpse of another life when she visits her brother at his university and a fair-haired art teacher catches her eye. The teacher's name is Howarth; he is married, but that does not stop Margaret from risking everything she has in order to be with him. To escape the oppressive presence of her family, Margaret and Howarth flee to London. At first intoxicated by love, Margaret is soon shocked by what she finds in the city, and by how impossible it is to truly leave home.
The Flowering Thorn: A Novel
by Margery SharpA Jazz Age socialite impulsively adopts an orphaned boy in this humorous, heartwarming tale In 1929 London, twenty-eight-year-old Lesley Frewen lives a privileged, cultured life. But one thing is missing: love. When her aunt&’s female companion suddenly dies, leaving behind a young son, Lesley decides on a whim to adopt four-year-old Patrick—though she doesn&’t have any particular affection for children. As soon as Patrick moves in with her, Lesley gets to work using her connections to enroll him in the finest boys&’ school. But she quickly discovers London is no place to raise a child, and they relocate to the tiny village of High Westover. The hamlet boasts a post office, a church, and a vicarage. There&’s an apple orchard and children for Patrick to play with. However, the country comes with its own set of daunting challenges: Lesley can&’t imagine how she&’ll entertain her friends there! But ultimately life with Patrick will change her, bringing out her capacity to love and showing her the difference between pleasure and happiness.
High Rising: A Virago Modern Classic (Virago Modern Classics #370)
by Angela ThirkellSuccessful lady novelist Laura Morland and her boisterous young son Tony set off to spend Christmas at her country home in the sleepy surrounds of High Rising. But Laura's wealthy friend and neighbour George Knox has taken on a scheming secretary whose designs on marriage to her employer threaten the delicate social fabric of the village. Can clever, practical Laura rescue George from Miss Grey's clutches and, what's more, help his daughter Miss Sibyl Knox to secure her longed-for engagement?Utterly charming and very funny, High Rising is irresistible comic entertainment.
High Rising: A Virago Modern Classic (Virago Modern Classics #370)
by Angela ThirkellSuccessful lady novelist Laura Morland and her boisterous young son Tony set off to spend Christmas at her country home in the sleepy surrounds of High Rising. But Laura's wealthy friend and neighbour George Knox has taken on a scheming secretary whose designs on marriage to her employer threaten the delicate social fabric of the village. Can clever, practical Laura rescue George from Miss Grey's clutches and, what's more, help his daughter Miss Sibyl Knox to secure her longed-for engagement?Utterly charming and very funny, High Rising is irresistible comic entertainment.
Julius (Vmc Ser. #517)
by Daphne Du MaurierFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA'His first instinct was to stretch out his hands to the sky. The white clouds seemed so near to him, surely they were easy to hold and to caress, strange-moving things belonging to the wide blue space of heaven . . . 'Julius Levy grows up in a peasant family in a village on the banks of the Seine. A quick-witted urchin caught up in the Franco-Prussian War, he is soon forced by tragedy to escape to Algeria. Once there, he learns the ease of swindling, the rewards of love affairs and the value of secrecy. Before he's twenty, Julius is in London, where his empire-building begins in earnest, and he becomes a rich and very ruthless man. Throughout his life, Julius is driven by a hunger for power, his one weakness his daughter, Gabriel . . . A chilling story of ambition, Daphne du Maurier's third novel has lost none of its ability to unsettle and disturb.
Julius (Virago Modern Classics #117)
by Daphne Du MaurierFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA'His first instinct was to stretch out his hands to the sky. The white clouds seemed so near to him, surely they were easy to hold and to caress, strange-moving things belonging to the wide blue space of heaven . . . 'Julius Levy grows up in a peasant family in a village on the banks of the Seine. A quick-witted urchin caught up in the Franco-Prussian War, he is soon forced by tragedy to escape to Algeria. Once there, he learns the ease of swindling, the rewards of love affairs and the value of secrecy. Before he's twenty, Julius is in London, where his empire-building begins in earnest, and he becomes a rich and very ruthless man. Throughout his life, Julius is driven by a hunger for power, his one weakness his daughter, Gabriel . . . A chilling story of ambition, Daphne du Maurier's third novel has lost none of its ability to unsettle and disturb.
Pasmore: A Novel
by David StoreyA teacher oppressed by the futility of everyday life embarks on a dark affair in this extraordinary novel that won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize In his dreams, Colin Pasmore runs an endless race. No matter how hard he pumps his legs, he loses--and not just to other runners, but to every "dullard and idler" in England. Every morning, he wakes up screaming in terror. His life should be joyful; he has a lovely wife, healthy children, and a comfortable job. But as he approaches thirty, Pasmore feels the walls closing in. He must find a way out before ordinary existence suffocates him. In a desperate attempt to escape his routine, Pasmore rents a small room in London, intending to use it for an affair. But adultery does nothing to lessen his burden. As misery threatens to consume his soul, Pasmore will ask himself if any life--even a happy one--is worth living.
Present Times: A Novel
by David StoreyFrom "the leading novelist of his generation" (the Daily Telegraph)--a story about marriage, family, and 1 man's 2nd chance At age 47, former playwright Frank Attercliffe lives with 2 of his 5 children in a 4-bedroom apartment on Walton Lane on the outskirts of an English suburb. For the past 3 years, his wife, Sheila, has been living with Maurice, a car dealer who owns a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, and a Jaguar--a man rumored to have killed 3 people in car accidents. Attercliffe cowrites a weekend football roundup for the local sports column, and after a match, he is introduced to the beautiful actress Phyllis Gardner at his favorite watering hole. That night, however, Sheila comes home, having left Maurice and given up her current lover, Gavin. She wants to move back to Walton Lane with the entire family--but she wants Attercliffe to move out. With its cast of eccentric and endearing characters, including Attercliffe's loquacious fellow journalists, his alcoholic mentor, and the daughters who force him to live in the moment, Present Times is a novel about marriage, changing family values, and 2nd acts.
A Serious Man: A Novel
by David StoreyA successful playwright, painter, and novelist confronts his mortality and the past during a major life crisis in this novel by Man Booker Prize–winning author David Storey Richard Fenchurch has had a long and successful career as a playwright, painter, and novelist. But at age 65, he is coming apart at the seams. Fearing he will do something drastic if he remains alone, Fenchurch&’s married daughter, Harriet, takes charge of his life. She moves her father from his squalid London apartment to his ancestral mansion, where he courted his 1st wife—Harriet&’s mother, Bea—whom he met at a Christmas dance. Home again, with ghosts all around, Fenchurch journeys back in time while struggling to maintain his freedom and sanity. Past and present seamlessly intersect through the rich landscape of memory as Fenchurch begins to ruminate on his passionate affair 35 years earlier with his mother-in-law. In spite of their nearly 30-year age difference, the beautiful, exotic Isabella became the enduring love of his life. He relives his other romantic relationships as well, and through it all is plagued by self-doubt, depression, and guilt about how he has fared as a husband, a father, a friend, and a lover. Both a witty, spot-on portrayal of the indignities of age and an ardent evocation of youthful love, A Serious Man is above all a story about family.
A Temporary Life: A Novel
by David StoreyAn art teacher searches for meaning in a strange town as his wife spirals into madness in this stunning novel from Man Booker Prize-winning author David Storey Colin Freestone had not planned to live in northern England. The people here are so passionate and raw that he does not expect to ever understand them or feel at ease. But when his wife, Yvonne, fell sick, she would only accept psychiatric care if she could be near her mother, so Colin had no choice but to move north. As Yvonne wastes away in the hospital, sinking deeper and deeper into a terrifying and incomprehensible madness, Colin tries to make sense of his strange surroundings. He may live here now, but he will never call it home. To pass the time, he takes a job teaching art at a second-rate college that is headed by a nutrition-crazed dean. Colin makes friends, meets women, and plays tennis, but nothing can distract him from the fact that his wife is slowly dying and he is helpless to stop it.
Thin-Ice Skater: A Novel
by David StoreyA 17-year-old is sent to the country to live with his much-older half-brother and falls into an unexpected affair in this novel by Man Booker Prize-winning author David Storey The narrator of Storey's 11th novel is an angst-ridden 17-year-old who shares intimate details of his life in the form of memos written to himself. Born in Beverly Hills, California, Richard "Rick" Audlin now lives with his film producer half-brother, Gerry--who is 35-years his senior--in a rambling old Victorian house in Hampstead. Gerry's 2nd wife, Martha, is a former film star who has been committed to a mental institution. When Gerry has to go abroad on business, he trundles Rick off to the home of his long-estranged sibling, James (Rick's other half-brother), who lives on the outskirts of a remote village and is the author of 7 unpublished crime novels. It is James's wife, Clare, who meets Rick at the station. Flirty and attractive, she soon draws Rick into an illicit liaison. But Rick senses that something else is going on--something that will eventually lead him to a shattering secret in his family . . . and the thin ice they're all skating on.