It’s 1860 and Fabrizio, Prince of Salina rules over thousands of acres, hundreds of people, his wife and seven children. But when Garibaldi lands in Sicily and is hailed a hero and liberator by the people, it is clear that the old way of life is changing.
Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa is writing about his great grandfather, by following the prince to his death in 1883 we get a glimpse of a Sicilian nobleman at a moment of crisis and the degeneration of his family until almost collapse in 1910. Continue reading “The Leopard”
Mercè Rodoreda is a new writer for me and this was a completely new type of read. Born in Barcelona in 1908, Rodoreda wrote a number of novels and short stories in Catalan in the early 1930’s. In 1935 she began working for the Catalan Ministry of Information, but was forced into exile on Franco’s victory, first in France and then Switzerland. She returned to Catalonia in the 60’s, Death in Spring was published posthumously in 1986, which adds to its sense of mystery and otherness.
The first part of my reading year has been spent in the throws of romance, Emilie and Valencourt in Udolpho, Catherine and Henry in Northanger Abbey, Lucie and Charles in A Tale of Two Cities. So to pick up this brash and brittle story of infidelity and divorce was a bit of a culture shock!
I had forgotten how satisfying it is to read a Dickens’ novel, I don’t know why I hadn’t read this one before but from the very beginning it was like putting on my favourite cosy jumper. It feels safe being in such good hands and despite being half the length of his other novels, this was a masterclass in story telling. Written in 1859, the action is set between 1775 and 1793, between London and Paris and the French Revolution. Slowly building up the tension from the loving family life of Lucie and her father Dr. Manette in London to Madame and Monsieur Defarge, the blood stained streets of revolution in Paris, and the whirling of La Guillotine. 
Written and published in 1883, The Story of an African Farm is set in South Africa in 1860. It’s a classic of feminist fiction but Olive Schreiner also discusses gender roles and loneliness,
‘No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine’ from the very beginning Northanger Abbey sparkles with wit and fun. The daughter of a clergyman, never handsome and called Richard and a mother full of ‘useful plain sense’, Catherine has led a sheltered life amongst her ten siblings in an English village. So when their rich neighbours, Mr and Mrs Allen invite her to Bath for six weeks, everyone is delighted. Six weeks of discussing muslins, parading in front of the Pump Room and hopefully making new friends and falling in love!
Brighton Rock was the first Graham Greene I’ve read and from the first line I was hooked, “Hale knew they meant to murder him before he had been in Brighton three hours.” A chilling cruelty runs through the veins of this book and particularly those of Pinkie Brown the 17 year old gang boss. First published in 1938, Brighton Rock is the antithesis of the cosy country house murders of the 30’s. There’s a sinister feeling that comes from real deprivation, shabby children growing up in shabby streets whose aspirations and safety are locked into gang membership. The home life and backgrounds of the gang members I found as shocking as the crimes and lives they were living. I watched a modern adaptation, but it didn’t convey any of the meanness of the original film with Richard Attenborough.
Orlando with Tilda Swinton and Vintage Classics had bought out this lovely edition so why not? I thoroughly enjoyed it first time round, but I had forgotten quite how creative and fun it is as Orlando travels through the centuries first as a man and then as a women. You can just see Virginia Woolf smiling as she writes her way through the ages. I think my favourite parts are when she returns to London (after many years abroad as an ambassador) “were these taverns, were these wits, were these poets?” she asks as she sees Addison, Dryden and Pope having coffee, chatting and laughing by London Bridge; and also her hilarious but damning description of Victorian England. A great cloud hangs over the British Isles, damp and chill cover everything and everyone, outside and within so that “men felt the chill in their hearts; the damp in their minds”, all is artificial and hidden either by ivy that clads every building or evasive and fine phrases that cloud the real meaning of language. This is why I think it’s such a good read, because in amongst all the fun (you can recognise all the characters from her circle of friends and acquaintances), it’s a serious discussion of social mores and especially sexual emancipation.
can’t help feeling pleased that a film was made of a book that is about words and letters! My copy (a beautiful red, hard back edition from Sightly Foxed) also contained The Duchess of Bloomsbury which is Helen Hanff’s account of her trip to London in the early 1970’s. I loved this just as much, but I wonder if that’s because I enjoyed seeing a city I know well through visiting eyes? Anyway, now I’ve seen this picture of Helen Hanff I love her even more . . .
