What do you think?
Rate this book
The Last Summer
Clarissa is almost seventeen when the spell of her childhood is broken. It is 1914, the beginning of a blissful, golden summer - and the end of an era. Deyning Park is in its heyday, the large country house filled with the laughter and excitement of privileged youth preparing for a weekend party. When Clarissa meets Tom Cuthbert, home from university and staying with his mother, the housekeeper, she is dazzled. Tom is handsome and enigmatic; he is also an outsider. Ambitious, clever, his sights set on a career in law, Tom is an acute observer, and a man who knows what he wants. For now, that is Clarissa.
As Tom and Clarissa's friendship deepens, the wider landscape of political life around them is changing, and another story unfolds: they are not the only people in love. Soon the world - and all that they know - is rocked by a war that changes their lives for ever.
As Tom and Clarissa's friendship deepens, the wider landscape of political life around them is changing, and another story unfolds: they are not the only people in love. Soon the world - and all that they know - is rocked by a war that changes their lives for ever.
433 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2012
82 people are currently reading
7628 people want to read
About the author
Judith Kinghorn
6 books205 followersJudith Kinghorn is the author of four novels. Her acclaimed début The Last Summer was published in the UK, Canada and British Commonwealth countries in 2012, in the USA in 2013, and has been translated to languages including German, Spanish, French and Italian. Her subsequent novels include The Memory of Lost Senses (2013), The Snow Globe (2015) and The Echo of Twilight (2017).
To follow Judith on social media or to find out more, please click https://linktr.ee/JudithKinghorn
To follow Judith on social media or to find out more, please click https://linktr.ee/JudithKinghorn
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 403 reviews
October 10, 2012
I am not one of those reviewers who can, or wants to, recount the plot of the book under review. I react viscerally to what I read, and my reviews always reflect this.
This is the kind of book you can disappear into. The voice is pitch perfect, for me, and drew me into a different era. And there's an edge to the gentle voice of the early 20th century, an edge which, as far as I'm concerned, declared its hatred of war - and not just because the war causes the narrator pain, but because war is evil, full stop, regardless of whose side you're on.
I read this in three days and really enjoyed it. The narrative flowed, and the dialogue was, on the whole good. There are minor nitpicks that I, as a writer, could point out, but they're insignificant. This is a very good book.
Clarissa, the main character, is a woman struggling against the manacles of convention and class. She embodies a striving for real independence, a struggle which is as relevant now as it was then. I was going to title this review "an anti-war, feminist romance," but the word "feminist" is open to too many misinterpretations. For me, feminism means women being on equal terms with men as far as human rights, pay and conditions etc etc are concerned, and in that context, this is a feminist romance. Every human needs fulfilment in love, and that doesn't make them weak. Whether or not Clarissa finds fulfilment I won't tell you. You'll have to read the book to find out.
This is the kind of book you can disappear into. The voice is pitch perfect, for me, and drew me into a different era. And there's an edge to the gentle voice of the early 20th century, an edge which, as far as I'm concerned, declared its hatred of war - and not just because the war causes the narrator pain, but because war is evil, full stop, regardless of whose side you're on.
I read this in three days and really enjoyed it. The narrative flowed, and the dialogue was, on the whole good. There are minor nitpicks that I, as a writer, could point out, but they're insignificant. This is a very good book.
Clarissa, the main character, is a woman struggling against the manacles of convention and class. She embodies a striving for real independence, a struggle which is as relevant now as it was then. I was going to title this review "an anti-war, feminist romance," but the word "feminist" is open to too many misinterpretations. For me, feminism means women being on equal terms with men as far as human rights, pay and conditions etc etc are concerned, and in that context, this is a feminist romance. Every human needs fulfilment in love, and that doesn't make them weak. Whether or not Clarissa finds fulfilment I won't tell you. You'll have to read the book to find out.
June 11, 2014
What a colossal disappointment was The Last Summer. Nothing about it I could like—aside from the gorgeous cover, with its vibrant colors, striking country manor, and beautiful Edwardian woman whose chin looks vaguely like that of Sybil Crawley from Downton Abbey. Damn my penchant for going against the idiom and judging a book by its cover!
This story is the impossible (and I hesitate to say “love story,” because I found nothing romantic about it) affair between Clarissa Granville and Tom Cuthbert. Clarissa is the sickeningly sweet, irritatingly insipid, and impossibly naïve daughter of the house. The Granvilles (consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Granville, the three older sons with their bland-English-king-names, and of course, Clarissa-of-the-exotic moniker) are not a noble family, but they have a respectable fortune and a good family name, and purchased the house, Deyning Park, from the impoverished Old Earl.
Tom is the housekeeper’s son of unknown paternity, whose “unidentified benefactor” (à la Great Expectations) is paying for his tuition at Oxford so that the boy may rise above his humble origins. (Predictably, Tom’s unknown father, unidentified benefactor, and the Old Earl are all one and the same. Apparently, Mrs. Cuthbert’s One True Love was her former employer, rather like Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, but hopefully much less rape-y.)
We’re first introduced to the fabulously sexy/intelligent/whatever Tom (who, personally, I found to be just as bland as his name) when his mother informs Clarissa of his presence at Deyning Park as a guest/friend of her brothers. But to instantly set precious Tom apart from Clarissa’s spoiled, overly immature brothers (particularly her brother Henry), the author has Mrs. Cuthbert declare, like some sort of demented oracle, or a nepotistic Greek chorus, “He’s not like your brothers… he’s a gentle soul.” She does that not once, but twice. Really? Judith Kinghorn, could you please be a little less obvious when you're trying to establish the hero's traits? 'Kay, thanks.
The subsequent “Hello” and “Pleased to meet you” usher in what the author would have us believe to be the Love Story To End All Love Stories. I mean, all it takes is exchanging vague pleasantries on page 5 for Clarissa to become obsessed with him on page 8. And it only takes till page 22 (maybe their third meeting?) till she’s thinking “Kiss me… kiss me now” in his presence. She’s got the hots for him, guys! And not only that, but their initial, brief exchange has Clarissa go through some sort of Kate Chopin-ish awakening and makes her reevaluate her entire existence and see her family “as Tom Cuthbert saw us.” (And a lot of good that revelation does her, because she really doesn’t change her selfish ways. For example, for approximately three-quarters of the Great War, Clarissa does nothing for the war effort—aside from marrying some guy she doesn’t love to “keep his spirits up.” Um, what?)
I’m not really sure why this book was entitled ”The Last Summer.” Based on the title, I assumed the novel was chiefly about the summer of 1914, and perhaps into the war, but it was barely about that summer. Clarissa talks about it being “the beginning of summer” but it’s actually July at the novel’s start, a full month into that season. And Britain entered World War I on August third. So that “last, perfect summer” before the war that sparked such a passion lasted barely a month. What false advertising! Or false “blurb-on-the-back”-ing.
Anyway, I couldn’t believe in the love between Clarissa and Tom. They had such a brief acquaintance during that summer (despite their handful of “secret tête-à-têtes”), and yes, they had a mutual, childhood (and child-ish!) crush… but I can’t see how that could fuel an affair that spans the next 16 years! They had nothing in common! She was a very childish, indulged teenager, and he had the overt aura of "wise beyond his years" that the author tacked on him.
When Tom first goes off to war, Clarissa pledges to be true (and, creepily, promises that “her body” belongs to him. Why was this mentioned? I don’t want to know.). But when he’s gone and it seems like he’s forgotten her, she gets engaged. Then he comes back with a girlfriend, but they’re still in love. Then he goes away, and she plans her wedding. Then he comes back, and they’re still in love, and he knocks her up. Then he goes away, she gives away the kid (begrudgingly, but she still does), and gets married. Then he comes back, and they’re still in love. Then he goes away and she hears about how he drunkenly made out with her friend. Then he comes back and they’re still in love. The whole story was this ridiculous back-and-forth of him coming back and their realization that they’re still in love, yet they do nothing about it! Clarissa—empower yourself, woman! Don’t be a pawn! And Tom—grow a pair! Why are you still dangling after this twit who does nothing but make promises and then lets you down? Their entire relationship was MESSED UP. After being led on and let down so many times, Tom finally jumps on board the crazy train and strings along multiple fiancées, all while knocking boots with Clarissa any chance he gets. Meanwhile, as a married woman who’s carrying on with an engaged man, Clarissa can’t shut up about her mother and if “mama found out” or some such.
Clarissa was one of the least-likeable heroines that I’ve read about in some time. At the beginning, she’s depicted as being absurdly innocent—so innocent, in fact, that she accidentally reads aloud from a pornographic novel, Fanny Hill, to Tom and doesn’t realize what it is. She even goes on to admit that she didn’t know she had read about “a grisly murder” or “some other act of wickedness.” WHAT IS THIS FUCKERY? Was this meant to be a charming scene? Was it cute, or something? “Oh, look how sweet and naïve little Clarissa is—how could you not love her?” I don’t get it. It was so bizarre, and so, so stupid. Anyway, Clarissa never seems go grow out of her childhood naïveté—she has the mentality of a sixteen-year-old all the way through the novel’s course—except at the end, she likes sex. Like, a lot. Plus she’s super-depressed. But always childish.
The other thing I hated about Clarissa was that she was worse than helpless. It was like she was adrift in the sea, and wherever the tide took her, there she allowed herself to go. She was more persuadable than Anne Elliot, and she never learned her lesson, either. Whoever was nearest to her at the moment, she allowed to make her life’s decisions for her—be it getting engaged, having sex, giving up her child for adoption, getting married, or shooting up on morphine (I’m not even joking about that part). She was a creature of the moment, never thinking of a plan for the future.
Tom I found to be a pompous asshole. He wasn’t overly intriguing at the beginning of the story—I guess he was just novel to Clarissa because he was from a different social class. I didn’t like the way he treated women—particularly his poor fiancées. Maybe he deserved moronic Clarissa, after all.
I made it to about page 200 before I realized that this book wasn’t going to get any better, so I did some super-skimming. Even skimming, I noticed that this book heavily borrowed the plot devices of many other (better) books. Here are a few I noticed:
1.) Clarissa twists her ankle while frolicking in the meadow and must be carried back to the house by Tom, much how Marianne Dashwood was carried by Willoughby after a similar accident in Sense and Sensibility.
2.) Tom’s wartime letters to Clarissa were intercepted by her disapproving mother and hidden from her for years, just like Noah Calhoun’s letters to Allie Hamilton in the Notebook.
3.) Tom buys the childhood home of his true love after he’s made his fortune after the war and Clarissa’s family has lost theirs. Kind of like how the newly-wealthy Captain Wentworth lets and lives in Anne Elliot’s home after her family becomes impoverished in Persuasion.
4.) Noble Tom saves Clarissa’s troublesome sibling from devastation, but wants his service kept secret from her. Doesn’t that bring to mind how in Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy saves Lydia from utter ruination, but asks her to keep it a secret from Elizabeth? Huh.
5.) Even a specific scene from the Great Gatsby was ganked. After Gatsby/Tom has made his fortune after the Great War, Daisy/Clarissa is wandering through his bedroom in his newly-acquired mansion, marveling at what her life could have been like if she had stuck it out, followed her heart, and not married Tom Buchanan/Charlie, and she “bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily”/“buried her face in white linen.” Hoo boy.
It even reminded me of places of Downton Abbey (which maybe is what the author was going for, considering she published this, her first novel, when that show is still so popular). I’m not even referring to the upstairs/downstairs romance with a character named TOM (although that was there), but the fact that the Granvilles, like the Crawleys, made some bad wartime investments and nearly lose their manor house. The Granvilles eventually do have to sell Deyning Park after some valiant efforts to save the place.
One last complaint—what was with those stupid, anonymous letters at the beginning and end of each chapter? I eventually skipped right over them because they were so indecipherable—what with the non-use of names and references to events I hadn't seen. I didn't find them interesting, and I didn't find it so earth-shattering (like I think the author wanted us to find it) when it was revealed that they were love letters between Mrs. Granville and her gardener-lover.
If I could give fewer than one star to this book, I would. I hated it as passionately as most of these other reviewers seemed to love it.
This story is the impossible (and I hesitate to say “love story,” because I found nothing romantic about it) affair between Clarissa Granville and Tom Cuthbert. Clarissa is the sickeningly sweet, irritatingly insipid, and impossibly naïve daughter of the house. The Granvilles (consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Granville, the three older sons with their bland-English-king-names, and of course, Clarissa-of-the-exotic moniker) are not a noble family, but they have a respectable fortune and a good family name, and purchased the house, Deyning Park, from the impoverished Old Earl.
Tom is the housekeeper’s son of unknown paternity, whose “unidentified benefactor” (à la Great Expectations) is paying for his tuition at Oxford so that the boy may rise above his humble origins. (Predictably, Tom’s unknown father, unidentified benefactor, and the Old Earl are all one and the same. Apparently, Mrs. Cuthbert’s One True Love was her former employer, rather like Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, but hopefully much less rape-y.)
We’re first introduced to the fabulously sexy/intelligent/whatever Tom (who, personally, I found to be just as bland as his name) when his mother informs Clarissa of his presence at Deyning Park as a guest/friend of her brothers. But to instantly set precious Tom apart from Clarissa’s spoiled, overly immature brothers (particularly her brother Henry), the author has Mrs. Cuthbert declare, like some sort of demented oracle, or a nepotistic Greek chorus, “He’s not like your brothers… he’s a gentle soul.” She does that not once, but twice. Really? Judith Kinghorn, could you please be a little less obvious when you're trying to establish the hero's traits? 'Kay, thanks.
The subsequent “Hello” and “Pleased to meet you” usher in what the author would have us believe to be the Love Story To End All Love Stories. I mean, all it takes is exchanging vague pleasantries on page 5 for Clarissa to become obsessed with him on page 8. And it only takes till page 22 (maybe their third meeting?) till she’s thinking “Kiss me… kiss me now” in his presence. She’s got the hots for him, guys! And not only that, but their initial, brief exchange has Clarissa go through some sort of Kate Chopin-ish awakening and makes her reevaluate her entire existence and see her family “as Tom Cuthbert saw us.” (And a lot of good that revelation does her, because she really doesn’t change her selfish ways. For example, for approximately three-quarters of the Great War, Clarissa does nothing for the war effort—aside from marrying some guy she doesn’t love to “keep his spirits up.” Um, what?)
I’m not really sure why this book was entitled ”The Last Summer.” Based on the title, I assumed the novel was chiefly about the summer of 1914, and perhaps into the war, but it was barely about that summer. Clarissa talks about it being “the beginning of summer” but it’s actually July at the novel’s start, a full month into that season. And Britain entered World War I on August third. So that “last, perfect summer” before the war that sparked such a passion lasted barely a month. What false advertising! Or false “blurb-on-the-back”-ing.
Anyway, I couldn’t believe in the love between Clarissa and Tom. They had such a brief acquaintance during that summer (despite their handful of “secret tête-à-têtes”), and yes, they had a mutual, childhood (and child-ish!) crush… but I can’t see how that could fuel an affair that spans the next 16 years! They had nothing in common! She was a very childish, indulged teenager, and he had the overt aura of "wise beyond his years" that the author tacked on him.
When Tom first goes off to war, Clarissa pledges to be true (and, creepily, promises that “her body” belongs to him. Why was this mentioned? I don’t want to know.). But when he’s gone and it seems like he’s forgotten her, she gets engaged. Then he comes back with a girlfriend, but they’re still in love. Then he goes away, and she plans her wedding. Then he comes back, and they’re still in love, and he knocks her up. Then he goes away, she gives away the kid (begrudgingly, but she still does), and gets married. Then he comes back, and they’re still in love. Then he goes away and she hears about how he drunkenly made out with her friend. Then he comes back and they’re still in love. The whole story was this ridiculous back-and-forth of him coming back and their realization that they’re still in love, yet they do nothing about it! Clarissa—empower yourself, woman! Don’t be a pawn! And Tom—grow a pair! Why are you still dangling after this twit who does nothing but make promises and then lets you down? Their entire relationship was MESSED UP. After being led on and let down so many times, Tom finally jumps on board the crazy train and strings along multiple fiancées, all while knocking boots with Clarissa any chance he gets. Meanwhile, as a married woman who’s carrying on with an engaged man, Clarissa can’t shut up about her mother and if “mama found out” or some such.
Clarissa was one of the least-likeable heroines that I’ve read about in some time. At the beginning, she’s depicted as being absurdly innocent—so innocent, in fact, that she accidentally reads aloud from a pornographic novel, Fanny Hill, to Tom and doesn’t realize what it is. She even goes on to admit that she didn’t know she had read about “a grisly murder” or “some other act of wickedness.” WHAT IS THIS FUCKERY? Was this meant to be a charming scene? Was it cute, or something? “Oh, look how sweet and naïve little Clarissa is—how could you not love her?” I don’t get it. It was so bizarre, and so, so stupid. Anyway, Clarissa never seems go grow out of her childhood naïveté—she has the mentality of a sixteen-year-old all the way through the novel’s course—except at the end, she likes sex. Like, a lot. Plus she’s super-depressed. But always childish.
The other thing I hated about Clarissa was that she was worse than helpless. It was like she was adrift in the sea, and wherever the tide took her, there she allowed herself to go. She was more persuadable than Anne Elliot, and she never learned her lesson, either. Whoever was nearest to her at the moment, she allowed to make her life’s decisions for her—be it getting engaged, having sex, giving up her child for adoption, getting married, or shooting up on morphine (I’m not even joking about that part). She was a creature of the moment, never thinking of a plan for the future.
Tom I found to be a pompous asshole. He wasn’t overly intriguing at the beginning of the story—I guess he was just novel to Clarissa because he was from a different social class. I didn’t like the way he treated women—particularly his poor fiancées. Maybe he deserved moronic Clarissa, after all.
I made it to about page 200 before I realized that this book wasn’t going to get any better, so I did some super-skimming. Even skimming, I noticed that this book heavily borrowed the plot devices of many other (better) books. Here are a few I noticed:
1.) Clarissa twists her ankle while frolicking in the meadow and must be carried back to the house by Tom, much how Marianne Dashwood was carried by Willoughby after a similar accident in Sense and Sensibility.
2.) Tom’s wartime letters to Clarissa were intercepted by her disapproving mother and hidden from her for years, just like Noah Calhoun’s letters to Allie Hamilton in the Notebook.
3.) Tom buys the childhood home of his true love after he’s made his fortune after the war and Clarissa’s family has lost theirs. Kind of like how the newly-wealthy Captain Wentworth lets and lives in Anne Elliot’s home after her family becomes impoverished in Persuasion.
4.) Noble Tom saves Clarissa’s troublesome sibling from devastation, but wants his service kept secret from her. Doesn’t that bring to mind how in Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy saves Lydia from utter ruination, but asks her to keep it a secret from Elizabeth? Huh.
5.) Even a specific scene from the Great Gatsby was ganked. After Gatsby/Tom has made his fortune after the Great War, Daisy/Clarissa is wandering through his bedroom in his newly-acquired mansion, marveling at what her life could have been like if she had stuck it out, followed her heart, and not married Tom Buchanan/Charlie, and she “bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily”/“buried her face in white linen.” Hoo boy.
It even reminded me of places of Downton Abbey (which maybe is what the author was going for, considering she published this, her first novel, when that show is still so popular). I’m not even referring to the upstairs/downstairs romance with a character named TOM (although that was there), but the fact that the Granvilles, like the Crawleys, made some bad wartime investments and nearly lose their manor house. The Granvilles eventually do have to sell Deyning Park after some valiant efforts to save the place.
One last complaint—what was with those stupid, anonymous letters at the beginning and end of each chapter? I eventually skipped right over them because they were so indecipherable—what with the non-use of names and references to events I hadn't seen. I didn't find them interesting, and I didn't find it so earth-shattering (like I think the author wanted us to find it) when it was revealed that they were love letters between Mrs. Granville and her gardener-lover.
If I could give fewer than one star to this book, I would. I hated it as passionately as most of these other reviewers seemed to love it.
February 6, 2022
The last summer is the story of Clarissa, only daughter of the wealthy Granville family, who are the owners of Deyning, a vast and decadent country estate. For seventeen year old Clarissa,Deyning is the only world she has ever really known, and she spends her days in a blissful, innocent haze; however the glass bubble of her world is about to shattered as the growing threat of war draws ever nearer. Before then, however, she is afforded one last, glorious summer, surrounded by her family, her beloved brothers, and it is then that she meets Tom Cuthbert. TOm is the housekeeper's son, studying at Oxford, and though they come from different worlds, there is an undeniable connection between them. Yet their romance is only blossoming when war breaks out, a war that will forever change all their lives and leave Clarissa yearning for that long ago summer. Will Clarissa and Tom's love for each other survive the war and the social barriers between them; or will that too merely fade into a memory?
This is an old-fashioned story, stretching from 1914 to 1930; and is as much a story telling of the changing society of the times as it is a love story. The horrors of the war told mainly from the point view of the mothers, wives and daughters left behind, and the sense of loss, the grief never really recovered from is achingly poignant in its depiction. The decline of the great houses, slow loss of a whole way of living, shift in society and power, rising independence of women are all observed upon.
The romance between Clarissa and Tom at the story's heart is deeply engrossing; their encounters over the years, and the criss-crossing of their paths keeping you on tenterhooks to the eventual outcome. At times their relationship and the obstacles that keep forcing them apart is frustrating, yet believably so; for Clarissa is a product of the generation of the time, held back by the rules she has been brought up to follow. I do, however, think that towards the end of the story, the author did drag things out just a little too much, which hampered just slightly, what was otherwise a beautifully shaped love story.
All the central characters are engaging; and their progression, the changes to their personalities over the years believable and very much shaped by events and circumstances, the direction that life takes them. I loved the innocent Clarissa at the start of the story, her optimism and belief in everything good, yet she couldn't stay like that; and Tom too changes from the shy and reserved young man we first meet.
Kinghorn writes quite beautifully, her descriptions, particularly of Deyning wonderfully vivid and evocative to the senses; you can see the sights she describes, feel the textures, inhale the smells as if you inhabit the world of her pages.
Overall this is a simply sumptuous read.
This is an old-fashioned story, stretching from 1914 to 1930; and is as much a story telling of the changing society of the times as it is a love story. The horrors of the war told mainly from the point view of the mothers, wives and daughters left behind, and the sense of loss, the grief never really recovered from is achingly poignant in its depiction. The decline of the great houses, slow loss of a whole way of living, shift in society and power, rising independence of women are all observed upon.
The romance between Clarissa and Tom at the story's heart is deeply engrossing; their encounters over the years, and the criss-crossing of their paths keeping you on tenterhooks to the eventual outcome. At times their relationship and the obstacles that keep forcing them apart is frustrating, yet believably so; for Clarissa is a product of the generation of the time, held back by the rules she has been brought up to follow. I do, however, think that towards the end of the story, the author did drag things out just a little too much, which hampered just slightly, what was otherwise a beautifully shaped love story.
All the central characters are engaging; and their progression, the changes to their personalities over the years believable and very much shaped by events and circumstances, the direction that life takes them. I loved the innocent Clarissa at the start of the story, her optimism and belief in everything good, yet she couldn't stay like that; and Tom too changes from the shy and reserved young man we first meet.
Kinghorn writes quite beautifully, her descriptions, particularly of Deyning wonderfully vivid and evocative to the senses; you can see the sights she describes, feel the textures, inhale the smells as if you inhabit the world of her pages.
Overall this is a simply sumptuous read.
Read
October 4, 2012Oh dear, another one that just wasn't for me, I'm having a run on them.
Occassionally when someone reviews one of my books they say they couldn't get into it because they just didn't like the heroine. I get that. It's the same for me - if I don't like a key character, I find it very difficult to see past that and enjoy any other aspect of the book. And that's what happened with this one. Clarissa is the narrator and the 16 year old girl at the start of the book who has lived a privileged life at Deyning Park. And then she falls in love with the housekeeper's son. Total no-no, for Clarissa is expected to make a great marriage.
Once I got over the first person narrative (at least, I got over it at first until I began to loathe and detest Clarissa), I thought the prose in the early part of this book was evocative and I enjoyed it. The author painted a lovely picture of that last summer before the Great War, and imbued it with that terrible sense of an era about to die. But the big problem was, the person I most wanted to die was Clarissa.
Here's why. ****Spoilers*** She loved Tom. She was happy to hang about with Tom and to kiss him provided no-one else knew. She was happy to carry on living her so-privileged life and keep him for fun in the background. When he went off to war with her brothers, she was happy to write to him provided it was all a secret. But while he was at the front, she was equally happy living the life of a deb in London and didn't seem too bothered by the fact he'd stopped writing to her. Though she still claimed she loved him. And when it turned out (what a surprise) that he was writing but her Mama was confiscating the letters, does she confront Mama? Nope. When she finally sleeps with Tom on his leave and gets pregnant does she fight for the baby or even tell Tom? Nope, she gives the baby away and gets married to Mama's choice of man. And then for the next 10 years or so she messes with Tom's head, sleeps with him every now and then, but still goes on and on and on about how impossible it all is. And I just couldn't see why. And even more importantly, I couldn't understand why Tom put up with the spoilt brat whose only quality seemed to be her famed beauty. I was praying that she wouldn't get him in the end, and resigned but gutted when she did.
I am sure there are loads of redeeming things about this book that others will like but Clarissa blinded me to them. I just couldn't stand her.
Occassionally when someone reviews one of my books they say they couldn't get into it because they just didn't like the heroine. I get that. It's the same for me - if I don't like a key character, I find it very difficult to see past that and enjoy any other aspect of the book. And that's what happened with this one. Clarissa is the narrator and the 16 year old girl at the start of the book who has lived a privileged life at Deyning Park. And then she falls in love with the housekeeper's son. Total no-no, for Clarissa is expected to make a great marriage.
Once I got over the first person narrative (at least, I got over it at first until I began to loathe and detest Clarissa), I thought the prose in the early part of this book was evocative and I enjoyed it. The author painted a lovely picture of that last summer before the Great War, and imbued it with that terrible sense of an era about to die. But the big problem was, the person I most wanted to die was Clarissa.
Here's why. ****Spoilers*** She loved Tom. She was happy to hang about with Tom and to kiss him provided no-one else knew. She was happy to carry on living her so-privileged life and keep him for fun in the background. When he went off to war with her brothers, she was happy to write to him provided it was all a secret. But while he was at the front, she was equally happy living the life of a deb in London and didn't seem too bothered by the fact he'd stopped writing to her. Though she still claimed she loved him. And when it turned out (what a surprise) that he was writing but her Mama was confiscating the letters, does she confront Mama? Nope. When she finally sleeps with Tom on his leave and gets pregnant does she fight for the baby or even tell Tom? Nope, she gives the baby away and gets married to Mama's choice of man. And then for the next 10 years or so she messes with Tom's head, sleeps with him every now and then, but still goes on and on and on about how impossible it all is. And I just couldn't see why. And even more importantly, I couldn't understand why Tom put up with the spoilt brat whose only quality seemed to be her famed beauty. I was praying that she wouldn't get him in the end, and resigned but gutted when she did.
I am sure there are loads of redeeming things about this book that others will like but Clarissa blinded me to them. I just couldn't stand her.
January 31, 2012
It was the voice that captured me first: a wonderfully human mix of intelligence, vulnerability, understanding, and fallibility.
“I was almost seventeen when the spell of my childhood was broken. There was no sudden jolt, no immediate awakening and no alteration, as far as I’m aware, in the earth’s axis that day. But the vibration of change was upon us, and I sensed a shift; a realignment of my trajectory. It was the beginning of summer and, unbeknown to any of us then, the end of a belle époque.”
Clarissa told her own story, and from the very beginning I could hear her voice, and she drew me into her world completely.
She was seventeen when we met, at her parents’ country estate. I could see the house, the grounds – the flowers especially – and I understood that Clarissa and her three elder brothers had enjoyed a wonderful childhood.
When Clarissa fell in love with Tom Cuthbert, the housekeeper’s son, I knew that their future would not be assured. They knew that Clarissa’s parents would not approve of their relationship.
And that was not the only obstacle: the year was 1914, and the Great War would change the world that Clarissa had known changed forever.
So much happened as the years passed Clarissa grew from a society debutante into a mature woman.
Her love for Tom was the only constant, but whenever fate brought them together it swiftly pulled tham apart again.
And the Great War had many lasting consequences: on lives and on society.
Through it all Clarissa’s voice remained true, and I went through so many emotions, saw so many changes with her.
Judith Kinghorn has created a wonderful heroine, and plotted her story so very, very cleverly. I knew where I wanted her story to go but I never knew quite if it would, how it would.
She says much about consequences of war and the social upheaval of the twenties and thirties simply by having Clarissa tell her story.
That’s clever writing. And it’s beautiful writing too.
Writing to transport you into Clarissa’s world and so see people, places, events through her eyes.
Every detail was right, every note rang true.
I’m tempted to share more details, but I’m not going to: if you want to know more you really should pick up the book, meet Clarissa, and learn those details from her.
I’m so glad that I did.
“I was almost seventeen when the spell of my childhood was broken. There was no sudden jolt, no immediate awakening and no alteration, as far as I’m aware, in the earth’s axis that day. But the vibration of change was upon us, and I sensed a shift; a realignment of my trajectory. It was the beginning of summer and, unbeknown to any of us then, the end of a belle époque.”
Clarissa told her own story, and from the very beginning I could hear her voice, and she drew me into her world completely.
She was seventeen when we met, at her parents’ country estate. I could see the house, the grounds – the flowers especially – and I understood that Clarissa and her three elder brothers had enjoyed a wonderful childhood.
When Clarissa fell in love with Tom Cuthbert, the housekeeper’s son, I knew that their future would not be assured. They knew that Clarissa’s parents would not approve of their relationship.
And that was not the only obstacle: the year was 1914, and the Great War would change the world that Clarissa had known changed forever.
So much happened as the years passed Clarissa grew from a society debutante into a mature woman.
Her love for Tom was the only constant, but whenever fate brought them together it swiftly pulled tham apart again.
And the Great War had many lasting consequences: on lives and on society.
Through it all Clarissa’s voice remained true, and I went through so many emotions, saw so many changes with her.
Judith Kinghorn has created a wonderful heroine, and plotted her story so very, very cleverly. I knew where I wanted her story to go but I never knew quite if it would, how it would.
She says much about consequences of war and the social upheaval of the twenties and thirties simply by having Clarissa tell her story.
That’s clever writing. And it’s beautiful writing too.
Writing to transport you into Clarissa’s world and so see people, places, events through her eyes.
Every detail was right, every note rang true.
I’m tempted to share more details, but I’m not going to: if you want to know more you really should pick up the book, meet Clarissa, and learn those details from her.
I’m so glad that I did.
September 8, 2012
Absolutely beautiful book.
Romantic, tragic, extremely compelling. It's wonderfully written: the descriptions are so rich, it was just as though I was seeing a film at times. It's hard to stop reading and it will stay with me long after I've finished it.
I read the audiobook version and I was completely blown away by Jane Wymark's incredible narration. She did a fantastic job, I believed the narration 100 per cent.
By far, the best audiobook I ever heard.
Romantic, tragic, extremely compelling. It's wonderfully written: the descriptions are so rich, it was just as though I was seeing a film at times. It's hard to stop reading and it will stay with me long after I've finished it.
I read the audiobook version and I was completely blown away by Jane Wymark's incredible narration. She did a fantastic job, I believed the narration 100 per cent.
By far, the best audiobook I ever heard.
August 10, 2014
First loves, class divides, enforced separations, stolen moments, the horrors of war, wrong choices, consequences, heartbreak, tragedy, hope; a touching and absorbing story, albeit rather melodramatic and repetitive in places, set before, during and after WW1, where at times I wanted to shake some sense into the Clarissa and Tom, and at others needed the tissues to dry my eyes.
March 23, 2013
OH!! I LOVED THIS!!! It was lovely, sad, touching, romantic, it was all these things and more! For me, this was one of those books I like to get lost in and not come out of my room if I can help it. This earns a place among my favorites!!!
July 29, 2014
Put simply: I was completely captivated & lost within this novel. As it should be.
February 16, 2012
The Last Summer is set during the beginnings of World War I and tells the story of Clarissa, who loses her luxurious lifestyle and her home during the book.Impeccably written and well-researched this is an atmospheric and haunting read. It takes the reader from languorous summer days by the lake on a country estate to the horror of the trenches with equal aplomb.
The love story at its heart unfolds over sixteen years or so, so this is no flash in the pan romance but the real thing. Judith Kinghorn skilfully navigates our journey through love and loss, and despite the fact the reader knows that Clarissa and Tom must somehow find the inevitable happy ending the tension is nicely built through all the different episodes.Part of the story unfolds through letters which hold a secret not revealed until the end.
The social and historical background feels real. Clarissa's journey from society debutante to independent woman who wants to work for herself must be the journey many women took in this period and the book highlights this nicely. The back of the novel says it was "the end of a belle epoque" and Clarissa senses this before it is made real to her through the events in the story. People have likened this book to Downton Abbey, but it is not quite as cosy. Death and duty are here too, and the stifling repression of the moneyed classes.
This is a perfect balance of romance and grit, by a great new writer. Don't miss it.
The love story at its heart unfolds over sixteen years or so, so this is no flash in the pan romance but the real thing. Judith Kinghorn skilfully navigates our journey through love and loss, and despite the fact the reader knows that Clarissa and Tom must somehow find the inevitable happy ending the tension is nicely built through all the different episodes.Part of the story unfolds through letters which hold a secret not revealed until the end.
The social and historical background feels real. Clarissa's journey from society debutante to independent woman who wants to work for herself must be the journey many women took in this period and the book highlights this nicely. The back of the novel says it was "the end of a belle epoque" and Clarissa senses this before it is made real to her through the events in the story. People have likened this book to Downton Abbey, but it is not quite as cosy. Death and duty are here too, and the stifling repression of the moneyed classes.
This is a perfect balance of romance and grit, by a great new writer. Don't miss it.
April 17, 2014
Una narración muy cuidada con una voz clara y elegante. La historia de un amor que empieza en un verano casi irreal y que sobrevive a la guerra y al paso del tiempo. Hay momentos difíciles, y me habría gustado conocer mejor los sentimientos de Tom, pero me ha mantenido pegada a sus páginas hasta el final. Como curiosidad diría que mientras la leía no podía evitar pensar en Downton Abbey, aunque en realidad no tienen ninguna relación.
August 12, 2013
I don't even know where to begin with this review. I've never shied away from writing my true feelings about a book on this blog. I try to be respectful to authors and find the good in a book but there's also not much of a point in a book review blog if I censored myself and only wrote reviews of the books I liked.
With that disclaimer, I have to say that Summer will definitely be among my most disappointing reads of 2013. I actually stayed away from the book for awhile - I was a bit put off by the "fluffy" description. But I also know from experience that a lot of good historical fiction gets saddled with some pretty ridiculous jacket copy and even worse cover art. I had a similar experience earlier this year with Phillip Rock's Passing Bells trilogy which turned out to be enormously enjoyable and well-written novels. Swayed by glowing reviews over on Goodreads, I waited until the used paperback price dropped on Amazon and then picked it up as a treat.
The first half of the book is much better than the second half and I actually enjoyed reading it. There are some lovely atmospheric (if occasionally overdone) descriptions of life on a country estate just before the outbreak of World War One and then of London during the early years of the war. Clarissa is convincingly drawn as a naïve, dreamy girl who realizes all too late the implications far-off political events will have on her world. Her growing attachment to the housekeeper's son is sweet and truly affecting despite the obvious clichés. All of this would make for a passable novel, a kind of English Gone With The Wind.
But then the war ends and the second half of the book descends into a horrible mish-mash of over-written romance novel seemingly crossed with a pastiche of The Great Gatsby. People engage in epic misunderstandings and talk often of "forces beyond their control" although these circumstances are never clearly spelled out and seemed to occur so that the plot can go on and on while characters indulge in heated glances across the room at parties. This doesn't just happen once but again and again for about two hundred pages.
Kinghorn chose a first-person narrative that results in Clarissa telling us how and why things happen rather than the reader getting to see and experience it through well-crafted scenes. But this does mean that the narrative speeds along at a quicker pace and I was able to finish the book and get it out of my way within a day. It was a relief to reach the completely predictable ending.
There are times when I can tell I might have liked a book if I had encountered it in a different mood or I can see that the author tried something that didn't quite work. Unfortunately, this was not one of those cases.
With that disclaimer, I have to say that Summer will definitely be among my most disappointing reads of 2013. I actually stayed away from the book for awhile - I was a bit put off by the "fluffy" description. But I also know from experience that a lot of good historical fiction gets saddled with some pretty ridiculous jacket copy and even worse cover art. I had a similar experience earlier this year with Phillip Rock's Passing Bells trilogy which turned out to be enormously enjoyable and well-written novels. Swayed by glowing reviews over on Goodreads, I waited until the used paperback price dropped on Amazon and then picked it up as a treat.
The first half of the book is much better than the second half and I actually enjoyed reading it. There are some lovely atmospheric (if occasionally overdone) descriptions of life on a country estate just before the outbreak of World War One and then of London during the early years of the war. Clarissa is convincingly drawn as a naïve, dreamy girl who realizes all too late the implications far-off political events will have on her world. Her growing attachment to the housekeeper's son is sweet and truly affecting despite the obvious clichés. All of this would make for a passable novel, a kind of English Gone With The Wind.
But then the war ends and the second half of the book descends into a horrible mish-mash of over-written romance novel seemingly crossed with a pastiche of The Great Gatsby. People engage in epic misunderstandings and talk often of "forces beyond their control" although these circumstances are never clearly spelled out and seemed to occur so that the plot can go on and on while characters indulge in heated glances across the room at parties. This doesn't just happen once but again and again for about two hundred pages.
Kinghorn chose a first-person narrative that results in Clarissa telling us how and why things happen rather than the reader getting to see and experience it through well-crafted scenes. But this does mean that the narrative speeds along at a quicker pace and I was able to finish the book and get it out of my way within a day. It was a relief to reach the completely predictable ending.
There are times when I can tell I might have liked a book if I had encountered it in a different mood or I can see that the author tried something that didn't quite work. Unfortunately, this was not one of those cases.
April 12, 2022
What an extraordinary story!!! More than 5 stars I should say.
The writer takes us through the life of Clarissa, since she was sixteen and falls in love with Tom, the son of the Deyning's housekeeper, the house of Clarissa family. The story is told by Clarissa point of view and we live her life through her eyes, through her joys, her love for her family and for Tom, her sadness, her wasted time, her losses, her sorrows.
The writer takes us through sixteen years of Clarissa's life, since that summer before the war, through the WWI, the years after the war. Judith Kinghorn tells us the story of this family, the things that should have happened but didn't, the years and the scares left by the war, the loses, the deaths. Clarissa's relation with mama, with Charlie, and at last with Tom.
And Tom... what's not to love such man. That's right there were times I though I didn't like him, but yes we only see the story through C's eyes, so it's normal that we feel her uncertainties. But, really, this is such a strong love story and his character it's so powerful. So breathtaking... 😍
The feeling about the war, the years after are so compelling that it seems we are under fire and living all the scenes. The accuracy and investigation about the History it's so profound. A lovely love story with a lot of sorrows, very realistic, exactly as I imagined life would be after a war. Extraordinary! You should read this amazing and very intense story and tell me if you liked as much as I did!
The writer takes us through the life of Clarissa, since she was sixteen and falls in love with Tom, the son of the Deyning's housekeeper, the house of Clarissa family. The story is told by Clarissa point of view and we live her life through her eyes, through her joys, her love for her family and for Tom, her sadness, her wasted time, her losses, her sorrows.
The writer takes us through sixteen years of Clarissa's life, since that summer before the war, through the WWI, the years after the war. Judith Kinghorn tells us the story of this family, the things that should have happened but didn't, the years and the scares left by the war, the loses, the deaths. Clarissa's relation with mama, with Charlie, and at last with Tom.
And Tom... what's not to love such man. That's right there were times I though I didn't like him, but yes we only see the story through C's eyes, so it's normal that we feel her uncertainties. But, really, this is such a strong love story and his character it's so powerful. So breathtaking... 😍
The feeling about the war, the years after are so compelling that it seems we are under fire and living all the scenes. The accuracy and investigation about the History it's so profound. A lovely love story with a lot of sorrows, very realistic, exactly as I imagined life would be after a war. Extraordinary! You should read this amazing and very intense story and tell me if you liked as much as I did!
January 18, 2013
So amazingly wonderful. Completely absorbing, I felt myself to be a minor character weaving in and around the others as the story continued. I attended the parties, tasted the champagne, felt the sky around me, and danced away with the others. After I finished, I spent a good amount of time going back through and revisiting certain parts; as though with the wisdom of the way the story would end, I could better understand the many things that brought the characters to that point. Brilliantly written novel by Judith Kinghorn; anxiously awaiting the US publication of her other novel, "The Memory of Lost Senses." (Anxiously!)
February 15, 2015
Tragically beautiful! That pretty much sums up this book:) The ending brought some happiness to our characters, but a lot of this story was steeped in tragedies. I thought it was a very realistic look at the class distinctions and prejudices of time and how that changed after the war.
July 13, 2017
Clarissa Granville ha passato tutta la sua breve esistenza a Deyning Park, la residenza estiva della famiglia Granville. Essendo l’unica femmina di quattro figli, Clarissa è cresciuta in una campana di vetro, conosce solo la villa dov’è nata e ha passato l’infanzia nei campi della tenuta, nei suoi roseti, nei giardini e in riva al lago. Ma nell’estate dei sui sedici anni la dolce e ingenua Clarissa conoscerà la persona che gli ruberà il cuore per sempre: Tom Cuthbert, il figlio della governante di famiglia.
Tom è totalmente diverso da tutti gli uomini che finora la ragazza ha incontrato. È pacato, timido, riflessivo, intelligente, gentile e dolce e romantico. In Tom arde una luce che ammalia inevitabilmente l’anima semplice della bella Clarissa.
In quella estate a Deyning Park i due inizieranno una dolcissima amicizia che si trasformerà in qualcosa di molto profondo e duraturo, ma le differenze sociali incombono sui due giovani e lo scoppio della Guerra metterà fine alla meravigliosa estate di Deyning Park. I due sono costretti a separarsi, a continuare con la loro vita, una vita diversa, non voluta, una vita programmata e assolutamente infelice. Eppure il destino li farà rincontrare in diverse occasioni e per sedici, lunghi, anni i due portanno solo essere amanti e accontentarsi di momenti rubati e sguardi carichi di significato, ma che riempiranno le loro vite di pura felicità, e continueranno a serbare nel loro cuore il profondo sentimento che li lega inevitabilmente l’uno all’altra.
Come dico sempre, ogni tanto un bel romance storico serio ci vuole proprio, e questo è un esordio veramente straordinario!
Non riuscivo a staccarmi dalla lettura, ho letteralmente divorato la storia di Clarissa e Tom soffrendo, gioendo e piangendo con loro.
La scrittura è scorrevole e altamente coinvolgente, riesce a farti diventare un tutt’uno con la storia e anche tu ti ritrovi ad essere trasportato nel turbinio di sentimenti dei due amanti.
Il finale dolceamaro rende questa lettura assolutamente perfetta!
CONSIGLIATO!
Tom è totalmente diverso da tutti gli uomini che finora la ragazza ha incontrato. È pacato, timido, riflessivo, intelligente, gentile e dolce e romantico. In Tom arde una luce che ammalia inevitabilmente l’anima semplice della bella Clarissa.
In quella estate a Deyning Park i due inizieranno una dolcissima amicizia che si trasformerà in qualcosa di molto profondo e duraturo, ma le differenze sociali incombono sui due giovani e lo scoppio della Guerra metterà fine alla meravigliosa estate di Deyning Park. I due sono costretti a separarsi, a continuare con la loro vita, una vita diversa, non voluta, una vita programmata e assolutamente infelice. Eppure il destino li farà rincontrare in diverse occasioni e per sedici, lunghi, anni i due portanno solo essere amanti e accontentarsi di momenti rubati e sguardi carichi di significato, ma che riempiranno le loro vite di pura felicità, e continueranno a serbare nel loro cuore il profondo sentimento che li lega inevitabilmente l’uno all’altra.
Come dico sempre, ogni tanto un bel romance storico serio ci vuole proprio, e questo è un esordio veramente straordinario!
Non riuscivo a staccarmi dalla lettura, ho letteralmente divorato la storia di Clarissa e Tom soffrendo, gioendo e piangendo con loro.
La scrittura è scorrevole e altamente coinvolgente, riesce a farti diventare un tutt’uno con la storia e anche tu ti ritrovi ad essere trasportato nel turbinio di sentimenti dei due amanti.
Il finale dolceamaro rende questa lettura assolutamente perfetta!
CONSIGLIATO!
July 14, 2013
This is the book that makes you furious you're the type of reader who sees every book to the end! It started well enough, with a Downton Abbey feel to the illicit love between society girl and housekeeper's son at a grand estate just months before the Great War. Seemed like a nice summer pool read.
But the "cycle" of the book after that beginning lost my interest completely. The two come together every few months, sleep together, and then for "circumstances beyond control," they part. It always seems final, hopeless, never to see each other again ... oh but wait, ten pages later, there he is across the room and so it begins anew. The cycle repeats itself over and over, yet the characters never seem to grow or learn. I had an impossible time trying to determine why the "heroine" made the decisions she made. It's all mind numbing after a bit, so much so that the final twist, though I found it unnecessarily cruel and just thrown in for shock value, didn't even faze me. I was too grateful to be done to care how it all ended.
I'm surprised at how well this book is rated overall. I think watching Downton reruns would be a much better idea. :)
But the "cycle" of the book after that beginning lost my interest completely. The two come together every few months, sleep together, and then for "circumstances beyond control," they part. It always seems final, hopeless, never to see each other again ... oh but wait, ten pages later, there he is across the room and so it begins anew. The cycle repeats itself over and over, yet the characters never seem to grow or learn. I had an impossible time trying to determine why the "heroine" made the decisions she made. It's all mind numbing after a bit, so much so that the final twist, though I found it unnecessarily cruel and just thrown in for shock value, didn't even faze me. I was too grateful to be done to care how it all ended.
I'm surprised at how well this book is rated overall. I think watching Downton reruns would be a much better idea. :)
July 25, 2017
¿Por qué no existen las medias estrellas? ¿Por qué? En realidad este es un 4.5 que no llegó a 5 porque hubo cosillas con las que no terminé de conectar, como el romance en sí, pero ese es un tema muy personal que no le resta nada a la historia en sí. He visto este libro recomendado a quienes les gustan las historias del tipo Downton Abbey, y sí, mucho de eso hay; pero creo que esta novela se centra más en la vida interior y las experiencias de la protagonista de una forma profunda que en lo personal me gustó mucho; así como disfruté el hecho de que ella y quienes le rodean son tremendamente imperfectos, muy humanos, lo que a mis ojos los hace más valiosos e interesantes. Más que Downton Abbey, la verdad, la historia en sí me ha recordado un poco más a Expiación, pero con un final mucho más esperanzador.
March 27, 2020
This book was fine and I was able to read it in only a few days. I think it will appeal to plenty of readers, those who are more inclined to a romance.
It was written well enough with lovely descriptions and flowed easily but the storyline was only alright; a coming of age story that was hard to connect with.
The main character was increasingly irritating across the book and a lot of situations were frustrating. I thought it would be more Downton Abbey-esque but it didn’t have the breadth to complete.
It was written well enough with lovely descriptions and flowed easily but the storyline was only alright; a coming of age story that was hard to connect with.
The main character was increasingly irritating across the book and a lot of situations were frustrating. I thought it would be more Downton Abbey-esque but it didn’t have the breadth to complete.
March 23, 2013
I reviewed this book for www.luxuryreading.com.
In the summer before the First World War, Clarissa Granville is living the ideal life of a sheltered young woman of rank at her family’s country estate of Deyning. Knowing very little about the world beyond the gates of Deyning, Clarissa has been raised like most women of her class to believe that her future consists of parties, the search for a rich husband and a life raising children and caring for her home. That is until Tom Cuthbert, the housekeeper’s son, arrives at Deyning.
Over the next nearly 20 years the lives of Tom and Clarissa continue to come together and fall apart again and again. Separated by war, society, duty and so much more these two never lose the love for each other they secretly hold within their hearts. With the world they have always known falling apart around them how will these two ever be able to put the world aside and finally come together? And if they can, what sort of world can they have together given all the secrets and history that follows them?
I absolutely loved The Last Summer! Never being a big fan of romance, this book offers so much more than that. While the evolution of Tom and Clarissa’s relationship is center stage, this book will draw in lovers of history or fans of stories of war and its various consequences. Judith Kinghorn has an incredible descriptive skill and really allows the reader to see not just the glitz and glamour of the times but the fear and desperation underneath as well as the loss of innocence for this young, naïve generation and the growth into a more cynical and wary one. And with these changes come changes in their perceptions of the ever changing world around them and the breakdown of the hierarchy of the classes they have always had to live within. I have read books that showed the devastation of war but very rarely do you get both the perspective of the vast amount of young men going off to fight and die and the perspective of the devastated women left behind to live and mourn together.
With all these issues swirling around, our main characters are constantly drawn together and pushed apart again, their bond seeming to have an unbreakable hold on each of their hearts. It is a very poignant relationship that brilliantly highlights the changes happening around them all, and I could not get enough. The supporting characters, especially Clarissa’s mother who is hiding her own secrets, are just as well fleshed out and even Deyning seemed to have its own life and was forced to change over the years just as much as everyone else.
The Last Summer is the sort of book that you can’t put down but you try to do anyways because you just don’t want it to end too quickly. I am very excited to see what the author comes up with next.
In the summer before the First World War, Clarissa Granville is living the ideal life of a sheltered young woman of rank at her family’s country estate of Deyning. Knowing very little about the world beyond the gates of Deyning, Clarissa has been raised like most women of her class to believe that her future consists of parties, the search for a rich husband and a life raising children and caring for her home. That is until Tom Cuthbert, the housekeeper’s son, arrives at Deyning.
Over the next nearly 20 years the lives of Tom and Clarissa continue to come together and fall apart again and again. Separated by war, society, duty and so much more these two never lose the love for each other they secretly hold within their hearts. With the world they have always known falling apart around them how will these two ever be able to put the world aside and finally come together? And if they can, what sort of world can they have together given all the secrets and history that follows them?
I absolutely loved The Last Summer! Never being a big fan of romance, this book offers so much more than that. While the evolution of Tom and Clarissa’s relationship is center stage, this book will draw in lovers of history or fans of stories of war and its various consequences. Judith Kinghorn has an incredible descriptive skill and really allows the reader to see not just the glitz and glamour of the times but the fear and desperation underneath as well as the loss of innocence for this young, naïve generation and the growth into a more cynical and wary one. And with these changes come changes in their perceptions of the ever changing world around them and the breakdown of the hierarchy of the classes they have always had to live within. I have read books that showed the devastation of war but very rarely do you get both the perspective of the vast amount of young men going off to fight and die and the perspective of the devastated women left behind to live and mourn together.
With all these issues swirling around, our main characters are constantly drawn together and pushed apart again, their bond seeming to have an unbreakable hold on each of their hearts. It is a very poignant relationship that brilliantly highlights the changes happening around them all, and I could not get enough. The supporting characters, especially Clarissa’s mother who is hiding her own secrets, are just as well fleshed out and even Deyning seemed to have its own life and was forced to change over the years just as much as everyone else.
The Last Summer is the sort of book that you can’t put down but you try to do anyways because you just don’t want it to end too quickly. I am very excited to see what the author comes up with next.
February 11, 2016
I really don’t know quite how to review this piece of fiction. For me, the impact was more a mixture of the good, bad and ugly -- some of it bordering on the ridiculous. Too many passages jumped out and screamed “very familiar” reminders of books past, or perhaps of the popular present day television series Downton Abbey. I’ll preface my review by saying that it is spoiler-free. You’ll get no story details – only my reactions to the reading experience. The rest is up to you.
For some unknown reason, I started the year off experiencing a craving for historical wartime books, and that is precisely how I wound up here. It might have been better for me if I had stopped with Tatiana and Alexander! Unlike my love for them, a fierce love/hate relationship with our main characters herein quickly emerged. Most of my negativity leans toward Clarissa, who I found to be too much of almost everything that rattles me. She was self-absorbed and spoiled, along with whining, crying, and immature and unwise in her choices ninety percent of the time. Tom didn’t prove perfect either. From a “downstairs” social class, I cut him a break for awhile and then realized he didn’t deserve it. He wasn’t the most dynamic of characters. Sometimes he wasn’t very likeable in his treatment of women. The evolution of the relationship between Tom and Clarissa made little sense to me and I certainly wasn’t “feeling the love” between them. There were far too many ups/downs backwards/forwards and all around the mulberry bushes for me in establishing a real connection between these two. All said and done, they probably deserved each other.
Told in first-person narrative, Clarissa states the hows and whys without ever letting readers experience or be in tune with the real feels. Too much is lost in this translation and left this reader feeling a bit cheated. The inclusion of the anonymous letters attached to each chapter was less than notable and I don’t think I got the thrill the author intended. I hit bumps of boredom from start to finish, although the first chapters started on a positive and hopeful footing, but I was quite happy and relieved to finally reach “The End” of this saga.
Most likely, I’ll find myself in the minority on my views above. I did feel the potential for so much more. No question in my mind that this author’s talent is displayed in her easy to follow storyline with lovely written prose in describing the English manor lifestyle and settings at the time, along with her vivid and tragic depictions of wartime. And I’ll take a step further and say that the characters were well-developed – I just didn’t like them or their pairing very much.
Overall, it wasn’t what I was expecting in a romance or hoping I would find in this journey back in history.
For some unknown reason, I started the year off experiencing a craving for historical wartime books, and that is precisely how I wound up here. It might have been better for me if I had stopped with Tatiana and Alexander! Unlike my love for them, a fierce love/hate relationship with our main characters herein quickly emerged. Most of my negativity leans toward Clarissa, who I found to be too much of almost everything that rattles me. She was self-absorbed and spoiled, along with whining, crying, and immature and unwise in her choices ninety percent of the time. Tom didn’t prove perfect either. From a “downstairs” social class, I cut him a break for awhile and then realized he didn’t deserve it. He wasn’t the most dynamic of characters. Sometimes he wasn’t very likeable in his treatment of women. The evolution of the relationship between Tom and Clarissa made little sense to me and I certainly wasn’t “feeling the love” between them. There were far too many ups/downs backwards/forwards and all around the mulberry bushes for me in establishing a real connection between these two. All said and done, they probably deserved each other.
Told in first-person narrative, Clarissa states the hows and whys without ever letting readers experience or be in tune with the real feels. Too much is lost in this translation and left this reader feeling a bit cheated. The inclusion of the anonymous letters attached to each chapter was less than notable and I don’t think I got the thrill the author intended. I hit bumps of boredom from start to finish, although the first chapters started on a positive and hopeful footing, but I was quite happy and relieved to finally reach “The End” of this saga.
Most likely, I’ll find myself in the minority on my views above. I did feel the potential for so much more. No question in my mind that this author’s talent is displayed in her easy to follow storyline with lovely written prose in describing the English manor lifestyle and settings at the time, along with her vivid and tragic depictions of wartime. And I’ll take a step further and say that the characters were well-developed – I just didn’t like them or their pairing very much.
Overall, it wasn’t what I was expecting in a romance or hoping I would find in this journey back in history.
March 13, 2012
I neither like nor dislike this book. To be honest there were good and bad parts that made it end up just an okay novel, nothing overly special unfortunately.
The first eight chapters were enjoyable. I liked the naivety of Clarissa, and her unwavering certainty that nothing could spoil the idyllic world she lived in. This showed a clear innocence of the era that we do not posses in todays society. The author did a good job of describing the quintessential, traditional English house that I'm sure will appeal to Downton Abbey, and Upstairs Downstairs fans alike.
The middle section of the book did go downhill for me. The beginning and shock of WW1 were described well, but after the war had finished I did become quite bored with the plot. The sheer number of coincidental meetings between the main characters over may years, along with the constant longing and misery of Clarissa, did start to become less romantic and more tedious as the book progressed.
I think this author has potential. I was not overwhelmed with the book, but it was not awful either. The writing was entertaining in some parts (although some of the dialogue for the time period was slightly cliché), but I think the novel could have been pared down quite abit, which would have kept it more interesting.
Unfortunately The Last Summer will not be sitting on my "books for keeps" shelf.
The first eight chapters were enjoyable. I liked the naivety of Clarissa, and her unwavering certainty that nothing could spoil the idyllic world she lived in. This showed a clear innocence of the era that we do not posses in todays society. The author did a good job of describing the quintessential, traditional English house that I'm sure will appeal to Downton Abbey, and Upstairs Downstairs fans alike.
The middle section of the book did go downhill for me. The beginning and shock of WW1 were described well, but after the war had finished I did become quite bored with the plot. The sheer number of coincidental meetings between the main characters over may years, along with the constant longing and misery of Clarissa, did start to become less romantic and more tedious as the book progressed.
I think this author has potential. I was not overwhelmed with the book, but it was not awful either. The writing was entertaining in some parts (although some of the dialogue for the time period was slightly cliché), but I think the novel could have been pared down quite abit, which would have kept it more interesting.
Unfortunately The Last Summer will not be sitting on my "books for keeps" shelf.
June 15, 2013
FRIGGIN' LOVE THIS BOOK!
Gosh, I can't imagine what Tom and Clarrissa need to go thru in order to be together...Full of drama, happiness even sadness during war times. The story is beautifully written. They love each other and yet they are apart! One moving and powerful novel. Finally, when they found each other, I totally cried!!!!!
Love can make us go bonkers! This book has it all emotions - heartbreaking, painful, sacrifice, weakness, vanity, tragedy and love!
November 10, 2012
The writing in this novel is really quite lovely. The author evocatively relayed the moods of pre-WWI, WWI, and post-WWI England. Clarissa's change from a naive girl reading Fanny Hill to a lost soul during the war and finally to a driven woman was well done, and the romance was engaging even if it was frustrating at times and a bit on the drawn-out side.
May 5, 2013
Enjoyed it! This wonderful love story is sad, heartbreaking and frustrating at times, but full of interesting aspects of early 20th century English life encompassing WW1. You can't help but wish for Tom and Clarissa's happiness throughout the book.
March 31, 2020
Review to follow
December 3, 2022
2 uninteresting stars . Privileged, naive daughter of the manor falls in love with the housekeepers son during WWI. DNF. Could not make an emotional commitment to Clarissa, the main protagonist, for some reason.
July 2, 2015
The Last Summer used that enchanting period before England entered World War I as the backdrop for a fantastic love story. This was not a cheesy romance, but a deep and moving love worthy of being compared to The Notebook. Clarissa was content with the idyllic surroundings of her family's estate, coming out parties, and proper society until she met her housekeeper's son, Tom. Tom was a student of law at university, which made Clarissa see him as a suitor rather than someone "in service" and beneath her. The war quickly interrupted their romance, as did meddling mothers, and their subsequent struggle made for a great read!
This read like a memoir, with Clarissa speaking directly to the reader and reflecting on her actions and outlook on life. The prose used by Judith Kinghorn were beautiful and delicate, which made this read like a poem. Clarissa's observations exuded the love she had for Tom: the movement of the moon, the morning mist, etc. Because the book captured a period of time that spanned several years, often months were told in a matter of paragraphs, but that speed never disrupted the story. Slowly, the realities of war aided Clarissa in become an adult who sought more from life than what her mother wanted for her, namely, a tidy, but loveless, marriage to a man of good breeding. I liked that Clarissa was a character who truly developed throughout the novel, changing from an impetuous girl to a woman who struggled with braking free of the requirements placed on her by her mother as a result of Clarissa's social status. Every other character had just a supporting role and their descriptions were limited to what Clarissa knew of them. I didn't mind that, and it actually helped make her romance with Tom somewhat mysterious because just like Clarissa, at times, I also wasn't sure how much he loved her.
I tried to find a book just like this for several years, but found the young protagonists either too youthful or the stories too somber. This was a perfect blend of romance weighted down by life changing events. I've already added the other books by this author to my list of books to read.
Please read more of my reviews on my blog: http://fastpageturner.wordpress.com
or follow me on twitter at @dana_heyde
This read like a memoir, with Clarissa speaking directly to the reader and reflecting on her actions and outlook on life. The prose used by Judith Kinghorn were beautiful and delicate, which made this read like a poem. Clarissa's observations exuded the love she had for Tom: the movement of the moon, the morning mist, etc. Because the book captured a period of time that spanned several years, often months were told in a matter of paragraphs, but that speed never disrupted the story. Slowly, the realities of war aided Clarissa in become an adult who sought more from life than what her mother wanted for her, namely, a tidy, but loveless, marriage to a man of good breeding. I liked that Clarissa was a character who truly developed throughout the novel, changing from an impetuous girl to a woman who struggled with braking free of the requirements placed on her by her mother as a result of Clarissa's social status. Every other character had just a supporting role and their descriptions were limited to what Clarissa knew of them. I didn't mind that, and it actually helped make her romance with Tom somewhat mysterious because just like Clarissa, at times, I also wasn't sure how much he loved her.
I tried to find a book just like this for several years, but found the young protagonists either too youthful or the stories too somber. This was a perfect blend of romance weighted down by life changing events. I've already added the other books by this author to my list of books to read.
Please read more of my reviews on my blog: http://fastpageturner.wordpress.com
or follow me on twitter at @dana_heyde
August 24, 2017
This was a story that I had great difficulty in putting down ... but also great difficulty in reading. The Last Summer is beautifully written with very real and wonderful characters who evoke a world far removed from our own. Clarissa is dreamy and manages to hold on to a certain degree of innocence (despite everything she is put through) that really makes her someone special. Her relationship with Tom manages to survive every trial that life, society, the war, and their respective families and friends throw their way. It is always heartwarming to read a story of love which does manage to overcome everything and survive, and in such a believable way.
The hard part of reading this book is the aspects of reality which stormed through Clarissa and Tom's world. The outbreak of World War I began with a fanfare of patriotism and national belief in Old Britannia's right and duty to make safe the civilized world from the barbaric ravages of "the Hun." They quickly and tragically learned just how wrong they were to be proven. This book is a vivid and heartbreaking reflection of the seeming-unending and viscous Great War and its aftermath, which wrenched England into modern times. It is stark and sometimes brutal. The good and the innocent die, and even those left "safe" at home struggle as heroically as the boys at the Front to live another day. The period detail and the attention given to the less glamorous side of life during this dark time for the British home front is spot-on and intensely presented.
This is a beautiful story. It is a tragic story. This story brings to life a bleak time, but promises the hope of the will to endure. Love may not conquer all, but it can be the light which guides us home and keeps us warm when far away. Clarissa and Tom are a marvelous pair and their story is worth a read. Bravo!
The hard part of reading this book is the aspects of reality which stormed through Clarissa and Tom's world. The outbreak of World War I began with a fanfare of patriotism and national belief in Old Britannia's right and duty to make safe the civilized world from the barbaric ravages of "the Hun." They quickly and tragically learned just how wrong they were to be proven. This book is a vivid and heartbreaking reflection of the seeming-unending and viscous Great War and its aftermath, which wrenched England into modern times. It is stark and sometimes brutal. The good and the innocent die, and even those left "safe" at home struggle as heroically as the boys at the Front to live another day. The period detail and the attention given to the less glamorous side of life during this dark time for the British home front is spot-on and intensely presented.
This is a beautiful story. It is a tragic story. This story brings to life a bleak time, but promises the hope of the will to endure. Love may not conquer all, but it can be the light which guides us home and keeps us warm when far away. Clarissa and Tom are a marvelous pair and their story is worth a read. Bravo!
September 7, 2016
It’s the lovely fresh vibrancy of the narrative voice that immediately draws you into this novel. And the deft pulsing characterisation of the young heroine, Clarissa. The author has a real feel and love for the era and there’s a big warm heart beating through this story. Initially Clarissa is living in an almost idyllic world. An elegant country house with servants and all the trappings of the ruling classes of that era. This world masterfully and beautifully evoked. The prose in its fresh understated lyricism reminded me of Rosamond Lehman, Elizabeth Taylor and early Elizabeth Bowen, all writers I greatly admire. Then Clarissa falls in love with Tom, the son of the housekeeper. Tom, of course, is the forbidden fruit. He brings knowledge, knowledge of the heart. When Tom is called away by the war Clarissa is forced to realise the war has now found her. From then on, it’s a gripping story of Clarissa’s struggles to acquire autonomy, to remain faithful to the imperatives of her heart in a sullied and disenchanted world.
“When spring finally comes she never ceases to surprise me with the lightness and warmth of her touch, her early dawns and frenzied revelry. She is a symphony of rapturous colour and vibrant luminosity; she is memory restored, senses reawakened---brought back to life; and I fall in love once more.”
Like spring, Judith Kinghorn restores to us a memory – except it’s a memory we never had, a moving insight into the struggles and prejudices, the innocence and horrors, the obsessions and heartbreak of an era that still has a haunting spell a hundred years later.
“When spring finally comes she never ceases to surprise me with the lightness and warmth of her touch, her early dawns and frenzied revelry. She is a symphony of rapturous colour and vibrant luminosity; she is memory restored, senses reawakened---brought back to life; and I fall in love once more.”
Like spring, Judith Kinghorn restores to us a memory – except it’s a memory we never had, a moving insight into the struggles and prejudices, the innocence and horrors, the obsessions and heartbreak of an era that still has a haunting spell a hundred years later.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 403 reviews