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The Judge
Book by West, Rebecca
430 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1922
99 people are currently reading
503 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca West
138 books444 followersCicely Isabel Fairfield, known by her pen name Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, DBE was an English author, journalist, literary critic, and travel writer. She was brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she attended George Watson's Ladies College.
A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of the twentieth century. She reviewed books for The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Sunday Telegraph, and the New Republic, and she was a correspondent for The Bookman. Her major works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), on the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder (1955), her coverage of the Nuremberg trials, published originally in The New Yorker; The Meaning of Treason, later The New Meaning of Treason, a study of World War II and Communist traitors; The Return of the Soldier, a modernist World War I novel; and the "Aubrey trilogy" of autobiographical novels, The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund. Time called her "indisputably the world's number one woman writer" in 1947. She was made CBE in 1949, and DBE in 1959, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to British letters.
A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of the twentieth century. She reviewed books for The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Sunday Telegraph, and the New Republic, and she was a correspondent for The Bookman. Her major works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), on the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder (1955), her coverage of the Nuremberg trials, published originally in The New Yorker; The Meaning of Treason, later The New Meaning of Treason, a study of World War II and Communist traitors; The Return of the Soldier, a modernist World War I novel; and the "Aubrey trilogy" of autobiographical novels, The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund. Time called her "indisputably the world's number one woman writer" in 1947. She was made CBE in 1949, and DBE in 1959, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to British letters.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 3, 2019
“Every mother is a judge who sentences the children for the sins of the father.”
This line is to be found at the start and at the end of the book. It is its central theme and is reflected in the book’s title. The quote lies at the book’s core but is then expanded. Starting with the mother, child and father relationships, the story expands to include a study of the other family relationships and finally how society judges those who dare to deviate from social norms, how we judge ourselves and how we judge others..
Marion is the mother. Her first child, Richard, was illegitimate. Forced into marriage by her parents and by the prevailing norms of early 20th century, Scottish society, we watch what unfolds. What she had to endure is grippingly told. Intriguing are the relationships that develop between her and her first son, her second son and between the two sons. When the sons spread their wings and leave home, relationships must and do change What is delivered are character studies.
The characters and the complicated family relationships intrigued me and kept me thinking. I find them realistic. We see a mother who dotes on and adores one son. These two instinctively “talk the same language”, think the same way and act in the same manner. She tries to love her second son as she loves her first, but she knows she fails. All she can do is force herself to treat both fairly. I appreciate that she is not drawn as a demon. All mothers relate to their children differently, and thus it is not hard to relate to Marion.
In the story here, Richard falls in love with Ellen. She is seventeen, works as a typist in a law firm and is an ardent suffragette. She is spunky and full of a zest for life and is t-e-r-r-i-b-l-y naïve. Every time she opened her mouth I smiled. I dare you not to laugh at the things she says. In my view, West has in Ellen created a marvelous character.
There are exquisite renderings of Scottish landscape. Rebecca West describes nature beautifully. Colors, varying shades and hues, the rippling of foliage, fallen, autumnal leaves and brooks and streams fill the text. Have you seen the hills of Pentland, south of Edinburgh? West puts you there. Some people eat up descriptions of landscape. Others don’t. You know yourself best.
West also describes love scenes. In my view these sections felt dated, too lyrical, too poetic, too romantic. I prefer writing that breathes physical attraction. This is not what is delivered here. West’s writing is too pretty for that. I became bored.
At times I was also bored by excessive philosophizing.
More aggressive editing would have benefited the book. This, West’s second novel, follows her acclaimed and more tightly drawn The Return of the Soldier.
If you are looking for a quick read OR a sweet, happy tale, I doubt this will be to your taste. I prefer dark over sweet.
Imogene Church narrates the audiobook. She wonderfully narrates Ellen’s lines. This character’s naivety and spunk come to the fore. She draws a contrast between those with an English versus a Scottish dialect. I am no expert but to me it sounds accurate. I dislike how she reads the lines of descriptive prose and the sections between dialogues. Here the pacing is peculiar, off, stilted. I have given the narration performance two stars: it’s OK.
**************************
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon 5 stars.
The Return of the Soldier 4 stars
The Judge 3 stars
The Fountain Overflows 2 stars
This line is to be found at the start and at the end of the book. It is its central theme and is reflected in the book’s title. The quote lies at the book’s core but is then expanded. Starting with the mother, child and father relationships, the story expands to include a study of the other family relationships and finally how society judges those who dare to deviate from social norms, how we judge ourselves and how we judge others..
Marion is the mother. Her first child, Richard, was illegitimate. Forced into marriage by her parents and by the prevailing norms of early 20th century, Scottish society, we watch what unfolds. What she had to endure is grippingly told. Intriguing are the relationships that develop between her and her first son, her second son and between the two sons. When the sons spread their wings and leave home, relationships must and do change What is delivered are character studies.
The characters and the complicated family relationships intrigued me and kept me thinking. I find them realistic. We see a mother who dotes on and adores one son. These two instinctively “talk the same language”, think the same way and act in the same manner. She tries to love her second son as she loves her first, but she knows she fails. All she can do is force herself to treat both fairly. I appreciate that she is not drawn as a demon. All mothers relate to their children differently, and thus it is not hard to relate to Marion.
In the story here, Richard falls in love with Ellen. She is seventeen, works as a typist in a law firm and is an ardent suffragette. She is spunky and full of a zest for life and is t-e-r-r-i-b-l-y naïve. Every time she opened her mouth I smiled. I dare you not to laugh at the things she says. In my view, West has in Ellen created a marvelous character.
There are exquisite renderings of Scottish landscape. Rebecca West describes nature beautifully. Colors, varying shades and hues, the rippling of foliage, fallen, autumnal leaves and brooks and streams fill the text. Have you seen the hills of Pentland, south of Edinburgh? West puts you there. Some people eat up descriptions of landscape. Others don’t. You know yourself best.
West also describes love scenes. In my view these sections felt dated, too lyrical, too poetic, too romantic. I prefer writing that breathes physical attraction. This is not what is delivered here. West’s writing is too pretty for that. I became bored.
At times I was also bored by excessive philosophizing.
More aggressive editing would have benefited the book. This, West’s second novel, follows her acclaimed and more tightly drawn The Return of the Soldier.
If you are looking for a quick read OR a sweet, happy tale, I doubt this will be to your taste. I prefer dark over sweet.
Imogene Church narrates the audiobook. She wonderfully narrates Ellen’s lines. This character’s naivety and spunk come to the fore. She draws a contrast between those with an English versus a Scottish dialect. I am no expert but to me it sounds accurate. I dislike how she reads the lines of descriptive prose and the sections between dialogues. Here the pacing is peculiar, off, stilted. I have given the narration performance two stars: it’s OK.
**************************
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon 5 stars.
The Return of the Soldier 4 stars
The Judge 3 stars
The Fountain Overflows 2 stars
August 24, 2013
Rebecca West’s 1922 second novel is much longer than her wonderful first novel; The Return of the Soldier. It is a complex, densely written novel with some breath-taking descriptions of Scottish and English landscape. It is also – I can see from other reviews – one capable of dividing opinion. I suspect it is that highly descriptive dense writing that some readers dislike, while others may find the highly dramatic melodrama of the end of the novel at odds with what had come before it.
“Ellen thought herself a wonderful new sort of woman who was going to be just like a man; she would have been surprised if she had known how many of stern-browed ambitions, how much of her virile swagger of life, were not the invention of her own soul, but had been suggested to her by an old woman who liked to pretend her daughter was a son.”
In the early years of the twentieth century, Ellen Melville is a seventeen year old typist at a legal office. She is also a suffragette, naively innocent Ellen is unaware of her own beauty and the effect it has on others. Ellen finds herself judged and treated as an object by the men for whom she works, but has inherited a great capacity for love from her impoverished mother with whom she lives in a tiny dark house. Ellen can’t help but be dissatisfied with her life, she wants to experience all that life has to offer, she is at times outspoken, but still with a touching childishness about her which allows her to leap about her beloved Pentland hills in joy. When she meets client Richard Yaverland one day at work, she meets an older worldlier man, a successful man who has travelled widely, with liberal political views he seems to represent much of what Ellen seeks.
In Ellen and her simple good mother, Richard finds something he seeks – and is soon determined to marry Ellen. Before their marriage the couple travel back to Richard’s home to meet his mother of whom Richard has spoken to Ellen a good deal.
“‘Her body would imprison her in soft places. She would be allowed no adventures other than love, no achievements other than birth.’
Richard Yaverland comes from Essex, where he lived with his mother Marion, Marion even accompanied him on some of his expeditions abroad and the two are extraordinarily close. Richard is illegitimate, the result of his mother’s love affair with the local squire. Marion’s story – of how she was judged and ill used by the small community in which she lived, is told more than half way into the novel – yet it is the memory of this strong and controversial mother and her obsessive like love for her eldest son that pervades this novel. Marion has another son, one born following her somewhat forced marriage to an utterly odious man who offered to save her reputation when she found herself pregnant. This younger son; Roger, is a pitiful figure that the reader wants to sympathise with, and I did, however West has made his older, more selfish, more golden brother the more likeable character – although he is far from flawless. Roger’s childhood was sacrificed so that Marion could live the solitary life she desired with Richard. It is Roger, not Richard who is Marion’s guilt made flesh. The ending is gloriously melodramatic – it is at odds with the first part of the novel but I loved it.
“Every mother is a judge who sentences the children for the sins of the father.”
The judge of the title then is everyone, each character and certainly the reader themselves. Marion is a very harsh judge of herself, she has reason to be, and although the reader is able to sympathise with this strong and unusual woman, they can’t condone her actions. The judge is a fascinating exploration on what early nineteenth century society perceives as sin and the treatment of those who stray from the excepted path.
“Ellen thought herself a wonderful new sort of woman who was going to be just like a man; she would have been surprised if she had known how many of stern-browed ambitions, how much of her virile swagger of life, were not the invention of her own soul, but had been suggested to her by an old woman who liked to pretend her daughter was a son.”
In the early years of the twentieth century, Ellen Melville is a seventeen year old typist at a legal office. She is also a suffragette, naively innocent Ellen is unaware of her own beauty and the effect it has on others. Ellen finds herself judged and treated as an object by the men for whom she works, but has inherited a great capacity for love from her impoverished mother with whom she lives in a tiny dark house. Ellen can’t help but be dissatisfied with her life, she wants to experience all that life has to offer, she is at times outspoken, but still with a touching childishness about her which allows her to leap about her beloved Pentland hills in joy. When she meets client Richard Yaverland one day at work, she meets an older worldlier man, a successful man who has travelled widely, with liberal political views he seems to represent much of what Ellen seeks.
In Ellen and her simple good mother, Richard finds something he seeks – and is soon determined to marry Ellen. Before their marriage the couple travel back to Richard’s home to meet his mother of whom Richard has spoken to Ellen a good deal.
“‘Her body would imprison her in soft places. She would be allowed no adventures other than love, no achievements other than birth.’
Richard Yaverland comes from Essex, where he lived with his mother Marion, Marion even accompanied him on some of his expeditions abroad and the two are extraordinarily close. Richard is illegitimate, the result of his mother’s love affair with the local squire. Marion’s story – of how she was judged and ill used by the small community in which she lived, is told more than half way into the novel – yet it is the memory of this strong and controversial mother and her obsessive like love for her eldest son that pervades this novel. Marion has another son, one born following her somewhat forced marriage to an utterly odious man who offered to save her reputation when she found herself pregnant. This younger son; Roger, is a pitiful figure that the reader wants to sympathise with, and I did, however West has made his older, more selfish, more golden brother the more likeable character – although he is far from flawless. Roger’s childhood was sacrificed so that Marion could live the solitary life she desired with Richard. It is Roger, not Richard who is Marion’s guilt made flesh. The ending is gloriously melodramatic – it is at odds with the first part of the novel but I loved it.
“Every mother is a judge who sentences the children for the sins of the father.”
The judge of the title then is everyone, each character and certainly the reader themselves. Marion is a very harsh judge of herself, she has reason to be, and although the reader is able to sympathise with this strong and unusual woman, they can’t condone her actions. The judge is a fascinating exploration on what early nineteenth century society perceives as sin and the treatment of those who stray from the excepted path.
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February 21, 2013Impossible to rate.
I thought this was a very interesting book although a failure as a novel. It really went off the rails at the end. Knowing a bit about West's life made the characters of Ellen and Marion interesting but as a writer, she really lost control of the material in the last third of the book.
I'm not sure I have ever read such beautiful descriptions of the natural world or a more truthful portrayal of the extreme emotions of motherhood.
In truth, the book scared me a little.
I thought this was a very interesting book although a failure as a novel. It really went off the rails at the end. Knowing a bit about West's life made the characters of Ellen and Marion interesting but as a writer, she really lost control of the material in the last third of the book.
I'm not sure I have ever read such beautiful descriptions of the natural world or a more truthful portrayal of the extreme emotions of motherhood.
In truth, the book scared me a little.
September 16, 2014
Somebody else's cup of tea, maybe. Rebelliously feminist for 1922, I suppose, if deliriously dreamy crush diaries may be said to fit in with suffragette boilerplate. But by turns too la-di-dah and then wordily lovey-dovey. Which is where I leave off. And that's right where I left it. See you on the barricades, sis.
June 9, 2010
Mummy's boy gets stabby.
Moral of the story - beautiful people are better, except when they're not mumsie.
Moral of the story - beautiful people are better, except when they're not mumsie.
June 13, 2020
If you’re a Rebecca West fan, as I am, and start this book, you will not be disappointed—that is, until seventeen-year-old Ellen’s point of view gives way to fifty-year-old Marion’s. Marion, the mother of Richard, the beau Ellen meets in Edinburgh, turns out to be, as we say, “a piece of work.”
We see that there might be a bit of conflict when poor Ellen, whose mother dies when there is an outbreak of diphtheria in Edinburgh, is sent to stay with Richard’s mother in a remote, marshy part of Essex in England until Richard finishes his contracted job in Scotland. He then plans to join them and prepare for a wedding.
Well. Ellen is as sturdy a redheaded Scot as they make them, a Suffragette, and, schooled in Presbyterianism, has no idea that she’s a beauty. Her unique voice and wry observations had me underlining passages every few pages. But when she comes to stay with Richard’s mother, we must now listen to Marion.
Marion struggles with the conflicting emotions of having a daughter-in-law take first place in Richard’s heart. She is still not over the abandonment of Richard’s father after all these years and, as an unwed mother, her cruel treatment at the hands of the villagers.
All very well and good, for a time. But the more Marion narrates, the more she describes her overwhelming (dare I say voracious?) love for Richard, the more uncomfortable this reader becomes. TMI, TMI, I plead, but she won’t quit. I finally skim the gushing pages of tortured emotions until I reach the chapter when Richard finally returns, and we hear from Ellen again.
The end was a double whammy. One, I had sort of seen coming, but the other was a complete shock.
You might just want to stop reading when Ellen leaves Scotland. But if you like plunging into deep psychological issues dealing with how scarred parents can scar their children, the whole book may be for you.
We see that there might be a bit of conflict when poor Ellen, whose mother dies when there is an outbreak of diphtheria in Edinburgh, is sent to stay with Richard’s mother in a remote, marshy part of Essex in England until Richard finishes his contracted job in Scotland. He then plans to join them and prepare for a wedding.
Well. Ellen is as sturdy a redheaded Scot as they make them, a Suffragette, and, schooled in Presbyterianism, has no idea that she’s a beauty. Her unique voice and wry observations had me underlining passages every few pages. But when she comes to stay with Richard’s mother, we must now listen to Marion.
Marion struggles with the conflicting emotions of having a daughter-in-law take first place in Richard’s heart. She is still not over the abandonment of Richard’s father after all these years and, as an unwed mother, her cruel treatment at the hands of the villagers.
All very well and good, for a time. But the more Marion narrates, the more she describes her overwhelming (dare I say voracious?) love for Richard, the more uncomfortable this reader becomes. TMI, TMI, I plead, but she won’t quit. I finally skim the gushing pages of tortured emotions until I reach the chapter when Richard finally returns, and we hear from Ellen again.
The end was a double whammy. One, I had sort of seen coming, but the other was a complete shock.
You might just want to stop reading when Ellen leaves Scotland. But if you like plunging into deep psychological issues dealing with how scarred parents can scar their children, the whole book may be for you.
July 25, 2022
One of Ms. West's early novels. In it, she explores the relationships of her youthful feminist heroine, Ellen Melville; her lover Richard Yaverland, and his mother Marion Yaverland. Ellen, very bright but very naive, is swept off her feet by the older, more sophisticated Richard, who is unnaturally close to his widowed, strong-willed mother. The early pages of this well-written but long and wordy novel spend much too much time on Richard's early infatuation with the spirited Ellen on her native home ground in Edinburgh. Things pick up when Ellen, newly engaged to Richard, travels alone to his ancestral home in bleak coastal England, where she is forced to spend time alone with his domineering but conflicted mother. Ms. West's development of the stresses among the characters, and the impact of their various parents on their developments is detailed and penetrating. Not easy reading, necessarily, but Ms. West's prose is beautiful. Unfortunately, though, her treatment of Ellen's awakening is so well-done that the sudden ending is hardly believable.
January 2, 2018
This novel is a bit like opera - melodramatic, fatalistic, full of the clashing forces of good and evil. Like the death-defying music in an opera, the prose can be unearthly. It’s dense, often gorgeous, sometimes overwrought.
This novel is about a pair of lovers, Ellen and Richard, who are beautiful, strong, and clear-eyed – except that Richard is in the thrall of his mother, Marion. Marion is a vividly-drawn and unique character. She was seduced by the village squire’s son in her youth, and became an unwed mother. And she suffered a great deal: she was stoned, ostracized, raped, and trapped into a marriage with a horrible man. And she had another son, whom she could not love, although she treated him with impeccable kindness. But Richard, the child of her first love, she adored, and she told him all her secrets and kept him as a bulwark against the world.
The lovers discover each other in Edinburgh, where Ellen lives – and then, when her mother dies, she travels to a small seaside town in England to marry Richard. But there, in his family home, she becomes entangled in the greater passion that Richard holds for his mother, and in Marion’s sacrificial and heroic attempts to sever that bond.
Some lines from the book:
“He strolled to the other end of the room, where the great black onyx fireplace climbed out of the light into the layer of gloom which lay beneath the ceiling that here and there dripped stalactites of ornament down into the brightness.”
“The little sitting-room was drowsy as a church, its darkness not so much lit as stained amber by candlelight.”
“He liked the white cloths bleaching on the grass, and the song the lark in the sky twirled like a lad throwing and catching a coin.”
This novel is about a pair of lovers, Ellen and Richard, who are beautiful, strong, and clear-eyed – except that Richard is in the thrall of his mother, Marion. Marion is a vividly-drawn and unique character. She was seduced by the village squire’s son in her youth, and became an unwed mother. And she suffered a great deal: she was stoned, ostracized, raped, and trapped into a marriage with a horrible man. And she had another son, whom she could not love, although she treated him with impeccable kindness. But Richard, the child of her first love, she adored, and she told him all her secrets and kept him as a bulwark against the world.
The lovers discover each other in Edinburgh, where Ellen lives – and then, when her mother dies, she travels to a small seaside town in England to marry Richard. But there, in his family home, she becomes entangled in the greater passion that Richard holds for his mother, and in Marion’s sacrificial and heroic attempts to sever that bond.
Some lines from the book:
“He strolled to the other end of the room, where the great black onyx fireplace climbed out of the light into the layer of gloom which lay beneath the ceiling that here and there dripped stalactites of ornament down into the brightness.”
“The little sitting-room was drowsy as a church, its darkness not so much lit as stained amber by candlelight.”
“He liked the white cloths bleaching on the grass, and the song the lark in the sky twirled like a lad throwing and catching a coin.”
November 20, 2024
Read this in 1981, when imported books weren't easy to get. It must have been during my Brit Lit phase. (I made friends with a bookstore owner, who also stocked out-of-town newspapers.) The suffragist protagonist appealed to me, also the setting in Edinburgh and Rebecca West's musings on love, society, psychology, religion and feminism. West's writing stands out, then and now. This might be worth another visit. And, I'll look for a biography of the author, who may be more interesting than her characters.
Ellen "was poor and had to drink life with the chill on."
Ellen "thought religion rather pretty and a great consolation if one was poor."
"Her body would imprison her in soft places: she would be allowed no adventures other than love, no achievements other than births."
"She took her mind by the arm and marched it up and down among the sights of Edinburgh."
"She prepared to bring herself down like a hammer on her own delicate reluctances."
"Certainly there were those who died God's creditors, and she had no reason to suppose she was not one of them."
From my handwritten book journal.
Ellen "was poor and had to drink life with the chill on."
Ellen "thought religion rather pretty and a great consolation if one was poor."
"Her body would imprison her in soft places: she would be allowed no adventures other than love, no achievements other than births."
"She took her mind by the arm and marched it up and down among the sights of Edinburgh."
"She prepared to bring herself down like a hammer on her own delicate reluctances."
"Certainly there were those who died God's creditors, and she had no reason to suppose she was not one of them."
From my handwritten book journal.
February 24, 2022
Published in 1922, this novel about suffragettes, young love, maternal love and moral topics of the day is a literary experience, typical of the literati of the era. Consisting of two parts, the first in Edinburgh involving Ellen and her meeting Richard, the second in Kent involving Richard’s mother, Marion. These are the three main characters and the plot centres around their interaction and their love for one another. There are a lot of well-crafted descriptions which pad the book out. It’s not the easiest read and has taken me a couple of weeks to read but it’s interesting, relevant for its times, less so perhaps today. I also found the ending disappointing and rushed. Difficult to recommend, some may enjoy the experience, others perhaps not.
October 5, 2024
This is a strange novel, densely packed with imagery and ideas. Although I’m a fan of West, I found it hard going at times, but I’m glad I persevered. The first half is the portrait of the engaging, impoverished young Scotswoman Ellen, who is fiercely intelligent and committed to suffragette ideals. The story then takes a darker turn and focuses on Marion, Ellen’s future mother-in-law, who has a traumatic past as an unwed mother, and a disturbingly co-dependent/Oedipal relationship with her adult son. It’s interesting to compare this novel to Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell: whereas the 19th c. novel is a very idealistic story of a young single mother shunned by society, West’s novel is a much more psychologically troubling one. There is a shocking Gothic ending.
November 20, 2022
There is a lot to like about this book, done in true West fashion with brilliant descriptions and detailed investigations of the characters inner thoughts. It takes an abrupt turn right at the end, though, that left me at a bit of a loss, wondering what the hell I just read...
Anyways, the moral I got from this one is to
Anyways, the moral I got from this one is to
March 22, 2023
Loved this with a passion. Should be far better known. A modern melodrama that moves like a machine to its finish, with blazing, ruthless characterisation, brilliant writing of place and time, and the way she writes young people is a kind of little miracle, in all their almost-too-annoying charm.
May 23, 2022
Beautifully written tale of a young Scottish girl and an older Englishman falling love. However, the pacing was far too slow to keep my interest.
June 13, 2024
Gorgeously written, with deeply realized characters that I cared about, this is a great book.
August 19, 2012
This is an excellent study of Marion, whom some would say was a bad mother, but she was very complex. West gives many reasons for her acting and thinking as she does. No one was harder on her than herself. She tries repeatedly to overcome feelings that it seems unfortunately reasonable for her to have. Her failing, and that of Ellen the youngest character, was that they were mired in romantic thinking (and the restrictions of a sexually repressive society). Everything that didn't exemplify perfect love was second rate. Rebecca West keeps having Richard, the Greek god love interest, say how intellectual the Scots are, and Ellen certainly got the most pleasure in life from thought and fantasy. She also, at the age of 17, 18, 19 didn't know what sex was - not that she hadn't experienced it, but that she didn't know how babies were made, thinking it might involve some kind of tender kiss. Kind of a strange concept. Marion, on the other hand, was very sensual, in fact too sensual when she lost the love of her life and had to devote herself to loving only her son. Who was The Judge? Everyone, including the reader. This is a great psychological and sociological study that I'm glad I read. All the characters grab the reader's attention, and when she wants to depict a person as repulsive, she does a fine enough job to make anyone reject the poor lad, and feel sorry for him while doing it.
February 20, 2018
Can a book be simultaneously a compelling page turner and a complete slog? This novel suggests the answer is yes. I had to force myself through the first fifty pages or so, relying mostly on my reverence for Dame Rebecca to keep me going. Once I was used to the dense description and the liberties taken with point of view, the linear unfolding of time, and so on, I was captivated by the characters and, yes, the gothic plot set so strangely in early–20th century Edinburgh. West's ability to take on her own political passions by way of the almost terminally innocent Ellen is both fascinating and amusing. Similarly, her handling of Marion, who is loathsome, yet sympathetic, damaged and yet a survivor, a nightmare of a parent and yet believably the tragic love of her sons' lives renders her a truly original character. Richard, in many ways, is the weakest link in the novel, and even his character arc drives the reader on. The ending certainly feels rushed and unsatisfying in where it leaves Richard and Ellen, but the journey is worth it.
October 21, 2016
Written in 1922, this book begins optimistically with a young, politically active (women's suffrage) and spirited young Edinburgh woman who falls in love with a loving and wealthy man who appears to rescue her from the clutches of her exploitative employers. But in the second part of the novel the couple travels to the Essex, England childhood home of the gentleman, and it all turns into a gothic novel and a lengthy exposition of the complex and enmeshed mother-son relationship, with our heroine slowly withering into the background.
December 8, 2012
If it weren't for the subjective depictions of nature which pervaded throughout the book and which served as if an essential foreground on which the main characters' souls were reflected, vaguely, lonely, yet beautifully--- and not to mention the odd quality of the book as a whole-- I was gladly surprised.
This read is my first take on Rebecca West. And I must say that I look forward on discovering more of her works in the future.
This read is my first take on Rebecca West. And I must say that I look forward on discovering more of her works in the future.
February 21, 2013
This book started out as a suffragette's journey and ended up with the most bizarre series of events I can remember. Melodramatic to say the least.
I'll enjoy getting in on the Goodreads conversation. West's descriptions of nature are exquisite, though.
If I had to give stars it would be 3.5.
I'll enjoy getting in on the Goodreads conversation. West's descriptions of nature are exquisite, though.
If I had to give stars it would be 3.5.
May 1, 2008
One of those books where all the problems would be solved if the characters could just get a fricking grip.
February 17, 2013
Much difficulty with this one but in the end I admire it very much. Still processsing the ending.
April 30, 2017
This book has the worst excesses of Hardy and D.H. Lawrence without any of their redeeming features.
Want to read
September 1, 2013I wrote this book down on a list a million years ago and have no idea what this is or what the context is of why I wanted to read it.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews