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Four Gardens
She announced herself, rather self-consciously, as Mrs. Henry Smith, and he replied that Mrs. Cornwallis was expecting her. To Caroline, following him through a wide shabby hall, the whole episode was beginning to feel like a nightmare. She was intensely conscious of herself-of her dress, her voice, the way she placed her feet. She felt like a cook-general going to be interviewed.
"Mrs. Henry Smith," said the butler contemptuously.
In Four Gardens, the most emotional and nostalgic of Margery Sharp's brilliant novels, we meet the lovable Caroline Smith (née Chase) and glimpse the stages of her life through the gardens in which she digs. There's the lavish abandoned one in which she has no right to dig; the tiny one in which she has no time to dig; the extravagant one, complete with stubborn gardener, in which she's not allowed to dig; and one final garden, hers and hers alone, in which she finds quiet, wise contentment. As we follow Caroline through the vicissitudes of life, we meet her adoring husband Henry, her shockingly modern children Leon and Lily, and friends and neighbours from the self-righteous Ellen Taylor to the posh but hilariously down-to-earth Lady Tregarthan.
"Mrs. Henry Smith," said the butler contemptuously.
In Four Gardens, the most emotional and nostalgic of Margery Sharp's brilliant novels, we meet the lovable Caroline Smith (née Chase) and glimpse the stages of her life through the gardens in which she digs. There's the lavish abandoned one in which she has no right to dig; the tiny one in which she has no time to dig; the extravagant one, complete with stubborn gardener, in which she's not allowed to dig; and one final garden, hers and hers alone, in which she finds quiet, wise contentment. As we follow Caroline through the vicissitudes of life, we meet her adoring husband Henry, her shockingly modern children Leon and Lily, and friends and neighbours from the self-righteous Ellen Taylor to the posh but hilariously down-to-earth Lady Tregarthan.
241 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1935
61 people are currently reading
348 people want to read
About the author
Margery Sharp
78 books173 followersMargery Sharp was born Clara Margery Melita Sharp in Salisbury. She spent part of her childhood in Malta.
Sharp wrote 26 novels, 14 children's stories, 4 plays, 2 mysteries and many short stories. She is best known for her series of children's books about a little white mouse named Miss Bianca and her companion, Bernard. Two Disney films have been made based on them, called The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under.
In 1938, she married Major Geoffrey Castle, an aeronautical engineer.
Sharp wrote 26 novels, 14 children's stories, 4 plays, 2 mysteries and many short stories. She is best known for her series of children's books about a little white mouse named Miss Bianca and her companion, Bernard. Two Disney films have been made based on them, called The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under.
In 1938, she married Major Geoffrey Castle, an aeronautical engineer.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
March 24, 2022
I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did. But then, it is Margery Sharp.
July 22, 2021
This one is my favourite of her books that I've read so far, and I've only scratched the surface.
When I picked this one up, I was expecting something like Old Herbaceous: A Novel of the Garden, as the blurb says it's the story of Caroline life told through her work on her gardens; it's not about the gardens though, and apart from the first one, they barely get a mention. It is a rather interesting look at her rise through life reflected in the gardens she has charge of, (or not, in the first case), and she was a character that I enjoyed spending time with.
She meets a young man in the first garden, where they are both trespassing, and that is where they go to court, but he his from the Common - the wealthy area of Milton - and she is from town. Love across a social divide.
The next garden is a small one in town, but she doesn't really notice its presence as by this time she is married with children,; she only pays any attention to this garden when she decides to cultivate it for vegetables while WW1 is causing food shortages and there are some rather lovely passages about the enjoyment she gets from her work and solitude in it. This doesn't last long and before she has seen her work come to fruition her husband who has become very successful, moves them off to a much bigger house with a bigger garden, and a head gardener who knows his own mind about what is best. By this time, we are in the twenties and the children have become young adults and are very modern; Caroline struggles to understand them and they her. This was the part I enjoyed most and loved the interaction between Caroline and her children, particularly Lally, who is a young lady who knows her own mind and is determined and somewhat implacable when it comes to getting what she wants. The 1920s seemed to bring about the quickest social changes and must have left an older generation feeling bewildered by what was happening to 'the youth of today'.
Finally Caroline moves to a smaller house with a garden just for her. A very satisfying conclusion to a very enjoyable book. Look forward to more Margery Sharp novels.
When I picked this one up, I was expecting something like Old Herbaceous: A Novel of the Garden, as the blurb says it's the story of Caroline life told through her work on her gardens; it's not about the gardens though, and apart from the first one, they barely get a mention. It is a rather interesting look at her rise through life reflected in the gardens she has charge of, (or not, in the first case), and she was a character that I enjoyed spending time with.
She meets a young man in the first garden, where they are both trespassing, and that is where they go to court, but he his from the Common - the wealthy area of Milton - and she is from town. Love across a social divide.
The next garden is a small one in town, but she doesn't really notice its presence as by this time she is married with children,; she only pays any attention to this garden when she decides to cultivate it for vegetables while WW1 is causing food shortages and there are some rather lovely passages about the enjoyment she gets from her work and solitude in it. This doesn't last long and before she has seen her work come to fruition her husband who has become very successful, moves them off to a much bigger house with a bigger garden, and a head gardener who knows his own mind about what is best. By this time, we are in the twenties and the children have become young adults and are very modern; Caroline struggles to understand them and they her. This was the part I enjoyed most and loved the interaction between Caroline and her children, particularly Lally, who is a young lady who knows her own mind and is determined and somewhat implacable when it comes to getting what she wants. The 1920s seemed to bring about the quickest social changes and must have left an older generation feeling bewildered by what was happening to 'the youth of today'.
Finally Caroline moves to a smaller house with a garden just for her. A very satisfying conclusion to a very enjoyable book. Look forward to more Margery Sharp novels.
September 13, 2014
Caroline - the heroine of 'Four Gardens' - would be of the same generation as my grandmother. My mother's mother that is; my mother's mother, that is. My father's mother was a good deal younger.
They were born when Queen Victoria was on the throne, near the end of her reign but not so near the end that they didn't remember her. Their values were formed by that age, and by the Edwardian era that followed, and after that they lived through Great War and the repercussions that reverberated through the twenties, the thirties ....
'Four Gardens' was published in the thirties, and I do hope that my grandmother read it. I loved it, and I am quite sure that she would have loved it too.
Caroline grew up in a country town, the daughter of the town grocer, and the daughter of a widowed mother. She grew up in a world where the social order was clear, and it worked well.
Caroline and her mother lived quietly and happily in the town, and so Caroline grew up to be quiet, thoughtful and accepting. Sometimes she wondered what life might hold for her, but she didn't go out and look for it, she just waited quietly for it to happen.
But Caroline did look for gardens. She gazed, rapt, into gardens when she and her mother went out for walks. Most of all she loved the wild, neglected garden of an abandoned manor house. In her seventeenth year she found a way into that garden, and she came to think of it as hers. She met a young man, who thought it was his, and that was her first brush with romance.
Caroline hoped that it would be her happy-ever-after, but it wasn't. He was from the common and she was from the town.
She mourned for a while, but she accepted that her dream would not come true.
Caroline makes a sensible marriage, to a man who, though he was not the love of the life, was a good man. She was content with her role, as a dutiful wife, a loving mother, and a thoughtful daughter. It was a nice, quiet, sensible life, and when adversity came down the values she had been raised with and her love for her family her gave her the strength she needed to prevail.
And her second garden, a very small garden where she grew vegetables, is where she finds solace.
Time brings changes, and her husband's success gives Caroline a new home; a big grand house on the common. It doesn't change her, but it does change her life. She learns to manage her household, and she finds that Lady Tregarthan, who she feared would be too grand for the likes of her, was a kindred spirit.
They become the best of friends.
Caroline loves the grounds and the gardens of her new home; but she regrets that the presence of a gardener means that it can never be truly hers.
When her children grow, when her husband dies she needs to find strength again; to set them on the right path, and to meet another change of circumstances.
Caroline's fourth home - and her fourth garden - give her the most happiness. Because she knows that she has played her part - as daughter, wife and mother - and because she found them, she made them, herself.
They where what her first garden had been, in her dreams.
I have to believe that Margery Sharp loved people; that sometimes they saddened her, sometimes they amused her; that maybe, like me, that there were so many people in the world and that they all had their own life stories that might be told.
She clearly loved and Caroline; she blessed her with a lovely inner voice and she gave her story exactly the right tone.
There's gentle wit, wry humour and acute observation in this story of a life well lived.
I wish I could find more words, but sometimes a book is simply so right that the words won't come.
Caroline's story ends in the thirties, but I could so easily believe that she was one of the elegant elderly ladies I remember my mother speaking with after church on Sundays when I was a very small girl. They would have been friends of my grandmother.
Now I'm wondering what their stories might have been ....
They were born when Queen Victoria was on the throne, near the end of her reign but not so near the end that they didn't remember her. Their values were formed by that age, and by the Edwardian era that followed, and after that they lived through Great War and the repercussions that reverberated through the twenties, the thirties ....
'Four Gardens' was published in the thirties, and I do hope that my grandmother read it. I loved it, and I am quite sure that she would have loved it too.
Caroline grew up in a country town, the daughter of the town grocer, and the daughter of a widowed mother. She grew up in a world where the social order was clear, and it worked well.
‘People on the Common ‘inhabited large detached houses, employed whole-time gardeners, and drove carriage and pair. People in the Town lived in streets, rows, and crescents, had the gardener half a day a week, and transported themselves on foot, in ‘buses, and occasionally on bicycles.’
Caroline and her mother lived quietly and happily in the town, and so Caroline grew up to be quiet, thoughtful and accepting. Sometimes she wondered what life might hold for her, but she didn't go out and look for it, she just waited quietly for it to happen.
But Caroline did look for gardens. She gazed, rapt, into gardens when she and her mother went out for walks. Most of all she loved the wild, neglected garden of an abandoned manor house. In her seventeenth year she found a way into that garden, and she came to think of it as hers. She met a young man, who thought it was his, and that was her first brush with romance.
Caroline hoped that it would be her happy-ever-after, but it wasn't. He was from the common and she was from the town.
"You shouldn't hate anyone, Carrie."
"Except the wicked," said Caroline promptly.
"But we don't know any wicked, dear," said Mrs. Chase
She mourned for a while, but she accepted that her dream would not come true.
Caroline makes a sensible marriage, to a man who, though he was not the love of the life, was a good man. She was content with her role, as a dutiful wife, a loving mother, and a thoughtful daughter. It was a nice, quiet, sensible life, and when adversity came down the values she had been raised with and her love for her family her gave her the strength she needed to prevail.
And her second garden, a very small garden where she grew vegetables, is where she finds solace.
Time brings changes, and her husband's success gives Caroline a new home; a big grand house on the common. It doesn't change her, but it does change her life. She learns to manage her household, and she finds that Lady Tregarthan, who she feared would be too grand for the likes of her, was a kindred spirit.
"I see you've been cleaning silver," said Lady Tregarthan loudly. "If I'd known I'd have come earlier and lent a hand."
"Well!" said Caroline, quite struck. "Do you like it too?"
"Love it," said Lady Tregarthan. "When I was a small child I used to be allowed, as a Saturday treat, to clean the tops of my mother's scent bottle. That is how we were brought up."
They become the best of friends.
Caroline loves the grounds and the gardens of her new home; but she regrets that the presence of a gardener means that it can never be truly hers.
When her children grow, when her husband dies she needs to find strength again; to set them on the right path, and to meet another change of circumstances.
Caroline's fourth home - and her fourth garden - give her the most happiness. Because she knows that she has played her part - as daughter, wife and mother - and because she found them, she made them, herself.
They where what her first garden had been, in her dreams.
I have to believe that Margery Sharp loved people; that sometimes they saddened her, sometimes they amused her; that maybe, like me, that there were so many people in the world and that they all had their own life stories that might be told.
She clearly loved and Caroline; she blessed her with a lovely inner voice and she gave her story exactly the right tone.
There's gentle wit, wry humour and acute observation in this story of a life well lived.
I wish I could find more words, but sometimes a book is simply so right that the words won't come.
Caroline's story ends in the thirties, but I could so easily believe that she was one of the elegant elderly ladies I remember my mother speaking with after church on Sundays when I was a very small girl. They would have been friends of my grandmother.
Now I'm wondering what their stories might have been ....
February 10, 2023
A seemingly simple story about the Smith family, but one that pulls you deeper and deeper into the novel the longer you read.
At first, I wasn’t sure if I was fully invested in either the characters or the premise itself. But, the more I read, the harder it was to put the book down.
It was wonderful following Caroline throughout her life (from childhood to middle age) and be introduced to the gardens she tended during those times.
I would have loved to have a few illustrations (perhaps one for each garden/life event) sprinkled throughout the book. What an excellent addition to the text that would have been!
I enjoyed this book much more than Cluny Brown. Even though I did like that book, it didn’t blow me away. Very happy to have read this along with a dear friend and I’m looking forward to trying another Margery Sharp book soon!
At first, I wasn’t sure if I was fully invested in either the characters or the premise itself. But, the more I read, the harder it was to put the book down.
It was wonderful following Caroline throughout her life (from childhood to middle age) and be introduced to the gardens she tended during those times.
I would have loved to have a few illustrations (perhaps one for each garden/life event) sprinkled throughout the book. What an excellent addition to the text that would have been!
I enjoyed this book much more than Cluny Brown. Even though I did like that book, it didn’t blow me away. Very happy to have read this along with a dear friend and I’m looking forward to trying another Margery Sharp book soon!
October 18, 2021
A gentle, perceptive story of an early 20th century life. First published in 1935.
January 29, 2023
I wavered on how to rate this novel, which goes to show how inadequate a star rating system is anyway. I found it slow moving compared to the other Margery Sharp novels I’ve read. It did have more of a melancholy about it and less sparkle than Cluny Brown, for example. However, the novel grew on me the further I read, especially the narrator Caroline Chase Smith. We follow Caroline from her late teenage years through her late 50s. She has an early romantic fling, marries a man of steady character, has two children, becomes a matron with a house and staff, and then, towards the very end, is widowed.
The narrative is structured around the four gardens that Caroline is involved with in her life and each garden says a lot about the stage of life she is in at the time. The first garden is at an abandoned manor house and it’s here she has a brief romance with the upper class Vincent, the passion of youth.
The second garden is in the Morton house she moves to when she marries Henry. For years the garden is neglected as Caroline raises her two children, but she begins to revive in when WWI is in full swing. The descriptions of Caroline’s wartime life are when I really started to feel engaged with the novel.
The third garden is one she is not allowed to work in after her husband makes a fortune in the war (selling boots to the army) and buys a small manor house in a new town. The gardener they hire is autocratic, so the garden becomes a backdrop for the drama of the story. This section of the book is bigger, and we learn all about Caroline the Matron with her tactful yet bewildered handling of her adult children, her delightful friendship with Lady Tregarthan, and her affectionate yet distant relationship with Henry.
The fourth garden is on a piece of roof in a furnished apartment she moves to after Henry dies and Caroline learns that she only has 4,000 pounds left. Henry’s business went bust but he literally told her nothing about his work for 30 years. (Odd for a modern reader.) I love that the rooftop garden can only be reached by stepping on an orange crate and crouching through a window and it begins with just six noble pink and white tulips. But the joy with which Caroline observes them is a beautiful end to the novel. This traditional British woman who has been wife and mother for years, not particularly smart (though clever in her own good hearted way) or sophisticated, has gained wisdom and a settledness in her own body and heart. It’s really lovely, and I marveled at how a 30 year old Margery Sharp could write aging so well.
I thought Margery Sharp also wrote beautifully about Caroline’s marriage with Henry. Both Caroline and Henry are shy, quiet, industrious, and unaffected. They are perhaps too much alike. Marianne Dashwood would be appalled at the seeming lack of a soulmate connection between them. And yet, there is a deep and quiet connection between Henry and Caroline that feels safe and sturdy. I found the scene between Caroline and Henry when Henry dies to be moving.
I think it would be easy to disparage this marriage as a modern reader. It’s very much the Man is the Head of the Household stuff, but I think doing so would miss something important about how the characters develop and about their strengths and weaknesses that are so subtly presented in the novel. In fact, I would call the novel very Jane Austenish and very Barbara Pym-ish. It is understated. Its plot is low key to the point of being slow. And yet it holds a beauty and subtlety and wisdom that emerge in reflection, that only reward the reader willing to enter into the story on its own terms.
The narrative is structured around the four gardens that Caroline is involved with in her life and each garden says a lot about the stage of life she is in at the time. The first garden is at an abandoned manor house and it’s here she has a brief romance with the upper class Vincent, the passion of youth.
The second garden is in the Morton house she moves to when she marries Henry. For years the garden is neglected as Caroline raises her two children, but she begins to revive in when WWI is in full swing. The descriptions of Caroline’s wartime life are when I really started to feel engaged with the novel.
The third garden is one she is not allowed to work in after her husband makes a fortune in the war (selling boots to the army) and buys a small manor house in a new town. The gardener they hire is autocratic, so the garden becomes a backdrop for the drama of the story. This section of the book is bigger, and we learn all about Caroline the Matron with her tactful yet bewildered handling of her adult children, her delightful friendship with Lady Tregarthan, and her affectionate yet distant relationship with Henry.
The fourth garden is on a piece of roof in a furnished apartment she moves to after Henry dies and Caroline learns that she only has 4,000 pounds left. Henry’s business went bust but he literally told her nothing about his work for 30 years. (Odd for a modern reader.) I love that the rooftop garden can only be reached by stepping on an orange crate and crouching through a window and it begins with just six noble pink and white tulips. But the joy with which Caroline observes them is a beautiful end to the novel. This traditional British woman who has been wife and mother for years, not particularly smart (though clever in her own good hearted way) or sophisticated, has gained wisdom and a settledness in her own body and heart. It’s really lovely, and I marveled at how a 30 year old Margery Sharp could write aging so well.
I thought Margery Sharp also wrote beautifully about Caroline’s marriage with Henry. Both Caroline and Henry are shy, quiet, industrious, and unaffected. They are perhaps too much alike. Marianne Dashwood would be appalled at the seeming lack of a soulmate connection between them. And yet, there is a deep and quiet connection between Henry and Caroline that feels safe and sturdy. I found the scene between Caroline and Henry when Henry dies to be moving.
I think it would be easy to disparage this marriage as a modern reader. It’s very much the Man is the Head of the Household stuff, but I think doing so would miss something important about how the characters develop and about their strengths and weaknesses that are so subtly presented in the novel. In fact, I would call the novel very Jane Austenish and very Barbara Pym-ish. It is understated. Its plot is low key to the point of being slow. And yet it holds a beauty and subtlety and wisdom that emerge in reflection, that only reward the reader willing to enter into the story on its own terms.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 29, 2024
This is the story of Clara, a lovable woman through the years of her life, from love's first Bloom to her widowhood. Each era of her life is connected to a garden. Though she doesn't like to garden overly much, it's just the representation a garden has for her. The story is beautiful. Clara is a lovely, beautiful, spirited woman who I fell in love with right away. Her marriage was not one of Love at first; it was a friendship that grew into love and soulmates, and the whole book was just beautiful. I loved it. Brittannia Mews is still my favorite by the author so far though.
January 4, 2015
As a portrait of a life, it's okay. As a portrait of a marriage, it's depressing.
Caroline looks back over her life and all the changes that have come to her. The first romance with an impossible man, the contented marriage to a sensible husband, the incomprehensible children who grow up in a strange era. She always does her duty, and she never expects to be exquisitely happy, but she considers her life good. To some degree this is fine, but the thing that mars the story is her emotionally distant husband. He's difficult to describe because Caroline finds him affectionate and considerate, but she NEVER, never knows quite what he's thinking. He builds up the family fortunes and moves them to a beautiful new home, but is only ever there to sleep and eat. The strange thing is, one feels that he genuinely loves his wife but he is so repressed that she never knows for sure. She seems okay with that, probably because of her ingrained view of a woman's role, but to a modern reader it's sad.
Partway through, the focus shifts to Caroline's troubles with her children, products of the 1920s and worlds away from her own sense of morality and rightness.
Entertainingly written but in the end disappointed my expectations.
Caroline looks back over her life and all the changes that have come to her. The first romance with an impossible man, the contented marriage to a sensible husband, the incomprehensible children who grow up in a strange era. She always does her duty, and she never expects to be exquisitely happy, but she considers her life good. To some degree this is fine, but the thing that mars the story is her emotionally distant husband. He's difficult to describe because Caroline finds him affectionate and considerate, but she NEVER, never knows quite what he's thinking. He builds up the family fortunes and moves them to a beautiful new home, but is only ever there to sleep and eat. The strange thing is, one feels that he genuinely loves his wife but he is so repressed that she never knows for sure. She seems okay with that, probably because of her ingrained view of a woman's role, but to a modern reader it's sad.
Partway through, the focus shifts to Caroline's troubles with her children, products of the 1920s and worlds away from her own sense of morality and rightness.
Entertainingly written but in the end disappointed my expectations.
November 23, 2022
Before I begin my review of this novel, I'd like to share a sentence of particular beauty, which I've extracted from the introduction. It relates to Margery Sharp's second home, in which she and her husband, Geoffrey Sharp, took residence in from the early 1950's. It was Observatory Cottage, on Crag Path, Aldeburgh. "The writer Ronald Blythe later reminisced, 'I would glance up at its little balcony late of an evening, and there she would be, elegant with her husband Major Castle and a glass of wine beside her, playing chess to the roar of the North Sea, framed in lamplight, secure in her publishers.' What a beautiful ode to a beautiful writer from a beautiful man.
The novel begins with Caroline Maud taking a walk to a dilapidated house in ruins but with the inherent markings of a beautiful garden. For this is the theme of this book: gardens. It is there that she meets Henry Macbeth, an aristocratic young man, far above her station in life: she is the granddaughter of a deceased shopkeeper.
Sharp's greatest talent thus far is her acute portrayal and sharp lines of continual elegant and sophisticated sentences outlining the seriousness and air in which the characters of this town of Morton, attune their social noses. "In the young man's face a light of comprehension was beginning to kindle. He looked at Caroline again, and noticed something vaguely wrong in the cut of her jacket. It didn't fit. He had seen her first, he now remembered, without a hat; and the broad oval of her face, with its candid and open brows, the hard black straw was hopelessly incongruous."
A sentence shortly thereafter which I truly enjoyed, was this: "He had a sister who played the violin and practiced three hours a day, but he, Vincent, while hardly practicing at all, played better than his sister. He told her this not out of conceit, but to impress on Caroline's mind the fact that in Art no mere industry, however close, can compensate for one flicker of the Divine Spark." I find this exceptionally beautiful & illuminating, because it is here that Sharp fully releases the aristocratic bird from any of the confines that this girl, Caroline of lower middle class attitudes may be harbouring. A gift of gallantry he offers her at no cost to himself or his standards. Quite the Peter Pan.
Sharp, up until halfway through, has written an enveloping novel evoking a subtle sense of beauty, calmness and pragmatism. She imparts sensibility, but not at the cost of romanticism.
What let it down were her descriptions of the war years, and this section of the novel started to pale in comparison to the first quarter. She didn't give enough voice to the children, Leon & Lily. I thought that her character descriptions of them were sketchy.
As for Caroline herself, I found her character boring and annoying. Far from any traces at all of obstinacy, she completely acquiesced to her husband in every way. Too robotic for me to assume any depth of character besides a common sense, practical symbol for the housewife of the early 1900's. And this in itself distracted me from the story which was unfolding.
I haven't finished this novel. After halfway through I just couldn't spend anymore time with it. The plot waned and I was so looking forward to more of the delicious writings that she served at the very beginning.
I do think that Margery Sharp is an excellent writer generally. I haven't enjoyed all that she has written, but what I have enjoyed was time very well spent. I've much left to read in her oeuvre, and I look forward to that with much anticipation.
I have found it difficult to put a star rating to this one. But I'm offering 1.5 stars, for although I could not continue with it, the beginning was absolutely stupendous.
The novel begins with Caroline Maud taking a walk to a dilapidated house in ruins but with the inherent markings of a beautiful garden. For this is the theme of this book: gardens. It is there that she meets Henry Macbeth, an aristocratic young man, far above her station in life: she is the granddaughter of a deceased shopkeeper.
Sharp's greatest talent thus far is her acute portrayal and sharp lines of continual elegant and sophisticated sentences outlining the seriousness and air in which the characters of this town of Morton, attune their social noses. "In the young man's face a light of comprehension was beginning to kindle. He looked at Caroline again, and noticed something vaguely wrong in the cut of her jacket. It didn't fit. He had seen her first, he now remembered, without a hat; and the broad oval of her face, with its candid and open brows, the hard black straw was hopelessly incongruous."
A sentence shortly thereafter which I truly enjoyed, was this: "He had a sister who played the violin and practiced three hours a day, but he, Vincent, while hardly practicing at all, played better than his sister. He told her this not out of conceit, but to impress on Caroline's mind the fact that in Art no mere industry, however close, can compensate for one flicker of the Divine Spark." I find this exceptionally beautiful & illuminating, because it is here that Sharp fully releases the aristocratic bird from any of the confines that this girl, Caroline of lower middle class attitudes may be harbouring. A gift of gallantry he offers her at no cost to himself or his standards. Quite the Peter Pan.
Sharp, up until halfway through, has written an enveloping novel evoking a subtle sense of beauty, calmness and pragmatism. She imparts sensibility, but not at the cost of romanticism.
What let it down were her descriptions of the war years, and this section of the novel started to pale in comparison to the first quarter. She didn't give enough voice to the children, Leon & Lily. I thought that her character descriptions of them were sketchy.
As for Caroline herself, I found her character boring and annoying. Far from any traces at all of obstinacy, she completely acquiesced to her husband in every way. Too robotic for me to assume any depth of character besides a common sense, practical symbol for the housewife of the early 1900's. And this in itself distracted me from the story which was unfolding.
I haven't finished this novel. After halfway through I just couldn't spend anymore time with it. The plot waned and I was so looking forward to more of the delicious writings that she served at the very beginning.
I do think that Margery Sharp is an excellent writer generally. I haven't enjoyed all that she has written, but what I have enjoyed was time very well spent. I've much left to read in her oeuvre, and I look forward to that with much anticipation.
I have found it difficult to put a star rating to this one. But I'm offering 1.5 stars, for although I could not continue with it, the beginning was absolutely stupendous.
May 20, 2022
This is a book after my own heart. Ostensibly, this is a story of a woman's life told through four gardens. But I spent a good swath of it wondering where the gardens were!
And that is part of the genius of it, isn't it? When Caroline had a young family and news of WWI was driving everyone to distraction, her passion for gardening had to be back-burnered. And later, societal expectations also kind of pushed her out of the garden. For many reasons, I feel like this book would not be out of place in a literature classroom. But look at the number of reviews -- no one knows about it! And it is packaged as a bit of a lightweight romance.
Also, I really appreciated how this book depicted WWI. Just from the home front. An average woman's daily life engagement with that kind of current event. There was mention of panic buying near the start of the war which seemed so apt and familiar given what we have seen around the world in recent years.
Anyway, loved this.
And that is part of the genius of it, isn't it? When Caroline had a young family and news of WWI was driving everyone to distraction, her passion for gardening had to be back-burnered. And later, societal expectations also kind of pushed her out of the garden. For many reasons, I feel like this book would not be out of place in a literature classroom. But look at the number of reviews -- no one knows about it! And it is packaged as a bit of a lightweight romance.
Also, I really appreciated how this book depicted WWI. Just from the home front. An average woman's daily life engagement with that kind of current event. There was mention of panic buying near the start of the war which seemed so apt and familiar given what we have seen around the world in recent years.
Anyway, loved this.
March 16, 2015
Margery Sharp has written another gentle and meandering story filled with humor, wit and intelligence. Her novel reflects real life, with all of its little heartaches and triumphs, as well as its mundane occurrences.
I smiled to read the advice given to a young newlywed by the elderly Mr. Partridge - “Never keep a man waiting for his food.” This was sage advice in 1935 when this novel was first published, and still holds true today. My husband would firmly attest to this fact! :)
I smiled to read the advice given to a young newlywed by the elderly Mr. Partridge - “Never keep a man waiting for his food.” This was sage advice in 1935 when this novel was first published, and still holds true today. My husband would firmly attest to this fact! :)
September 29, 2021
I was once watching the movie Tender Mercies and a coworker came by and said " oh, that movie about nothing." I loved that movie and I loved this book. Any other author would have written about Lal but Margery wrote a compelling story about a plain woman with a rich interior world. Well done Ms. Sharp.
April 5, 2023
Pleasant story about a woman who could have been a very good friend of mine.
June 21, 2012
In the early years of the 20th Century, Caroline Smith lives the quiet life of a dutiful middle class daughter with her widowed mother. Walks on the Common, occasional tea parties and church bazaars, helping with the housekeeping and pursuing quiet amusements; such is her life. Occasionally Caroline muses about her place in the world, and wistfully thinks of what her future may hold, but all in all she is of an accepting nature.
Caroline’s one weakness is gardens; on her strolls with her mother she peers through gates and quietly and deeply absorbs what she sees. We pick up Caroline’s story during her seventeenth year, as she takes possession of her first garden; the abandoned wilderness of an empty estate house. Caroline finds a secret way in, and there in the garden she has her first innocent encounter with romance.
Time moves on, and that first garden is lost to Caroline, but after some secret mourning she accepts it as something that must be. She marries a good (though not romantic) man, has two children, and does her duty in all of her relationships even though they are not always what she’d hoped for. The second garden, very different from the first, is a balm to Caroline’s sometimes troubled soul, and is the backdrop of her early wifehood and motherhood, darkly overshadowed by the Great War.
Circumstances change for the better; Caroline is presented with a chance at a new life and a rise in her social position; she gracefully takes it all in stride, though she quietly remains the same thoughtful, uncomplaining soul. Her third garden is one in which a didactic gardener holds sway; Caroline secretly mourns her new distance from physical contact and a real relationship with the plants and the soil, but she does the correct thing as always and goes forward into this newer, more luxurious world as staunchly as she faced adversity in her younger days.
The fourth garden is the one Caroline creates for herself when her situation again changes; though the smallest and most makeshift, it is perhaps the most satisfying. Life has come full circle, and there is a strong sense of the fitness of things.
This is a gentle but not sentimental book; Margery Sharp keeps it crisp and interesting by allowing us to hear the ongoing commentary of Caroline’s innermost thoughts. Though I continually call Caroline gentle and accepting (and rightly so), she is also keenly perceptive of both her own and others’ motivations and reactions; her inner voice is wry and quietly witty. We are therefore thoroughly on her side as she copes with difficult social situations, troublesome relationships, a well-meaning but emotionally distant husband, and confusingly complex and progressively minded (but by-and-large loving) children.
Not as full of parody as some of Margery Sharp’s works, Four Gardens is a touch more serious and thought-provoking. Beautifully written; often very funny; occasionally very poignant. By the end, the story has become something of a celebration of the quiet satisfaction of dealing well with the not always exciting commonplace life one is dealt by fate, keeping one’s head up, and carrying on.
Very highly recommended.
Caroline’s one weakness is gardens; on her strolls with her mother she peers through gates and quietly and deeply absorbs what she sees. We pick up Caroline’s story during her seventeenth year, as she takes possession of her first garden; the abandoned wilderness of an empty estate house. Caroline finds a secret way in, and there in the garden she has her first innocent encounter with romance.
Time moves on, and that first garden is lost to Caroline, but after some secret mourning she accepts it as something that must be. She marries a good (though not romantic) man, has two children, and does her duty in all of her relationships even though they are not always what she’d hoped for. The second garden, very different from the first, is a balm to Caroline’s sometimes troubled soul, and is the backdrop of her early wifehood and motherhood, darkly overshadowed by the Great War.
Circumstances change for the better; Caroline is presented with a chance at a new life and a rise in her social position; she gracefully takes it all in stride, though she quietly remains the same thoughtful, uncomplaining soul. Her third garden is one in which a didactic gardener holds sway; Caroline secretly mourns her new distance from physical contact and a real relationship with the plants and the soil, but she does the correct thing as always and goes forward into this newer, more luxurious world as staunchly as she faced adversity in her younger days.
The fourth garden is the one Caroline creates for herself when her situation again changes; though the smallest and most makeshift, it is perhaps the most satisfying. Life has come full circle, and there is a strong sense of the fitness of things.
This is a gentle but not sentimental book; Margery Sharp keeps it crisp and interesting by allowing us to hear the ongoing commentary of Caroline’s innermost thoughts. Though I continually call Caroline gentle and accepting (and rightly so), she is also keenly perceptive of both her own and others’ motivations and reactions; her inner voice is wry and quietly witty. We are therefore thoroughly on her side as she copes with difficult social situations, troublesome relationships, a well-meaning but emotionally distant husband, and confusingly complex and progressively minded (but by-and-large loving) children.
Not as full of parody as some of Margery Sharp’s works, Four Gardens is a touch more serious and thought-provoking. Beautifully written; often very funny; occasionally very poignant. By the end, the story has become something of a celebration of the quiet satisfaction of dealing well with the not always exciting commonplace life one is dealt by fate, keeping one’s head up, and carrying on.
Very highly recommended.
July 17, 2023
4-1/2 Stars
Four Gardens follows one woman, Caroline, through four different phases of her life and the gardens in each.
I liked the quiet reflectiveness of the book and how we got to see Caroline grow and mature over the course of the book. I wished she thought more of herself and her intelligence but I was so glad at the end when she got to have her little rooftop garden all to herself.
I think the lives of wives and mothers can often feel exactly like Caroline’s. Especially during this time period when there weren’t a lot of options for women outside the home. And while I did wish for Caroline to be less passive at times, that would have been out of character for her and the way she was raised. And I think Henry’s passivity towards his family was so much worse. At least Caroline was doing her best to try to be a good mother for her children. But then I think Henry was also a product of the times as well when men were supposed to leave domestic duties to their wives.
I will say that I was expecting there to be more about the gardens given the title! But then I thought what an excellent way to showcase how a woman’s life is often only her own to do as she pleases at the beginning and end of her life. The middle is taken up with caring for others and always being something to someone else with often there being no time for yourself and your own pleasures, such as gardening.
I really enjoyed this one and I’m glad it has spurred me on to read more by Margery Sharp.
Four Gardens follows one woman, Caroline, through four different phases of her life and the gardens in each.
I liked the quiet reflectiveness of the book and how we got to see Caroline grow and mature over the course of the book. I wished she thought more of herself and her intelligence but I was so glad at the end when she got to have her little rooftop garden all to herself.
I think the lives of wives and mothers can often feel exactly like Caroline’s. Especially during this time period when there weren’t a lot of options for women outside the home. And while I did wish for Caroline to be less passive at times, that would have been out of character for her and the way she was raised. And I think Henry’s passivity towards his family was so much worse. At least Caroline was doing her best to try to be a good mother for her children. But then I think Henry was also a product of the times as well when men were supposed to leave domestic duties to their wives.
I will say that I was expecting there to be more about the gardens given the title! But then I thought what an excellent way to showcase how a woman’s life is often only her own to do as she pleases at the beginning and end of her life. The middle is taken up with caring for others and always being something to someone else with often there being no time for yourself and your own pleasures, such as gardening.
I really enjoyed this one and I’m glad it has spurred me on to read more by Margery Sharp.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 26, 2022
This novel follows Caroline through her girlhood at the end of the 19th century to her late middle age in the 1930s by roughly using the four gardens that feature in her life. The first is a dream garden really, that of an abandoned mansion in her home town which sparks her curiosity and leads her to her first love and first heartbreak. The second is her kitchen garden during WWI which she plants as part of the victory effort. The third is a large and grand garden, the fruit of her husband’s industry but also sterile in that she is not allowed to actually work in it. The final garden is a container garden on a small, makeshift balcony but it is perhaps the best of all four since it is one she is allowed to truly tend and cultivate as she desires.
This was a sweet, occasionally bittersweet, and gentle novel. There is the barest perception of a feminist thread throughout. Caroline never questions the gender roles she or those around her play, but as written by Sharp, the reader certainly does.
This was a sweet, occasionally bittersweet, and gentle novel. There is the barest perception of a feminist thread throughout. Caroline never questions the gender roles she or those around her play, but as written by Sharp, the reader certainly does.
June 25, 2022
We meet Caroline Smith as a middle aged woman, celebrating her 51st birthday. She is the mother of two grown children who treat her as though she is somewhat vague and weak minded. Her husband, Henry, has taken care of her and the family. They have risen from a middle class economy to the owner of a boot manufacturing business and a manor in town. Caroline has spent her life in service of her family and community, smoothing troubled waters, interpreting between the children and their father, loving them all.
You would think a book titled Four Gardens would have more to do with actual gardening. The gardens represent different, pivotal times in Caroline's life. There is the one she doesn't own, the one she doesn't have time for, the one she isn't allowed to work in and, finally, the one that is hers. These stages of life are filled in through our story.
I loved this book. It has caused me to reflect on the stages of my life too.
You would think a book titled Four Gardens would have more to do with actual gardening. The gardens represent different, pivotal times in Caroline's life. There is the one she doesn't own, the one she doesn't have time for, the one she isn't allowed to work in and, finally, the one that is hers. These stages of life are filled in through our story.
I loved this book. It has caused me to reflect on the stages of my life too.
September 1, 2022
This one is slow-moving, and I didn't much care for any of the characters, especially Caroline's snotty, aloof children. (Lal is a total pill.) What happened to Vincent, her first love? And the titular "gardens" hardly feature at all in this story; it's almost exclusively about the plodding Caroline's relationships with her family and neighbours. In all, rather a disappointment.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 12, 2021
4.5 stars
June 2, 2021
Not great but pretty good. I enjoyed myself while reading it.
March 15, 2022
Around 3.5 stars. An utterly pleasant, soothing read--Sharp's wit is always gentle and rarely, well, too sharp. There are some notions of marriage that one must get around for a book set in the 1920s, but there are also subtle ways in which Sharp draws attention to gender roles and class. The epitaph Sharp chose for the book comes from Jane Austen: "Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery". It is apt. The only reason I'm not rating it higher is because it's unlikely to leave much of an effect on me. But it's the perfect cure for the sadness and misery of present-day doomscrolling; an ideal comfort read.
December 18, 2024
One of Sharp's most perceptive regarding families and upward mobility in post WW1 England.
February 22, 2022
Maybe 3.5 stars
June 21, 2012
In the early years of the 20th Century, Caroline Smith lives the quiet life of a dutiful middle class daughter with her widowed mother. Walks on the Common, occasional tea parties and church bazaars, helping with the housekeeping and pursuing quiet amusements; such is her life. Occasionally Caroline muses about her place in the world, and wistfully thinks of what her future may hold, but all in all she is of an accepting nature.
Caroline’s one weakness is gardens; on her strolls with her mother she peers through gates and quietly and deeply absorbs what she sees. We pick up Caroline’s story during her seventeenth year, as she takes possession of her first garden; the abandoned wilderness of an empty estate house. Caroline finds a secret way in, and there in the garden she has her first innocent encounter with romance.
Time moves on, and that first garden is lost to Caroline, but after some secret mourning she accepts it as something that must be. She marries a good (though not romantic) man, has two children, and does her duty in all of her relationships even though they are not always what she’d hoped for. The second garden, very different from the first, is a balm to Caroline’s sometimes troubled soul, and is the backdrop of her early wifehood and motherhood, darkly overshadowed by the Great War.
Circumstances change for the better; Caroline is presented with a chance at a new life and a rise in her social position; she gracefully takes it all in stride, though she quietly remains the same thoughtful, uncomplaining soul. Her third garden is one in which a didactic gardener holds sway; Caroline secretly mourns her new distance from physical contact and a real relationship with the plants and the soil, but she does the correct thing as always and goes forward into this newer, more luxurious world as staunchly as she faced adversity in her younger days.
The fourth garden is the one Caroline creates for herself when her situation again changes; though the smallest and most makeshift, it is perhaps the most satisfying. Life has come full circle, and there is a strong sense of the fitness of things.
This is a gentle but not sentimental book; Margery Sharp keeps it crisp and interesting by allowing us to hear the ongoing commentary of Caroline’s innermost thoughts. Though I continually call Caroline gentle and accepting (and rightly so), she is also keenly perceptive of both her own and others’ motivations and reactions; her inner voice is wry and quietly witty. We are therefore thoroughly on her side as she copes with difficult social situations, troublesome relationships, a well-meaning but emotionally distant husband, and confusingly complex and progressively minded (but by-and-large loving) children.
Not as full of parody as some of Margery Sharp’s works, Four Gardens is a touch more serious and thought-provoking. Beautifully written; often very funny; occasionally very poignant. By the end, the story has become something of a celebration of the quiet satisfaction of dealing well with the not always exciting commonplace life one is dealt by fate, keeping one’s head up, and carrying on.
Very highly recommended.
Caroline’s one weakness is gardens; on her strolls with her mother she peers through gates and quietly and deeply absorbs what she sees. We pick up Caroline’s story during her seventeenth year, as she takes possession of her first garden; the abandoned wilderness of an empty estate house. Caroline finds a secret way in, and there in the garden she has her first innocent encounter with romance.
Time moves on, and that first garden is lost to Caroline, but after some secret mourning she accepts it as something that must be. She marries a good (though not romantic) man, has two children, and does her duty in all of her relationships even though they are not always what she’d hoped for. The second garden, very different from the first, is a balm to Caroline’s sometimes troubled soul, and is the backdrop of her early wifehood and motherhood, darkly overshadowed by the Great War.
Circumstances change for the better; Caroline is presented with a chance at a new life and a rise in her social position; she gracefully takes it all in stride, though she quietly remains the same thoughtful, uncomplaining soul. Her third garden is one in which a didactic gardener holds sway; Caroline secretly mourns her new distance from physical contact and a real relationship with the plants and the soil, but she does the correct thing as always and goes forward into this newer, more luxurious world as staunchly as she faced adversity in her younger days.
The fourth garden is the one Caroline creates for herself when her situation again changes; though the smallest and most makeshift, it is perhaps the most satisfying. Life has come full circle, and there is a strong sense of the fitness of things.
This is a gentle but not sentimental book; Margery Sharp keeps it crisp and interesting by allowing us to hear the ongoing commentary of Caroline’s innermost thoughts. Though I continually call Caroline gentle and accepting (and rightly so), she is also keenly perceptive of both her own and others’ motivations and reactions; her inner voice is wry and quietly witty. We are therefore thoroughly on her side as she copes with difficult social situations, troublesome relationships, a well-meaning but emotionally distant husband, and confusingly complex and progressively minded (but by-and-large loving) children.
Not as full of parody as some of Margery Sharp’s works, Four Gardens is a touch more serious and thought-provoking. Beautifully written; often very funny; occasionally very poignant. By the end, the story has become something of a celebration of the quiet satisfaction of dealing well with the not always exciting commonplace life one is dealt by fate, keeping one’s head up, and carrying on.
Very highly recommended.
July 10, 2022
Quietly charming. The novel follows the uneventful life of a modest but dignified woman called Caroline. Born a grocer's grand-daughter, Caroline knows very well that she belongs to the Town and not to the Common, where the gentry live. So when she meets Vincent in the dilapidated grounds of a massive property on the Common, she knows the idyll won't lead anywhere, and is not particularly disappointed when he drops her after catching a glimpse of her mother and cousin. A few years later, Caroline accepts to marry Henry Smith, the ambitious and tongue-tied foreman of the local shoe factory. Although she is not in love with him at the time, she is determined to be a good wife to him, and fulfill her end of the bargain to the letter. In fact, she slowly falls in love with him, bears him 2 children, Leonard and Lily, and makes him very happy. Or does she? Henry remains so clam-like that only occasionally does he confirm by words or gestures that their marriage means more to him than his job. Henry sees WWI as a golden opportunity to expand into production of Army boots, and his success in this line makes him a wealthy man, at the expense of his reputation in Morton, where many married men of his generation choose to enlist. After the war, Henry moves his family to Friar's End, a mansion in which Caroline, almost against her will, leads the kind of life she would have had if Vincent had married her. Thankfully, Lady Tregarthan, the widow of the local baronet, takes her under her wing. In the second half of the novel we see Caroline dealing with the problems caused by her grown-up children, who, as children do, mildly rebel against the life-style and values handed down by their parents. Much to Caroline's distress, Lily falls in love with Gilbert Chalmers, a married painter who leads a Bohemian life more out of laziness than out of conviction. In the end, however, nothing comes of the relationship, but unexpectedly another blow shatters her peaceful world: Henry dies of a heart-attack, leaving her almost penniless after many setbacks in his business. Lily marries a medical doctor, and at the eleventh hour Caroline is able to retain her independence thanks to a forgotten legacy from a man she met on her honeymoon in Bournemouth. This simple tale is told with a great deal of pawky wisdom. The only thing I would warn prospective readers about is that the "4 gardens" of the title are more metaphorical than real. But if gardening enthusiasts had better stick to Elizabeth von Arnim, there are similarities between the 2 authors and Sharp deserves to take her place alongside her predecessor.
May 20, 2022
Witty and will not read again
This book had me heavily invested in Caroline's story. We follow her whole life, from girlhood to widow. The middle of the book focused heavily on the interaction between her and her daughter Lal, I really disliked Lal. Somehow her story turned out ok, but she didn't have a saving grace, no moment of humility or real understanding for her mother, she really annoyed me.
So interesting of course to see how generations change; 'children in my day would never' type of thing, but the loose lifestyles of Leon and Lal made this a would not read again for me.
And the ending was unsatisfactory for me, I was waiting for it to come full circle, meeting again with Vincent perhaps, and it did come full circle but ended with Ellen Watts!!!
The more I think about it, we didn't need Vincent, and this book really showed what a typical life might be like for a typical woman. Some parts are just not 'like the books' and that's ok.
The only person, I think, who was a true friend to Caroline was Lady Tregarthan. Vincent showed her adoration, but mostly wanted to talk at her, Henry loved her and wanted to look after her, but never talked to her, and her children, hopeless!
Yet in someway it showed genuine human interaction... Your first falling hopelessly in love is generally shallow and unrealistic, the marriage with Henry was based on true respect, and both did try to do their best for each other in their own way. I did hate what Caroline described as a wall between them that meant they never really got to hear each other's thoughts, or discuss things. And her children, Caroline really lived them and thought they were amazing, but despite their real affection for her, they looked down on her and ridiculed her. I understand that Caroline was utterly spineless most of the time, and that didn't help her children turn out well, but they just weren't considerate enough to try and be nice t their mother at times. I really hated that.
So I do have mixed feelings. But I loved Carrie, and enjoyed reading her whole story.
This book had me heavily invested in Caroline's story. We follow her whole life, from girlhood to widow. The middle of the book focused heavily on the interaction between her and her daughter Lal, I really disliked Lal. Somehow her story turned out ok, but she didn't have a saving grace, no moment of humility or real understanding for her mother, she really annoyed me.
So interesting of course to see how generations change; 'children in my day would never' type of thing, but the loose lifestyles of Leon and Lal made this a would not read again for me.
And the ending was unsatisfactory for me, I was waiting for it to come full circle, meeting again with Vincent perhaps, and it did come full circle but ended with Ellen Watts!!!
The more I think about it, we didn't need Vincent, and this book really showed what a typical life might be like for a typical woman. Some parts are just not 'like the books' and that's ok.
The only person, I think, who was a true friend to Caroline was Lady Tregarthan. Vincent showed her adoration, but mostly wanted to talk at her, Henry loved her and wanted to look after her, but never talked to her, and her children, hopeless!
Yet in someway it showed genuine human interaction... Your first falling hopelessly in love is generally shallow and unrealistic, the marriage with Henry was based on true respect, and both did try to do their best for each other in their own way. I did hate what Caroline described as a wall between them that meant they never really got to hear each other's thoughts, or discuss things. And her children, Caroline really lived them and thought they were amazing, but despite their real affection for her, they looked down on her and ridiculed her. I understand that Caroline was utterly spineless most of the time, and that didn't help her children turn out well, but they just weren't considerate enough to try and be nice t their mother at times. I really hated that.
So I do have mixed feelings. But I loved Carrie, and enjoyed reading her whole story.
April 15, 2021
Barbara Pym must have learned her craft at the feet of Margery Sharp: the two are masters of gentle portraits of aging women of a certain class. Well brought up but by no means educated, Carrie Smith's solid understanding of her world sees her through a broken romance, a contented if not passionate marriage, and a modest, happy widowhood. Her highest value is duty to her family; her greatest pleasure, the gardens she unexpectedly takes on. She may not linger in memory as a great heroine, but Carrie is an engaging and most like-able protagonist.
September 30, 2023
To me this seemed a deviation from Sharp’s humorous style of books. And it was a refreshing change. It was a bit sad at times, serious at times ( The book sort of dragged in the last 1/3 of the book although I wanted to know how things turned out ...so I wouldn’t count that as a huge negative. Overall, I liked this book a lot. One of those books where I was immersed in her characters’ lives.
I wish in a way there was a more pointed emphasis on her four gardens. There was such an emphasis in the first part and perhaps the last part, but the last part was short. There was mention of her gardens in the second and third parts but not very much.
• Here’s a synopsis of the story line taken from the back cover of my Dean Street Press/Furrowed Middlebrow reissue (2021, book originally published in 1935):
In ‘Four Gardens’, the most emotional and nostalgic of Margery Sharp’s brilliant novels, we meet the lovely Caroline Smith (nee Chase) and glimpse the stages of her life through the garden in which she digs. There’s the lavish abandoned one in which she has no right to dig; the tiny one in which she has no time to dig; the extravagant one, complete with stubborn gardener, in which she’s not allowed to dig; and one final garden, hers and hers alone, in which she finds quiet, wise contentment. As we follow Caroline through the vicissitudes of life, we meet her adoring husband Henry, her shockingly modern children Leon and Lily, and friends and neighbours from the self-righteous Ellen Taylor to the posh but hilariously down-to-earth Lady Tregarthan.
Here’s a snippet from the book that was sad but true at that time (and maybe still is today, but overall women in some countries have more of a choice and freedom to do something about it if things go awry....). She in her early twenties was thinking this when she was contemplating marriage:
• If a good man fell in love with her, she was lucky for life. If no man at all or a man who made a bad husband, her luck was out. There was nothing to be done about it: on that one accident depended every female’s life.
Reviews:
• Very nicely written review and the blogger includes a review from the New York Times Saturday Review of Books from 1936! ... https://leavesandpages.com/2012/06/20...
• https://fleurinherworld.com/2014/09/1...
• Good review but which gives too much away, so if you want to read the book read this afterwards... https://margerysharp.wordpress.com/20...
I wish in a way there was a more pointed emphasis on her four gardens. There was such an emphasis in the first part and perhaps the last part, but the last part was short. There was mention of her gardens in the second and third parts but not very much.
• Here’s a synopsis of the story line taken from the back cover of my Dean Street Press/Furrowed Middlebrow reissue (2021, book originally published in 1935):
In ‘Four Gardens’, the most emotional and nostalgic of Margery Sharp’s brilliant novels, we meet the lovely Caroline Smith (nee Chase) and glimpse the stages of her life through the garden in which she digs. There’s the lavish abandoned one in which she has no right to dig; the tiny one in which she has no time to dig; the extravagant one, complete with stubborn gardener, in which she’s not allowed to dig; and one final garden, hers and hers alone, in which she finds quiet, wise contentment. As we follow Caroline through the vicissitudes of life, we meet her adoring husband Henry, her shockingly modern children Leon and Lily, and friends and neighbours from the self-righteous Ellen Taylor to the posh but hilariously down-to-earth Lady Tregarthan.
Here’s a snippet from the book that was sad but true at that time (and maybe still is today, but overall women in some countries have more of a choice and freedom to do something about it if things go awry....). She in her early twenties was thinking this when she was contemplating marriage:
• If a good man fell in love with her, she was lucky for life. If no man at all or a man who made a bad husband, her luck was out. There was nothing to be done about it: on that one accident depended every female’s life.
Reviews:
• Very nicely written review and the blogger includes a review from the New York Times Saturday Review of Books from 1936! ... https://leavesandpages.com/2012/06/20...
• https://fleurinherworld.com/2014/09/1...
• Good review but which gives too much away, so if you want to read the book read this afterwards... https://margerysharp.wordpress.com/20...
May 29, 2023
I absolutely adored this lovely story about the life of Caroline Smith but have been struggling with writing a review, only because it seems a disservice or damning with faint praise to describe such a good piece of writing as "quiet, gentle and sensible"! Four Gardens is all of these things and all the better for it. Margery Sharp's writing captures the essence of a young woman at the start of the 20th century navigating her way through love and life - sometimes unsure of herself and whether she is making the "right" decisions, but keeping calm and carrying on...
The four gardens of the title act as the backdrop to the different stages of Caroline's life: the first garden is her youth and first love (I was captivated by The Secret Garden feel to these chapters), where she starts to blossom as a young woman. The second and third gardens see her through married life, firstly in a modest family home before her husband Henry's career progressions enable them and their two young children to move into a fine manor house - the gardens like Caroline becoming more established. Caroline's final garden is the terrace she fills with pot plants and sunshine in the pied-à-terre she takes after her husband dies and her children have left home to pursue their own loves and lives.
I would say this is more of a character novel than one driven by plot, because on the whole not much really happens as a narrative - it's the characters that make this novel so charming. I liked the similarities between Caroline and Mr Pooter (Diary of a Nobody) being utterly baffled by their children's modern attitudes, their use of slang and holding outlooks on life that are so different to their parents'. I've read other reviews that compare Margery Sharp's writing as similar to Jane Austen's and I think I understand why - Sharp is clear-eyed in her observations of people but her pen is never cruel in capturing them (although The Whiner cousins are hilarious!).
A cosy comfort of a book and one I shall return to in the future when in need of a calm but happy book to lift the spirits.
The four gardens of the title act as the backdrop to the different stages of Caroline's life: the first garden is her youth and first love (I was captivated by The Secret Garden feel to these chapters), where she starts to blossom as a young woman. The second and third gardens see her through married life, firstly in a modest family home before her husband Henry's career progressions enable them and their two young children to move into a fine manor house - the gardens like Caroline becoming more established. Caroline's final garden is the terrace she fills with pot plants and sunshine in the pied-à-terre she takes after her husband dies and her children have left home to pursue their own loves and lives.
I would say this is more of a character novel than one driven by plot, because on the whole not much really happens as a narrative - it's the characters that make this novel so charming. I liked the similarities between Caroline and Mr Pooter (Diary of a Nobody) being utterly baffled by their children's modern attitudes, their use of slang and holding outlooks on life that are so different to their parents'. I've read other reviews that compare Margery Sharp's writing as similar to Jane Austen's and I think I understand why - Sharp is clear-eyed in her observations of people but her pen is never cruel in capturing them (although The Whiner cousins are hilarious!).
A cosy comfort of a book and one I shall return to in the future when in need of a calm but happy book to lift the spirits.
July 10, 2021
Bit of a hidden gem. Sharp's characterisation is masterly and so realistic and, although I found the love plot with the younger generation a bit unconvincing, Caroline's relationships with her children were brilliantly drawn.
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