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Summer 1924. On the eve of a glittering Society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again. Winter 1999. Grace Bradley, 98, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poets suicide. Ghosts awaken and memories, long consigned to the dark reaches of Graces mind, begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking secret threatens to emerge something history has forgotten but Grace never could.… (més)
kitzyl: There is a passage in The Shifting Fog which describes the relationship between Hannah and Emmeline as a "string that bends, it will eventually snap and the points will separate; if elastic, they will continue to part, further and further, until the strain reaches its limits and they are pulled back with such speed that they cannot help but collide with devastating force." In The Dark-Adapted Eye, the sisters are Vera and Eden whose inexplicably interdependent-but-destructive relationship embody the aforementioned elastic string. The story is told from the perspective of their niece who accompanies the reader on the events leading up to the devastation.… (més)
This is another gently moving, atmospheric novel by award-winning Australian author Kate Morton. It shifts between the 1920s and 1999 in England and has elements of gothic fiction, romance, mystery and historical fiction.
Ursula, a film-maker, visits 98 year-old Grace to see what she remembers about her time spent with the Hartford family, as a house-servant and ladies’ maid at Riverton House in Essex. In particular she wants to know what Grace remembers about the fateful party in 1924 which ended with the suicide of a young poet and his discovery by wealthy socialite sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford.
Grace takes us back to a different era when social ranks were studiously maintained and a life in service was far more than just a job, and keeping up appearances and loyalty were everything. Grace recollects the glamorous life of her mistress Hannah Hartford, and her unhappy marriage to politician and businessman Teddy Luxton. She remembers “The Game” the sisters and their brother played as children and their devotion to secrecy. Grace is a witness to the household secrets and gradually her story unfolds, one intrigue and heartache after another.
This was a delicately written story creating a haunting atmosphere of glamour, secrecy, romance and heartbreak. Although it is long, it feels like the kind of book that creates such an engaging world that you don’t want it to end. I will definitely happily read anything else Kate Morton writes without even reading the blurb. ( )
3.75/5 A low pick for me. The story about a well-to-do family in WWI England is told from the POV of Grace, one of the Hartford family's servants, who lives vicariously through the two Hartford sisters, Hannah and Emmeline. The plot moved slowly for 3/4 of the book then rushed to its cataclysmic conclusion. I also found myself wanting to know more about Grace's transformation from a maid to an archeologist than just a quick few sentences at the end. The pacing throughout the book was chaotic and undisciplined. It was Morton's first novel, so that's why I cut her some slack and still picked it. I cared enough about the characters, too, so I will probably read more by her. ( )
Grace is the storyteller and she is 98. She tells the story as she reminisces about her past life in service as first a maid and then lady’s maid to the Hartford family at Riverton. The story is woven from the past and the present and really draws in the reader. Glimpses are given of a secret and a guilt that Grace has never shared. Enough twists and turns for interest. The time period and how war affected the family upstairs and downstairs and the role of women in society and at home were interesting. ( )
Informació del coneixement compartit en anglès.Modifica-la per localitzar-la a la teva llengua.
For Davin, who holds my hand on the roller-coaster
Primeres paraules
Informació del coneixement compartit en anglès.Modifica-la per localitzar-la a la teva llengua.
Last November I had a nightmare.
Citacions
Informació del coneixement compartit en anglès.Modifica-la per localitzar-la a la teva llengua.
I agreed, touched by the way little untruths told to the very young are believed so implicitly.
I am interested—intrigued even—by the way time erases real lives, leaving only vague imprints. Blood and spirit fade away so that only names and dates remain.
But of course, those who live in memories are never really dead.
It is our habit, after church, to walk the short distance to the High Street for morning tea at Maggie's. We always go to Maggie's, though Maggie herself left town with a suitcase and her best friend's husband many years ago.
I understand well the peculiar guilt of tragedy's survivors.
The young, I have learned, are embarrassed by tales of long ago. This morning he smiled over his glasses and told me how well I was looking. When I was younger, still in my eighties, vanity would have had me believe him. Now I recognize such comments as kindly expressions of surprise I'm still alive.
He will return one day, of that I've little doubt, for home is a magnet that lures even its most abstracted children. But whether tomorrow or years from now, I cannot guess. And I haven't time to wait. I find myself in time's cold waiting room, shivering as ancient ghosts and echoing voices recede.
Reluctance to begin is quick to befriend procrastination, and the view of the room below was tremendous. It is a universal truth that no matter how well one knows a scene, to observe it from above is something of a revelation.
Alone in the room, his dark eyes grave beneath a line of dark brows, he gave the impression of sorrow past, deeply felt and poorly mended.
Regardless how peripheral one's connection to calamity, it would appear that to live long enough is to be rendered an object of interest.
Wars make history seem deceptively simple. They provide clear turning points, easy distinctions: before and after, winner and loser, right and wrong. True history, the past, is not like that. It isn't flat or linear. It has no outline. It is slippery, like liquid; infinite and unknowable, like space. And it is changeable: just when you think you see a pattern, perspective shifts, an alternative version is proffered, a long-forgotten memory resurfaces.
In real life turning points are sneaky. They pass by unlabeled and unheeded. Opportunities are missed, catastrophes unwittingly celebrated. Turning points are only uncovered later, by historians who seek to bring order to a lifetime of tangled moments.
The light is bright. I feel like a bird in an oven. Hot, plucked, and watched.
Darreres paraules
Informació del coneixement compartit en anglès.Modifica-la per localitzar-la a la teva llengua.
Summer 1924. On the eve of a glittering Society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again. Winter 1999. Grace Bradley, 98, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poets suicide. Ghosts awaken and memories, long consigned to the dark reaches of Graces mind, begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking secret threatens to emerge something history has forgotten but Grace never could.
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Google Books — S'està carregant…
(3.83)
3
Ursula, a film-maker, visits 98 year-old Grace to see what she remembers about her time spent with the Hartford family, as a house-servant and ladies’ maid at Riverton House in Essex. In particular she wants to know what Grace remembers about the fateful party in 1924 which ended with the suicide of a young poet and his discovery by wealthy socialite sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford.
Grace takes us back to a different era when social ranks were studiously maintained and a life in service was far more than just a job, and keeping up appearances and loyalty were everything. Grace recollects the glamorous life of her mistress Hannah Hartford, and her unhappy marriage to politician and businessman Teddy Luxton. She remembers “The Game” the sisters and their brother played as children and their devotion to secrecy. Grace is a witness to the household secrets and gradually her story unfolds, one intrigue and heartache after another.
This was a delicately written story creating a haunting atmosphere of glamour, secrecy, romance and heartbreak. Although it is long, it feels like the kind of book that creates such an engaging world that you don’t want it to end. I will definitely happily read anything else Kate Morton writes without even reading the blurb. (