Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780099774907
Edition: New edition
ISBN: 0099774909
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: January 03, 1998
Publisher: Vintage
Studio: Vintage

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Related Items:

• Charlotte Gray
• Birdsong
• Engleby
• A Fool's Alphabet
• On Green Dolphin Street
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Rating: - Slow to get going for such a short book but then picked up
This seemed slow to get going and I wasn't sure about it until just over half way through when Anne explained to Charles what happened to her father. This is a novel about the direct and indirect effects of the First World War on various members of French society as they move with fatalistic resignation towards the Second World War. It is also a love story built upon the successful evocation of an atmosphere of sexual tension with which readers of Birdsong will be familiar. It is not as good as that ... Read More

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Rating: - Nicely written but plodding first novel
Those who have read some of Faulks' later novels might be disappointed in this one. There's no question that Faulks is a good writer and the descriptions and phrasing are the same high quality as his later books. The problem for me was the plot - it's a slow moving, rather uninspired story.

Set in France between the wars, it tells of a love affair between a young waitress and a wealthy lawyer. There's not really a lot else in there - the obligatory references to war which you find in ... Read More

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Rating: - Average novel set in early 20th century France
Another Sebastian Faulks book set in France, focussing on the whims of human interaction in a 9130s small town. Split between the two wars, this book lacks the dramatic backdrop that characterises Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, and seems to meander without purpose. Characters start to develop, but fail to flower into really interesting people. This is a comment on a particular time and place, but fails to satisfy as a novel.

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Rating: - Shaking foundations
This was the first book I had read by Faulks and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The central storyline of poor servant girl meets rich, older society-man has no novelty of course but I did find myself drawn to the characters and some of the torment of the situation they created for themselves. That said it was difficult to hold on to the presumed innocence of Anne and the naivety of Hartmann. Was this really such an unexpected result to both of them? I was half-waiting throughout the book for the cynical motive ... Read More

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Rating: - Where would we be without rules?
It took me a while to get around to it, but this is the fourth SF novel I've read. In ranking terms, I'd place it behind Birdsong, but slightly in front of On Green Dolphin St, and a street or two ahead of Charlotte Gray.

My only real problem with the book is that I felt I was being asked to both like and sympathise with Anne unreservedly, and I'm far from sure that's warranted. Yes, she'd had more than her fair share of tragedy in her past, and certainly her 'present' life is no picnic, but ... Read More

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