Reviews by Readers
Vittoria Cottage by
Kristi
Anna And her Daughters
by Susan M.
Vittoria Cottage
was
published in August of 1949, and concerns the fortunes of
Caroline Armstrong Dering, a widow living in the village of
Ashbridge. The main thread of the book is her slowly
developing relationship with Mr. Robert Shepperton, himself
a widower with one young son in America. Caroline has three
children, her adored son James, who returns from fighting in
Malay during the book, her daughter Leda and her daughter
Bobbie. This family is (at least to me)somehow easy to
confuse with Esther Musgrave's three daughters and
stepson,though the differences are many. Caroline's sister
Harriet also falls for Robert, but when she realizes
Caroline loves him, she nudges him in that direction. Leda
is engaged to neighbor Sir Michael Ware's son Derek, for a
time. And James Dering is in love with Derek's sister,
Rhoda, an artist who believes she will never marry but
devote herself to art. Other major players in this book are
Comfort Podbury, who adores Caroline, and learns to deal
with her thyroid problem, and Sue Podbury Widgeon and her
husband Jim who become parents. It is a small circle of
people in a small village setting. It could sound like Jane
Austen's idea, but Austen would never have dealt with the
character of Comfort Podbury.
Anna and Her Daughters
is
actually told through the eyes of Jane, the second daughter.
Anna is a 40ish society matron in London whose husband dies
unexpectedly and because of finances moves back to her
childhood home, Ryddleton, in Scotland. The move is
disappointing to Jane who must give up her dream of going to
Oxford, but it is devastating to the other daughters Helen
and Rosalie who resent leaving the whirl of London society.
In Scotland Helen leaves almost immediately for the balls
and beaux that Edinburgh can provide, but Rosalie and Jane
find their true vocations; Jane learns that she is at heart
an author and Rosalie discovers a gift for caring for
children. Anna feels completely at home in Ryddleton and
thrives on everyday domestic duties and friendships. Is
there romance? Well of course. The dashing Ronnie is
introduced early in the story and affects each of the
sisters lives in a different way. Anna also finds love and
comfort. Secondary characters include the crusty enigmatic
Mrs. Millard and accommodating cousin Andrew. It is not
characteristic for D. E. Stevenson's characters to travel
much outside Great Britain, but there are portions of
Anna and Her Daughters
set in both Europe and Africa.
It is the safe and comforting community of Ryddleton,
though, gives Jane, her mother and her sister Rosalie the
opportunity for new beginnings.
Smouldering Fire by
Joy
Bel Lamington by
Kristi
Smouldering Fire
was DES's
sixth book, published by Herbert Jenkins in 1935 when she
was 43 and was one of the author's favourites among her own
books. One can identify several themes that were to emerge
again and again in her work.
Its plot rotates around the custody
of the child of divorced parents. There is a wicked father
(yes, I do mean wicked) and a loving mother who puts her
child before all things including her new love.
This is the first of DES's books to
have a very strong Highland setting, where clan loyalty to
the chief, second sight and the isolation and poverty of a
Scottish farming community are greatly emphasized. The scene
of this unusual love-story is laid in London and in the
Western Highlands. In the romantic atmosphere of loch,
mountain and ruined castle, a score of characters with vivid
and arresting personalities are thrown together.
The plot thickens, there is a
mystery - with an unexpected solution - while the newly rich
London stockbroker and his amiable wife provide plenty of
scope for the sly humour which we look for from D.E.
Stevenson's pen.
My copy of
Bel Lamington
is
from 1961 and says First Edition. It's published by Holt,
Rinehart and Winston. I notice the price was $3.95. Here is
the blurb from the dustjacket:
"In this, her newest novel, the
beloved author of
The Tall Stranger
and S
till
Glides the Stream
introduces one of her most memorable
heroines - Bel Lamington, a gentle country girl who comes to
live alone in the huge, anonymous city of London. Bel,
orphaned at the age of three, had shared a house with her
Aunt Beatrice in the sleepy Sussex village of Southmere for
a long as she could remember - and had grown to love the
place with all her heart. When her aunt died, and their
cottage was sold, Bel had to leave Southmere with its happy
memories and take a position as a typist with a London
shipping firm. Bel liked her job, but the city for all its
noise and activity, was a lonely place, especially when one
was shy about going out and making friends. Then the
unexpected arrived -in the form of Mark Desborough, a
charming young painter who literally "dropped in" on Bel's
roof-garden one spring afternoon. But when Mark abruptly
went off to Italy for an indefinite stay, the bottom of
Bel's bright new world dropped out. To make matters worse,
she was seen lunching with James Copping, son of one of the
firm's partners - a harmless indiscretion that, ultimately,
cost her her job. Seeking consolation the only way she knew,
Bel journeyed to Scotland. It was there she discovered some
truths about herself and others, and the fact that one
cannot run away from the 'right man' by hiding at 'the back
of beyond.'
Themes