Marling Hall : a novel | Collections | The Huntington

Marling Hall : a novel | Collections | The Huntington

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The headmistress : a novel
Rare Books
"The Beltons of Harefield Park, in financial straits endemic to the times, have leased the ancestral home to the Hosier's Girls School whose headmistress, Miss Sparling, a cut above the 'nouveau riche' students, is welcomed into village society. Sam Adams, a wealthy, self-made industrialist, and his lumpish daughter Heather are introduced and we glimpse 'the thin entering wedge' into the solid front of the old gentry. Mixo-Lydians backed by Dr. Perry's wife, and Slavo-Lydians, clients of the mildly obnoxious Mrs. Hunter, barely avoid violent confrontation; it is Mr. Adams who gives short shrift to their belligerent solicitations. And we meet again the bemused Mrs. Updike whose self-battering, as she careens through life, gives new meaning to 'accident-prone.' Miss Sparling reaches an 'understanding' with perennial bachelor Sidney Carton (yes, we know) and strong-willed Elsa Belton is corralled by Capt. Hornsby who declines to be jilted. The poignant relationship between Mrs. Belton and her charming but prickly younger son, Charles, on embarkation leave, cuts through the lightheartedness and brings the war home"--From The Angela Thirkell Society of North America's website.
657412
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Before lunch : a novel
Rare Books
"Middle-aged Catherine Middleton, married to an obtuse but endearing older man, is the still center of a swirl of two generations of 'gentry' on the brink of WW II. The activities of youngsters and contemporaries go on around her and it is only gradually that one sees how, without conscious manipulation, nothing happens without her. The characters are subtly and humorously drawn -- keep an eye on the hypochondriac and self-absorbed Miss Starter who displays a shrewd gift for defining the essentials and deflating the fatuous. At the end, youngsters and oldsters are properly sorted out and paired off, mostly as expected, after several false starts. Alistair, the older man who sets off after the 'ingénue' is nudged back into place with Catherine's sister-in-law (his contemporary). She, in turn, sees 'her young man' off to seek his dream, leaving her bereft of the companions of her mind and heart -- duty and honor intact, with the notion of 'self-fulfillment at all costs' decades away."--From Angela Thirkell Society of North America's website.
657409
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What did it mean?
Rare Books
"The Friends of Barsetshire have been inquiring about the progress of various old friends; among them Lydia Merton and her husband, now not only a Q.C., but destined in Coronation Year to further honours. The little town of Northbridge where they live is, of course, having its own Coronation festivities. In these the Mertons have many other old Northbridge friends are involved, including the Provençal scholar Miss Pemberton and her lodger Mr. Downing, who lives take a fresh turn when the charming widow Mrs. Turner comes back to live in the town. It is through the Mertons that Aubrey Clover, the brilliant actor-manager-author, and his wife Jessica Dean promise to put on a little show for the Coronation Entertainment and again through Lydia that the overgrown diffident Lord Mellings, elder son of the Earl of Pomfret, is offered a part in the show. The Coronation Pageant of Northbridge gives Mrs. Thirkell an opportunity for her usual quick observation and effortless humour and we are glad to meet again the incorrigibly good-natured Bunce girls with their happy fatherless children and overflowing good-humour. Our old friend Canon Fewling has been succeeded at St. Sycroax by a delightful young clergyman, a keen amateur actor, whose only grief is that he cannot be martyred in one of the historical episodes. One middle-aged romance comes to an unexpected and happy ending and there is a delicate sketch of calf-love at its best, leaving no grief behind it, and an equally restrained episode between two older people who exchange little more than a few looks. For the cross-word kind of mind there is a traditional country rhyme, discovered by Mr. Wickham, the Mertons' agent, which keeps us guessing till the very last page"--From dust jacket.
657414
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A double affair
Rare Books
"Mrs. Thirkell takes us back to Barsetshire in time to assist (in the French sense) at the marriage of Mr. Choyce, the Vicar, and Miss Merriman, for so long the devoted friend and help to the Leslie and the Graham families. Meanwhile a kind arrangement of fate seems to be clearing the way for George Halliday, who until now has been rather mother-ridden, to win exactly the right kind of wife. This is not the only sign of matrimonial fever in the county. In the Close two charming granddaughters of the Dean give every indication that they will soon thin the ranks of Barsetshire bachelors, while the arrival of an interesting and aristocratic newcomer within the Cathedral precincts in the Rev. Lord William Harcourt affords scope for much agreeable speculation. It is true that Edith Graham, that rather exasperating young woman, has a salutary shock when her much-tried father speaks out and her cousin, Lord Mellings, tells her exactly what they all think of her. But Mrs. Thirkell can hardly ever bear to be consistently unkind to her Barsetshire friends. This is a book which evidently she particularly enjoyed writing; so the trying Edith is let off lightly and by the end seems to be on the verge of settling down at last. These proceedings are, of course, accompanied by the usual chorus of villagers an clergy"--From dust jacket.
657415
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Love at all ages
Rare Books
"Angela Thirkell's latest Barsetshire chronicle brings us up to date with the lives of many of the county's favourite older characters as well as introducing some members of a younger generation. That likeable horse-loving young rascal, Giles Foster, who wants to show his elders how to start a pony club and isn't backward in coming forward when the American Duchess of Towers invites him to call her Frankie, is much in evidence, although his father, the Earl of Pomfret, and his uncle, Roddy Wicklow, do their best to curb his exuberance. But the younger generation of Fosters. Mertons and Carters are not allowed to steal the picture. Even Lord and Lady William Harcourt's baby daughter, whose christening is a major event, keeps being whisked away by her nurse, the indomitable Sister Chiffinch, thus leaving some of the limelight to the infant's aunt, Lady Gwendolen, and her engagement and marriage to her old friend and admirer, Mr. Oriel, Vicar of Harefield and hitherto regarded as a confirmed bachelor. Being about 'Love at All Ages', however, adolescent love is given its due place, and as a parallel to the mellower love story of Gwendolen and Mr. Oriel there is a charming portrayal of the calf-love between Ludo, Lord Mellings, and Lavinia, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Sir Noel and Lady Merton (Lydia Keith that was). Old friends like Mrs. Morland, our favourite novelist (who believes we shall be back in the Dark Ages soon); her despotic housekeeper, Stoker (delightful in a passage of arms with the milkman); the Dowager Duchess; Mr. Wickham, the ex-naval land-agent; Dean and Mrs. Crawley; not to forget Jasper, the gipsy horse-coper (and admirer of Giles)--all have their say in the story. 'Love at All Ages' gives us Mrs. Thirkell in excellent form and should win many new devotees for twentieth-century Barsetshire"--From dust jacket.
657417
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Coronation summer : a novel of 1838
Rare Books
The rituals of 19th century courtship, featuring Fanny Harcourt, 17, who is in London for the coronation of Queen Victoria. It is a time of feverish social activity and matchmaking, and the competition is intense.
657413