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Lädt ... The Marble Staircase (2022. Auflage)von Elizabeth Fair (Autor)
Werk-InformationenThe Marble Staircase von Elizabeth Fair
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Gehört zu VerlagsreihenFurrowed Middlebrow (84)
"Looking back she could not remember when she had settled down to mere existence, no longer expecting any changes in the pattern--let along something as extraordinary as Mrs. Gamalion's legacy. Charlotte Moley, long brow-beaten by her rather stodgy grown daughter Alison and very traditional mother, has been brought to the coastal town of Nything by an unexpected inheritance. The flamboyantly larger-than-life Mrs. Gamalion, who many years before had swept into the newly-widowed Charlotte's recuperative holiday on Lake Como (bursting through the little crowd as if she were made of a harder, more penetrating substance) and transformed it, has bequeathed her ramshackle, overcrowded house to Charlotte. Alison dismisses her mother's impractical desire to visit the house, but once there Charlotte finds the past returning--particularly that liberating time in Italy--and wonders if the pattern of her life might after all be changed. The Marble Staircase, an elegant tale of second chances and the ways in which the past can echo and inspire the present, was written in the late 1950s but never published. Long thought to have been lost, it was rediscovered by Elizabeth Fair's heirs in 2021, and Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press are thrilled to finally make it available, along with the six novels published in Fair's lifetime."-- Provided by publisher. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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To make a life for herself in Nything, Charlotte has to face down a lifetime's habits of meekly subsiding into the persona other people foist upon her. Her mother painted her as a pitiable widow whose only reason for living was her child. And her child, Alison, grew up into a most efficient young lady forever managing Charlotte into doing things the "right" way.
Indeed, Charlotte's periodic holidays in Italy became the flash of color in an otherwise monotone routine. It was in Italy that she met Mrs. Gamalion - the woman who would one day bequeath her the house.
As Charlotte tries to clear the literal cobwebs in her new home with the help of her new neighbors, she also dusts off her memories of Italy: Mrs. Gamalion's entourage of middle-class British ladies. The gallant Prince Charming. The snake in the grass "friend." Her present and her past intertwine in this story as she settles the question of who she really is.
This book, a previously unpublished manuscript just now seeing the light of day, is a gentle, slightly melancholic look at a life where the past looms large. Multiple characters play on themes of decay and nostalgia. It all feels very autumnal. The handling of some of the relationships is a bit vague, and yet there are delightful moments of wit and insight that remind one that yes, this is from the pen of Elizabeth Fair.
I think that fans of Elizabeth Von Arnim's "Enchanted April" or E.M. Forster's "A Room With a View" might find echoes in this book - echoes of the Italian "escape," and what it means to have your own identity.
I appreciate the publisher, Dean Street Press, for making this title at last available to the public, and for a digital review copy! It goes on sale in August. ( )