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109 ratings, 4.08 average rating, 24 reviews
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published
February 1st 1993
by Penguin Classics
binding
Paperback, 528 pages
isbn
0140186913
(isbn13: 9780140186918)
description
This volume brings together three of Henry Green’s intensely original novels: Loving brilliantly contrasts the lives of servants and masters ...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 246)
bookshelves:
currently-reading,
prose-fiction-and-prosefiction
recommends it for:
anyone
I really loved Concluding,and I'm enjoying the first novel in this collected three, Loving, even more, for its "life below stairs" perspective. Green is a master of a kind of narrative strategy that excises all the fluff and chatter and lets the dialogue do the work, like a play, without sacrificing a sense of interior for the characters, in that uncanny way with speech and gesture that playwrights have. His narrators cannot enter into the body, but what is said by our ...more
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Read in February, 2008
Of this volume, I read only Loving, which is tremendous. The other two titles are not on any of my blasted lists but if I can get through my next two bookclub books before this is due, I'll happily read Living and Party-Going as well.
It requires a lot of attention. It's told mostly in dialogue, and has dialogue tags, but if you don't pay attention to who said what how and to whom, all the time, you miss the tension and undercurrents. I went back and reread and rechecked...more
It requires a lot of attention. It's told mostly in dialogue, and has dialogue tags, but if you don't pay attention to who said what how and to whom, all the time, you miss the tension and undercurrents. I went back and reread and rechecked...more
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Read in January, 2006
I found Living difficult, but Loving a dream.
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Read in May, 2007
"Her voice was thick with love. She shut the door."
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Read in August, 2008
Loving by Henry Green is about the goings-on between the servants and masters in a castle in Ireland during WWII. It's a pretty simple tale, but there isn't much plot. There's a sort of love triangle between the butler, Charlie, his "man" (aka assistant) Albert, and a chamber maid, Edith, a missing ring, fear of the I.R.A., a drunken cook, an affair between the master's (Mrs. Tennant) daughter-in-law and Capt. Davenport while Mr. Jack (Mrs. Tennant's son) is off doing the army thing......more
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Read in February, 2008
Of the three novels in this volume (which I bought on the strongest recommendation from a friend), I've read so far only the last one, Party-Going and part of the first one, Living.
Party-Going is a tremendous short novel, written in "real-time," it seems, the events of the novel unfolding during the two or three hours of a massive train delay caused by London fog. (The time is the 1930s.) I say "real time" because it seems that you could read the book in exactly as much ...more
Party-Going is a tremendous short novel, written in "real-time," it seems, the events of the novel unfolding during the two or three hours of a massive train delay caused by London fog. (The time is the 1930s.) I say "real time" because it seems that you could read the book in exactly as much ...more
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Read in November, 1980
Three great novels. Poetic, mysterious, true. Not for everyone though as the style (different in each one) can be difficult. This piece of description from 'Loving' has satyed with me for many years:
(The saddleroom) 'was a place from which light was almost excluded now by cobwebs across its two windows and into which, with the door ajar, the shafted sun lay in a lengthened arch of blazing sovereigns. Over a corn bin on which he had packed last autumn's ferns lay Paddy snoring between these win...more
(The saddleroom) 'was a place from which light was almost excluded now by cobwebs across its two windows and into which, with the door ajar, the shafted sun lay in a lengthened arch of blazing sovereigns. Over a corn bin on which he had packed last autumn's ferns lay Paddy snoring between these win...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommended to Trena by:
book clubrecommends it for: nobody
This book is allegedly one of the top 100 books of the century. It is hideously terrible and completely unreadable. It is basically a transcript of complete mundanities. I can see how, perhaps, it was innovative when it was written (but surely he wasn't the first to write about the "downstairs" of a great house), but it is ungodly awful. In my opinion, this is an Emperor's New Clothes kind of book. It can't possibly be as stupid and pointless as it seems, smart people say it's awe...more
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recommends it for:
Everyone
The novelist James Chapman gave me this book as a birthday present many moons ago, and it was my introduction to the works of one of my now favorite authors. Living is the weakest book of the three. The first title, Loving, is a masterpice. The last title, Party Going, is somewhat Woolfean, very good, and falls just short of being a masterpiece.
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Read in August, 2008
I've only read Loving so far, which I liked but I found hard to get into. I had a hard time following the story. It was really interesting to read about life in a country house from the servants' point of view. I do hope to read the other two stories and more Henry Green as well.
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Read in June, 2008
I only read Loving but maybe someday I'll go back and read the others.
Amazing use of dialogue to move the story. Very fun read with lots of great quirky characters...not to mention peacocks.
Amazing use of dialogue to move the story. Very fun read with lots of great quirky characters...not to mention peacocks.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
We read 'Loving' for PfoHo Book Club, and I'm looking at the entire volume now because I'm working on a writing project in which I'd like to approximately emulate Green's style.
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One of the most incredible writers, pay close attention to the character integration at the start of his books or you'll be lost quickly. 'Loving' is my favorite of these.
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I don't exactly know why I related to Henry Green so much. Perhaps it was that these books seemed real in a way other books I had read were not. They're perfect and small.
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Although I made it past 50pp, I gave up on this one. I can't say it wasn't interesting, but a little convoluted, and I kept falling asleep. It's the right book for someone.
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Read in April, 2008
three more short, intensely focused novels by henry green. he is flat-out an all-time fave. as terry southern called him, "a writer's writer's writer."
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The book's title makes you think that you are about to read about boring English people. But "Loving" might be one of the funniest books I've ever read.
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Fine enough, but I found they just couldn't keep my interest. I read Loving, and got halfway through Party Going.
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Read in January, 1993
Terry Southern recommended Green to me and as good as all his novels are is Terry's Paris Review interview with Henry. Don't miss it.
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i so wish this were all one title, as it would be one of my favorites... the individual pieces are nice too
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