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14th out of 45 books
—
3 voters
Harriet Said...
Beryl Bainbridge's evocation of childhood in a rundown northern holiday resort.
A girl returns from boarding school to her sleepy Merseyside hometown and waits to be reunited with her childhood friend, Harriet, chief architect of all their past mischief. She roams listlessly along the shoreline and the woods still pitted with wartime trenches, and encounters 'the Tsar' - al...more
A girl returns from boarding school to her sleepy Merseyside hometown and waits to be reunited with her childhood friend, Harriet, chief architect of all their past mischief. She roams listlessly along the shoreline and the woods still pitted with wartime trenches, and encounters 'the Tsar' - al...more
158 pages
Published
March 14th 1985
by Flamingo / Fontana
(first published March 14th 1972)
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I found this little Penguin paperback, of only 152 pages, while I was attending the Classical Pursuits program in Toronto. It was on one of the hall tables bearing a sign, "Take One, Leave One," thereby encouraging readers to share their books. Because it was thin, because I was curious about two teenage girls who seem to be spying on someone's house, I took it home.
A bold and bossy Harriet has a loyal follower in her friend, of whose name we're never sure as the story is told in first person th...more
A bold and bossy Harriet has a loyal follower in her friend, of whose name we're never sure as the story is told in first person th...more
First paragraph: ‘Harriet said: ‘No, you don’t, you keep walking.’ I wanted to turn around and look back at the dark house but she tugged at my arm fiercely. We walked over the field hand in hand as if we were little girls.’
Interesting book this. It follows the story of two adolescent girls on a summer holiday in a small village in England. The younger of the two, the narrator who remains nameless throughout, develops an unhealthy obsession with a local, unhappily married man. What they are walk...more
Interesting book this. It follows the story of two adolescent girls on a summer holiday in a small village in England. The younger of the two, the narrator who remains nameless throughout, develops an unhealthy obsession with a local, unhappily married man. What they are walk...more
The premise of the novel is brilliant at glance--a coming of age story about two manipulative young girls taking the fascination (and arguably,infatuation) of their neighbor farther than it ever should go. Here we have themes of coming of age,trust vs control and even pedophilia thrown into the mix for good measure. Yet the book is cut short of accomplishing this on a full scale perhaps as a result of the short book time. The ending is almost surreal in how unsatisfying it ended up being. The ac...more
Jan 02, 2012
Katie
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Katie by:
browsing amazon
Shelves:
100-books-2012-goal
A claustrophobic tale of a friendship deeply enmeshed in admiration, power, and the ability to twist things to one's liking. The details are almost excruciating for such a small novel, and the final act of violence is surprising. Fans of slow to boil, compact, vintage (late 60's Britain) thrillers should give this one a go.
This book has stayed with me ever since I first read it in my early twenties....20 years later, I still remember it's chilling, haunting effect. One of my all time favourites.
Really fun and terrifying. Slightly like Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Great writer, disturbing story.
Stephen King recommended book. Noted as "important to the genre we have been discussing" from Danse Macabre, published in 1981.
May 16, 2013
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Bainbridge was born in the port city of Liverpool in north-west England. Her agent, and her entry in Who's Who, gave the date as November 21, 1934, but records show her birth was registered early in 1933. Bainbridge herself sometimes said she struggled to remember her birth date, ever since she lied about her age so she could take a trip to France as a youngster without her parents' knowledge.
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Feb 04, 2013 09:13pm