false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg 2872 32 Set among the sweeping skirts and social upheavals of Edwardian London, Tracy Chevalier's <I>Falling Angels</I> is a meditation on change, loss, and recovery. Her central characters are two young girls of the same age, whose family plots are situated side-by-side in a cemetery modeled on Highgate. Lavinia Waterhouse is respectably middle-class, devoted, like her conventional, doting mother, to the right way to do things, although suspiciously well- schooled in subjects like funerary sculpture and the English practices of mourning. Her friend Maude Coleman comes from a slightly more privileged and free-thinking background. In contrast with Lavinia's mother, Maude's mother Kitty Coleman is well-educated by the standards of the day, and it has made her restless and irritable. But neither her reading, nor her gardening, nor her affair with the somber, high-thinking governor of the cemetery is enough for Kitty. She comes alive only when she discovers the women's suffrage movement, and her devotion to the cause takes her away from Maude in every sense.<p> Although the point of view shifts between many characters (with even the Coleman's maid and cook getting their say, sometimes unnecessarily), <I>Falling Angels</I> is essentially the children's story, since it is their lives that are most open to change. The narrative spans exactly the years of Edward VII's reign, from the morning after his mother Queen Victoria's death in January 1901 to his own death in May 1910. Chevalier (<I>Girl with a Pearl Earring</I>) deftly uses the nation's dramatically different mourning for these two monarchs to signal the social transformations of the period. Readers at ease with English history will find <I>Falling Angels</I> an unusually subtle novel, with an emotional range that recalls the best of the Edwardian novelists, E.M. Forster, and his quintessential novel of Edwardian manners, <I>Howard's End</I>. <I>--Regina Marler</I> 2220311 2001 Falling Angels total:3986|5:516|4:1285|3:1547|2:530|1:108| 3986 13529 4889 350 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 4 3 false Tue Mar 16 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Sat Mar 21 11:35:08 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 21 11:36:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 3 3 false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Mar 16 15:08:08 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 16 15:24:33 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 5 1 false Thu Jul 31 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 31 06:24:17 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 31 06:47:01 -0700 2008 Each character speaks individually, allowing t...more...]]> 2876 0007108265 9780007108268 61 9 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712820m/2876.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2876.Falling_Angels 4 1 false Thu May 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 27 08:31:56 -0700 2009 Fri May 29 05:49:34 -0700 2009 http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6371...

This is the third novel by Tracy Chevalier that I have read and I have found them all utterly compelling and so different. I loved the choice of title which I felt was a clever use of symbolism, with angels falling throughout the book! The openin...more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 0 0 true Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed May 20 13:03:30 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 13:09:15 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 4 1 false Sun May 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 21:32:02 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 21:41:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 2 0 false Sun Jul 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 17:34:52 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 26 09:42:31 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 5 1 false Mon Mar 03 06:18:59 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 03 06:21:15 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2876 0007108265 9780007108268 61 9 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712820m/2876.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2876.Falling_Angels 3 0 true Tue May 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 29 10:23:10 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 06 09:50:23 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 2 0 false Thu Apr 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 10 08:14:56 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 17 06:17:57 -0700 2009 2 more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 4 0 false Wed Dec 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 20 09:43:12 -0800 2009 Wed Dec 02 11:28:38 -0800 2009 This is the story of 2 girls growing up in the early 1900’s in London. Maude Coleman and Lavinia Waterhouse are unlikely friends they meet in a London cemetery, where their family plots are next to each other. Their families really have nothing in common and...more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 2 1 false Thu Jul 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 12:13:19 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 12:21:39 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 3 0 false Sun Feb 10 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Aug 04 08:25:39 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 04 08:26:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 3 0 false Fri Jul 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 11:25:07 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 15:10:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 3 0 false Tue Feb 10 14:49:04 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 07 16:11:44 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 14:49:04 -0800 2009 Falling Angels, an parlour drama set during Edwardian times, worked out well in my reading schedule due to its being a perfect fictional counterpart to Stiff.

Yes, Victorians love funerals. And the falling angels referred to in the title are angels who live on top of graves. Naturally dea...more...]]> 2876 0007108265 9780007108268 61 9 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712820m/2876.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2876.Falling_Angels 4 1 false Fri Apr 03 08:22:55 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 08:27:01 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 2 1 false Sat Feb 07 03:37:20 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 07 03:41:33 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 3 0 false Wed Jun 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 16:25:46 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 17:05:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 4 1 false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sat Mar 29 07:57:01 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 29 07:58:42 -0700 2008 2872 0452283205 9780452283206 3814 325 3.39 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161712788m/2872.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2872.Falling_Angels 4 0 false Tue Mar 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 21:33:05 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 21:38:00 -0800 2009
There was enough history in it to blend in with the times, but not so much that I was comparing it in my head to a...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2872