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80th out of 253 books
—
347 voters
The Ladies of Missalonghi
Sometimes fairy tales can come true--even for plain, shy spinsters like Missy Wright. Neither as pretty as cousin Alicia nor as domineering as mother Drusilla, she seems doomed to a quiet life of near poverty at Missalonghi, her family's pitifully small homestead in Australia's Blue Mountains. But it's a brand new century--the twentieth--a time for new thoughts and bold ne
...moreHardcover, 189 pages
Published
November 28th 1989
by HarperCollins Publishers
(first published January 1st 1987)
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Mar 05, 2010
Abigail
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone Writing a Paper on Plagiarism, or Researching Ethics (or the LACK thereof) in Writing...
Shelves:
fiction
Review Temporarily Removed.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Mar 05, 2013
Jane Stewart
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-romance
2 ½ stars. A rush job. Plot and characters not developed enough.
I don’t mind authors telling similar stories if each is entertaining in its own way. But this book troubled me. It had too many parts directly copied from LM Montgomery’s book The Blue Castle (TBC). TBC was published in 1926. This book was published in 1987. I gave TBC 4 ½ stars.
PLOT PROBLEMS:
Missy is 33, wimpy, mousy, downtrodden, a spinster, and lives with her mother. In TBC a doctor sends her a letter by mistake saying she will d...more
I don’t mind authors telling similar stories if each is entertaining in its own way. But this book troubled me. It had too many parts directly copied from LM Montgomery’s book The Blue Castle (TBC). TBC was published in 1926. This book was published in 1987. I gave TBC 4 ½ stars.
PLOT PROBLEMS:
Missy is 33, wimpy, mousy, downtrodden, a spinster, and lives with her mother. In TBC a doctor sends her a letter by mistake saying she will d...more
Colleen McCullough is one of the most original writers that I know. Her first novel (I'm pretty sure) was 'Tim.' I have not seen anything like Tim before or since. I doubt if this novel was plagiarised at all - only that it was very common in the 1920s for widows and spinsters to live together, and in poverty (spinsters were very common Post WW1 due to the shortage of men.) As an Australian writer, she may never have come across the Canadian book that is spoken of.
The plot? Missy finds her exist...more
The plot? Missy finds her exist...more
Um livro simples, com uma escrita levezinha que nos envolve logo nas primeiras páginas devido à magia que emanam as descrições das Senhoras de Missalonghi.
Três mulheres que vivem sózinhas, dedicadas à casa e às costuras, que apenas vivem o dia a dia de forma calma. Missy a mais nova das três, lê às escondidas belos romances que a ajudam a sonhar numa vida diferente da que leva. Com a ajuda de Una, Missy consegue os seus romances na biblioteca e também tomar uma serie de decisões que afectam toda...more
Três mulheres que vivem sózinhas, dedicadas à casa e às costuras, que apenas vivem o dia a dia de forma calma. Missy a mais nova das três, lê às escondidas belos romances que a ajudam a sonhar numa vida diferente da que leva. Com a ajuda de Una, Missy consegue os seus romances na biblioteca e também tomar uma serie de decisões que afectam toda...more
This is NOT AT ALL my type of book. And most of you will know Colleen McCullough for her book, The Thorn Birds. This book, I think is unlike most of her books which are very long and very saga drama like. This is a very simple story. Old fashioned. And lovely. I think the main character actually "swoons" at some point in the book and I just found it to be completely endearing. It deserves all five stars.
The owner of the used bookstore I frequent and have for years actually recommended this book...more
The owner of the used bookstore I frequent and have for years actually recommended this book...more
This is a light and breezy read from the author of The Thorn Birds, which I really loved. Missy is a 33 year old spinster who lives in "genteel poverty" with her mother and aunt on the outskirts of a small town in Australia, sometime before WWI. She is modest, unassuming and somewhat dowdy, hooked on silly romance novels which she is not supposed to be reading (by order of her mother), but the new librarian helps her out and Missy sneaks the books home. Through the novel, circumstances change an...more
I wanted a romance but one well written, so what better guide than the writer of the Thorn Birds, a book that rends me even in the remembering, twenty years later? The Ladies of Missalonghi, with the occasional illustration (who does this anymore?!) is an afternoon's delight, like the fairy cakes its characters concoct and consume with relish. I admit towards the second half, it felt more low brow than high fiction, but the eponymous protagonist is just dowdy enough to lull, bright enough to cha...more
Jun 27, 2012
Megan
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Absolutely no one, unless starting a fire.
Shelves:
horrible
I decided to read this based on reading somewhere that it was similar to 'The Blue Castle'. Apparently, 'similar' means, 'this-author-stole-the-idea-and-made-it-trashy-and-paranormal'. What really galls me is that the horrible plot twists were completely unnecessary. The first 3/4 of the book only had a couple of crude remarks made by side characters, then BAM! Suddenly, the main character decides she should behave like a heroine in the trash novels she's been reading and oh, BTW (now that you h...more
The Ladies of Missalonghi is a primarily feminist rewrite of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Blue Castle. McCullough took the basic plot (take Una's book suggestions as proof) and characters, then stripped away all the charm and freshness that made Blue Castle so successful. I didn't appreciate how she made all the men 'bad' of Byron and most of the women 'good'; at least, Montgomery realized that men and women have an equal capacity for meanness and small-time cruelty. The Ladies of Missalonghi would ha...more
I just reread this, and was reminded of why it is one of my favorite short novels of all time. An extremely short book, this is the story of a young woman living in a small Australian town who fakes a life-threatening illness to get what she wants, just this once: out of her mother and aunt's house and into the house (and arms) of the strange but appealing new man who's just moved into town. There are bitchy and superior family members who flaunt their wealth, a mysteriously bold girlfriend, a p...more
I didn’t care for this and I’m curious as to why it’s one of my friend’s favorite books. Missy lives in a small insular Australian town, which is run by her male relatives, leaving many of the women in abject poverty. Missy believes the reports that she is plain, but she has never seen herself in a mirror. A stranger moves to town, she falls in love with him, because he's a stranger and she's seen so few strangers?and because of him, everything changes. And what’s with Una? Read for Messy House...more
I enjoyed this, and didn't know about it's probable plagiarism from Montgomery's The Blue Castle until after reading it and trying to find out more. Now I really need to read The Blue Castle...
Nice little fairy story, where the heroine breaks out of a wretched life and gets the guy, while the "bad guys" get their own back. I enjoyed the setting in the Blue Mountains of Australia.
However, I do feel like the ending was a little rushed--once things started getting interesting, the book was almost o...more
Nice little fairy story, where the heroine breaks out of a wretched life and gets the guy, while the "bad guys" get their own back. I enjoyed the setting in the Blue Mountains of Australia.
However, I do feel like the ending was a little rushed--once things started getting interesting, the book was almost o...more
Boring. Makes Australia seem boring. There's a feat.
Missy Wright, a homely, 34 year old "spinster," lives in genteel poverty with her widowed mother and maiden aunt on the outskirts of Byron, a self-important little town in Australia. When a mysterious stranger named John Smith rides into town and settles in the forested valley adjacent to Missalonghi, her family home, she seizes what she sees as her last chance at love. Spun with the gold threads of a fairy tale, the story has its wicked uncles, snooty cousins, a fairy godmother, a knight in shi...more
I was actually really enjoying this book until about halfway through, when all of a sudden the main character "comes out of her shell". This would be all well and good but it all seems totally improbable and when she does have this change of manner, it's not always in a good way, so its hard to really champion her,especially considering the main change in her life comes through a pretty deceitful lie. The book felt like it turned into a Mills & Boon...
I do absolutely love the book jacket art...more
I do absolutely love the book jacket art...more
It is hard to rate this book fairly. When I first read it, I liked it although I didn't quite like Missy's dishonesty. Then some years later I discovered L. M. Montgommery and read all her books. Great was my astonishment when I discovered that this book is a total rewrite of L. M. M.'s The Blue Castle. Since Blue Castle is so much better both in language and style and McCullough's changes only weakens her story, it changed my view of both the book and the writer. Still I give it 3 stars in hono...more
I was more than a little disappointed when I started reading this book for my book group. We aim to choose books that push us out of our box a little, which could mean a different genre or point of view.
To me, this was a silly little romance and not worth the hour it took me to read it.
I looked it up on the internet, and it turns out that Colleen McCullough has been accused of plagarizing "The Blue Castle" by L.M. Montgomery. After looking at the two books by plot, character, etc. I could see t...more
To me, this was a silly little romance and not worth the hour it took me to read it.
I looked it up on the internet, and it turns out that Colleen McCullough has been accused of plagarizing "The Blue Castle" by L.M. Montgomery. After looking at the two books by plot, character, etc. I could see t...more
“Monica,” you might be thinking, “another low-star review? Honestly? Do you hate everything??”
Friends, I want you all to know that I read this book solely because I love L.M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle with a passion that even I find slightly alarming, and I was informed by my fellow Goodreaders that The Ladies of Missalonghi was a ridiculously blatant plagiarism and should be purged from the face of the earth.
So yes. Another low-star review.
…
Okay.
The Ladies of Missalonghi at least appeared to...more
Friends, I want you all to know that I read this book solely because I love L.M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle with a passion that even I find slightly alarming, and I was informed by my fellow Goodreaders that The Ladies of Missalonghi was a ridiculously blatant plagiarism and should be purged from the face of the earth.
So yes. Another low-star review.
…
Okay.
The Ladies of Missalonghi at least appeared to...more
I've read many reviews here about the possibility of... um.. "plot borrowing" from The Blue Castle, but honestly, this isn't why I'm rating this book low and really couldn't care less since so many books are written based on ideas from something else. This low rating is for the simple fact that I didn't like what I was reading most of the time. I'm sorry for this since Colleen McCullough is one of my favourite authors and I just expected better.
The premise that happiness for a woman is marriage...more
The premise that happiness for a woman is marriage...more
I'm usually willing to forgive an author for a predictable story; it makes me feel smart that I have guessed the right answer before the story gets to the question. However, when an author picks and utterly absurd conclusion as a cop out to resolve to the story, I get annoyed. It feels like a betryal -- like the reading has suddenly become a waste of time. Not cool. Still, I'm a sucker for "unexpected" romance (which consquently is never unexpected and always predictable), so that's why I'm stil...more
Recommended by a friend and I did enjoy aspects of it. Not particularly well-written, but the impetuous and manipulative heroine was entertaining; plot predictabe. A little reminiscent of 'Sense and Sensibility' (men bad, women jilted) and I haven't Read LM Montgomery, but I suspect Id like that version of this story better. This book is classified as 'historical fiction' and I suppose there are some elements of 19th century Austraila to learn about, but overall it's just an interesting story.
As I have indicated in many of my reviews, I am rereading books I had packed away years ago and had in storage. I wouldn't have kept them if I hadn't enjoyed them in the first place--in fact, I don't believe in reading books I don't rate highly--too many books, and too little time! So, most of them are given five stars if they have held up over the last decade or more. There is a lot of depth to Colleen McCullough's stories, from "Thornbirds" on through. This little book has a lesson for women e...more
What one naive middle aged woman won't do for a husband, but how charmingly her narrow world has expanded through reading from the "pay-as-you-go" library--enough to have a few good ideas on how to snag the reluctant fellow. In the short (& we imagine Long) run he is delighted with the woman who forced herself on him. The other ladies of the household & characters in town add an element of depth to his novel.
Sooooo, as a 100% positive "The Blue Castle" rip-off (how could McCullough dare?), I still enjoyed "The Ladies of Missalonghi", but only as I might enjoy the much less attractive and significantly less appealing younger brother of my older, wildly attractive ideal man; the appeal lies in the faint similarities, but the sloppy seconds aren't nearly as satisfying as the real thing!
Really, not a bad short story all in all, but it doens't hold a candle to L.M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle.
Really, not a bad short story all in all, but it doens't hold a candle to L.M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I'm still offended that McCullough stole pretty much the entire plot of this book from L.M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle, but it's different enough in the details and style that give her some (some!) leeway. And it's certainly an enjoyable read: witty and funny and poised, an odd sort of throwback to Pride and Prejudice and Cold Comfort Farm which somehow works.
I have a theory about 80's literature- it holds anti-man themes and inevitably takes a metaphysical turn. This book supported my theory on both counts. I wasn't surprised by the end, though I did like the characters more at the end than I did in the beginning. It was a quick read- thankfully. Certainly didn't make me want to read more by the author.
I vaguely remember reading this book with my book group in Orem. The girl who chose it said it was her most favorite book ever. I couldn't figure out why. I remember it was entertaining but kind of weird...Maybe i would have marked it a four if I could remember more...but I think I'd put it in a class just above Mary Higgins Clark?--If that makes sense
I really liked this short novel about a trio of women who live on 5 acres in Australia's Blue Mountains. They are 7 miles from the small town that is dominated by the men of their extended family. The widow and her daughter share their small holding with the spinster sister. They are so poor that they only wear brown because it doesn't show the dirt.
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Colleen McCullough AO (born 1 June 1937) is an internationally acclaimed Australian author. Colleen was born in Wellington in central west New South Wales to James and Laurie McCullough.
She grew up during World War II. In her first year of medical studies at the University of Sydney she suffered dermatitis from surgical soap and was told to abandon her dreams of becoming a medical doctor. Instead,...more
More about Colleen McCullough...
She grew up during World War II. In her first year of medical studies at the University of Sydney she suffered dermatitis from surgical soap and was told to abandon her dreams of becoming a medical doctor. Instead,...more
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“...she looked like the sort of woman most men would want to get to know because they weren't sure what went on inside.”
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18 people liked it
“Best of all she liked his eyes, such a translucent golden brown, and so laughing.”
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5 people liked it
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