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12th out of 101 books
—
23 voters
Someone at a Distance
'A very good novel indeed about the fragility and also the tenacity of love' commented the Spectator recently about this 1953 novel by Dorothy Whipple, which was ignored fifty years ago because 'editors are going mad for action and passion' (as she was told by her publisher). But this last novel by a writer whose books had previously been bestsellers is outstandingly good...more
Paperback, 413 pages
Published
March 22nd 1999
by Persephone Books
(first published 1953)
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As soon as the book was handed to me by a bookseller, I was in love. It had a luscious painting on the cover, and was otherwise gray. I found myself holding a beautifully constructed paperback, with wallpaper from the era of the original printing of the book on endpages. It was just what I was looking for.
It was a copy of Dorothy Whipple’s Someone at a Distance, originally published in 1953, reprinted by Persephone Books in London.
I am relatively late in discovering Persephone, as is evidenced b...more
It was a copy of Dorothy Whipple’s Someone at a Distance, originally published in 1953, reprinted by Persephone Books in London.
I am relatively late in discovering Persephone, as is evidenced b...more
What was truly insightful about this books was the "expectation of women". After WWII in England, many in the upper classes found it difficult to find domestic help. Many of the jobs that were once live-in were almost impossible to find. That meant that many of these wealthy women would have to take care of a huge house by herself. The way in which Dorothy Whipple describes this is extremely sympathetic. And of course the men would NEVER help out. The series of events is devastating - really. Th...more
2 likes · like · see review
Dec 29, 2008
Hol
added it
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Hol by:
Found at Micawber's Books (in Minneapolis)
This 1953 novel features a county of resourceful and morally upstanding British women versus one husband-thieving French tart who is so diabolical that her mere presence can make a baby vomit. How I love Persephone Books.
5 likes · like · see review
I have always found that there is something quite special about British novels from the past, even if I can't really explain what it is - maybe it's just linked to the happiness of reading great English books as a dreamy teenager. The publishing house Persephone Classics deliciously brings back that literature to the modern reader, and their books are beautiful objects. I had never heard of Dorothy Whipple before, but it seems that she was quite popular in the forties. This novel is deceptively...more
**spoiler alert** I hardly ever read British writers, so I'm glad I received this as a gift. I found it hard to put down because of the old fashioned voice and glimpse into the late '40s, early 50s rich suburban England. A husband betrays his family by sleeping with the French woman whom is mother hired as a companion in her old age. The first half of the book leads up to this. The second half of the book resounds from this devastating act, witnessed by his wife and his teenage daughter. The wif...more
In my plan to eventually read all the Persephone books in order, Someone at a Distance is number three. I was kind of dreading it because it is a book about a woman who gets left by her husband for another woman. In other words, a real downer. It's a testament to Dorothy Whipple's eminently readable writing style and her
deft use of the omniscient narrator that I had difficulty putting this book down despite its gloomy subject matter.
Whipple has a gift for creating character psychologies that ri...more
deft use of the omniscient narrator that I had difficulty putting this book down despite its gloomy subject matter.
Whipple has a gift for creating character psychologies that ri...more
This is the first book I read after relocating to London. It caught my eye while browsing in a local secondhand shop because of the woman painted on the cover. Though dressed simply, she looked like her thoughts were deep and significant. The title also hinted at some mystery or drama, so I picked it up. Ironically, the protagonist, Ellen, lived outside of London in the countryside with her handsome husband and adoring children. I connected with her geographically so I decided to give the book a...more
This is one of my favorite books I've read in awhile, and not just because the author is my cousin (okay, twice removed). Dorothy Whipple was an author in the early 1900's in England. She had a knack for good story-telling, and this book is probably her best. She tells of a fairly well-off and very happy family whose world is turned upside down by the very foolish father who strays in his fidelity and takes up with a plotting French woman. It is all so sad yet ever so real in the telling. The re...more
A wonderful writer, rediscovered by Persephone Press. I've read all the books they've published by Dorothy Whipple. Her ability to write about domestic dramas is wonderful. I've read Someone at a Distance twice in three years; it tells of a selfish vain French girl who insinuates herself into a happy British family -- destruction ensues. I've finished it now and I miss it.
This really is a beautifully written novel. The sad story of the ruin of a happy family, may seem like something we have read before. However Dorothy Whipple writes so well, and with such feeling, that the reader watches the slow crumble of this likeable family with real regret. Things build slowly, culminating in the destruction of a once happy family. By the time the novel reaches this point, the reader feels they know this family intimately - people who are never happier than when they with o...more
Thanks to Julie Zeller who wrote such good reviews of Dorothy Whipple books.
The first part of the book deals with a young woman who wants more out of life and seduces the son of her employer (she wanted to leave France and so became an English woman's companion). The second half of the book deals with the disintegration of not only a marriage but of a family. Dorothy's writing is easy reading, she draws her characters simply, but with deep emotion. Watching the marriage fall apart, is painful,...more
The first part of the book deals with a young woman who wants more out of life and seduces the son of her employer (she wanted to leave France and so became an English woman's companion). The second half of the book deals with the disintegration of not only a marriage but of a family. Dorothy's writing is easy reading, she draws her characters simply, but with deep emotion. Watching the marriage fall apart, is painful,...more
A highly readable study of the insertion of a sociopathic woman into a traditional marriage and the havoc that is wreaked as a result. Old Mrs. North, the widow of a highly successful industrialist, brings 27-year-old "French girl" Louise Lanier, into her home for companionship and light domestic duties. Louise, seething with resentment at being thrown over by her former lover, rich-boy Paul Devoisy--who has recently made a very bourgeois marriage to a plain and pious town girl with a good dowry...more
Can't believe this wonderful book (and its author) have been forgotten. If you like a novel to take you to a pleasant place with very real and delightful people, the start of this tale will draw you in nicely. But from the start there is a cuckoo in the nest, as a young French 'companion' sets out for no good reason but vanity, to destroy this idyllic household. Yet the book ends with a note of redemption for the family we have come to love. Perfect writing, utterly believable characters - it de...more
Very much of its time, a quick read, but simply and beautifully written - interestingly, the story is almost exactly like another book I've read on a woman coping with the dawning realisation of her husband's infidelity and the subsequent divorce, but written in German, in 2006, and frankly not nearly as satisfying a read. Whipple doesn't spoil it with melodramatic characters or overdrawn descriptions or improbables. A good piece of craftsmanship worth your attention for the few hours it will ta...more
Dorothy Whipple is a little known early 20th century author and this is considered her finest book.
It is a story of a conventional marriage that is suddenly torn apart by a scheming young French woman who comes to England to be a companion to the husband's mother. It has subtlety that is missing in some of her earlier books and it is a fascinating portrait of a couple who really love each other and are pulled apart contrary to their best and honorable intentions. For Ellen, the protagonist, the...more
It is a story of a conventional marriage that is suddenly torn apart by a scheming young French woman who comes to England to be a companion to the husband's mother. It has subtlety that is missing in some of her earlier books and it is a fascinating portrait of a couple who really love each other and are pulled apart contrary to their best and honorable intentions. For Ellen, the protagonist, the...more
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I have never come across Persephone Classics before, nor the writer of this book, and both are welcome discoveries. This imprint appears to be ploughing a similar furrow to many of the original Virago Modern Classics: rescuing from obscurity interesting and well-written novels by or about women that have been unjustly forgotten. This novel fits into that category well, describing as it does an at first idyllically happy marriage and home in 1950s England. Unfortunately, neither Ellen North, the...more
The Short of It:
There’s nothing more tragic than a happy marriage, falling apart. BUT, given the subject matter, Someone at a Distance is wickedly good.
The Rest of It:
Ellen is the perfect housewife to Avery, and a doting mother to their two children Hugh and Anne. They live in a gorgeous house in a rural neighborhood just outside of London. Their lives are perfect, until Avery’s mother hires a French girl by the name of Louise to assist her with her day-to-day.
Louise is as venomous as they come....more
There’s nothing more tragic than a happy marriage, falling apart. BUT, given the subject matter, Someone at a Distance is wickedly good.
The Rest of It:
Ellen is the perfect housewife to Avery, and a doting mother to their two children Hugh and Anne. They live in a gorgeous house in a rural neighborhood just outside of London. Their lives are perfect, until Avery’s mother hires a French girl by the name of Louise to assist her with her day-to-day.
Louise is as venomous as they come....more
***[plot spoiler alert]***
I love Persephone books and I particularly like war-years fiction (this actually takes place after WWII, but Britain was still dealing with rations, the change in women's roles, and the place of the wealthy and servants in the new post-war world). Dorothy Whipple is a keen observer of what makes women, and men, of the era tick and is a solid writer. I blew through this page-turner in three sittings. So why only 3 stars? Half the book was a slow-motion train wreck, where...more
I love Persephone books and I particularly like war-years fiction (this actually takes place after WWII, but Britain was still dealing with rations, the change in women's roles, and the place of the wealthy and servants in the new post-war world). Dorothy Whipple is a keen observer of what makes women, and men, of the era tick and is a solid writer. I blew through this page-turner in three sittings. So why only 3 stars? Half the book was a slow-motion train wreck, where...more
This is a quiet little domestic novel, a perfect combination of realism and melodrama. Avery and Ellen North are very happily married upper middle class Brits in the post-war countryside. He works in publishing in London, she putters around the garden. They have two perfect children, horse loving Anne and Hugh, who's performing his compulsory military service. Avery's widowed mother, a classic imperious dowager, is tired of not getting enough attention from her family, so she answers a classifie...more
I'm not sure where I read about this book - it's been on my "to read" list for a while now. It was originally published in 1953 and has been reprinted as a Persephone Classic. The jacket says "Persephone Books reprints forgotten twentieth century novels, short stories, cookery books and memoirs by (mostly) women writers. They appeal to the discerning reader who prefers books that are neither too literary nor too commercial, and are guaranteed to be readable, thought-provoking and impossible to f...more
Such a beautiful book. Despite it's grim subject, the disintegration of a marriage, I could not stop reading. And moreover, whenever I read some of it, I'd have to jump up and do some of my own writing afterward. So it's a book that inspires in its gentle and beautiful way. I really love Whipple's prose. She's smooth and thoughtful. The only thing that may not have rang true enough was the ending. Still not sure about that.
I also think this may be her best novel. Not that the others weren't goo...more
I also think this may be her best novel. Not that the others weren't goo...more
This was republished by Persephone Publishing (they find "lost" books by women and reissue them- every book I have read from them has been terrific). I hesitated to read it for a while, but I am glad I did. It's a basic story, but the way it is told makes it suspenseful. Your stomach drops as you realize the train wreck ahead, but to the author's credit, you want to keep reading. Some of the ideas are outdated (it was written in 1953), but I think it's a fantastic novel.
This book told a story of a young family that goes from blissful enjoyment to unease and bitterness after a young french woman infiltrates the family, dividing husband from wife and kids. Both the emotions and the resilience of the characters is very well portrayed, although none of the characters really open up to the reader. This was an extremely quick read- I finished it in a day.
Written in the 1950s this is a book that would make a fantastic film or TV series. When a young, spoiled French woman puts an advert in The Times for light work a series of events is set in motion that destroys a marriage. I really enjoyed this - touches of Madame Bovary in Louise and fascinating period detail
Like Flaubert and Edith Wharton and Kate Chopin...but in 1940's England. It seems like nothing happens, but teh characters are so rich that a choice to dig in teh flower beds or go into town makes a huge bit of difference. This author was forgotten for ages and now, I'm so sad there isn't more by her.
Mar 26, 2010
Emily
added it
Don't let this quiet book fool you, it's a page turner. Plus the setting just couldn't be more quaint and the characters so rich you will think you know them well. I'm off to read every overlooked 20th century female writer I can get my hands on. I suggest you join me and start with this one.
Mar 25, 2010
Hazel
marked it as to-read
I stumbled upon Christopher Fowler's series on Forgotten Authors in the Independent. On this, he says Once again, Persephone Books has done an excellent job of rescuing these lost books, which have committed no greater sin than being unsensationally written and beautifully constructed.
A well-crafted story, with thoughtful characterization and plot. I felt as if I had entered into a tinted early British film, bittersweet, a portrait of the early 50's. If predictable, Whipple makes up for it with gentle insight, deft dialogue and an ease with point-of-view changes.
I have seen this on Amazon, and thought it would be good. When I read the review, am old memory was triggered. I'm sure I read this, (from my small-town public library) over thirty years ago when I was still in high school. It was a good, but quietly sad, book.
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Born in 1893, DOROTHY WHIPPLE (nee Stirrup) had an intensely happy childhood in Blackburn as part of the large family of a local architect. Her close friend George Owen having been killed in the first week of the war, for three years she worked as secretary to Henry Whipple, an educational administrator who was a widower twenty-four years her senior and whom she married in 1917. Their life was mos...more
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Oct 25, 2010 08:39am