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The Servants' Quarters

3.08 of 5 stars 3.08 · rating details · 267 ratings · 74 reviews

The Servants’ Quarters, a complex and sophisticated love story, evokes a vanishing world of privilege with a Pygmalion twist.

Haunted by phantoms of the Second World War and the Holocaust, young Cressida lives in terror of George Harding, who, severely disfigured, has returned from the front to recover in his family’s stately African home. When he plucks young Cressida’s b...more

Hardcover, 256 pages

Published April 27th 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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May 31, 2012 Sacha rated it 2 of 5 stars

Dry. Tedious. Inadequate. Those are the three words I would use to describe "The Servants' Quarters" by South African author Lynn Freed. For a novel that was quoted by Publishers Weekly to be a "bittersweet love story", it's one of the most incomprehensible love stories I've ever read.

Cressida is a young girl growing up in the shadow of World War II. Falling on hard times, her family (consisting of an invalid father, a critical mother and a dull sister) moves into the servants' quarters at a man...more Dry. Tedious. Inadequate. Those are the three words I would use to describe "The Servants' Quarters" by South African author Lynn Freed. For a novel that was quoted by Publishers Weekly to be a "bittersweet love story", it's one of the most incomprehensible love stories I've ever read.

Cressida is a young girl growing up in the shadow of World War II. Falling on hard times, her family (consisting of an invalid father, a critical mother and a dull sister) moves into the servants' quarters at a manor belonging to George Harding, a wealthy acquaintance. With her mother Muriel's constant carping and the devastating loss of her father's ability to communicate, Cressida is content with her own company a great deal of the time, save for Phineas, a fatherly and slightly pedagogic African house servant. It is only when the curmudgeon Harding suddenly softens towards her after an initially brusque meeting and bids her to spend time with his spiritless nephew Edgar that she begins to wonder about the intentions of men. Aiding in her confusion is Muriel's sordid past, strange dalliances and sudden remarriage to a jealous and callous man named Mr. Ledson. Over time, Cressida also becomes Harding's reluctant geisha, entertaining him and taking care of his aging mother by reading books to her and offering companionship. Despite Harding's frightening physical countenance due to war injuries (he wears a hat with a veil to conceal a scarred face), Cressida finds herself increasingly drawn to him and once in the throes of her adolescence throws herself at him and a young Scottish tutor, creating a strange love triangle.

"The Servants' Quarters" was my introduction to Lynn Freed, author of five books previous to this one. Writing with a mechanical style that lacks any sort of poetry, Freed failed to keep me interested in her tale and it is because it regrettably suffers from a triumvirate of which includes a major element:

1) Scarce indications of time period - One could hardly tell it was World War II. There is no other hint except for the sporadic mentions of Germans in Cressida's nightmares, as well as Harding's war injuries
2) Setting - The story takes place in South Africa but Freed's narration offers no clues as to this foreign landscape. I didn't even know this until I read a synopsis and reviews of this book.
3) Poor character development - No one ever really gets to know the characters in the way that they should. There is very little psychological digging; it appears Freed left her mental pick ax sitting at the excavation site, the bones of her characters' minds and motivations teasingly exposed but never extracted.

Due to the third, I find it hardest to understand Cressida (and she is the main character - BIG PROBLEM) and the reasons why she falls in love with a man whom she initially despises, not to mention taking up with a man she cares nothing about. The chapters are brief and the story moves too quickly, often giving the impression that whole portions of it are missing (it makes me wonder how this novel read before the first edit). At only 216 pages, I still read it slowly (due to lack of interest) and came away from it wondering what I'd just read, feeling absolutely no connection to the story or the characters.

Speaking of characters, Cressida is highly unpleasant - she is ill tempered, often sullen and critical of those around her and has recurrent outbursts that could still be called tantrums, even in the latter parts of the book when she is a teenager. Harding is a variable bear of a man, sugar pouring out of his mouth one moment and fire the next (though Cressida is usually the one with whom he becomes impassioned, for better and for worse). Though Muriel is ultimately correct in calling her daughter "ungrateful", she is not a character with whom one can easily sympathize either, the uncovering of her past revealing a string of infidelities that have shaped all of their lives. The rest of the characters are barely highlighted, rounding out one of the more lackluster novels I have read in a while.

Bottom line: After taking almost two weeks to read what should've taken me a few hours, I know now not to bother with Freed's other work. To place a story in an exotic locale like South Africa and not bother with some good descriptions is disappointing, especially when Freed herself grew up there. To place a story during a tumultuous time period like World War II, make a war veteran a main character and then not offer an emotional account of the waste of war on the mind and body, is a letdown. Most important, to create characters with whom a reader cannot even sympathize, much less understand, is a literary calamity. Better luck next time, I guess (though I won't be reading it!). (less)

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Dec 30, 2009 Kat rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is really a quite well written book and an interesting setting. As the backcover suggests it is a Beauty and the Beast type of story, and would be much more compelling were it not for the somewhat creepy pedophile subtext and the sheer cookiness of almost all the characters. With very few exceptions (Phineas and Elspeth) noone in this book is a grown-up or acts like one. The heroine is a teenager so we can expect the angst and the tearful outbursts from her, but pretty much everyone has the...more

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Jul 13, 2009 Carolyn rated it 3 of 5 stars

"If every family chooses someone to punish, I was the one chosen by mine. Mr. Harding, for instance. When he came to lunch, Ma always put him next to me. Why me? I wanted to know. Why not Miranda, she's a freak herself? Every night Miranda woke up screaming that the Germans were coming for her over a wall."

And there you have all the important storylines of The Servants' Quarters introduced in the first sentence. Ten-year-old Cressida lives in South Africa post WWII, although the war could hardly...more "If every family chooses someone to punish, I was the one chosen by mine. Mr. Harding, for instance. When he came to lunch, Ma always put him next to me. Why me? I wanted to know. Why not Miranda, she's a freak herself? Every night Miranda woke up screaming that the Germans were coming for her over a wall."

And there you have all the important storylines of The Servants' Quarters introduced in the first sentence. Ten-year-old Cressida lives in South Africa post WWII, although the war could hardly be closer to someone not even born before it ended. Most of the adult men in the novel have been affected by it to some degree, none more than Mr. Harding, who sustained horrible facial burns when his plane was shot down. Cressida's father, although virtually a vegetable (tangentially connected to the war), has infused his girls, Cressida and Miranda, with a palpable fear of what could happen to them, just by virtue of him, and therefore them, being Jewish. Muriel, Cressida's mother, is the town floozy and yet maintains an air of delusional class superiority over the rest of the town and over Cressida as well, whom she obviously enjoys bullying.

When Cressida's parents lose their house and accept Mr. Harding's invitation to live at his estate, albeit in the servants' quarters, she is "hired" by Mr. Harding to infuse his nephew, Edgar, with the same sort of high spiritedness that she has. More easily said than done. If that sounds just a tad familiar -- young person from wrong side of tracks hired by freaky recluse to entertain distant relative -- Freed has Mr. Harding hand Cressida a copy of Great Expectations, just to make sure you didn't miss the reference. Other obvious cultural touchstones Freed includes are Jane Eyre and Lolita, while Cressida reminded me a great deal of Briony from Atonement.

Three-quarters of the way through the book, I thought, What a great summer read. Freed's writing is fluid and her storytelling makes one keep turning the pages. (I read it in about two days.) But the last section lost me. I just couldn't get on board with the pivotal romantic relationship in the story. And then Freed's wonderful writing came to a screeching halt with this exchange:

"You never asked me to come to your room in the first place!"
"I'd been asking you for years, you little fool, if only you'd been able to see it."

Did Freed take the day off and let someone else write this scene? I don't know, but I'm happy to say there isn't any other portion of the book that is this painful to read.

Also disappointing was that although the novel is set in South Africa, one learns very little about the country and the people, as virtually all the action takes place on the Harding estate.
(less)

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Jan 19, 2011 Reema rated it 4 of 5 stars

here we go . . . at first, it read like an upscale version of a harlequin romance. child bride/rich patron-lover? check. haunted past and haunted house? check. sexy scenes and class conflict, sometimes with their limbs entangled? double check. i have to admit, while i am still an admirer/alum of lynn freed's style, i felt she was rehashing her stock characters here and replaying her infuriatingly limited interest with one character, usually young, female, and angry. (don't get me wrong--i *root*...more here we go . . . at first, it read like an upscale version of a harlequin romance. child bride/rich patron-lover? check. haunted past and haunted house? check. sexy scenes and class conflict, sometimes with their limbs entangled? double check. i have to admit, while i am still an admirer/alum of lynn freed's style, i felt she was rehashing her stock characters here and replaying her infuriatingly limited interest with one character, usually young, female, and angry. (don't get me wrong--i *root* for girls like that!) but there were several moments when i wished the reader could have gotten a better sense of some of the other potentially rich characters . . . such as the "good" sister and Mr. Harding's selfless lover and South African Phineas. Then the story might have taken on a richer, broader dimension through its less-backgrounded characters. However, the novel frustratingly stayed within the stubbornly selfish (if admirably so) confines of Cressida's mind and, through her, Mr. Harding's similar (if more educated) mind.

However. I acknowledge also that these are to some extent stylistic quibbles, and that there are persuasive feminist and aesthetic arguments for Freed's authorial choices. There aren't many novels with such openly defiant, sexual, and harshly observant female narrators; and perhaps the novel would be unruly, much less structurally sound if it hadn't focused largely on Cressida as a character. Freed's writing too, regardless of its content, is still spare, bold, and uncannily insightful about class relations, desire, and self-discovery/destiny. I found myself admiring the economy of what she calls "brushstrokes," by which she conveys entire relationships, racial dynamics, and psychologies. I also loved how unsparingly complex her mother-daughter relationship was, in yet another novel of hers, and how eerily wise she continues to be about the nature and course of sex and love. in these regards, freed continues to be, to my knowledge, one of fiercest writers out there in terms of the writerly guts and integrity it takes to depict the thing that no one else will name (or touch). (less)

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Aug 18, 2012 Dana Burgess rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Servants’ Quarters by Lynn Freed is a little book that packs a big punch. It is an interesting exploration of the residual effects of WWII on the ‘next generation’: those kids that were babies during the war, or born just after, and were raised by those who lived through it. The story itself is set in Africa and I was looking forward to the ethnic slant that would bring. Sadly, that slant was missing. The novel read as if it could have been set anywhere. It was slightly disappointing but the...more

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May 16, 2011 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2011

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A blurb on the back of the book likened this book to a Beauty & the Beast tale, and it certainly is that. However, it's a somewhat disturbing story, in that the heroine is a teenage girl (13 at the outset) who became (eventually) the wife of the beast...in this case, a severely burned war vet who came home to recover. There was a definite undercurrent of something inappropriate there, and though it was made "relatively" clear that nothing untoward happened between the two until 1) she was of...more A blurb on the back of the book likened this book to a Beauty & the Beast tale, and it certainly is that. However, it's a somewhat disturbing story, in that the heroine is a teenage girl (13 at the outset) who became (eventually) the wife of the beast...in this case, a severely burned war vet who came home to recover. There was a definite undercurrent of something inappropriate there, and though it was made "relatively" clear that nothing untoward happened between the two until 1) she was of legal age, and 2) she made the first move, it nonetheless struck me as a little pedophelic, and as such a little creepy.

Most of the characters in this book were supremely unlikeable. Cressida was a flighty, emotional, snotty teenager for the majority of the book. She grew out of it to a great extent by the end, but I had a hard time liking her, though when it came to choosing between her and most of the other characters, it was impossible to root for anyone else. Her mother was not only useless, but amoral, selfish, and ridiculously snobby. Her sister was stupid and mean. Both were jealous bitches in the extreme. Mrs. Arbuthnot (Mr. Harding's housekeeper) was an absolute shrew. Edgar was a creep and a pervert, as was his roommate (and tutor). George Harding himself was weird and a little creepy, but he ultimate proved himself to be a reasonably decent man.

Phineas was hilarious and blunt, and I loved him. But best of all was Elspeth, who proved her mettle and the truth of her heart by letting go of the man she loved (George Harding) so he have who he loved most (Cressida). I loved her for her unselfishness, and her true & freely given friendship to Cressida.

In the end, the book is a winner. It provoked an emotional reaction in me, and made me pause to evaluate exactly what makes a relationship work. In the case here, it was definitely a collection of unusual characteristics that perhaps in any other circumstance would not have worked. And perhaps that is, in essence, the beauty of Beauty and the Beast.(less)

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Apr 22, 2010 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

Definitely well written, in complete control of the language. The character dynamics were completely believable and very interesting. Protagonist is really well drawn. Overall, though, I wast just sort of bored by the narrative. Nothing about it ever really grabbed me. I don't think this is the book's fault, it just wasn't my thing, really. Again, it was great to see all the characters as they played off the protagonist, but story-wise, I wanted more. More what, I don't know, but something. This...more

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Mar 07, 2011 Butterflycager rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-checkouts, historical-fiction, africa

I chose this book because I needed South Africa for an Around the World reading challenge. That, plus the fact that it was an extremely short book enabled me to finish it. It wasn't that the writing was poor - it wasn't at all, and I would read Lynn Freed again. My issue with this book was the characters - they were some of the nastiest and most manipulative creatures I have have ever read about. I found myself rejoicing that that they were only fictional creations, and not real people that I wo...more

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Jun 20, 2009 Susann rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Susann by: NPR/Alan Cheuse

When it comes to NPR book reviews, I think I need to stick with Nancy Pearl and Maureen Corrigan. Alan Cheuse and I just don't share the same tastes. Freed's writing carried me along, but I didn't get anything out of the story. The setting involves a Jewish family in South Africa, right after WWII. Race, class, and religious conflicts were to be expected, and Freed also packed in themes of blame, guilt, and responsibility. All these issues, combined with unappealing characters, left me unmoved....more

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Jul 17, 2012 Samantha Glasser rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

The Servants' Quarters is a story told in three parts. The first begins with Cressida, the narrator and protagonist of the story. She is only ten years old, and she is terrified of the Germans. Although she was born after WWII, her family has felt the effects of it; her sister Miranda suffers from nightmares as well and her father's paralysis is a constant burden on the family. To make matters worse, George Harding, the wealthy owner of a brilliant house on the hill, was scarred during the war,...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Lauren Magnussen rated it 4 of 5 stars

In Lynn Freed's The Servants' Quarters, a bittersweet saga of love - a love that, in this novel, is particularly unconventional - takes place over the span of many years, packing an epic of a romance into a little over 200 pages. Certainly the characters in the book are not immediately likeable, and thus, not for everyone: flaws and irritations in each character stick out obviously, but in a way that creates a full-blooded human story. Perfection is not Freed's goal. The story moves along rapidl...more

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Feb 12, 2012 Teresa rated it 3 of 5 stars

hmmmm. i'm honestly not sure what to make of this book. part of me found is a beautifully written, historical romance. another part of me found it simply...inappropriate.

maybe i'm too stuck in the current day expectations of what makes an acceptable pairing, speaking mostly of age, but i was a bit creeped out by the dynamics of the relationship in this story.

you'll have to read it to decide for yourself, however, i won't be the one to recommend it.

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Oct 30, 2009 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

Another one of the randomly-selected-from-the-library's-new-release-shelf books. This one was extremely well written, and had a lot of neat literary elements. The beginning third of the book seems so hopeless that i found it somewhat depressing, but the end was very well done and you are happy that the main character has found some semblance of moderate happiness. An interesting look at life in general, and an enlightening perspective on people's character.

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Aug 15, 2009 Pamela rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was definitely a strange book, but it was smooth and well-written. It was also a quick read.

I liked the character development, and the relationships were complex and interesting. I was a bit thrown with the last part of the book--it was a bit too strange for me. There were also things such as the location that really didn't make a difference when you thought they would have.

It's definitely not a boring book, and it will keep you thinking, so I'd suggest it.

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Nov 10, 2009 Allyson rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a very odd book. I do not know The Beauty & The Beast story but read on the book that the author used that story as inspiration. It felt very superficial, as if she was only skimming the surface of her characters. And this was after Half Broke Horses. Granted the book was really short but still it felt like a watercolor wash rather than an oil painting. I would explore her other books, maybe.

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Nov 28, 2009 Sandra rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book is described as another version of Beauty and the Beast. Cressida is a free-spirit who lives with her mother and sister. When her father dies from the injuries he sustains in a fight, the family moves into the servant's quarters. She begins working for the home-owner (who was disfigured in the war) and they become friends....and more...

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Jun 18, 2009 Iva rated it 4 of 5 stars

This wonderfully observant novel but a masterly writer applies a variety of themes. The most prominent is a coming-of-age story. Others are:
South African Jews
WWII and its effects
Mothers and daughters
British class system
Shakespeare
The Forsyte Saga
The Holocaust
Pygmalion

It's a compelling story,

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Jul 05, 2009 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Quirky little book. I was intrigued and the two main characters were odd and interesting enough to pull me along, but I actually felt like it could have/should have been a little longer. The immediate setting was vivid, but several other aspects weren't fully realized: the greater context of South Africa, religious tensions for Jews after WWII, and the sense of responsibility for the main protagonist's silly, sloppy actions. Wish I could give it 4 stars. I'm still thinking about the story.

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Sep 26, 2011 JoEllen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Post-WWII social study, from a young-girl-coming-of-age in South Africa. But it didn't play out "South African." It could have been set anywhere with a social caste system; anywhere, as I said.

Read because I was looking for something different. This is charming, entertaining, readable.

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Dec 16, 2009 Felicity rated it 2 of 5 stars

Not bad, not good, just so-so. I concur with a lot of the other reviewers who seem to suggest this is a story of missed opportunities. The characters and the background is intrinsically interesting, and the story held a lot of promise. But the author failed to realize any of it.

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Apr 06, 2010 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

An extremely well written story in the vein of the nineteenth century romanticism writers. The characters are both vivid and vague throughout but the story unfolds poetically. I wasn't amazed or even totally comfortable with the plot itself but I enjoyed the author's style.

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Apr 10, 2011 Janice rated it 2 of 5 stars

I liked this book because it was interesting and well written (probably 2.5 stars), but wouldn't recommend it. The story has weird undertones of inappropriate thoughts/actions from all the male characters and the main character seems to be the only one with any redeeming qualities.

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Apr 09, 2012 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

I grabbed this off the end of a library shelf as we were leaving, knowing nothing but the cover/title. Interesting and appealing little story set in South Africa, shades of Jane Eyre with a much more sullen teenager as protagonist. It was a nice surprise.

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Dec 23, 2009 Jocelyn rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, fiction

A girl turns into a indentured servant for a disfigured man. It's not the characters are that are particularly interesting, but rather the constantly changing relationships between characters. The book takes a romantic twist at the end that felt forced.

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Jun 17, 2012 Jen rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this on a plane. Cover to cover. If you're stuck in a metal tube in the sky for 7 hours and have just finished that really good book that was your first choice, this will be a disappointing second, but will at least get you through.

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Sep 01, 2010 Natalie rated it 1 of 5 stars

The premise was interesting - man badly burned in the war meets beautiful young girl...she has nightmares, etc and then learns to love him. But it was more about power in relationships and money. Not great for anyone...in my opinion!

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Oct 30, 2009 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

The only disappointing thing about this book was that the author didn't get much mileage out of setting it in Africa. Everyone, with the exception of one servant, was as English as could be and interacted as little as possible with the environment outside their stately homes and grounds. That said, the story held my interest throughout and I wish it had been longer.

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Jun 28, 2011 Shannon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Slow to begin, but draws you in about 2/3 of the way through. I don't know how to categorize this one; it seems to resist pigeonholing. Set in South Africa after WWII, but not really Booker Prize fodder- not focused enough on the setting. The narrator comes of age, but it's not really about that (or maybe it is). There's a romance, but it's not really about that either. Perhaps it's about a relationship. The two primary characters (our narrator, who grows from a young girl to a young adult, and...more

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Jul 09, 2009 Kristin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Not sure how this book came my way. I must have read a review. It was described as an interpretation of Beauty and the Beast. I enjoyed it but would call it an interpretation of Jane Eyre with a slight twist on the the ending.

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Feb 26, 2012 Deidre rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read The Curse of the Appropriate Man back in 2006. Freed obviously likes a female protagonist who is strange, young, and sexually bold. She’s an intriguing writer. I’ll be checking out more books by her.

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About Lynn Freed

Lynn Freed is a South African novelist and academic.

She came to the U.S. first as a foreign exchange student, and then went on to receive an M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature from Columbia University. She taught at Bennington College, Saint Mary's College of California, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Oregon, the University of Montana, and the University of Texas in Au...more

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