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229th out of 305 books
—
485 voters
Keeping the World Away
Lost, found, stolen, strayed, sold, fought over... This engrossing, beautifully crafted novel follows the fictional adventures, over a hundred years, of an early 20th-century painting and the women whose lives it touches.
It opens with bold, passionate Gwen, struggling to be an artist, leaving for Paris where she becomes Rodin's lover and paints a small, intimate picture of...more
It opens with bold, passionate Gwen, struggling to be an artist, leaving for Paris where she becomes Rodin's lover and paints a small, intimate picture of...more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
March 1st 2007
by Vintage
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I expect a book by Margaret Forster to be good and this one is no exception. It is essentially the story of a painting, a variant of Gwen John� s � The Corner of the Artist� s Room in Paris� , as over the years it passes from one woman to another. I knew very little about Gwen John before I read Keeping the World Away and now I want to know more. (Fortunately there is a list of books about her in the back of the book.)[return][return]The title of the book comes from a quotation from Gwen John� s...more
It is a very interesting story and so very well written. Margaret Forster is a clear, straight-forward writer leaving the story to simply roll out before you. She doesn't try to use every exotic word in the English language. Having less of a vocabulary than I would really like, it is sometimes such a struggle to read some writers. I must either guess at the meaning and miss some of the precision of the author's work or stop every few paragraphs to check the dictionary, thus losing the flow of th...more
At about the halfway point, I was finding it difficult to work up enthusiasm to continue, although I have to say that some of the heroines and some of the stories were more interesting than others.
The book is not a straight novel. It uses the device of the painting by Gwen John to introduce new characters and move on to new stories. There are six heroines, and the link from chapter to chapter is tenuous. I had a similar device in my novella, A Bottle of Plonk, but I never regarded it as a true n...more
The book is not a straight novel. It uses the device of the painting by Gwen John to introduce new characters and move on to new stories. There are six heroines, and the link from chapter to chapter is tenuous. I had a similar device in my novella, A Bottle of Plonk, but I never regarded it as a true n...more
This book was really excellent! I couldn't put it down.
SPOILERS below:
When I got to a certain point in the "Gwen" section, the painting she gave to her friend Ursula began to sound very, very familiar. Something clicked in my brain. I knew I had bought a greeting card years ago of an attic, with a wicker chair, a window and a table with flowers on it. I bought it because it made me feel peaceful. I used to keep it on my bulletin board at work.
I ran upstairs to a file folder where I keep work m...more
SPOILERS below:
When I got to a certain point in the "Gwen" section, the painting she gave to her friend Ursula began to sound very, very familiar. Something clicked in my brain. I knew I had bought a greeting card years ago of an attic, with a wicker chair, a window and a table with flowers on it. I bought it because it made me feel peaceful. I used to keep it on my bulletin board at work.
I ran upstairs to a file folder where I keep work m...more
This novel takes a hackneyed structure--follow a life of an object, in this case a painting,and take it through the lives of first the creator and then the people who owned it-- and does nothing original or particularly interesting with it. It begins with Gwen, the Victorian woman who struggled to express her passion through her painting only to shift it to Rodin. It moves on to similar women who 'want to keep the world away' until it comes to its modern setting. The narrative is mostly telling...more
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'Keeping The World Away' is a novel about a painting and the women whose lives it touches, original and a fabulous read, a perfect example of why I have been enjoying the novels of Margaret Forster since the late nineteen sixties. This is not an exaggeration, I find her work just as appealing now as I did all those years ago. What makes 'Keeping The World Away' so fascinating is the fact that it has taken the painting of a real life artist Gwen John(1876-1939) as its subject with the novels titl...more
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This is the kind of book that pulls you in the more you read of it. Based on the story of Gwen John, the artist who painted a soulful picture of a lone chair and table in a small room, we follow the life of that picture through it's different owners. All of these women have in common their desire to retreat from the world in some way, and their characters as always with a Forster novel are finely and beautifully drawn. Each one logically follows the other and is linked in some way, proving that...more
Having admired Forster's brilliant Daphne du Maurier biography, I thought it was time to try her fiction.
This is one of those quiet novels that takes us into its characters' heads. It tracks the imaginary life of a version of Gwen John's real painting A Corner of the Artist's Room in Paris, and what it means to the artist and to the various other women into whose possession it comes. In response to this simple, beautiful interior, each woman eventually comes to identify a need to keep the world...more
This is one of those quiet novels that takes us into its characters' heads. It tracks the imaginary life of a version of Gwen John's real painting A Corner of the Artist's Room in Paris, and what it means to the artist and to the various other women into whose possession it comes. In response to this simple, beautiful interior, each woman eventually comes to identify a need to keep the world...more
This is the story of a small, intimate painting of an interior by the artist Gwen John. Over the next hundred or so years, as it is sold, stolen, abandoned, it touches the lives of the women who have it in their possession - all of whom share the desire to have that tranquil golden place as depicted in the picture.
The women are linked, unknown to themselves, by a tenuous thread - the son of a previous owner meeting briefly, the current owner but neither being aware of the link.
This is a woman's...more
The women are linked, unknown to themselves, by a tenuous thread - the son of a previous owner meeting briefly, the current owner but neither being aware of the link.
This is a woman's...more
I wasn't sure I liked this novel at first, but kept reading anyway, and came to like it very much in the end. The first character, whom I just found out is the fictionalized but real painter Gwen John, was my least favorite. She creates a small painting of a corner of her attic room in paris that passes through the hands of several women over the course of about 100 years, all of whom are drawn to it because of factors in their own lives. The women are all very different from one another, but ha...more
This is like The Red Violin,a movie which follows a violin through history and all its owners, except that the story follows a painting from it's creation through all its various owners. I loved finding out that the author is a real painter/artist. DUH. I didn't know that when I was reading it. It seemed too long and a little contrived with the connections between the owners, but basically was a good story. I liked the story about the original artist the best , mainly because of her affair with...more
I really like this kind of gently contrived story where the coincidences are a little stretched. I also liked that she didn't tie it all up together into a neat ending.
Each character stands on her own, the men are quite modern, particularly Charlotte's father. There are loose ends in the stories, and they are really short stories pulled together by the device of the painting.
She writes beautifully and while I lost my way a little about half way I was very pleased I finished it.
Each character stands on her own, the men are quite modern, particularly Charlotte's father. There are loose ends in the stories, and they are really short stories pulled together by the device of the painting.
She writes beautifully and while I lost my way a little about half way I was very pleased I finished it.
Sep 14, 2007
Jennifer
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
people who enjoy art, women
The idea behind this book was very creative. The book is entirely character driven and each section involves another character. The first character was the painter Gwen John. Her story is loosely based on facts. She paints a picture of her attic room and her feelings on her current state of mind. The picture is given to a friend who looses it on her journey to Paris. Next, the painting is given a life of it's own as it travels from woman to woman. The painting itself comes to symbolize the state...more
I had read Lady's Maid several years ago, and when I learned that Margaret Forster had written another book, I knew I would have to read it. It is wonderfully written. The first section is a fictional account of much of the life of Welsh artist Gwen John who lived from 1876 to 1939. At a turbulent point in her life, Gwen, then living in Paris, created a small painting of a corner of her attic room. She gave this painting to a friend. The remaining sections of the book tell of the painting's owne...more
I liked the idea of this book. Much like the movie "The Red Violin", the story of this painting starts with the artist who pours her heart and soul into this painting in order to please her lover. The book is based on an actual painting (at least a version of it) and artist. This painting is lost, found, sold, bought and passed on to many different women through the ages, and the book tells the story of how it affects their respective lives.
My main problem with the story is though "passion" is b...more
My main problem with the story is though "passion" is b...more
The title says so much about this book that I barely feel the need to write a review. Interesting bits about it - I liked the way it articulated looking at a painting, I'm glad to know about the artists Gwen John and her brother, and Margaret Forster really does know how to create characters. It was a lonely lonely book though, and I kept having to jump out of it and warm myself up on family before I could finish it.
The story of a (real) Gwen John painting and its fictional history, passing through the lives of several women and changing their lives. As I have always thought Gwen John a far better painter than her brother Augustus, I was ready to like this, and was not disappointed. Forster is so good at documenting ordinary women's lives of the twentieth century. Why doesn't she win more prizes?
Story follows a painting by a little known female painter in the turn of the 20th century, and then vignettes of 5 other women, all of whom own the painting. My friend's advice to read the author's notes on the painter and skip or skim the first 90 pages that are about her life were valuable -- that section was dense and tough to get through. The remaining stories were easy to read and of interest.
I was intrigued by the premise of this book: following the life of a painting over time as it passes from the original artist into the lives of a series of subsequent owners. The author gives a glimpse of their lives and how they relate to this special piece of art. Being an artist as well as a writer, I could completely relate to the concept. The execution, however, could have been better. I felt too much time was spent on the long, drawn-out background story of the first person in the story -...more
Sep 16, 2007
Deb
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Art appreciators, artists
I learned about the artist Gwen John and her brother Augustus. The brother's work overshadowed Gwen's, but she is now considered the better of artist of the two.
I liked getting into the minds of the women who owned, at different times, the "room" picture. Virginia Woolf's statement that a woman needs a room of her own kept coming to mind--as if a space of privacy--a sacred space--is not simply a luxury, but a necessity for women. I think that this is bec. men--traditionally--have had that space...more
I liked getting into the minds of the women who owned, at different times, the "room" picture. Virginia Woolf's statement that a woman needs a room of her own kept coming to mind--as if a space of privacy--a sacred space--is not simply a luxury, but a necessity for women. I think that this is bec. men--traditionally--have had that space...more
I enjoyed the book up until when Paul Mortimer was bombarding Lucasta with phone calls and EMAILS? This must have been the early 1950s.Breaks the spell a bit....but a good read.Maybe that is edited out in other editions.
This is the first Margaret Forster I have read. My next read will be another.
This is the first Margaret Forster I have read. My next read will be another.
Molto ben scritto e ben articolato.
Mi è piaciuto soprattutto il legame che unisce le persone che entrano in possesso del quadro, come alla fine tutte si siano conosciute o sfiorate.
Peccato alcuni personaggi al limite della sociopatia.
Mi è piaciuto soprattutto il legame che unisce le persone che entrano in possesso del quadro, come alla fine tutte si siano conosciute o sfiorate.
Peccato alcuni personaggi al limite della sociopatia.
The mood and concept of this novel has stayed with me over the years .. but I couldn't remember the title. To me the writer hit a key nerve and I wonder if most women have a fantasy about a room or space for them alone.
Focused on a painting by the artist Gwen John, this book is a something of a mood study of the women who come to own the painting (not recognized for many years as being valuable)in the years after the artist's death.
Whoa! some serious recluses here - Guess what their Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is!
Thanks to Candice for the link to the picture.
Read this for the Book Discussion at the library this month. Meeting at 'Riverviews Art Space'.
Thanks to Candice for the link to the picture.
Read this for the Book Discussion at the library this month. Meeting at 'Riverviews Art Space'.
Loved this one. Great writer; each chapter is a different character, but they interconnect through one painting. I highly recommend it and want to read more by the author.
Interesting story about a painting and what it means to each lady that owns it or comes across the painting. The story is based on an actually painting by a Welsh artist.
Like
Girl in Hyacinth Blue
, this story follows a painting as it's passed from woman to woman, beginning with the painter herself, Gwen John. The problems I had with this book were that parts of it felt very condensed, and sometimes from paragraph to paragraph, it was hard to figure out how much time was to have passed, making it feel like there were chunks edited out. I also felt that some of the connections between the characters were contrived and it took away from the realness of the book.
I was sent this book to review for Library Journal. I knew of Margaret Forster Margaret Forster but had never read anything by her. The premise of the story sounded familiar - a painting is the element that ties the stories of the owners together. Very Girl in Hyacinth Blue. But this novel is anything but a ripoff of another story - this was so beautifully and quietly written. Each woman in turn is affected by this painting, and the quest for the quietness and solitude it promises is something m...more
I think the book is worthy of 3.5 stars. It is well written, but I found it to be a very slow read. It was very interesting in places, and then there were times when I literally had to force myself to read.
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Margaret Forster was educated at the Carlisle and County High School for Girls. From here she won an Open Scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford where in 1960 she was awarded an honours degree in History. The day after she finished her final exams, she married the writer Hunter Davies, whom she met and fell in love with at the age of 17.
Since 1963 Margaret Forster has worked as a novelist, biog...more
More about Margaret Forster...
Since 1963 Margaret Forster has worked as a novelist, biog...more
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