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485th out of 3,140 books
—
13,772 voters
Fortune's Rocks
by
Anita Shreve
Everywhere hailed for its emotional intensity and unflagging narrative momentum, this magnificent novel transports us to the turn of the twentieth century, to the world of a prominent Boston family summering on the New Hampshire coast, and to the social orbit of a spirited young woman who falls into a passionate, illicit affair with an older man, with cataclysmic results.
Paperback, 528 pages
Published
November 1st 2002
by Little, Brown and Company
(first published December 2nd 1999)
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Jul 24, 2007
Forrest
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
those looking for light reads that still contain impact.
Shelves:
lightreading
I like to read Anita Shreve when I am tired out on "literary" novels but am not quite at the point where something by, say, Sophie Kinesella sounds appealing. Shreve's novels are usually romances of two kinds; ones that build to a tragic emotional climax, or ones that are centered around lost love or an event in the protagonist's past that gets revealed over the course of the novel. I like to call them "trashy reads," but in truth, I think Shreve usually brings quite a bit of quality to her work...more
Ok friends, I know Shreve's books can be a little questionable which is why I've only read one other, but this one is the winner. She got it together this time.
I love this book...a reluctant admittance. The story of forbidden love is wrong, right, sad, joyful, and just utterly romantic even in its sheer destruction. I think my feelings for this book may also be biased by things in my personal life around the time that really made me feel and understand all of the characters quite deeply. Anyway,...more
I love this book...a reluctant admittance. The story of forbidden love is wrong, right, sad, joyful, and just utterly romantic even in its sheer destruction. I think my feelings for this book may also be biased by things in my personal life around the time that really made me feel and understand all of the characters quite deeply. Anyway,...more
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I have read and re-read this book literally dozens of times. Every time I take away from it something new. It's a coming-of-age story in the loosest sense of the word, because it's so much more than that.
Shreve's writing just sings in this book. The opening scene, in which the 15-year-old main character makes her way across a beach as men gawk at her, is simply stunning. I can hear lines from this book in my head, they're so well written. Perhaps this book resonates particularly strongly becaus...more
Shreve's writing just sings in this book. The opening scene, in which the 15-year-old main character makes her way across a beach as men gawk at her, is simply stunning. I can hear lines from this book in my head, they're so well written. Perhaps this book resonates particularly strongly becaus...more
Anita Shreve is one of my favorite authors, and this is an older book of hers that I've just now gotten around to reading. I usually like her books because they are very romantic, but also very literate. FORTUNE'S ROCKS may be my absolute favorite. I LOVED it. I read it in less than two days. Of course, the whole idea of a 15 year old girl and a 40+ man is pretty repulsive, but Shreve somehow makes it all work. You end up rooting for Olympia and Haskell even though you know you shouldn't. Olympi...more
It's been a while since I read this book, but I recall carrying it around constantly hoping for the chance to read a page or two. The characters are so well developed that you feel you are living their experiences, and the scandalous drama that occurs throughout the book makes it even harder to put down. This isn't any kind of literary masterpiece, but it's highly entertaining. Isn't that what books are supposed to be anyway :)
An unbelievable tale of love and lose. I couldn't put this book down! I was up until 3am reading. My husband thought I was nuts. It is a tear jerker for any mother.
I'm not sure how to review this book. First of all, I didn't like it being written from the third person view. The author missed an amazing opportunity to delve into the intense feelings that must have been going on inside or Olympia. Maybe she couldn't write about them because she's never experienced them to the level Olympia did. I have been there,so I know what the writer couldn't express.
Let's see, what else? Haskell and Olympia are two people who experience that "connection" so many people...more
Let's see, what else? Haskell and Olympia are two people who experience that "connection" so many people...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I can't really say that I liked this book, but I was interested enough in what happens to Olympia to finish. The story seemed to spend to much time on one period in Olympias life and felt jumpy when it skipped to the next. The setting and storyline was intriging enough right off the bat but it soon began to feel like a dime store romance. Had I ever read a dime store romance, I would guess that the authors use of language was somewhat better, but the smutiness was the same. I think that Olympia...more
I think I'm one of the ones in the minority here. I had a difficult time getting into the book at first -- perhaps if Olympia had been a couple of years older at least. A 40+ year old man and a 15 year old girl. Ew. That said, I just didn't see any real chemistry between the two, outside of the sexual attraction for this life long supposed great love. I almost gave up when they started writing those long letters to each other, then it picked up around page 200 into her exile and attempt to regai...more
I loved this book - definitely my favorite Shreve book to date. I loved the setting and the characters. It is a wonderful love story - maybe a bit over the edge romance novelish in the details but the story saved it. In today's world Olympia wouldn't be so believable but for a turn-of-the-century female, only child, raised in a world of wealth and educated by her adoring father, I believed her character and her actions. Olympia & Haskell understood the consequences & they truly loved the...more
This is one of Anita Shreve's best books. I loved the setting (NH coastline), the time period (turn of the 20th century) and the characters. Shreve gave Olympia strength and courage not typically showcased in women during that time. Her struggles are real and you can feel her thoughts and desires as if you are living life within her. The writing is flowerly and formal, which was a refreshing change from other books I have recently read. The only negative was that it took 75-100 pages to really g...more
Dec 07, 2010
Kirsty Darbyshire
added it
In the beginning this book is almost everything I least like reading. It's a historical love story set in 1899. If I hadn't read any of Shreve's books before I'd have given up then and there. I carried on reading about the affair between fifteen year old Olympia Biddeford and forty one year old married with four children John Haskell because I thought that Shreve must have something in mind other than a pure romance (or not-so-pure depending on which sense you apply pure in, I suppose).
And of c
...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Whew! Quite a read. Actually, quite a listen. This book certainly kept me entertained on my drive home from Atlanta!
The conflict is the great passion shared by a good, 15-year-old, very bright, maturing, light-of-her-father's life girl and a good, kind, 40+ year-old married doctor/father of three children at the turn of the last century. When I realized the improbability of the plot, and also what was probably going to happen, I almost didn't read the book, but had promised a friend that I would...more
The conflict is the great passion shared by a good, 15-year-old, very bright, maturing, light-of-her-father's life girl and a good, kind, 40+ year-old married doctor/father of three children at the turn of the last century. When I realized the improbability of the plot, and also what was probably going to happen, I almost didn't read the book, but had promised a friend that I would...more
Originally posted at A Novel Idea Reviews
Rating: 4/5
Every summer, crowds of the wealthy and socially esteemed flock to the coastal town of Fortune’s Rocks. Beach homes line the shore, one of which belongs to the prominent family of 15-year-old Olympia Biddeford. It is the turn of the century, and the turning of Olympia’s life; events will inevitably unfold, plunging her from girl to woman, and altering her forever. This summer, the summer in which she turns sixteen, is the summer that she meets...more
Rating: 4/5
Every summer, crowds of the wealthy and socially esteemed flock to the coastal town of Fortune’s Rocks. Beach homes line the shore, one of which belongs to the prominent family of 15-year-old Olympia Biddeford. It is the turn of the century, and the turning of Olympia’s life; events will inevitably unfold, plunging her from girl to woman, and altering her forever. This summer, the summer in which she turns sixteen, is the summer that she meets...more
I picked up this book (along with 20 others) at a Friends of the Library sale in Oceanside,CA. Rooms of books were grouped according to genre, with this novel being found on the patio with all of the other literary-like fiction. There is a resemblance to literature in this book, but little else. As the blurb states, there is momentum, and a lead female, Olympia, with some "spirit." Like many other novels involving a younger woman and an older man, she finds herself compromised, but I never felt...more
If you want a sensuous, romantic, bordering on erotic, book for light summer reading, forget about the many shades of grey and get this book by Anita Shreeve, famous for "The Pilot's Wife" and "Weight of Water".
Set in the summer of 1899 when Olympia is 15 years old, the story takes place at a wealthy beach community, in New Hampshire. I am not sure if it is a real place or a mythical one, but it definitely has a basis in historical fact and the setting is as much a character as any of the human...more
Set in the summer of 1899 when Olympia is 15 years old, the story takes place at a wealthy beach community, in New Hampshire. I am not sure if it is a real place or a mythical one, but it definitely has a basis in historical fact and the setting is as much a character as any of the human...more
Fortune's Rocks is a historical romance set at the turn of the 19th to 20th century. Whilst the tale is told in the stilted language of the privileged of that era, there is a heightened sensuousness delivered from tension and undercurrent. The writing is skilful.
The central character Olympia undergoes a massive transition as she matures and recognises the consequences of her actions.
It was somewhat disappointing to me that at no stage did the author approach the issue of obsession, even though a...more
The central character Olympia undergoes a massive transition as she matures and recognises the consequences of her actions.
It was somewhat disappointing to me that at no stage did the author approach the issue of obsession, even though a...more
FORTUNE'S ROCKS is a sensitive and sensual portrait of a young woman who chooses love above all else, and lives with the consequences. Olympia Biddeford, the precocious daughter of a Boston Brahmin publisher, comes with her family to the New Hampshire seaside every summer. In her fifteenth year, the last year of the nineteenth century, she encounters John Haskell, a married doctor and author whom Olympia's father admires. She and Haskell are irresistibly drawn to one another and begin a relation...more
I had to give this two ratings – one for each half! I had no patience whatsoever with the first half, which is the tale of how an affair develops between a fifteen-year-old girl and a married forty-one-year-old doctor/political author, at the exclusive summer resort of wealthy families around the turn of the twentieth century. The second half, in which Olivia deals with the aftermath of the affair, is much more interesting and also has a high quality of writing.
Everything I read at the moment se...more
Everything I read at the moment se...more
Oct 04, 2010
Monique
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
historical fiction enthusiasts; female readers
Shelves:
historical-fiction
I had never read Anita Shreve before and I had no preconceptions about the style of author she represents. I was gifted this book years ago and when I picked it up off my shelf recently, I was arrested by the opening line of the novel which I found quite beautiful.
There is enough information on here regarding the storyline of the novel. I have to say I found the style of writing original and haunting. I particularly liked the emotional distance offered by the third person narration. It allowed...more
There is enough information on here regarding the storyline of the novel. I have to say I found the style of writing original and haunting. I particularly liked the emotional distance offered by the third person narration. It allowed...more
Open the pages of Fortune’s Rocks by Anita Shreve and you’ll think you’ve stepped into the world of Edith Wharton, Kate Chopin or any number of other turn-of-the-century women writers whose novels were set in refined, confining Victorian society.
Do not be fooled for an instant. Shreve’s novel is a pale imitation of those Grande Dames of Literature.
Oh sure, Fortune’s Rocks—much like Wharton’s The Age of Innocence—is filled with scenes that would startle modern readers with their conservatism. An...more
Do not be fooled for an instant. Shreve’s novel is a pale imitation of those Grande Dames of Literature.
Oh sure, Fortune’s Rocks—much like Wharton’s The Age of Innocence—is filled with scenes that would startle modern readers with their conservatism. An...more
Guess what happens when a 15-year-old girl "falls in love" with a 41-year-old married man who can't keep his "passion" in his pants ? Hmmm. Basically, this is a nicely written Victorian-era romance novel, telling the age-old story of a grown man who can't control his impulses and desires, and a teenage girl who feels that she's a grown woman. Bad choices all around, but hey, I guess we've all either seen or heard it before, or done it ourselves. It's a good "beach book" with some troubling theme...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I got a lot of sleep reading this novel. It is written in the historic present and takes place during the time that carriages were becoming horseless. The heroine, Olympia, is described as a beautiful, original and powerful girl of 15 through girl of about 20 years old. She has an affair and various other things happen because she has been ruined. Her lover is a man on paper and very little else. The affair is described in some detail, with one great scene, but none of this seems real to me (alt...more
Jul 07, 2009
Susan
added it
Hester Prynne never had it so good! The year is 1899, and Olympia Biddeford, the headstrong daughter of a Boston Brahmin family, has decided to test the limits of her cloistered world. Spending the summer at her father's New Hampshire estate, the teenage heroine of Fortune's Rocks is entranced with the visiting salon of artists, writers, and lawyers. She's especially captivated, however, by John Haskell, a charismatic physician who ministers to the blue-collar community in the nearby mill towns....more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I found the first half of this book to be slow reading, perhaps because so much of it happens in Olympia's head. And I never really suspended my disbelief in a 15-year-old girl being as mature in her thoughts and her social abilities as Olympia was, although I wonder if a girl raised for a life in society would perhaps have that greater maturity.
Still, it's a well-written and easy-to-read book, and gives a person something to think about in the process. I found Olympia to be governed too much by...more
Still, it's a well-written and easy-to-read book, and gives a person something to think about in the process. I found Olympia to be governed too much by...more
I think that one of the great things about fiction writing is to what extent does the author make an unbelievable situation believable for the purpose of the story? Shreve manages to do this in this two part book. First, she makes the reader focus on the improbable statutory rape love affair between a 15 year old and a 40 year old professional and makes us believe that they were "star-crossed" soul-mates. Secondly, she makes us sympathize with Olympia's plight of suing for her son was the right...more
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| Fortune's Rocks | 18 | 99 | Oct 13, 2012 04:10pm |
Anita Shreve grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts (just outside Boston), the eldest of three daughters. Early literary influences include having read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton when she was a junior in high school (a short novel she still claims as one of her favorites) and everything Eugene O'Neill ever wrote while she was a senior (to which she attributes a somewhat dark streak in her own work). A...more
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“Love is not simply the sum of sweet greetings and wrenching partings and kisses and embraces, but is made up more of the memory of what has happened and the imagining of what is to come.”
—
75 people liked it
“Later, when she sees the photographs for the first time, she will be surprised at how calm her face looks - how steady her gaze, how erect her posture. In the picture her eyes will be slightly closed, and there will be a shadow on her neck. The shawl will be draped around her shoulders, and her hands will rest in her lap. In this deceptive photograph, she will look a young woman who is not at all disturbed or embarrassed, but instead appears to be rather serious. And she wonders if, in its ability to deceive, photography is not unlike the sea, which may offer a benign surface to the observe even as it conceals depths and current below.”
—
14 people liked it
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