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Jalna #11
I frutti di Jalna
Wakefield, ormai maggiorenne, lavora in un’officina ed è fidanzato con Pauline; il piccolo di casa finora non ha mai lasciato Jalna, ma i cambiamenti arrivano per tutti, prima o poi: a un passo dalle nozze, il ragazzo sorprende la famiglia con una decisione davvero radicale. L’ennesimo grattacapo per Renny, il quale, costantemente tormentato dalle sorti del parentado e dalle molte incombenze domestiche, dovrà affrontare un problema ben più grave: Alayne scoprirà di essere stata tradita, e di lui e dei Whiteoak non vorrà più saperne. Ma lasciarsi Jalna alle spalle è difficile: lo sa bene Finch, ormai concertista di successo, che rientra da Parigi insieme alla moglie Sarah. I due, però, faticano a trovare un equilibrio: lui è stremato e incolpa lei di tutto il suo malessere. La crisi della coppia ha strascichi pericolosi e minaccia di compromettere la stabilità dell’intera famiglia. Ancora una volta il nucleo rischia di sfaldarsi e i Whiteoak temono di perdere la proprietà, e con essa il proprio futuro e il proprio passato: riusciranno a salvaguardare l’amata tenuta per le nuove generazioni? Burrasche amorose, preoccupazioni economiche e colpi di scena di ogni tipo non lasciano alla famiglia un attimo di tregua in questo nuovo, appassionante capitolo della saga canadese di Mazo de la Roche.
414 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1936
8 people are currently reading
168 people want to read
About the author
Mazo de la Roche
344 books59 followersMazo de la Roche, born Mazo Louise Roche, was the author of the Jalna novels, one of the most popular series of books of her time.
The Jalna series consists of sixteen novels that tell the story of the Canadian Whiteoak family from 1854 to 1954, although each of the novels can also be enjoyed as an independent story. In the world of the Whiteoaks, as in real life, people live and die, find success and fall to ruin. For the Whiteoaks, there remains something solid and unchanging in the midst of life's transience--the manor house and its rich surrounding farmland known as "Jalna." The author, Mazo de la Roche, gave the members of her fictitious family names from gravestones in Ontario's New Market cemetery, and the story itself balances somewhere between fact and fiction. Critics think events in the novels reflect de la Roche's dreams, moods, and life experiences. As the daughter of a traveling businessman, she may have seen the Jalna estate as the roots she never had, while the character Finch, from Finch's Fortune, is thought to be a reflection of herself.
The Jalna series consists of sixteen novels that tell the story of the Canadian Whiteoak family from 1854 to 1954, although each of the novels can also be enjoyed as an independent story. In the world of the Whiteoaks, as in real life, people live and die, find success and fall to ruin. For the Whiteoaks, there remains something solid and unchanging in the midst of life's transience--the manor house and its rich surrounding farmland known as "Jalna." The author, Mazo de la Roche, gave the members of her fictitious family names from gravestones in Ontario's New Market cemetery, and the story itself balances somewhere between fact and fiction. Critics think events in the novels reflect de la Roche's dreams, moods, and life experiences. As the daughter of a traveling businessman, she may have seen the Jalna estate as the roots she never had, while the character Finch, from Finch's Fortune, is thought to be a reflection of herself.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
March 23, 2012
I continue to enjoy the Jalna series. This novel is packed with action and events and the ending left me very satisfied and ready to move on to the next installment. For the first time, I like Piers who has not been one of my favorite characters. Finch, who has been one of my favorite characters, played a terrible role in this plot, but it looks as if he may be back on track. I'm ready for the next book--in fact I've already started the first few pages.
March 27, 2012
I really like WHITEOAK HARVEST. It's pure melodrama, it's silly and outrageous, but it's certainly a page-turner. It presents the Whiteoaks as tumultuous, bigger-than-life characters in crisis. Here we have two marriages heading for the toilet. Can either union be saved?
(1) The Alayne-Renny Split: Alayne learns of Renny's affair and runs away to live with an aunt in New York. More angst. To complicate matters she's pregnant with Renny's child but doesn't know it yet! Will these two ever be able to reconcile? And more importantly, can Alayne ever truly forgive him for straying? And it doesn't help that Eden's posthumous love child is now introduced into the Whiteoak family...
(2) The Finch-Sarah Split: Finch suffers a breakdown, turns against his weird wife Sarah and runs away from her. To complicate matters, Sarah now holds the mortgage on Jalna and threatens to foreclose. Yikes! Always a strange woman, she becomes a full-blown baddie here. Will Finch regain his sanity? And if he does---will he, can he ever love Sarah again?
Don't prejudge this book, just enjoy it. It's pure soap opera. But it's a much better read than THE MASTER OF JALNA, which took so many of the characters down the wrong paths. WHITEOAK HARVEST comes full circle and brings these same characters back to the where they ought to be. And that's what makes it a good read.
(1) The Alayne-Renny Split: Alayne learns of Renny's affair and runs away to live with an aunt in New York. More angst. To complicate matters she's pregnant with Renny's child but doesn't know it yet! Will these two ever be able to reconcile? And more importantly, can Alayne ever truly forgive him for straying? And it doesn't help that Eden's posthumous love child is now introduced into the Whiteoak family...
(2) The Finch-Sarah Split: Finch suffers a breakdown, turns against his weird wife Sarah and runs away from her. To complicate matters, Sarah now holds the mortgage on Jalna and threatens to foreclose. Yikes! Always a strange woman, she becomes a full-blown baddie here. Will Finch regain his sanity? And if he does---will he, can he ever love Sarah again?
Don't prejudge this book, just enjoy it. It's pure soap opera. But it's a much better read than THE MASTER OF JALNA, which took so many of the characters down the wrong paths. WHITEOAK HARVEST comes full circle and brings these same characters back to the where they ought to be. And that's what makes it a good read.
May 19, 2025
4,5 stelle. Ho adorato ancora una volta la sensibilità e il grande rispetto con cui l’autrice scrive dei sentimenti umani, e mi sono sorpresa della sua capacità di rendere così coinvolgenti le vicende quotidiane di una famiglia di agricoltori / allevatori nel Canada della prima metà del Novecento. Una saga familiare davvero splendida di cui rimpiango molto la mancata traduzione in italiano dei volumi successivi a questo. Cercherò di procurarmi una versione in francese.
November 13, 2018
Still loving re-reading this series.
October 28, 2024
Judith Hearne, the decaying spinster of Brian Moore’s eponymous novel (that I read and wrote about a few weeks ago) went to bed reading Mazo de la Roche when she was feeling especially down and disappointed with life. I suspect Brian Moore wanted his readers to judge Judith Hearne by her reading matter and he doubtless expected them to enjoy a condescending titter at poor Judith’s private lapse in taste - another slip in her pitiful decline, secretly reading the kind of popular fiction she would publicly have disparaged as “common”.
And Mazo de la Roche was indeed common - if that means widely read over several decades by millions of loyal followers, of which I am one too, unashamedly.
I can understand world-weary Judith Hearne turning to the inner world of Mazo de la Roche for comfort and escape. I do as well. She provides reassuring and soothing reading just right for duvet days. I’d had this particular novel on my shelf for a few months in happy anticipation of just such a day.
But soothing reading doesn’t mean anodyne content. People who haven’t read Jalna novels but judge them rather patronisingly as low brow probably assume it’s endless happy families, a kind of Canadian “Waltons”.
In fact, I’m sometimes surprised how dark and disturbing some of the themes are. There’s domestic and physical abuse, alcoholism, child mortality, illegitimacy, bullying and coercive behaviour, and adultery between in-laws.
The main story in this novel is Renny’s affair with Clara Lebraux - or rather the crushing impact of this affair on his relationship with his wife, Alayne. I already knew about this affair because it’s been mentioned in passing in other novels. That’s the pleasing thing about the Jalna cycle. Each novel can be read individually and you don’t need to have any prior knowledge or to read them in any particular sequence. In fact, they weren’t even written in chronological order. But the more novels you read, the more it’s like joining in big family gatherings where the same-ish people regularly meet and catch-up on their news. Sometimes you’re hearing stories you already know (though different people have different perspectives) and sometimes it’s fresh and exciting gossip.
The new story I’d not heard any rumour of before in other novels was Wakefield’s engagement to Pauline Lebraux which he now melodramatically breaks off to become a monk (whereupon Pauline declares that she’s always wanted to become a nun, anyway - so a young marriage bizarrely turns into a double pledge of celibacy). The third relationship to break down horribly in this novel is the weird, artistic marriage of neurotic Finch and sinister Sarah Court. It seems at times as if the Whiteoak boys are uniting in a misogynistic and impregnable bond of brotherhood against womenfolk outsiders.
Small but significant family details also emerge in passing for the first time in this novel. For example, this is the first time I’ve heard about the Whiteoaks’ baby sister, Gwynneth, who died aged five months in 1898. Her older half-sister Meg still remembers to put flowers on the baby’s grave some forty years later, which leads to a little unpleasantness about who in the family is entitled to mourn most over Gwynneth.
We might not like to admit it, but this is exactly the kind of unedified falling out that really does happen in families. And I think it’s this sense of realism that makes Mazo de la Roche’s Whiteoak clan so relatable, so readable, even a hundred years on. They’re constantly speaking their minds, falling out, bearing grudges and carrying on feuds - some running on from novel to novel and others just short lived flashes of anger.
But generally blood’s thicker than water, and while the Whiteoaks are quickly roused to anger they’re also genuine and generous in apology. Argument and peacemaking both usually take place either in the private space of the family bedrooms (with which Jalna seems to be plentifully furnished) or in the public space of Jalna’s dining room under the watchful eyes of matriarch and patriarch Whiteoaks immortalised in old family portraits.
I’m always impressed by Mazo de la Roche’s use of realistic dialogue, and speech in this novel is particularly dominant as a way of taking the action forward. In some chapters speech predominates to the point of it almost reading like a screenplay. But this didn’t detract from my reading experience. And I especially enjoyed the mannerisms of speech that come to help identify different characters (especially Wragge’s idiosyncratic Cockney with a dash of Canadian).
And this isn’t to say that Mazo de la Roche doesn’t do description. Her observations of the natural world - from ice melting into a stream to ants pouring out of a burning log - are powerful and distinctive. And her descriptive language is remarkably vivid, even visceral (for example, the memorable and slightly disturbing image of small children eagerly gnawing drumsticks of greasy roast duckling, their “eyes humid with greed”).
One final thought, relevant to the Jalna cycle as a whole. And that’s the striking names of the characters. Is there some wider significance here? At a time when most people were probably called Harry and Tom, or Gladys and Cynthia, Mazo de la Roche has conjured up a strange register of unique and memorable family names.
I mean, whoever heard of a woman called Pheasant? Or Alayne for that matter (who my spellcheck keeps changing to Alana). And Renny, Finch or Mooey (ok, that’s a child’s mispronunciation of Maurice that stuck). Mind you, I never knew a Mazo, either, although the less theatrical version, Maisie (the name the author was actually born with), is currently having something of a comeback …
And Mazo de la Roche was indeed common - if that means widely read over several decades by millions of loyal followers, of which I am one too, unashamedly.
I can understand world-weary Judith Hearne turning to the inner world of Mazo de la Roche for comfort and escape. I do as well. She provides reassuring and soothing reading just right for duvet days. I’d had this particular novel on my shelf for a few months in happy anticipation of just such a day.
But soothing reading doesn’t mean anodyne content. People who haven’t read Jalna novels but judge them rather patronisingly as low brow probably assume it’s endless happy families, a kind of Canadian “Waltons”.
In fact, I’m sometimes surprised how dark and disturbing some of the themes are. There’s domestic and physical abuse, alcoholism, child mortality, illegitimacy, bullying and coercive behaviour, and adultery between in-laws.
The main story in this novel is Renny’s affair with Clara Lebraux - or rather the crushing impact of this affair on his relationship with his wife, Alayne. I already knew about this affair because it’s been mentioned in passing in other novels. That’s the pleasing thing about the Jalna cycle. Each novel can be read individually and you don’t need to have any prior knowledge or to read them in any particular sequence. In fact, they weren’t even written in chronological order. But the more novels you read, the more it’s like joining in big family gatherings where the same-ish people regularly meet and catch-up on their news. Sometimes you’re hearing stories you already know (though different people have different perspectives) and sometimes it’s fresh and exciting gossip.
The new story I’d not heard any rumour of before in other novels was Wakefield’s engagement to Pauline Lebraux which he now melodramatically breaks off to become a monk (whereupon Pauline declares that she’s always wanted to become a nun, anyway - so a young marriage bizarrely turns into a double pledge of celibacy). The third relationship to break down horribly in this novel is the weird, artistic marriage of neurotic Finch and sinister Sarah Court. It seems at times as if the Whiteoak boys are uniting in a misogynistic and impregnable bond of brotherhood against womenfolk outsiders.
Small but significant family details also emerge in passing for the first time in this novel. For example, this is the first time I’ve heard about the Whiteoaks’ baby sister, Gwynneth, who died aged five months in 1898. Her older half-sister Meg still remembers to put flowers on the baby’s grave some forty years later, which leads to a little unpleasantness about who in the family is entitled to mourn most over Gwynneth.
We might not like to admit it, but this is exactly the kind of unedified falling out that really does happen in families. And I think it’s this sense of realism that makes Mazo de la Roche’s Whiteoak clan so relatable, so readable, even a hundred years on. They’re constantly speaking their minds, falling out, bearing grudges and carrying on feuds - some running on from novel to novel and others just short lived flashes of anger.
But generally blood’s thicker than water, and while the Whiteoaks are quickly roused to anger they’re also genuine and generous in apology. Argument and peacemaking both usually take place either in the private space of the family bedrooms (with which Jalna seems to be plentifully furnished) or in the public space of Jalna’s dining room under the watchful eyes of matriarch and patriarch Whiteoaks immortalised in old family portraits.
I’m always impressed by Mazo de la Roche’s use of realistic dialogue, and speech in this novel is particularly dominant as a way of taking the action forward. In some chapters speech predominates to the point of it almost reading like a screenplay. But this didn’t detract from my reading experience. And I especially enjoyed the mannerisms of speech that come to help identify different characters (especially Wragge’s idiosyncratic Cockney with a dash of Canadian).
And this isn’t to say that Mazo de la Roche doesn’t do description. Her observations of the natural world - from ice melting into a stream to ants pouring out of a burning log - are powerful and distinctive. And her descriptive language is remarkably vivid, even visceral (for example, the memorable and slightly disturbing image of small children eagerly gnawing drumsticks of greasy roast duckling, their “eyes humid with greed”).
One final thought, relevant to the Jalna cycle as a whole. And that’s the striking names of the characters. Is there some wider significance here? At a time when most people were probably called Harry and Tom, or Gladys and Cynthia, Mazo de la Roche has conjured up a strange register of unique and memorable family names.
I mean, whoever heard of a woman called Pheasant? Or Alayne for that matter (who my spellcheck keeps changing to Alana). And Renny, Finch or Mooey (ok, that’s a child’s mispronunciation of Maurice that stuck). Mind you, I never knew a Mazo, either, although the less theatrical version, Maisie (the name the author was actually born with), is currently having something of a comeback …
October 18, 2025
Ripongo queste poche righe come se fossi stata sottratta da un luogo in cui non vi volevo fare più ritorno. Una volta lì ho passeggiato lungo le strade di un regno d'indefinibile bellezza, continuando a maledire la mancanza di tempo con me stessa, complice una vita frenetica e laboriosa, e che mi ha costretta a snocciolare il romanzo della De Roche molto lentamente. E per caso sono entrata a far parte di questa piccola schiera di guerrieri.
Che cosa diavolo pensavo di ottenere dalla sua lettura? Non lo so nemmeno io! So solo che non è stato facile restare impassibili dall'incanto delle sue pagine. E che il lasso di tempo trascorso fra le sue pagine ha affrontato le nefaste conseguenze che un procedere così lento e faticoso mi aveva causato.
Quando sbarcai su quest'Isola, quella di Jalna, era già lì, occupava un posto fondamentale, in un posto bellissimo in cui ho perso volontariamente le mie tracce, vicino a una vetrata che mesceva la luce del pomeriggio sui miei capelli. L'ho esaminato con una certa curiosità, compiacendomi nella certezza che questa dimora fatiscente e i suoi proprietari, fagocitati come piccoli organismi, aspettavano proprio me. Nuovamente mi sono lasciata travolgere dall'ombra di una nuova storia che mi fu di gran sollievo, l'intrico magico e armonico semplice della trama incantevole, che contrastò con l'energia dei suoi modi e l'avidità della sua conoscenza, e sentì dentro di me, in questa terra magica dove credevo nulla sarebbe stato come prima, una specie di piacevole borbottio, l'annuncio di abbracciare un mondo intero e la sensazione che l'intero mondo ci abbracci.
Chi ama i libri, lo sa; non si sa esattamente perché li si amano. Ci auguriamo sempre di trovare qualcosa di speciale. Attimi di vita che ci rimangono dentro come pietre miliari. Storie che potrebbero sconvolgere del tutto il nostro universo personale. E, una volta incontrate, non se ne può più fare a meno. Si soffre a starne lontani. Ma così sono le storie che amo, i romanzi che leggo: istintivi, inspiegabili, disinteressati. Ammalianti, non c'è altra ragione. Non si ha paura di nulla, si è disposti a tutto. La saga di Jalna, al meno che non incappi in qualche lettore pretenzioso, induce presto a questa esaltazione: mi ha fatto sentire parte di un meraviglioso creato. Non mollandomi per un instante, mai completamente separata dai protagonisti. E qui penso si celi il suo fascino.
Impossibile non cogliere quella brama intensa per il piacere di una storia. In questo lasso di tempo trascorso a leggere fino a tarda sera, sotto un cielo perennemente nuvoloso e freddo, in cui le giornate passavano in un lampo, prima di riemergere da uno strano stato di torpore, incantata con la sua incantevole storia.
E' stato davvero bello e intrigante essere stata per questi giorni fra mura e anfratti di un regno che sin dall'inizio ha destato il mio fascino. Diversa gente, diversi discorsi, diversa logica. La sua storia mi è entrata sotto pelle, con quel ragionare un po’ diverso dal nostro, non nel piccolo ma nel grande, mi attirò molto. Era un po' quel che avevo cercato, anche se a volte mi era sembrato che nella catena di eventi descritti in questo quinto volume mancasse qualche anello. Ho avuto l'impressione di assistere alla fantastica epopea di una generazione che volteggia per aria come minuscoli granelli di polvere. Così la mia mente non si è sentita precipitare nel vuoto.
Mi sono resa conto che tutto l'entusiasmo che mi era venuto per La saga di Jalna, mi rese vittima di uno strano sortilegio magico. Ho trascorso la mia vita leggendo storie di ogni tipo, alcune di poco conto. Eppure il filo intrecciato dalla giovane Ilaria ha dato forma a un graziosissimo disegno, un motivo memorabile ricco di magia e tanto fascino. Materiale da cui ha ricavato una trama che non ha ancora una sua conclusione, personaggi ambiziosi e coraggiosi, ambientazioni che richiamano scenari di svariati mondi fantasy che tuttavia hanno trovato una sua collocazione. Sprazzi di materiale ricavato in fase di scrittura. Curiosa e razionale. Esploratrice e temeraria. E il bello nella sua lettura sta in questo: si colgono frammenti di malvagità, voci frammentarie che non promettono nulla di buono che, al buio, sembrano prendere vita.
Una storia che crea dipendenza, ammalia. Un avventura emozionante che sa di amore, fede e fiducia e che riesce a scalfire persino i muri più solidi dell'intero regno. Volando su un mondo che era così vicino da accrescere il mio interesse. Ho camminato fra le vecchie mura di una scuola forse un po' troppo prestigiosa, fra oggetti inanimati e inerti, personaggi abbandonati al loro destino, che quando ci passavo accanto sembravano prendere vita. Sprigionarono una scintilla, una piccola luce e quella diventava una persona in carne e ossa che si muoveva, libera di agire.
Il weekend autunnale che mi sono lasciata alle spalle è stato popolato da figure appartenenti non al mio mondo ma a quello di Renny, Pauline, e tanti altri. Durante il corso della lettura ho sentito come "mia" la voce dei protagoniste e assieme ai suoi compagni ho viaggiato con l'immaginazione, lungo i quali si sono rivolti costantemente, in questo lasso di tempo, i miei pensieri. Un modo carino per infrangere la routine del giorno. Rinunciare, anche se per poco, alla mia vita. Calarmi completamente nella storia dei personaggi e volgere le spalle a un mondo in cui sono in voga l'insoddisfazione e l'ingratitudine.
Un opera che, come la copertina con cui è rivestita, non nasconde fascino, ma in cui ho trovato tutto ciò che c'è da aspettarsi da chi, come me, ama questa tipologia di testi. Narrandomi la storia di ognuno di loro come se fosse mia. Straordinaria, sensazionale ma incompleta, come un entità creata altrove.
Che cosa diavolo pensavo di ottenere dalla sua lettura? Non lo so nemmeno io! So solo che non è stato facile restare impassibili dall'incanto delle sue pagine. E che il lasso di tempo trascorso fra le sue pagine ha affrontato le nefaste conseguenze che un procedere così lento e faticoso mi aveva causato.
Quando sbarcai su quest'Isola, quella di Jalna, era già lì, occupava un posto fondamentale, in un posto bellissimo in cui ho perso volontariamente le mie tracce, vicino a una vetrata che mesceva la luce del pomeriggio sui miei capelli. L'ho esaminato con una certa curiosità, compiacendomi nella certezza che questa dimora fatiscente e i suoi proprietari, fagocitati come piccoli organismi, aspettavano proprio me. Nuovamente mi sono lasciata travolgere dall'ombra di una nuova storia che mi fu di gran sollievo, l'intrico magico e armonico semplice della trama incantevole, che contrastò con l'energia dei suoi modi e l'avidità della sua conoscenza, e sentì dentro di me, in questa terra magica dove credevo nulla sarebbe stato come prima, una specie di piacevole borbottio, l'annuncio di abbracciare un mondo intero e la sensazione che l'intero mondo ci abbracci.
Chi ama i libri, lo sa; non si sa esattamente perché li si amano. Ci auguriamo sempre di trovare qualcosa di speciale. Attimi di vita che ci rimangono dentro come pietre miliari. Storie che potrebbero sconvolgere del tutto il nostro universo personale. E, una volta incontrate, non se ne può più fare a meno. Si soffre a starne lontani. Ma così sono le storie che amo, i romanzi che leggo: istintivi, inspiegabili, disinteressati. Ammalianti, non c'è altra ragione. Non si ha paura di nulla, si è disposti a tutto. La saga di Jalna, al meno che non incappi in qualche lettore pretenzioso, induce presto a questa esaltazione: mi ha fatto sentire parte di un meraviglioso creato. Non mollandomi per un instante, mai completamente separata dai protagonisti. E qui penso si celi il suo fascino.
Impossibile non cogliere quella brama intensa per il piacere di una storia. In questo lasso di tempo trascorso a leggere fino a tarda sera, sotto un cielo perennemente nuvoloso e freddo, in cui le giornate passavano in un lampo, prima di riemergere da uno strano stato di torpore, incantata con la sua incantevole storia.
E' stato davvero bello e intrigante essere stata per questi giorni fra mura e anfratti di un regno che sin dall'inizio ha destato il mio fascino. Diversa gente, diversi discorsi, diversa logica. La sua storia mi è entrata sotto pelle, con quel ragionare un po’ diverso dal nostro, non nel piccolo ma nel grande, mi attirò molto. Era un po' quel che avevo cercato, anche se a volte mi era sembrato che nella catena di eventi descritti in questo quinto volume mancasse qualche anello. Ho avuto l'impressione di assistere alla fantastica epopea di una generazione che volteggia per aria come minuscoli granelli di polvere. Così la mia mente non si è sentita precipitare nel vuoto.
Mi sono resa conto che tutto l'entusiasmo che mi era venuto per La saga di Jalna, mi rese vittima di uno strano sortilegio magico. Ho trascorso la mia vita leggendo storie di ogni tipo, alcune di poco conto. Eppure il filo intrecciato dalla giovane Ilaria ha dato forma a un graziosissimo disegno, un motivo memorabile ricco di magia e tanto fascino. Materiale da cui ha ricavato una trama che non ha ancora una sua conclusione, personaggi ambiziosi e coraggiosi, ambientazioni che richiamano scenari di svariati mondi fantasy che tuttavia hanno trovato una sua collocazione. Sprazzi di materiale ricavato in fase di scrittura. Curiosa e razionale. Esploratrice e temeraria. E il bello nella sua lettura sta in questo: si colgono frammenti di malvagità, voci frammentarie che non promettono nulla di buono che, al buio, sembrano prendere vita.
Una storia che crea dipendenza, ammalia. Un avventura emozionante che sa di amore, fede e fiducia e che riesce a scalfire persino i muri più solidi dell'intero regno. Volando su un mondo che era così vicino da accrescere il mio interesse. Ho camminato fra le vecchie mura di una scuola forse un po' troppo prestigiosa, fra oggetti inanimati e inerti, personaggi abbandonati al loro destino, che quando ci passavo accanto sembravano prendere vita. Sprigionarono una scintilla, una piccola luce e quella diventava una persona in carne e ossa che si muoveva, libera di agire.
Il weekend autunnale che mi sono lasciata alle spalle è stato popolato da figure appartenenti non al mio mondo ma a quello di Renny, Pauline, e tanti altri. Durante il corso della lettura ho sentito come "mia" la voce dei protagoniste e assieme ai suoi compagni ho viaggiato con l'immaginazione, lungo i quali si sono rivolti costantemente, in questo lasso di tempo, i miei pensieri. Un modo carino per infrangere la routine del giorno. Rinunciare, anche se per poco, alla mia vita. Calarmi completamente nella storia dei personaggi e volgere le spalle a un mondo in cui sono in voga l'insoddisfazione e l'ingratitudine.
Un opera che, come la copertina con cui è rivestita, non nasconde fascino, ma in cui ho trovato tutto ciò che c'è da aspettarsi da chi, come me, ama questa tipologia di testi. Narrandomi la storia di ognuno di loro come se fosse mia. Straordinaria, sensazionale ma incompleta, come un entità creata altrove.
May 13, 2023
L’antica dimora canadese continua ad essere sempre un rifugio sicuro, dove si respirano sicurezza e calore familiare💗
December 28, 2015
Just when you think those Whiteoaks couldn't get up to something else--they do!
August 15, 2020
Whiteoak Harvest published in 1936 in the eleventh book chronologically in the series. This was the first Whiteoak book I read as a teenaged girl. The year is 1934 in Jalna.
Finch and Sarah have been married six months.
Clara and Pauline Labraux’s house has been moved to the property Rennie bought from the Vaughns. The fox farm is no longer in business and they are running a tea/sweet shop, The Daffodil. Alayne overhears a passionate conversation between Clara and Rennie. Confronting him, he admits his infidelity. Alayne leaves Jalna, vowing never to return.
Wakefield is running a gas station. He has grown into a handsome and charming man. He has decided that although he is engaged to Pauline, he wants to enter a monastery. Pauline enters a nunnery. Clara moves away to live with her brother, leaving the fox farm vacant.
Finch returns from a musical tour. He suffers a nervous breakdown exacerbated by his wife Sarah.
Money is once again a problem at Jalna and Vaughlands. Meg and Maurice have taken in paying summer guests. Alayne, who has fled to the home of her Aunt Harriet has lost her money in a stock market crash. Aunt Harriet has also lost her income in the same crash. Sarah, who holds a mortgage on Jalna threatens foreclosure.
In true Jalna fashion alls well that ends well. Renny on the advice of Clara Labraux tracks down his ailing wife and brings her home. He also persuades Aunt Harriet to make her home wth them. Money is found to pay off the mortgage. There is a new birth, an engagement and the bitter Sarah is vanquished for the moment. Finch recovers from his illness. Wakefield returns home. The fox farm will have new tenants. All is well within the walls of Jalna.
Finch and Sarah have been married six months.
Clara and Pauline Labraux’s house has been moved to the property Rennie bought from the Vaughns. The fox farm is no longer in business and they are running a tea/sweet shop, The Daffodil. Alayne overhears a passionate conversation between Clara and Rennie. Confronting him, he admits his infidelity. Alayne leaves Jalna, vowing never to return.
Wakefield is running a gas station. He has grown into a handsome and charming man. He has decided that although he is engaged to Pauline, he wants to enter a monastery. Pauline enters a nunnery. Clara moves away to live with her brother, leaving the fox farm vacant.
Finch returns from a musical tour. He suffers a nervous breakdown exacerbated by his wife Sarah.
Money is once again a problem at Jalna and Vaughlands. Meg and Maurice have taken in paying summer guests. Alayne, who has fled to the home of her Aunt Harriet has lost her money in a stock market crash. Aunt Harriet has also lost her income in the same crash. Sarah, who holds a mortgage on Jalna threatens foreclosure.
In true Jalna fashion alls well that ends well. Renny on the advice of Clara Labraux tracks down his ailing wife and brings her home. He also persuades Aunt Harriet to make her home wth them. Money is found to pay off the mortgage. There is a new birth, an engagement and the bitter Sarah is vanquished for the moment. Finch recovers from his illness. Wakefield returns home. The fox farm will have new tenants. All is well within the walls of Jalna.
April 16, 2023
Tre stelle perché per me continua ad esserci troppo Finch: un personaggio che non amo affatto, si porta sempre dietro un velo di malessere e tristezza che poi influisce sul resto. Piers, invece, si conferma uno dei miei membri familiari preferiti, così schietto e concreto; Renny devo ammettere che tiene le redini della narrazione (oltre che della famiglia) ed è responsabile di tutti i tormenti che mi si creano mentre leggo, ma diamine quanto vorrei conoscerlo nella realtà. Grande colpo di scena finale, ho amato la news!
June 6, 2024
6 GIUGNO 2024
MAZO DE LA ROCHE
I FRUTTI DI Jalna 🌿🌳🍁🍂
In questo quinto libro della saga Jalna, casa e tenuta dei Whiteoak, è ancora la protagonista assoluta, nello splendore della natura canadese, tra lo scorrere delle stagioni.
Dopo tante partenze la grande casa era rimasta un po' vuota e assopita.
"I frutti di Jalna" ci racconta di altre partenze, alcune definitive, altre temporanee, e di importanti ritorni. Jalna riprende vita. Nuovi amori, nuove scelte, nuovi bambini. Ancora tanti problemi, ma i Whiteoak non si arrendono.
MAZO DE LA ROCHE
I FRUTTI DI Jalna 🌿🌳🍁🍂
In questo quinto libro della saga Jalna, casa e tenuta dei Whiteoak, è ancora la protagonista assoluta, nello splendore della natura canadese, tra lo scorrere delle stagioni.
Dopo tante partenze la grande casa era rimasta un po' vuota e assopita.
"I frutti di Jalna" ci racconta di altre partenze, alcune definitive, altre temporanee, e di importanti ritorni. Jalna riprende vita. Nuovi amori, nuove scelte, nuovi bambini. Ancora tanti problemi, ma i Whiteoak non si arrendono.
April 13, 2023
The characters in this series are so well done that it feels as if they are living and breathing. Like real people, they often behave unexpectedly. They are all attractive and passionate, and their romantic adventures never fail to amaze. In this book, the charming Wakefield falls in love, Finch is tormented by his strange wife, and Renny and Alayne continue their lifelong struggle to understand each other.
October 29, 2023
This book is a part of a larger series following the Whiteoak family, but can be read as individual books.
Perhaps my rating is skewed by my having not read the other books, but this one felt like it was dragging on. The first few chapters had me hooked with drama, but then when I got about 3/4 through the book, I was ready for it to end.
If you like drama, Canadians, with 1930s horse farm vibes, this may be the book for you.
Perhaps my rating is skewed by my having not read the other books, but this one felt like it was dragging on. The first few chapters had me hooked with drama, but then when I got about 3/4 through the book, I was ready for it to end.
If you like drama, Canadians, with 1930s horse farm vibes, this may be the book for you.
June 25, 2022
4 +
The Whiteoak family saga continues to entertain and delight. I marvel at de la Roche's descriptive skills, character development and the ability to weave all of this together in a most compelling reading experience.
On to #12.
The Whiteoak family saga continues to entertain and delight. I marvel at de la Roche's descriptive skills, character development and the ability to weave all of this together in a most compelling reading experience.
On to #12.
February 16, 2023
Un de mes tomes préférés de la saga et de loin. Beaucoup d'événements se concluent : enfin des dramas. Les gens sont remis à leur place. Certains personnages m'ont toujours aussi agacé (Meg) d'autres se sont améliorés (Renny) et certains sont devenus chiants (Finch)...
Une bonne lecture dans son ensemble.
Une bonne lecture dans son ensemble.
November 2, 2019
Loved it! Don't want this series of novels to end!
December 12, 2022
Thoroughly enjoyable.
February 23, 2023
Alina wyjeżdża z Jalny podbić świat, a jednak tęskni za Jalną, dalsze losy Renne'go, Wakefielda, Fincha. Typowa saga.
June 22, 2025
Gosh, these people are self centred. They all think solely of themselves and their comfort. I have never read a novel before that uses the word neurotic so often. Renny accuses nearly every member of the family of being neurotic at one time. The main themes of this book are Renny's estrangement from Alayne following his affair with Clara, Finch's return from a successful European tour with his wife and his nervous breakdown - yes, yet another one. Wake goes into a monastery, Piers carries on the way he always does - he and Pheasant are the most normal of everyone. Meggie is still insufferable and making Maurice feel blessed that she deigned to marry him. There's a new child to add to the family, Eden's child, named Roma (no prizes for guessing why!). Young Adeline continues to be a totally spoilt brat but Patience and the Pier's boys are reasonably normal and pleasant to each other.
August 10, 2018
Book #11 in the Jalna series. This entry in the Jalna series had a bit of everything - from an obsessed woman (Sarah) fiddling furiously at Finch, young lovers deciding to join religious orders, more Renny - Alayne drama, and even a dachshund puppy! I really enjoyed this novel and found it a quick read. Lots happened but it moved so fast! On to the next book in my summer Jalna reread.
March 12, 2018
J'avais dévoré tout Jalna quand j'étais adolescent, et si je suis incapable aujourd'hui de me souvenir de chacun des tomes qui composent cette saga gigantesque, je me souviens tout de même que j'avais pris beaucoup de plaisir à découvrir cette famille et ce domaine familial que l'on suit pendant presque un siècle.
September 3, 2017
Ok, but I was really annoyed with the Whiteoaks in this book! It seemed like you were supposed to sympathize with Renny, but I didn't...
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