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Frost in May #3
The Sugar House
The year is 1920. Clara Batchelor, the heroine of The Lost Traveller, is now an actress with a touring repertory company and is passionately in love with the wholly unsuitable Stephen Tye. When Stephen betrays her, Clara betrays herself by agreeing to marry Archie, the fiance‚ she discarded four years before. A friendship but not a love match, the marriage is a desperate attempt by Clara to rekindle the safety of childhood. But neither of them are children any more and their dream sugar house begins to dissolve.
The Sugar House is the second in the trilogy sequel to Frost in May, which began with The Lost Traveller and continues in Beyond the Glass. Although each is a complete novel in itself, together they form a brilliant portrait of a young girl's journey to adulthood.
The Sugar House is the second in the trilogy sequel to Frost in May, which began with The Lost Traveller and continues in Beyond the Glass. Although each is a complete novel in itself, together they form a brilliant portrait of a young girl's journey to adulthood.
257 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1952
7 people are currently reading
395 people want to read
About the author
Antonia White
41 books46 followersAntonia White was born as Eirine Botting to parents Cecil and Christine Botting in 1899. She later took her mother's maiden name, White.
In 1921 she was married to the first of her three husbands. The marriage was annulled only 2 years later, and reportedly was never consummated. She immediately fell in love again with a man named Robert, who was an officer in the Scots Guards. They never married, and their relationship was brief but intense, which led to her experiencing a severe mental breakdown. She was committed to Bethlem, a public asylum, where she spent the next year of her life. She described her breakdown as a period of “mania”. After she left hospital, she spent four years participating in Freudian studies. She struggled the rest of her life with mental illness which she referred to as “The Beast”.
Her second marriage was to a man named Eric Earnshaw Smith, but this marriage ended in divorce. By the age of 30, she had been married 3 times. During her second marriage, she had fallen in love with two men. One was Rudolph 'Silas' Glossop. The other was a man named Tom Hopkinson, a copywriter and S.G. who is described as “a tall handsome young man with a slightly melancholy charm”. She had trouble deciding whom she should marry following her divorce, and she married Hopkinson in 1930. She had two daughters, Lyndall Hopkinson and Susan Chitty, who have both written autobiographical books about their difficult relationship with their mother.
Her career as a writer seems to have been driven by the desire to cope with a sense of failure, resulting initially from her first attempt at writing, and with mental illness. She was quoted as saying, “The old terrors always return and often, with them, a feeling of such paralyzing lack of self-confidence that I have to take earlier books of mine off their shelf just to prove to myself that I actually wrote them and they were actually printed, bound, and read. I find that numbers of writers experience these same miseries over their work and do not, as is so often supposed, enjoy the process. "Creative joy" is something I haven't felt since I was fourteen and don't expect to feel again."
With regard to the content of her writing, White remarked, “My novels and short stories are mainly about ordinary people who become involved in rather extraordinary situations. I do not mean in sensational adventures but in rather odd and difficult personal relationships largely due to their family background and their incomplete understanding of their own natures. I use both Catholic and non-Catholic characters and am particularly interested in the conflicts that arise between them and in the influences they have on each other.”
Bibliography:
Frost in May (first published 1933)
The Lost Traveller (first published 1950)
The Sugar House (first published 1952)
Beyond the Glass (first published 1954)
Strangers (first published 1954)
The Hound and the Falcon: The Story of a Reconversion to Catholic Faith (first published 1965)
Minka and Curdy (children's book, first published 1957)
Living with Minka and Curdy (children's book, first published 1970)
Play: Three In a Room: Comedy in 3 Acts (first published 1947)
In 1921 she was married to the first of her three husbands. The marriage was annulled only 2 years later, and reportedly was never consummated. She immediately fell in love again with a man named Robert, who was an officer in the Scots Guards. They never married, and their relationship was brief but intense, which led to her experiencing a severe mental breakdown. She was committed to Bethlem, a public asylum, where she spent the next year of her life. She described her breakdown as a period of “mania”. After she left hospital, she spent four years participating in Freudian studies. She struggled the rest of her life with mental illness which she referred to as “The Beast”.
Her second marriage was to a man named Eric Earnshaw Smith, but this marriage ended in divorce. By the age of 30, she had been married 3 times. During her second marriage, she had fallen in love with two men. One was Rudolph 'Silas' Glossop. The other was a man named Tom Hopkinson, a copywriter and S.G. who is described as “a tall handsome young man with a slightly melancholy charm”. She had trouble deciding whom she should marry following her divorce, and she married Hopkinson in 1930. She had two daughters, Lyndall Hopkinson and Susan Chitty, who have both written autobiographical books about their difficult relationship with their mother.
Her career as a writer seems to have been driven by the desire to cope with a sense of failure, resulting initially from her first attempt at writing, and with mental illness. She was quoted as saying, “The old terrors always return and often, with them, a feeling of such paralyzing lack of self-confidence that I have to take earlier books of mine off their shelf just to prove to myself that I actually wrote them and they were actually printed, bound, and read. I find that numbers of writers experience these same miseries over their work and do not, as is so often supposed, enjoy the process. "Creative joy" is something I haven't felt since I was fourteen and don't expect to feel again."
With regard to the content of her writing, White remarked, “My novels and short stories are mainly about ordinary people who become involved in rather extraordinary situations. I do not mean in sensational adventures but in rather odd and difficult personal relationships largely due to their family background and their incomplete understanding of their own natures. I use both Catholic and non-Catholic characters and am particularly interested in the conflicts that arise between them and in the influences they have on each other.”
Bibliography:
Frost in May (first published 1933)
The Lost Traveller (first published 1950)
The Sugar House (first published 1952)
Beyond the Glass (first published 1954)
Strangers (first published 1954)
The Hound and the Falcon: The Story of a Reconversion to Catholic Faith (first published 1965)
Minka and Curdy (children's book, first published 1957)
Living with Minka and Curdy (children's book, first published 1970)
Play: Three In a Room: Comedy in 3 Acts (first published 1947)
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
February 27, 2022
Stylistically, this sequel to Frost in May and The Lost Traveller falls between its two predecessors, away from the multiple viewpoints of the latter, back to the single close third-person of the former, though it doesn’t feel quite as “close,” or maybe that word should be “intense.”
A devastating event from four years ago and the desire to please her father, though he is much less of a physical presence in this book, influence Clara’s actions after she is disappointed in love for the first time. This leads to a living situation that reminded me of Our Spoons Came from Woolworths, as two creatives struggle with poverty, mostly having to do with the action of one, though the other takes a share of the blame.
The meaning of the ending is apparent, though written obliquely, as it might’ve needed to be in 1952. But its strength comes from the real emotions between two people who genuinely love each other.
A devastating event from four years ago and the desire to please her father, though he is much less of a physical presence in this book, influence Clara’s actions after she is disappointed in love for the first time. This leads to a living situation that reminded me of Our Spoons Came from Woolworths, as two creatives struggle with poverty, mostly having to do with the action of one, though the other takes a share of the blame.
The meaning of the ending is apparent, though written obliquely, as it might’ve needed to be in 1952. But its strength comes from the real emotions between two people who genuinely love each other.
November 21, 2018
The Sugar House,
the third novel in Antonia White’s Frost in May quartet, picks up four years after the events of
The Lost Traveller.
It can be read as a stand-alone; however, the context the previous book provides is useful. Now 21, Clara, having recently completed training at The Garrick School of Drama, is working as an actor with a travelling theatre troupe. She believes herself to be in love with an older actor whom she met at drama school, a WWI vet with a drinking problem, and she seems unaware (or unwilling to accept) that Stephen Tye mainly likes the reflection of himself he sees in her naïve, young eyes. When the relationship with Stephen—if you can call it that—does not work out, Clara allows dissolute oddball Archie Hughes-Follett back into her life. She had been on the brink of marrying him four years earlier, but her mother had been able to talk some sense into her. Now, Clara makes the fatal error she’d earlier avoided. With the urging and approval of two ardent Catholics—her father and Lady Theresa Follett, whose ten-year-old son accidentally died when Clara was his governess—Clara marries Archie.
Archie is from an extremely wealthy old Catholic family, and he is to come into his full inheritance at the age of 25. Until that time, his father’s will dictates he is under the guardianship of his uncle. Archie believes this is due to pure malice on the part of his father, whose hatred of Archie prevails beyond the grave, but everyone else is aware that Archie is an impractical misfit, full of dreams and unworkable schemes. For now, he receives an allowance, most of which he fritters away on drink, for Archie has an even more serious problem with booze than Stephen. Though I know that social awareness of alcoholism (and addiction in general) in the time White is depicting (the 1920s) was not what it is today, I was still slightly taken aback that two adults who ought to have known better would’ve encouraged Clara in making such a marriage.
Most of The Sugar House tells the story of Clara’s—and Archie’s, too—entrapment in an absolutely disastrous marriage. Although Clara experiences a certain sexual revulsion towards Archie, she hadn’t quite bargained for him falling into bed completely sloshed on their wedding night (and many nights thereafter) either. The fact is: Archie is asexual—something noted very early in the book by Clara’s fellow actor and roommate, Maidie. (In fact, the marriage is never consummated.) At one point, Clara’s domineering and controlling father blames her for Archie’s problems, which makes for some pretty enraging reading. Otherwise, the overbearing pater familias, Claude, plays a far less significant role in this book than the one that preceded it.
While I enjoyed this novel, I found that it lacked the narrative momentum of the other two I’ve read in the quartet. The reader knows from the start that Clara’s marriage doesn’t stand a chance; therefore, its unravelling is not overly compelling. Characterization, however, remains a real strength.
Archie is from an extremely wealthy old Catholic family, and he is to come into his full inheritance at the age of 25. Until that time, his father’s will dictates he is under the guardianship of his uncle. Archie believes this is due to pure malice on the part of his father, whose hatred of Archie prevails beyond the grave, but everyone else is aware that Archie is an impractical misfit, full of dreams and unworkable schemes. For now, he receives an allowance, most of which he fritters away on drink, for Archie has an even more serious problem with booze than Stephen. Though I know that social awareness of alcoholism (and addiction in general) in the time White is depicting (the 1920s) was not what it is today, I was still slightly taken aback that two adults who ought to have known better would’ve encouraged Clara in making such a marriage.
Most of The Sugar House tells the story of Clara’s—and Archie’s, too—entrapment in an absolutely disastrous marriage. Although Clara experiences a certain sexual revulsion towards Archie, she hadn’t quite bargained for him falling into bed completely sloshed on their wedding night (and many nights thereafter) either. The fact is: Archie is asexual—something noted very early in the book by Clara’s fellow actor and roommate, Maidie. (In fact, the marriage is never consummated.) At one point, Clara’s domineering and controlling father blames her for Archie’s problems, which makes for some pretty enraging reading. Otherwise, the overbearing pater familias, Claude, plays a far less significant role in this book than the one that preceded it.
While I enjoyed this novel, I found that it lacked the narrative momentum of the other two I’ve read in the quartet. The reader knows from the start that Clara’s marriage doesn’t stand a chance; therefore, its unravelling is not overly compelling. Characterization, however, remains a real strength.
February 17, 2018
3.5 stars rounded up
This is the third in a series of four which started with Frost in May and continues the story of Clara Batchelor, based loosely on White’s own life. As the series goes on comparisons for me are drawn with Richardson’s Pilgrimage series. Whilst White is good, Richardson is exceptional and this one feels a little like a link novel to the final part of the series.
The first part of the novel sees Clara acting with a travelling theatrical troupe and in love with another thespian in a different travelling troupe. There is a portrayal of the life of a travelling actor in a variety of digs. Archie turns up again and when her lover betrays her she agrees to marry Archie.
Clara and Archie Hughes Follett marry with Catholic pomp and move into a very small house in Chelsea, The Sugar House, because it reminds Clara of the one in Hansel and Gretel. Archie isn’t the person he was previously:
“Archie had certainly changed. She remembered him as an odd creature, clumsy and kind, who did not fit into the grown-up world. Often he had sulked like a schoolboy but never had she seen him in this mood of aggressive bitterness. Tonight he had hardly smiled: in repose, his face was set in lines of angry discontent. She felt a pang of guilt.”
White weaves a claustrophobic picture of the marriage, Archie is clearly an alcoholic and they run into serious debt very quickly. The marriage is also unconsummated; an important detail if you are a Catholic. This is an account of White’s marriage to Tom Hopkinson and of her attempts to start to write.
The second part of the book is a description of the disintegration of the marriage as Archie’s alcoholism becomes a factor as does their increasing debts.
I can see why this is seen as the weakest of the four books; it continued the story, I felt it lacked a little focus; but the descriptions of the life of a travelling actor was interesting.
This is the third in a series of four which started with Frost in May and continues the story of Clara Batchelor, based loosely on White’s own life. As the series goes on comparisons for me are drawn with Richardson’s Pilgrimage series. Whilst White is good, Richardson is exceptional and this one feels a little like a link novel to the final part of the series.
The first part of the novel sees Clara acting with a travelling theatrical troupe and in love with another thespian in a different travelling troupe. There is a portrayal of the life of a travelling actor in a variety of digs. Archie turns up again and when her lover betrays her she agrees to marry Archie.
Clara and Archie Hughes Follett marry with Catholic pomp and move into a very small house in Chelsea, The Sugar House, because it reminds Clara of the one in Hansel and Gretel. Archie isn’t the person he was previously:
“Archie had certainly changed. She remembered him as an odd creature, clumsy and kind, who did not fit into the grown-up world. Often he had sulked like a schoolboy but never had she seen him in this mood of aggressive bitterness. Tonight he had hardly smiled: in repose, his face was set in lines of angry discontent. She felt a pang of guilt.”
White weaves a claustrophobic picture of the marriage, Archie is clearly an alcoholic and they run into serious debt very quickly. The marriage is also unconsummated; an important detail if you are a Catholic. This is an account of White’s marriage to Tom Hopkinson and of her attempts to start to write.
The second part of the book is a description of the disintegration of the marriage as Archie’s alcoholism becomes a factor as does their increasing debts.
I can see why this is seen as the weakest of the four books; it continued the story, I felt it lacked a little focus; but the descriptions of the life of a travelling actor was interesting.
February 24, 2019
2nd read update:
A masterclass in creating fiction out of character as little happens externally yet the internal drama of Clara's life is utterly compelling. Her descent into depression, though unnamed, her guilt and repressed emotions are all rendered in exquisite detail. White rarely 'tells', there's hardly any exposition and the explosive moments are dramatized without comment The image of the airless bell-jar towards the end inevitably recalls Sylvia Plath.
----------------------------------------------------------
This is the 3rd book in White's Frost in May Quartet (Frost in May, The Lost Traveller, Beyond the Glass), and is perhaps the most claustrophobic to read. Clara, now a travelling actress, falls painfully in love and after her inevitable betrayal, retreats to the safety of marriage with Archie. She likes him but feels nothing more, and the burden of his adoration pushes her closer to the edge.
The sheer stifling claustrophobia of her life is so palpable in this novel that I kept wanting to go outside! And you just know that something dreadful is going to happen in the next book...
A masterclass in creating fiction out of character as little happens externally yet the internal drama of Clara's life is utterly compelling. Her descent into depression, though unnamed, her guilt and repressed emotions are all rendered in exquisite detail. White rarely 'tells', there's hardly any exposition and the explosive moments are dramatized without comment The image of the airless bell-jar towards the end inevitably recalls Sylvia Plath.
----------------------------------------------------------
This is the 3rd book in White's Frost in May Quartet (Frost in May, The Lost Traveller, Beyond the Glass), and is perhaps the most claustrophobic to read. Clara, now a travelling actress, falls painfully in love and after her inevitable betrayal, retreats to the safety of marriage with Archie. She likes him but feels nothing more, and the burden of his adoration pushes her closer to the edge.
The sheer stifling claustrophobia of her life is so palpable in this novel that I kept wanting to go outside! And you just know that something dreadful is going to happen in the next book...
April 9, 2023
Please note that the GR book description does not state the correct order the books in Antonia White’s series are to be read. The books’ correct reading order is found at the bottom of my review. Furthermore, the books make up a quartet, not a trilogy!
I will not repeat information concerning the earlier two books. I have separate reviews for them.
Review for Frost in May: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Review for The Lost Traveller: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It is important to read all the books and in the correct order.
The Sugar House, the third book, covers only a three month period. I feel the books should have been put together into one. Much information is repeated simply because the tale has been spread into four books! Complaint number one!
Every reader tackles a book from their own experiences and personality type. I have had an extremely hard time putting myself into Clara’s, the central protagonist’s, shoes. I cannot stand subterfuge or lies. My moto is, if you have an opinion, speak out and say it. Keeping things hidden simply goes against my nature. All too often we are told so and so said this but actually thought that! I dislike how Clara, her parents and her grandmother often say mean things under the guise of false, sweet words. Their lack of straightforward behavior drives me nuts.
So, I repeatedly told myself to try and see these people’s choices and behavior as representative of another’s way of being. This was difficult; the behavior described pervades many of the characters’ speech and actions. So many lines irritated me—they start at the beginning and continue to the end:
“I wish I’d gotten the knack or writing profitable nonsense.”
This person has the wrong set of values!
“I believe you are immune experience.”
This person is mean and not helpful in the least!
“I’m a very weak character, my dear.”
Is that an excuse? Mightn’t the person consider improving himself?!
“Intellectual women can be appallingly tiresome.”
Said by a person Clara has fallen for! How is it possible to admire Clara? Doesn’t she have a smidgen of self-respect.
Clara is twenty one and the year is 1920, not the dark ages! In anger, she acts impulsively, in a way she comes to regret. In this book, we see what happens in the following three months.
The one character I like, compared to the many I immensely dislike, is an individual Clara doesn’t hit it off with. The whole situation threw me off kilter. I kept thinking, “Wake up, girl! Open your eyes!” OK, she’s different from me, but the author does not succeed in making me see Clara’s point of view. I could not empathize with her. This is unusual for me!
Why three stars? Why not less? The title is clever. Antonia White draws British countryside scenes and small provincial towns very, very well. Worcester and Sussex are two examples. Her ability to draw a character I do very much like shows that she’s cognizant of other simpler, more straightforward, unshowy people. It doesn’t bother me in the least that the less pretentious ones have faults. That many of the characters irritate me is better than that they leave me totally unmoved. Finally, the connection between the Catholic religion and love, that is to say the knot that can arise, is a topic the author shines a light on. The topic is well handled. In addition, that I have no intention of quitting the series before finishing it, speaks volumes. The book is good but could’ve been better. I quite simply have a very hard time with the characters; what they say and do annoys me.
Gretel Davis narrates the three first volumes of the quartet. She modulates her tone to fit the different characters. She does this well. Her voice is always clear and easy to follow. Again, I have given her narration four stars. This is a RNIB recording for the blind and visually impaired.
I am reading now, immediately after completing the third of the quartet, the fourth book. I wonder if what I want to happen does happen. I am not at all sure, but there is a chance. I am glad the outcome is not 100% clear. The GR ratings indicate that the last book is the strongest. I hope so.
********************************************
The quartet by Antonia White,
written during the years 1933 - 1952, are to be read in the following order:
1. Frost in May 4 stars
2. The Lost Traveller 3 stars
3. The Sugar House 3 stars
4. Beyond the Glass 3 stars
I will not repeat information concerning the earlier two books. I have separate reviews for them.
Review for Frost in May: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Review for The Lost Traveller: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It is important to read all the books and in the correct order.
The Sugar House, the third book, covers only a three month period. I feel the books should have been put together into one. Much information is repeated simply because the tale has been spread into four books! Complaint number one!
Every reader tackles a book from their own experiences and personality type. I have had an extremely hard time putting myself into Clara’s, the central protagonist’s, shoes. I cannot stand subterfuge or lies. My moto is, if you have an opinion, speak out and say it. Keeping things hidden simply goes against my nature. All too often we are told so and so said this but actually thought that! I dislike how Clara, her parents and her grandmother often say mean things under the guise of false, sweet words. Their lack of straightforward behavior drives me nuts.
So, I repeatedly told myself to try and see these people’s choices and behavior as representative of another’s way of being. This was difficult; the behavior described pervades many of the characters’ speech and actions. So many lines irritated me—they start at the beginning and continue to the end:
“I wish I’d gotten the knack or writing profitable nonsense.”
This person has the wrong set of values!
“I believe you are immune experience.”
This person is mean and not helpful in the least!
“I’m a very weak character, my dear.”
Is that an excuse? Mightn’t the person consider improving himself?!
“Intellectual women can be appallingly tiresome.”
Said by a person Clara has fallen for! How is it possible to admire Clara? Doesn’t she have a smidgen of self-respect.
Clara is twenty one and the year is 1920, not the dark ages! In anger, she acts impulsively, in a way she comes to regret. In this book, we see what happens in the following three months.
The one character I like, compared to the many I immensely dislike, is an individual Clara doesn’t hit it off with. The whole situation threw me off kilter. I kept thinking, “Wake up, girl! Open your eyes!” OK, she’s different from me, but the author does not succeed in making me see Clara’s point of view. I could not empathize with her. This is unusual for me!
Why three stars? Why not less? The title is clever. Antonia White draws British countryside scenes and small provincial towns very, very well. Worcester and Sussex are two examples. Her ability to draw a character I do very much like shows that she’s cognizant of other simpler, more straightforward, unshowy people. It doesn’t bother me in the least that the less pretentious ones have faults. That many of the characters irritate me is better than that they leave me totally unmoved. Finally, the connection between the Catholic religion and love, that is to say the knot that can arise, is a topic the author shines a light on. The topic is well handled. In addition, that I have no intention of quitting the series before finishing it, speaks volumes. The book is good but could’ve been better. I quite simply have a very hard time with the characters; what they say and do annoys me.
Gretel Davis narrates the three first volumes of the quartet. She modulates her tone to fit the different characters. She does this well. Her voice is always clear and easy to follow. Again, I have given her narration four stars. This is a RNIB recording for the blind and visually impaired.
I am reading now, immediately after completing the third of the quartet, the fourth book. I wonder if what I want to happen does happen. I am not at all sure, but there is a chance. I am glad the outcome is not 100% clear. The GR ratings indicate that the last book is the strongest. I hope so.
********************************************
The quartet by Antonia White,
written during the years 1933 - 1952, are to be read in the following order:
1. Frost in May 4 stars
2. The Lost Traveller 3 stars
3. The Sugar House 3 stars
4. Beyond the Glass 3 stars
January 25, 2025
This one is number three in the sequence of Clara Batchelor/Nanda Grey's life from the age of 9 to 23.
And having just read number two - The Lost Traveller, yes I'm a little disappointed. On the other hand, Antonia White in an interview with Carmen Callil, 1978 (founder of Virago Press, 1973) which forms the introduction in the edition I have - says this to Callil:
'When I finished The Lost Traveller I thought of it as just being one book, and then suddenly I felt I wanted to write another one about my first marriage. That was The Sugar House, which I think is much the best of the three. In it I see Clara's relationship with Archie (her husband) entirely through the eyes of one person, as in Frost in May - I think that suited me much better.'
And because I have a huge respect for Antonia White I will not, as I could quite easily do, dismiss her
comment with: ". . . and that is why we have editors." No, instead I am thinking seriously about: 'entirely through the eyes of one person'. We know fellow reviewers that this style of narration has its pros and cons. On the plus side we get a deep dive into the character's head, her perspective, her sympathies, her background and history etc, and then the negative here would be - the reader lacks the confirmation, the solidifying aspect of another's point of view. We have to trust Clara or Nanda or whoever's perspective it is, that gives us this deep dive into the psyche of our narrator.
Let me come at this problem from another angle. My good friend, Canadian Reader, who having read the whole sequence left me with a question about The Sugar House. "Archie is a bizarre figure. What's wrong with him exactly? Have you ever encountered another like him? Still, he's very credible."
Three? questions - but a good place to start. Yes, Archie perplexed me also. We could diagnose him as PTSD (a survivor of the Great War), or maybe as Canadian suggested, 'asexual', myself I was thinking a closet homosexual, or we could go with 'Peter-Pan syndrome', the adult who is unable to grow up and take on board adult responsibilities and relationships - something happened in his childhood, some kind of trauma. We have lots of present day explanations for Archie, but this book was written and published in 1952. So, I went back to Yeats and some lines I had noticed from: The Land of Heart's Desire.
Father Hart. You should not fill your head with foolish dreams.
What are you reading?
Mary. How a Princess Edain,
A daughter of a king of Ireland, heard
A voice sitting on a May Eve like this,
And followed, half awake and half asleep,
Until she came into the Land of Faery,
Where nobody gets old and godly and grave,
Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise,
Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue
And she is still there, busied with a dance
Deep in the dewy shadow of a wood,
(Or where stars walk upon a mountain-top.)
And I know that is Archie. Clara has the generosity of spirit to see Archie, with all his faults, as he truly is. I mean Archie goes out and sells his motorbike and sidecar, when they are desperately short of money. It's his one valuable possession and - comes back with a train-set!! They owe about a hundred pounds in rent and bills and Clara is tormented into despair and depression by her inability either to handle Archie or the economics of their situation. When he returns with train-set - he does tell her he's sent 20 pounds to the landlord, but I can barely blame her for bursting into tears. I'd have wrung his neck.
But then look at the Yeats - Archie embodies all those wonderful qualities of someone who hasn't aged. He is truly young and beautiful. I know Canadian Reader will argue with me here. 'He spent all their money on booze - double whiskies, money that Clara earnt through sheer hard grind at advertising slogans, or money given to her by her parents - for her birthday.'
Yes, Archie is a feckless, thoughtless, selfish, brat of a spendthrift, with no conscious gleams of any future necessity - water, or food or clean clothes etc and yet he loves Clara.
Here's a small extract from the end:
'I know I should have told you. Maidie went for me about that and I knew she was right. But I'd made all sorts of excuses. How beastly it would all be for you. It IS beastly. Father Sammy admitted that. Told myself that if you could hold on till I came into my money, I could give you everything you wanted. No worries. A decent house anywhere you fancied. Travel. Time to concentrate on your writing. We could have adopted some children. Only if you'd wanted them too, of course.'
She interrupted:
'Oh, don't, don't. All the time it's you who've been thinking of me. What I might feel. What I might want. . . '
He said simply:
'Well I loved you, didn't I? It was up to me.'
'But when did I think what YOU wanted? I've been nothing but a beastly spoilt child.' She looked round the bright room, smirking still in its shabbiness. 'YOU never wanted this house. Now I hate it every bit as much as you do.'
So -you ask, 'How does that scene fit with the first-person dominant narrative that White herself preferred as the best way to tell this section of Clara's story?'
It's all about what we can't imagine and the endless focus on what is easy to understand - the self. It's so much harder to try and work out what is going on with others - to trust, to give the benefit of the doubt etc. Even with good communication - as today's psychologists recommend, we are plagued with our first-person perspective. In that scene above Clara understands with stunning clarity that Archie loves her - and it is she who is lacking. That first person narrative aligns us with Clara - it's the norm for everyone, and like Clara we suffer when our self-image is distorted/destroyed. We suffer with Clara, but we learn with her also.
Peter-Pan Archie is the most wonderful person possible. He is who he is, and with all the qualities our modern world would most definitely describe as FAULTS, but in another world he really is the best of the best. In The Lost Traveller he was honourable and brave and protected Clara from both physical and emotional pain - a true hero.
That other world - we easily forget - those internal values you don't see from day to day. The world of - Faeries and Yeats, who reminds us. Most admirers and critics of Yeats would dismiss the play above as - "One of his early works (1894) - sentimental."
It seems to me this world contains all the worlds - and there is room for plenty more. We just seem to get old, inflexible and stuck and forget how to be young and beautiful - as we once were.
5 Stars.
And having just read number two - The Lost Traveller, yes I'm a little disappointed. On the other hand, Antonia White in an interview with Carmen Callil, 1978 (founder of Virago Press, 1973) which forms the introduction in the edition I have - says this to Callil:
'When I finished The Lost Traveller I thought of it as just being one book, and then suddenly I felt I wanted to write another one about my first marriage. That was The Sugar House, which I think is much the best of the three. In it I see Clara's relationship with Archie (her husband) entirely through the eyes of one person, as in Frost in May - I think that suited me much better.'
And because I have a huge respect for Antonia White I will not, as I could quite easily do, dismiss her
comment with: ". . . and that is why we have editors." No, instead I am thinking seriously about: 'entirely through the eyes of one person'. We know fellow reviewers that this style of narration has its pros and cons. On the plus side we get a deep dive into the character's head, her perspective, her sympathies, her background and history etc, and then the negative here would be - the reader lacks the confirmation, the solidifying aspect of another's point of view. We have to trust Clara or Nanda or whoever's perspective it is, that gives us this deep dive into the psyche of our narrator.
Let me come at this problem from another angle. My good friend, Canadian Reader, who having read the whole sequence left me with a question about The Sugar House. "Archie is a bizarre figure. What's wrong with him exactly? Have you ever encountered another like him? Still, he's very credible."
Three? questions - but a good place to start. Yes, Archie perplexed me also. We could diagnose him as PTSD (a survivor of the Great War), or maybe as Canadian suggested, 'asexual', myself I was thinking a closet homosexual, or we could go with 'Peter-Pan syndrome', the adult who is unable to grow up and take on board adult responsibilities and relationships - something happened in his childhood, some kind of trauma. We have lots of present day explanations for Archie, but this book was written and published in 1952. So, I went back to Yeats and some lines I had noticed from: The Land of Heart's Desire.
Father Hart. You should not fill your head with foolish dreams.
What are you reading?
Mary. How a Princess Edain,
A daughter of a king of Ireland, heard
A voice sitting on a May Eve like this,
And followed, half awake and half asleep,
Until she came into the Land of Faery,
Where nobody gets old and godly and grave,
Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise,
Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue
And she is still there, busied with a dance
Deep in the dewy shadow of a wood,
(Or where stars walk upon a mountain-top.)
And I know that is Archie. Clara has the generosity of spirit to see Archie, with all his faults, as he truly is. I mean Archie goes out and sells his motorbike and sidecar, when they are desperately short of money. It's his one valuable possession and - comes back with a train-set!! They owe about a hundred pounds in rent and bills and Clara is tormented into despair and depression by her inability either to handle Archie or the economics of their situation. When he returns with train-set - he does tell her he's sent 20 pounds to the landlord, but I can barely blame her for bursting into tears. I'd have wrung his neck.
But then look at the Yeats - Archie embodies all those wonderful qualities of someone who hasn't aged. He is truly young and beautiful. I know Canadian Reader will argue with me here. 'He spent all their money on booze - double whiskies, money that Clara earnt through sheer hard grind at advertising slogans, or money given to her by her parents - for her birthday.'
Yes, Archie is a feckless, thoughtless, selfish, brat of a spendthrift, with no conscious gleams of any future necessity - water, or food or clean clothes etc and yet he loves Clara.
Here's a small extract from the end:
'I know I should have told you. Maidie went for me about that and I knew she was right. But I'd made all sorts of excuses. How beastly it would all be for you. It IS beastly. Father Sammy admitted that. Told myself that if you could hold on till I came into my money, I could give you everything you wanted. No worries. A decent house anywhere you fancied. Travel. Time to concentrate on your writing. We could have adopted some children. Only if you'd wanted them too, of course.'
She interrupted:
'Oh, don't, don't. All the time it's you who've been thinking of me. What I might feel. What I might want. . . '
He said simply:
'Well I loved you, didn't I? It was up to me.'
'But when did I think what YOU wanted? I've been nothing but a beastly spoilt child.' She looked round the bright room, smirking still in its shabbiness. 'YOU never wanted this house. Now I hate it every bit as much as you do.'
So -you ask, 'How does that scene fit with the first-person dominant narrative that White herself preferred as the best way to tell this section of Clara's story?'
It's all about what we can't imagine and the endless focus on what is easy to understand - the self. It's so much harder to try and work out what is going on with others - to trust, to give the benefit of the doubt etc. Even with good communication - as today's psychologists recommend, we are plagued with our first-person perspective. In that scene above Clara understands with stunning clarity that Archie loves her - and it is she who is lacking. That first person narrative aligns us with Clara - it's the norm for everyone, and like Clara we suffer when our self-image is distorted/destroyed. We suffer with Clara, but we learn with her also.
Peter-Pan Archie is the most wonderful person possible. He is who he is, and with all the qualities our modern world would most definitely describe as FAULTS, but in another world he really is the best of the best. In The Lost Traveller he was honourable and brave and protected Clara from both physical and emotional pain - a true hero.
That other world - we easily forget - those internal values you don't see from day to day. The world of - Faeries and Yeats, who reminds us. Most admirers and critics of Yeats would dismiss the play above as - "One of his early works (1894) - sentimental."
It seems to me this world contains all the worlds - and there is room for plenty more. We just seem to get old, inflexible and stuck and forget how to be young and beautiful - as we once were.
5 Stars.
September 18, 2022
The book’s climax more or less goes like this:
Archie, husband of Clara for a number of months: I have something to tell you.
Clara, his wife, fearing the worst: What?
Archie, anguished look
Clara: Oh my God that explains everything!
The End
Well excuse me Ms. White that explains everything to Clara but what about your readers?! Fer chrissake. 🤨
Nevertheless, Antonia White writes well. This is the third in a quartet of novels. The first book in the quartet, ‘A Frost in May’, I liked a lot and I gave it 4 stars. Since I’ve read 3 of the 4, I guess I will soldier onto the fourth, ‘Beyond the Glass’. This quartet is semi-autobiographical. After I finish that novel, there is at least one related book I want to read, a memoir of Antonia White written by her daughter Susan Chitty, ‘Now to My Mother’. In that book’s Introduction, she writes “...Antonia White was not a good mother to me. She conceived me out of wedlock, put me into a home for the first year and a half of my life, and handed me over to nannies and boarding schools for much of the remainder of my childhood...” 😮 😮 (Interestingly, White when she was 53 and the year ‘The Sugar House’ was published, dedicates it to Susan.)
The name of the book comes from the tale of Hansel and Gretel in which the witch traps the two kids in a sugar house. In this novel, Archie and Clara live in a small, dilapidated house which Clara calls their sugar house.
After I bought this book in its original issue, I noticed that on the title page, Antonia White’s signature is right below her printed name. So, I guess I have a signed first edition of this novel. But it does not have a dust jacket, so I have a suspicion it is not worth a ton of money. 😐 😑
Note:
• ‘A Frost in May’, the first book of the quartet of Antonia White’s novels, was the inaugural book re-issued by Virago Modern Classics in 1984. Virago Modern Classics are "dedicated to the celebration of women writers and to the rediscovery and reprinting of their works Since its founding, over 700 books have been published under the Virago Modern Classics imprimatur (for the entire list see: https://www.virago.co.uk/imprint/lbbg... ).
Reviews:
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2013/...
• http://agirlwalksintoabookstore.blogs...
• https://danitorres.typepad.com/workin...
Archie, husband of Clara for a number of months: I have something to tell you.
Clara, his wife, fearing the worst: What?
Archie, anguished look
Clara: Oh my God that explains everything!
The End
Well excuse me Ms. White that explains everything to Clara but what about your readers?! Fer chrissake. 🤨
Nevertheless, Antonia White writes well. This is the third in a quartet of novels. The first book in the quartet, ‘A Frost in May’, I liked a lot and I gave it 4 stars. Since I’ve read 3 of the 4, I guess I will soldier onto the fourth, ‘Beyond the Glass’. This quartet is semi-autobiographical. After I finish that novel, there is at least one related book I want to read, a memoir of Antonia White written by her daughter Susan Chitty, ‘Now to My Mother’. In that book’s Introduction, she writes “...Antonia White was not a good mother to me. She conceived me out of wedlock, put me into a home for the first year and a half of my life, and handed me over to nannies and boarding schools for much of the remainder of my childhood...” 😮 😮 (Interestingly, White when she was 53 and the year ‘The Sugar House’ was published, dedicates it to Susan.)
The name of the book comes from the tale of Hansel and Gretel in which the witch traps the two kids in a sugar house. In this novel, Archie and Clara live in a small, dilapidated house which Clara calls their sugar house.
After I bought this book in its original issue, I noticed that on the title page, Antonia White’s signature is right below her printed name. So, I guess I have a signed first edition of this novel. But it does not have a dust jacket, so I have a suspicion it is not worth a ton of money. 😐 😑
Note:
• ‘A Frost in May’, the first book of the quartet of Antonia White’s novels, was the inaugural book re-issued by Virago Modern Classics in 1984. Virago Modern Classics are "dedicated to the celebration of women writers and to the rediscovery and reprinting of their works Since its founding, over 700 books have been published under the Virago Modern Classics imprimatur (for the entire list see: https://www.virago.co.uk/imprint/lbbg... ).
Reviews:
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2013/...
• http://agirlwalksintoabookstore.blogs...
• https://danitorres.typepad.com/workin...
Read
March 19, 2017There may be some consensus that this is a low point of the four.* And I'll go along with that. Some theater culture stuff followed by some unfortunate marriage stuff which involves some useless business dealings and some alcoholism. Not nice stuff, but also not terribly engaging stuff. One almost misses the religion saturated earlier stuff. Be that as it may. A whole is a whole, no matter what you think of a weak link. Looking forward to the fourth novel in which a loss of sanity plays some role.
Genre note :: this sequence (of 1+3, see asterisks below) is auto-fiction, and should probably be included in those lists which include KOK, Ferrante, Richardson, et al.
* "the four" ; I still don't quite know how to tag this set of four novels. The most precise way is to say that there is a novel, Frost in May, followed by a trilogy=sequel whose three novels almost stand on their own but clearly gain as a whole. So, in short, it's a 1+3.
Genre note :: this sequence (of 1+3, see asterisks below) is auto-fiction, and should probably be included in those lists which include KOK, Ferrante, Richardson, et al.
* "the four" ; I still don't quite know how to tag this set of four novels. The most precise way is to say that there is a novel, Frost in May, followed by a trilogy=sequel whose three novels almost stand on their own but clearly gain as a whole. So, in short, it's a 1+3.
December 29, 2025
The first part (half) of the novel was interesting because of the descriptions of life on tour with a minor acting company. But I didn't see the point of the rest. I wasn't much interested.
The second part, as the description of the breakdown of a young marriage, was more engaging. The couple was from the start doomed.
Although each part of the series (since Frost in May, which I found genial) seemed less gripping, I admit, each had something interesting to tell.
[3-3.5 stars]
The second part, as the description of the breakdown of a young marriage, was more engaging. The couple was from the start doomed.
Although each part of the series (since Frost in May, which I found genial) seemed less gripping, I admit, each had something interesting to tell.
[3-3.5 stars]
June 29, 2014
"The Sugar House" finds Clara, in 1920, as a young actress with
her first repertory company and madly infatuated with older
actor Stephen Tye. She has grown up a lot in the down to earth
theatrical digs, an occupation she found in much the same way
she had decided to be a governess - because someone suggested
she'd be good at it!!
A very compelling description of just what it must have been
like in a 2nd (or even 3rd) rate company touring the midlands
in the early 20s, Clara having lived a privileged though
claustrophobic lifestyle now has to sleep sardine style in trains,
scramble for awful accommodation, hope that the mysterious bites
that keep her awake at night are fleas and not bed bugs as well
as laughing at lewd jokes she doesn't understand and wondering
at Peter and Trevor's very close friendship.
It's clear that Stephen is only interested in the main chance and
that Clara is a pleasant interlude who, unfortunately, reminds
Stephen of his lost youth etc. His actions propel Clara back into
the arms of Archie. "The Lost Traveller" ended with Clara
leaving Archie at the alter but a few years have past and Archie
now has serious emotional problems - he's a very heavy drinker
whose life revolves around opening times!! Marrying Archie is a
disastrous mistake but foolish Clara lives for the times when at
tea with her parents, she now believes she has her father's
unconditional love. Once again her mother, who in modern times
comes across as such a sympathetic character, just can't break
the stronghold set up by Claude and Clara.
Maidie hits the nail on the head by saying that she feels "Starchy"
(her nickname for Archie) has never really lived life - and four
months after the wedding Clara's hysterical behaviour when an
amorous painter tries to seduce her has him putting two and two
together!! In an effort to please everyone around her Clara has
wrecked her life - being a Catholic, divorce seems out of the
question although Marcus (the painter) cautions as long as she
doesn't take a lover an annulment should be no trouble - even if
it takes years!! One of my favourite parts happens at the end.
Archie who by following Clara around falls into acting as well but
unlike Clara is a huge success. Clara is now looking at unemployment
while Archie has scored a featured part in the new musical "Sally"
- he sings her his part from "The Church 'Round the Corner", cueing
while Maidie sings her part, it seems so obvious from that little
scene that the author has definitely been around theatre people.
"The Sugar House" is the name for the almost impracticable doll's
house that Clara falls in love with. They are right royally conned
by their shifty landlords and even forced to employ a char who
charges them the earth and doesn't even bother to come on the
appointed days. Clara is right - they are like Hansel and Gretel
living in a sugar house and their non existent coping skills with
finances bring down the transparent walls.
her first repertory company and madly infatuated with older
actor Stephen Tye. She has grown up a lot in the down to earth
theatrical digs, an occupation she found in much the same way
she had decided to be a governess - because someone suggested
she'd be good at it!!
A very compelling description of just what it must have been
like in a 2nd (or even 3rd) rate company touring the midlands
in the early 20s, Clara having lived a privileged though
claustrophobic lifestyle now has to sleep sardine style in trains,
scramble for awful accommodation, hope that the mysterious bites
that keep her awake at night are fleas and not bed bugs as well
as laughing at lewd jokes she doesn't understand and wondering
at Peter and Trevor's very close friendship.
It's clear that Stephen is only interested in the main chance and
that Clara is a pleasant interlude who, unfortunately, reminds
Stephen of his lost youth etc. His actions propel Clara back into
the arms of Archie. "The Lost Traveller" ended with Clara
leaving Archie at the alter but a few years have past and Archie
now has serious emotional problems - he's a very heavy drinker
whose life revolves around opening times!! Marrying Archie is a
disastrous mistake but foolish Clara lives for the times when at
tea with her parents, she now believes she has her father's
unconditional love. Once again her mother, who in modern times
comes across as such a sympathetic character, just can't break
the stronghold set up by Claude and Clara.
Maidie hits the nail on the head by saying that she feels "Starchy"
(her nickname for Archie) has never really lived life - and four
months after the wedding Clara's hysterical behaviour when an
amorous painter tries to seduce her has him putting two and two
together!! In an effort to please everyone around her Clara has
wrecked her life - being a Catholic, divorce seems out of the
question although Marcus (the painter) cautions as long as she
doesn't take a lover an annulment should be no trouble - even if
it takes years!! One of my favourite parts happens at the end.
Archie who by following Clara around falls into acting as well but
unlike Clara is a huge success. Clara is now looking at unemployment
while Archie has scored a featured part in the new musical "Sally"
- he sings her his part from "The Church 'Round the Corner", cueing
while Maidie sings her part, it seems so obvious from that little
scene that the author has definitely been around theatre people.
"The Sugar House" is the name for the almost impracticable doll's
house that Clara falls in love with. They are right royally conned
by their shifty landlords and even forced to employ a char who
charges them the earth and doesn't even bother to come on the
appointed days. Clara is right - they are like Hansel and Gretel
living in a sugar house and their non existent coping skills with
finances bring down the transparent walls.
April 7, 2024
As a "Convent Girl" educated at a convent in the 1960s and 1970s, I read the first in this series "Frost in May" years ago, and also studied it for a short OU course on women writers. I didn't realise there was a sequel, let alone three more books following Clare to adulthood. I absolutely loved this book and I love her writing. I have sought out the other two secondhand and can scarcely wait to read them. Like my daughter #Verityreadsbooks, I love the writing of these female novelists from the mid-20th century. Their writing is crisp, concise, beautifully observed, grammatically correct (!) with none of the gimmicks that some modern authors believe is de rigeur.
January 14, 2024
Okay, everyone needs to read more Antonia White! She just has this writing style that makes me UNABLE to put her books down, once I start. It reminds me a bit of Charlotte Bronte, and when this book started off in the world of the British theater, I was sold. Digs, trains, questionable hackneyed plays, Richard II, George Eliot references...
But oy, does the heroine (of Frost in May) make TERRIBLE choices, largely goaded on my her insufferable academic Catholic convert of a father. In Frost in May he sent her off to a horrid convent boarding school, and here he pressures her into marrying a dissolute, childish, alcoholic man who may be gay and is certainly not interested in sleeping with women, although he fancies he's in love with Clara, the heroine. Clara does out of spite, because she's pining for the man she does love, a brilliant actor who makes an advantageous marriage with an established theatrical persona and actress to further his career instead.
Clara descends into depression, losing the ability to write, act, overspending, spending her days aimlessly, overeating...if anyone has fallen into this type of paralyzed depression, they can relate to this book. My only criticisms were my confusion about the name change of the heroine from Frost in May (she's Nanda in that book)--why? Explain this more? Plus, the vagueness of the death of her charge when she was a governess, and the lack of a completely satisfying ending. Please let the reader know she annulled the relationship with this man, for some positivity!
It's a depressing book with a frustrating heroine, but so well-written, well worth your time!
But oy, does the heroine (of Frost in May) make TERRIBLE choices, largely goaded on my her insufferable academic Catholic convert of a father. In Frost in May he sent her off to a horrid convent boarding school, and here he pressures her into marrying a dissolute, childish, alcoholic man who may be gay and is certainly not interested in sleeping with women, although he fancies he's in love with Clara, the heroine. Clara does out of spite, because she's pining for the man she does love, a brilliant actor who makes an advantageous marriage with an established theatrical persona and actress to further his career instead.
Clara descends into depression, losing the ability to write, act, overspending, spending her days aimlessly, overeating...if anyone has fallen into this type of paralyzed depression, they can relate to this book. My only criticisms were my confusion about the name change of the heroine from Frost in May (she's Nanda in that book)--why? Explain this more? Plus, the vagueness of the death of her charge when she was a governess, and the lack of a completely satisfying ending. Please let the reader know she annulled the relationship with this man, for some positivity!
It's a depressing book with a frustrating heroine, but so well-written, well worth your time!
October 15, 2013
The Sugar House is the third novel in Antonia White’s Frost in May quartet. At the end of The Lost Traveller, Clara Batchelor had just freed herself from an impetuous engagement to Archie Hughes – Follett. As The Sugar House opens, Clara is about to embark on a tour of a play with a theatrical company. She is head over heels in love with Stephen Tye, a fellow actor who will be touring with a different company.
“At last the whole company stood yawning and shivering on York platform. In the murk under the sooty roof on which rain drummed steadily, it was hard to realise that it was half past four on a summer morning. Everyone was longing for a cup of tea, but no buffet was open at that hour”
As Clara endures a series of drab provincial boarding houses, sharing a room with the irrepressible Maidie, a fellow catholic, she dreams of meeting up with Stephen, determined to marry him even if, as she suspects, he makes her unhappy in the process. Clara receives a letter from her father, informing her that Archie is back from South America and wants to see her, she prepares herself to see the man she jilted four years earlier, the man who can’t but help remind her of the tragedy that had preceded it.
Following their awkward meeting in Birmingham, Archie, cynical and drinking too much, hooks up with Clara’s theatre company. Archie is often childlike, his enthusiasms and sulks extreme and often unrealistic. He still loves Clara, declaring he would still marry her – on any terms. Despite being twenty-three – Archie’s family money is held in trust for another two years – he is hopeless at managing his allowance and is constantly looking around for a quick money making scheme. When Stephen betrays Clara, reeling and hurt Clara marries Archie, much to her father’s delight and her mother’s dismay. Taking a tiny house they can ill afford in a Chelsea populated with artists, Clara is desperate to find the safety she once knew in childhood and to win her father’s approval. Archie and Clara are like children playing at house. Clara comes to think of her dream house as a sugar house, like that of Hansel and Gretel. However they are not children anymore, and the realities of their situation and the world they live in starts to turn to a nightmare.
“Now!’ said Archie, in a tone of immense satisfaction. She opened her eyes. Spread out on the floor were two magnificent Bassett-Lowke model engines; a tail of coaches for each; stations, signal boxes and a glittering heap of rails. She could do nothing but stare open mouthed.
‘Thought that would knock you flat,’ said Archie, grinning with pleasure.”
Judging by other reviews I have seen of this book, The Sugar House may be the least popular of the four novels. Having loved The Lost Traveller so much when I read it a couple of months ago – I was looking forward to this novel, and for me it didn’t disappoint, although The Lost Traveller is still my favourite to date. I loved the first half of the novel, with Clara touring with the theatrical company. Antonia White brilliantly depicts the life of provincial boarding houses and the actors that made their living by going from town to town on late night trains. There is much less emphasis on Catholicism in this novel, although Clara’s religion still helps guide her through her life and marriage. As this novel ends Clara is still only twenty-two – and I long to know what life holds in store for her.
May 16, 2008
This was the most harshly reviewed of all White's books by contemporary critics. However, its portrayal of despair and impending madness is as poignant as her other more highly praised book, Beyond the Glass.
April 7, 2018
I did not enjoy this book as much as Frost in May and The lost traveller. Never a great fan of books where I find characters a bit annoying. I will however without a doubt read the next and final in the series.
April 24, 2020
I didn’t get very far in before I started finding the characters irritating and the plot predictable.
April 8, 2023
First class. Anyone who has lived through the financial and emotional implosion of a marriage will relate to both Clara and Archie.
March 25, 2012
i had an incredibly hard time rating this book. while it had it's lines, i couldn't help but sometimes feel it was too dated—or simply a waste of time to have read (yet short enough to have read quite easily). also, the particular way she used catholicism to drive the plot (which i know is extremely autobiographical) was tiring to me.
March 9, 2019
Sometimes I need a break from more intense reading material. Sugar House supplied that, particularly in the first half of the novel, where main character Clara joins a travelling theatre company touring 1920s England. Later developments are very emotional, in a small way. It's based on the author's life, volume three of her four part story.
December 18, 2008
See review for Beyond the Glass!
July 6, 2009
This was an intense read, and not as charming as The Lost Traveller, but I really enjoyed it thoroughly. Looking forward to the next one!
Read
August 5, 2011Wonderfully sad story-I loved it. I want to see what is going to happen to Clara in the next book!
May 16, 2015
Fairfield
October 13, 2017
Interesting in the same way that Knausgaard is today. A life as a novel. Well done.
November 15, 2021
Enjoyed this one more than The Lost Traveller. Characters realistically annoying.
November 19, 2022
This is the third of four semi-autobiographical novels by Antonia White. Clara is now 21 and has her first acting job with a touring company. She's in love with an actor in another company, which never seems to be performing anywhere near enough for them to meet.
A few months later she has left acting and is living with her husband - whom I won't name, although the blurb does - in a small and impractical house in Chelsea that she thinks of as the Sugar House. But married life is not all sweetness and light.
I loved the descriptions of life on tour with a minor acting company, and the character of Maidie, Clara's roommate. The marriage is an exercise in miscommunication right up to the end of this book. Still it was lighter hearted than the previous one. I'm rather dreading the next and last book, whose blurb tells me more than I wanted to know.
A few months later she has left acting and is living with her husband - whom I won't name, although the blurb does - in a small and impractical house in Chelsea that she thinks of as the Sugar House. But married life is not all sweetness and light.
I loved the descriptions of life on tour with a minor acting company, and the character of Maidie, Clara's roommate. The marriage is an exercise in miscommunication right up to the end of this book. Still it was lighter hearted than the previous one. I'm rather dreading the next and last book, whose blurb tells me more than I wanted to know.
April 9, 2023
Not a patch on Frost in May or The Lost Traveller. Feels like she just wanted to be done with her own story.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews