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The Nest Builder: A Novel
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
392 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 22, 2023
I saw in Sylvia Arden Decides a reference to a book about what women want by Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale. I thought it might be interesting to read some feminist thing from a century ago, so looked it up. I discovered that the author also wrote a novel, so I opted to read that instead. It was clearly somewhat feminist from the point of view of a century ago. The topic of women's suffrage came up a lot.
Anyway, we have Stefan Byrd, and American artist who had been living in Paris, and Mary Elliston, a poor relative of British landed gentry heading off to America to seek their fortunes. They meet on the Lusitania. My 10-year-old grandson got all excited because he's into learning all about the ships that sank back in the day. Fortunately for this book, the Lusitania sank later on and Stefan and Mary met and got friendly, and by the time they arrived in America were pretty much planning on getting hitched.
They do get married and make a few friends in New York, some helpful in launching them into society of sorts, some helpful with business issues, and some associated with Suffrage issues. Stefan is a sort of narcissist, and can't settle down to regular work. His art is to important to prostitute it, or something. So, he's restless and wanders off a lot. Mary provides a nice house and takes good care of their two little ones, Elliston and Rosamund. But, she is also a talented writer, and makes enough with her stories to keep the family afloat until such time as Stefan manages to finish up a masterpiece or two and get them sold for a decent price.
Well, the above makes it sound kind of pedestrian, but it was actually rather fun. Definitely deserves 3*+, if not 4*.
Anyway, we have Stefan Byrd, and American artist who had been living in Paris, and Mary Elliston, a poor relative of British landed gentry heading off to America to seek their fortunes. They meet on the Lusitania. My 10-year-old grandson got all excited because he's into learning all about the ships that sank back in the day. Fortunately for this book, the Lusitania sank later on and Stefan and Mary met and got friendly, and by the time they arrived in America were pretty much planning on getting hitched.
They do get married and make a few friends in New York, some helpful in launching them into society of sorts, some helpful with business issues, and some associated with Suffrage issues. Stefan is a sort of narcissist, and can't settle down to regular work. His art is to important to prostitute it, or something. So, he's restless and wanders off a lot. Mary provides a nice house and takes good care of their two little ones, Elliston and Rosamund. But, she is also a talented writer, and makes enough with her stories to keep the family afloat until such time as Stefan manages to finish up a masterpiece or two and get them sold for a decent price.
Well, the above makes it sound kind of pedestrian, but it was actually rather fun. Definitely deserves 3*+, if not 4*.
July 15, 2015
A painter and a sometime writer of children's stories have a whirlwind romance abroad the Lusitania and get married as soon as they reach New York.
It's not sunshine and roses though. The artist, Stefan Byrd, has a great talent, but his work, like the man himself, has a misanthropic edge.
His new wife, an English beauty named Mary Elliston, characterises her husband's art as a 'sort of Pan-inspired terror', which he only transcends when he uses her a model for painting of Danaë:
'Watching the picture, seeing that it was a portrayal not of her but of his love for her, she wondered if any woman could long endure the arduousness of such deification, or if a man who had visioned a goddess could long content himself with a mortal.'
What starts as though it might be a generic and even ill-judged romance turns into a surprisingly perceptive look at life with an artist obsessed with beauty at the expense of all else, as well as a comment of the greater opportunities for enterprising women in America than in England in the first decades of the 20th century.
Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale was an English actress and Suffragist who, if her few portraits on the stagebeauty.net website are anything to go by, was quiet a looker herself.
Though Stefan's vanity and Mary's perfection can be a bit trying at times, The Nest Builder offers more than you might at first expect.
It's not sunshine and roses though. The artist, Stefan Byrd, has a great talent, but his work, like the man himself, has a misanthropic edge.
His new wife, an English beauty named Mary Elliston, characterises her husband's art as a 'sort of Pan-inspired terror', which he only transcends when he uses her a model for painting of Danaë:
'Watching the picture, seeing that it was a portrayal not of her but of his love for her, she wondered if any woman could long endure the arduousness of such deification, or if a man who had visioned a goddess could long content himself with a mortal.'
What starts as though it might be a generic and even ill-judged romance turns into a surprisingly perceptive look at life with an artist obsessed with beauty at the expense of all else, as well as a comment of the greater opportunities for enterprising women in America than in England in the first decades of the 20th century.
Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale was an English actress and Suffragist who, if her few portraits on the stagebeauty.net website are anything to go by, was quiet a looker herself.
Though Stefan's vanity and Mary's perfection can be a bit trying at times, The Nest Builder offers more than you might at first expect.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews