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The Birds Fall Down
Through a vivid canvas layered with intrigue, conspiracy and murder, Rebecca West has created a story that is at once a family saga, a political thriller, a philosophical drama and a historical novel.
Rebecca West’s gripping psychological mystery—part thriller, part historical novel—The Birds Fall Down takes readers inside the intrigue of revolutionaries preparing to overthrow an empire.
During early revolutionary stirrings in Russia, after an unexpected turn of events, Laura Rowan, the coddled granddaughter of an exiled British nobleman, becomes her grandfather’s sole companion on a fateful train ride. In France, a young revolutionary approaches Laura and her grandfather with information that will turn her world upside down, and their travels become a thrilling journey into the heart of the struggle against Tsarist Russia.
In this suspenseful novel, West brings to life a battle between entitled imperials and the passionate, savvy communist revolutionaries who dare to face them.
Rebecca West’s gripping psychological mystery—part thriller, part historical novel—The Birds Fall Down takes readers inside the intrigue of revolutionaries preparing to overthrow an empire.
During early revolutionary stirrings in Russia, after an unexpected turn of events, Laura Rowan, the coddled granddaughter of an exiled British nobleman, becomes her grandfather’s sole companion on a fateful train ride. In France, a young revolutionary approaches Laura and her grandfather with information that will turn her world upside down, and their travels become a thrilling journey into the heart of the struggle against Tsarist Russia.
In this suspenseful novel, West brings to life a battle between entitled imperials and the passionate, savvy communist revolutionaries who dare to face them.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1966
55 people are currently reading
2180 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca West
143 books455 followersCicely Isabel Fairfield, known by her pen name Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, DBE was an English author, journalist, literary critic, and travel writer. She was brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she attended George Watson's Ladies College.
A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of the twentieth century. She reviewed books for The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Sunday Telegraph, and the New Republic, and she was a correspondent for The Bookman. Her major works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), on the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder (1955), her coverage of the Nuremberg trials, published originally in The New Yorker; The Meaning of Treason, later The New Meaning of Treason, a study of World War II and Communist traitors; The Return of the Soldier, a modernist World War I novel; and the "Aubrey trilogy" of autobiographical novels, The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund. Time called her "indisputably the world's number one woman writer" in 1947. She was made CBE in 1949, and DBE in 1959, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to British letters.
A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of the twentieth century. She reviewed books for The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Sunday Telegraph, and the New Republic, and she was a correspondent for The Bookman. Her major works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), on the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder (1955), her coverage of the Nuremberg trials, published originally in The New Yorker; The Meaning of Treason, later The New Meaning of Treason, a study of World War II and Communist traitors; The Return of the Soldier, a modernist World War I novel; and the "Aubrey trilogy" of autobiographical novels, The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund. Time called her "indisputably the world's number one woman writer" in 1947. She was made CBE in 1949, and DBE in 1959, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to British letters.
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March 13, 2019Starts out as an everyday story of upper-middle class/upper class folk in early 20th century Britain told from the point of view of the adolescent daughter.
There are intimations of the husband and wife having a strained relationship, as the wife departs for France with her daughter to met her elderly Russian Father. He was a senior government official and the story slowly opens out in to a wider political story taking in the crisis in the Russian socialist-revolutionary party after the Azef scandal. Enjoyable as all this is, from the point of view of reading a novel rather than experiencing these kinds of things, the Azef affair - when a Russian revolutionary terrorist group was led by a Tsarist secret agent who in order to maintain his cover organised the assassination of minor members of the Tsar's family and leading figures in government - this all with the connivance of the government, was far odder than believable novels tend to be.
West's attitude, as you might suspect from the author of Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, of Russians, Orthodox Christianity, and pre-revolutionary Russian political intrigue, comes over as idealistic and enraptured.
There are intimations of the husband and wife having a strained relationship, as the wife departs for France with her daughter to met her elderly Russian Father. He was a senior government official and the story slowly opens out in to a wider political story taking in the crisis in the Russian socialist-revolutionary party after the Azef scandal. Enjoyable as all this is, from the point of view of reading a novel rather than experiencing these kinds of things, the Azef affair - when a Russian revolutionary terrorist group was led by a Tsarist secret agent who in order to maintain his cover organised the assassination of minor members of the Tsar's family and leading figures in government - this all with the connivance of the government, was far odder than believable novels tend to be.
West's attitude, as you might suspect from the author of Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, of Russians, Orthodox Christianity, and pre-revolutionary Russian political intrigue, comes over as idealistic and enraptured.
February 4, 2012
Approaches to writing fiction vary as much as tastes in reading it: that's a way of recognizing that The Birds Fall Down disagrees with some readers, in large ways or small. One reason I admired it, when I read it in the mid-90s, was precisely its unusual features. Broadly speaking, it concerns the upheavals in Russia that led to the end of the tsar's court and the triumph of the Communists, but it doesn't take place in Russia. Roughly a quarter of its length is devoted to a long talk on a French train--what the New York Times reviewer in 1966 called a "monstrous conversation"--between an exiled aristocrat and a terrorist, but their talk isn't the kind you or I might have. It presents instead, like some of the speeches in the movie Network, a heightened reality akin to operatic arias, to use a term that's been applied both to this discussion and to those excursions in Network. And despite its discursive qualities, the novel shares something with mysteries and spy thrillers; it's genuinely gripping, featuring clues one might at first have missed and secrets one begins to suspect, finally involving life-or-death stakes.
I could even say (though I might be overreaching a bit) that this novel of clashing ideas and ideals is also about the life and death of worlds, not in the science-fiction way but in the sense of entire cultures. Those cultures, as well as the novel's style, are increasingly remote now to most of us in America, so The Birds Fall Down seems to some readers alien rather than comfortable, though for me this is a virtue--it has the appeal of the exotic. That may sound merely aesthetic, so I should add that the foreign realm into which the book transports the reader was entirely real and that what happened there was deeply consequential for the entire 20th century.
Anyone wanting more detail can easily consult that Times review I mentioned, but be forewarned: it offers criticism rather than ordinary reviewing, in the sense of assessing virtually the entire story. Spoilers, in other words.
A personal note: My recollection is that I discovered this novel during one of many trips with my mother to Half Price Books, a used bookstore, in Dallas, Texas, and that she suggested either this work in particular or at least Dame Rebecca West's writing in general. It was one of many recommendations she made and books she gave me. How she came by her broad knowledge of literature (as it still seems to me) is something I never found time to ask her about, and that part of her past is now beyond retrieving, unlike the history restored by Dame Rebecca in this book. Though my mother had been born into a family much inclined to reading--one of her older relations had founded an important part of the University of Texas library system, if I remember right--she must have been preoccupied from the mid-50s with raising a family and from the mid-60s had been a single parent with a full-time job who nonetheless managed to earn a graduate degree (in library science, not surprisingly). When did she discover all those authors to whom she introduced me? Willie Morris, Ray Bradbury, P. D. James, Barbara Pym, Rebecca West, Thomas Merton… the list is long and wide-ranging. I can say only that I'm glad for it.
I could even say (though I might be overreaching a bit) that this novel of clashing ideas and ideals is also about the life and death of worlds, not in the science-fiction way but in the sense of entire cultures. Those cultures, as well as the novel's style, are increasingly remote now to most of us in America, so The Birds Fall Down seems to some readers alien rather than comfortable, though for me this is a virtue--it has the appeal of the exotic. That may sound merely aesthetic, so I should add that the foreign realm into which the book transports the reader was entirely real and that what happened there was deeply consequential for the entire 20th century.
Anyone wanting more detail can easily consult that Times review I mentioned, but be forewarned: it offers criticism rather than ordinary reviewing, in the sense of assessing virtually the entire story. Spoilers, in other words.
A personal note: My recollection is that I discovered this novel during one of many trips with my mother to Half Price Books, a used bookstore, in Dallas, Texas, and that she suggested either this work in particular or at least Dame Rebecca West's writing in general. It was one of many recommendations she made and books she gave me. How she came by her broad knowledge of literature (as it still seems to me) is something I never found time to ask her about, and that part of her past is now beyond retrieving, unlike the history restored by Dame Rebecca in this book. Though my mother had been born into a family much inclined to reading--one of her older relations had founded an important part of the University of Texas library system, if I remember right--she must have been preoccupied from the mid-50s with raising a family and from the mid-60s had been a single parent with a full-time job who nonetheless managed to earn a graduate degree (in library science, not surprisingly). When did she discover all those authors to whom she introduced me? Willie Morris, Ray Bradbury, P. D. James, Barbara Pym, Rebecca West, Thomas Merton… the list is long and wide-ranging. I can say only that I'm glad for it.
November 13, 2016
*********************************************
4½ stars out of 5.
I may return, sometime and revise this rating.
This book has spun me around many times during this reading. And because it has been the first book by Rebecca West that I have read, I’m not certain of my qualifications to judge her as a writer just yet. But she is clearly a master of her craft.
As an American from the Deep South, I found her use of the English Language (UK) rhythmically difficult for my reading customs. And that is not her failing. But nonetheless her prose was not at all easy for me—at first. That said, by the end of this work I was amazed by her timing and her plot structure. She caught me completely off guard; and she composed an ending that will be hard to forget. I did not sleep well last night—it was that depressing.
I know that this work is inspired by actual historical events—at least on the surface. But from a 21st century perspective, this North American reader perceives a deeper human analysis.
I am not distressed by her prose, nor by her style. Her understanding of History is superb. Her skills as a writer are indisputable.
But her judgment of people is very difficult to take. She does not seem forgiving. And it is also difficult to think of any character in this book that is admirable. I feel complicit in their abuses. And I’m assuming that is exactly her intentions. Perhaps her indictments of us are valuable. But she aims her blows right at our souls. And it hurts terribly.
4½ stars out of 5.
I may return, sometime and revise this rating.
This book has spun me around many times during this reading. And because it has been the first book by Rebecca West that I have read, I’m not certain of my qualifications to judge her as a writer just yet. But she is clearly a master of her craft.
As an American from the Deep South, I found her use of the English Language (UK) rhythmically difficult for my reading customs. And that is not her failing. But nonetheless her prose was not at all easy for me—at first. That said, by the end of this work I was amazed by her timing and her plot structure. She caught me completely off guard; and she composed an ending that will be hard to forget. I did not sleep well last night—it was that depressing.
I know that this work is inspired by actual historical events—at least on the surface. But from a 21st century perspective, this North American reader perceives a deeper human analysis.
I am not distressed by her prose, nor by her style. Her understanding of History is superb. Her skills as a writer are indisputable.
But her judgment of people is very difficult to take. She does not seem forgiving. And it is also difficult to think of any character in this book that is admirable. I feel complicit in their abuses. And I’m assuming that is exactly her intentions. Perhaps her indictments of us are valuable. But she aims her blows right at our souls. And it hurts terribly.
July 18, 2023
We are all bowmen in this place
The pattern of the birds against the sky
Our arrows overprint, and then they die.
But it is also common to our race
That when the birds fall down we weep.
Reason's a thing we dimly see in sleep.
--Conway Power, Guide to a Disturbed Planet
At the turn of the 19th/20th Century, Nikolai Nikolaievitch Diakinov has been exiled by the Tsar, and he lives in Paris feeling himself disgraced. He also knows himself to be innocent. And yet he continues in his firm belief that the Tsar deserves his absolute allegiance because the Tsar is an instrument of God. Diakinov repudiates those who oppose the Tsar, and that opposition is making itself known. How could terrorist revolutionaries use his ambiguous position to their advantage?
Laura Rowan is his 18-year old granddaughter, half English and half Russian. Accompanying him on the train to stay with relatives while her grandmother undergoes some medical treatment, they are confronted by a friend from long ago who has a story of treachery to disclose. One must pay close attention while he tells his story over the course of three or so somewhat long chapters. Along the way, this story divulges family history, Russian culture, and presages the coming revolution.
The GR description bills this as a political thriller or a suspenseful thriller. Naturally, I anticipated it as such. I think "thriller" is an exaggeration. Although Laura Rowan came to fear for her own life, I was never in that camp. I don't mean to say she was not believable, but that in the thrillers I've read (admittedly not a voluminous amount), there is more than a character believing herself in danger that would make the reader believe it to be true.
This is not a fast-paced novel with lots of plot. That is both its advantage and disadvantage depending on one's likes and expectations. There are sections of this that West seemed to take too long to develop, but when I got past them, I was glad of the time she took establishing foundation upon foundation. It is dense, and I'm sure I missed things I might see with another reading. If I were younger, with an extra 20 years of reading ahead of me, rather than the probable fewer than 20 I can expect, I would likely consider a second reading.
I had a couple of random thoughts while reading this. Several of the women seem not to like men much. I wondered, off-handedly, if misogyny is the hatred of women, what is the corresponding word for the hatred of men? (I just googled: the word is misandry.) And, as I was nearing the end on the US Independence Day, I noted how different are the results of various revolutions of the past 200+ years.
As much as I wanted it to be, this is not a 5-star read, simply a good 4-star read. I'll happily turn to Rebecca West again.
August 11, 2024
But only such legends, which were not true, had prepared her for the strangeness of life.
A great novel. Well-written historical fiction. A psychological study. It isn't easy to say what genre the book was. There was political intrigue, philosophical reflections, a bit of mystery and adventure, quite thorough thoughts about Russians (between centuries, the XIX and XX).
The dialogues and monologues of the characters totally gripped me.
What was beauty, what was ugliness? Only existence mattered.
Perhaps not every reader would be able to follow the story and characters. I had enough knowledge (and understanding) of Russia to enjoy it enormously.
The river has broken its dams and it's made mud of all our land. Your grandfather and I and all Russians have to stay where the flood waters have cast us, where we were sucked down into the marsh, we can't free ourselves, we've just go to wait there.
The story was fictional, but it was also similar to many other real stories (not only about Russia). Treachery and idealism, greed, power, and cluelessness are parts of many social changes (not always for good).
[4.5-5 stars]
July 6, 2024
I confess I am a bit obsessed with Rebecca West. I read her 1956 novel, The Fountain Overflows, in 2009 which was when my obsession began. It was one of my favorite novels of all time. In 2013 I read an excellent biography, Rebecca West A Life by Victoria Glendinning. Learning about her life and loves and struggles as a female author induced a strong identification with her in me, being a woman who could have been her daughter and who experienced similar struggles in my 20th century life.
Then I spent about seven years trying to read her magnum opus, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, about her travels through the former Yugoslavia. As I finally penetrated and proceeded through those 1100 pages, I gained an appreciation for her many fine qualities as a writer: her astonishing sentences, her deep understandings about history, religion, war, and the highs and lows that human beings can reach.
Now I have read The Birds Fall Down, her final novel. All those fine qualities are in play here. A young woman, Laura Rowan, daughter of a Russian mother and a British father, travels with her mother to France to visit her Russian grandfather, Count Nikolai. The Count is an exiled Russian aristocrat who is still loyal to the Tsar, that complete autocrat fighting for his existence against the Social Revolutionary Party: terrorists who will usher in Lenin after the Russian Revolution.
Laura learns that a double spy lives in her grandfather’s house. Rebecca West reveals all these layers of intrigue in such a way that I could feel the danger, the confusion, and the pressures of history at work. Laura is 18, is quite conflicted about being a woman, does not intend ever to marry, and is far braver than her years would suggest.
I found the novel difficult going at times. But I recognized the intense understanding of history Rebecca West had developed over her career of writing, her traveling, and her passionate embrace of feminism. The story encompasses the forces that created modern history. To me, that is a form of genius: to be able to have such an overview combine with her convictions and turn that into a spy novel of epic proportions.
All the previously read books mentioned here I have reviewed on Goodreads. Today as I worked to pull my thoughts together, I learned that The Fountain Overflows was originally intended to be the first in a series, The Aubrey Trilogy. Though Rebecca West never published the others, a completed manuscript for the second and extensive notes on the third were pulled together after the author’s death in 1983 at 90 years old and published as This Real Night and Cousin Rosamund.
After learning that, I have decided I am not done with Rebecca West yet. There are four earlier novels from before The Fountain Overflows and the rest of The Aubrey Trilogy. Somehow, I will fit them into my reading someday!
Then I spent about seven years trying to read her magnum opus, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, about her travels through the former Yugoslavia. As I finally penetrated and proceeded through those 1100 pages, I gained an appreciation for her many fine qualities as a writer: her astonishing sentences, her deep understandings about history, religion, war, and the highs and lows that human beings can reach.
Now I have read The Birds Fall Down, her final novel. All those fine qualities are in play here. A young woman, Laura Rowan, daughter of a Russian mother and a British father, travels with her mother to France to visit her Russian grandfather, Count Nikolai. The Count is an exiled Russian aristocrat who is still loyal to the Tsar, that complete autocrat fighting for his existence against the Social Revolutionary Party: terrorists who will usher in Lenin after the Russian Revolution.
Laura learns that a double spy lives in her grandfather’s house. Rebecca West reveals all these layers of intrigue in such a way that I could feel the danger, the confusion, and the pressures of history at work. Laura is 18, is quite conflicted about being a woman, does not intend ever to marry, and is far braver than her years would suggest.
I found the novel difficult going at times. But I recognized the intense understanding of history Rebecca West had developed over her career of writing, her traveling, and her passionate embrace of feminism. The story encompasses the forces that created modern history. To me, that is a form of genius: to be able to have such an overview combine with her convictions and turn that into a spy novel of epic proportions.
All the previously read books mentioned here I have reviewed on Goodreads. Today as I worked to pull my thoughts together, I learned that The Fountain Overflows was originally intended to be the first in a series, The Aubrey Trilogy. Though Rebecca West never published the others, a completed manuscript for the second and extensive notes on the third were pulled together after the author’s death in 1983 at 90 years old and published as This Real Night and Cousin Rosamund.
After learning that, I have decided I am not done with Rebecca West yet. There are four earlier novels from before The Fountain Overflows and the rest of The Aubrey Trilogy. Somehow, I will fit them into my reading someday!
June 28, 2017
The subject of this novel was an intrigue based on real events we are informed in the introduction. The story is seen from the viewpoint of an insightful but naive eighteen year old girl, whom the author skilfully portrays as sometimes unaware of what is happening while her observations give hints to the reader. The developments pit a Russian revolutionary against a Russian reactionary with a dialectical discussion thrown in for good measure. There are passages where the discussion, usually from the grandfather of our heroine, about the differences between the Russian and the English soul become tedious but other sections fascinate like a good whodunnit. Some of the descriptions are quite sublime, but others are less compelling. Overall, the fascinating historical background to the story, the sang-froid of the main character and the uncertainty about whether she has reached the right conclusions, kept this reader engaged to the end.
July 9, 2013
This book won't be for everyone, but I found it amazing. The story is developed primarily in a few long conversations, which were so fascinating that I read the book in a very short time. Intrigue, things that are hinted but not outrightly stated, even conclusions the reader draws that the protagonist remains unaware of. Details, precise crafting....wow, this was a real find. I am eager to read more of Rebecca West based on my experience with this one.
June 29, 2025
A well written, intriguing political and mystery thriller, and a family story set in the early 1900s. Laura is eighteen years old and daughter to a British politician and Russian mother, Tania. Laura and Tania are in Paris visiting Laura’s sick grandmother and grandfather. She journeys to see her aunt by train with her grandfather, Count Nikolai Diakonov, who was a high ranking Russian administrator who fell out of favor with the Tzar. On the train is Chubinov, a Russian revolutionary who knows the Count and tells the Count that within his Paris household is a spy.
The novel is a slow read. It is a cleverly and intelligently written book exploring individual treachery and loyalty.
This book was first published in 1966.
The novel is a slow read. It is a cleverly and intelligently written book exploring individual treachery and loyalty.
This book was first published in 1966.
November 18, 2018
One afternoon, in an early summer of this century, eighteen-year-old Laura Rowan sits on the garden steps of her house embroidering a handkerchief. She overhears a conversation between her father, an English Member of Parliament, and her mother, Tania, the daughter of an exiled Russian royalist. Tania's decision to take Laura to Paris to visit her grandfather, Count Nikilai Diakonov, means that Laura will unwittingly become a witness to the momentous events leading up to the Russian Revolution...Through a vivid canvas layered with intrigue, conspiracy and murder, Rebecca West has created a story that is at once a family saga, a political thriller, a philosophical drama and an historical novel.
I think this is a review from 1986. I was by turns frustrated and enchanted by this book. For much of my reading, I really didn't understand what was going on. Towards the end, I did; and as it actually ended, I really did. It is political life everywhere. Treachery and idealism and greed and power and cluelessness. Our lives are woven into these things. Laura is a perfect protagonist. She is romantic and naive and loving and needy and seemingly clear-headed and judgmental. It was so long. But, I think, to really appreciate its artistry, I'd need to read it again. I am overwhelmed. And SO glad I persisted...after stopping reading for several months.
I think this is a review from 1986. I was by turns frustrated and enchanted by this book. For much of my reading, I really didn't understand what was going on. Towards the end, I did; and as it actually ended, I really did. It is political life everywhere. Treachery and idealism and greed and power and cluelessness. Our lives are woven into these things. Laura is a perfect protagonist. She is romantic and naive and loving and needy and seemingly clear-headed and judgmental. It was so long. But, I think, to really appreciate its artistry, I'd need to read it again. I am overwhelmed. And SO glad I persisted...after stopping reading for several months.
December 21, 2020
The multi-talented Ms. West turns her hand to espionage. Set in the early 1900s, the story concerns an aged exiled Russian aristocrat living out his days in Paris. Meanwhile, the Russian revolutionary movement is gathering momentum and spies are everywhere. The aristocrat's English young granddaughter Laura comes from London with her mother to visit and soon finds herself in a bewildering web of menace. In Ms. West's capable hands, Laura comes alive to try to save her beloved grandfather and herself. The story is a bit slow in places, but beautifully written and a fascinating glimpse into the mind and mood of Russia at the time.
December 30, 2015
A harrowing train journey set against an exotic background of spies and intrigue, a beautiful and accomplished heroine, dramatic surprises and distinguished and extraordinary characters; this book has it all. The main plot revolves about the political complexities developing in Europe and Russia around 1901, and while the action takes place chiefly in France, the main protagonist, Laura, is a well-born Englishwoman still too young to have been presented at court. From her British father she inherits down-to-earth commonsense, and from her Russian mother an instinctive love of Russia and sympathy with the Russian soul. Whenever we are in danger of being carried away by extravagant idealism and lofty speculation, Laura jumps in and effectively pricks the bubble.
Laura takes the train to Paris with her mother Tania, to visit her wealthy grandparents, exiled from St. Petersburg two years previously as a result of high political maneuvres. Her sick grandmother needs urgent medical attention and Tania is very worried. Laura and the aging count, whose physical and spiritual size dwarfs that of any ordinary mortal, are packed off by train to stay with an American great-aunt somewhere on the coast. Kamensky, the count's devoted right-hand man, is at the last moment prevented from joining them by a trivial incident.
Soon after the train gets under way the carriage is invaded by an aristocratic but scruffy Russian who subjects the count and Laura to a long and involved narrative. He claims that the Tsar is scheming to lure Count Diakonov back to Russia for a mock trial, after which he will be left to languish and die in prison. He has been betrayed by trusted members within his household. Finally convinced, the count insists on leaving the train, has a heart attack on the station platform and dies later in a nearby hotel where he is installed in the state bedroom. Though fussed over by various well-meaning local dignitaries, Laura is fearful and very much alone.
Re-enter (a) Kamensky and (b) Laura's father, roused at the last moment from the House of Commons. We return on the train to Paris and further events take their exciting course.
One of the many interesting things about this book is that it came out in 1966, when Rebecca West was in her 70's, at the culmination of a long career, which suggests that she worked on it and had it in mind for a large part of her life. Her involvement with, and love for, Russian culture, history, and religion are readily apparent. The book is built around three great monologues: Chubinov's revelations in the train, the count's sublime meditations on his deathbed, and Kamensky's apology. While appreciating her grandfather's loyalty and devotion to the Tsar, his heroism as a solder, his wisdom as an administrator, his deep and all-embracing faith, his difficulty in discovering at the end any serious cause for self-reproach, Laura is under no illusions. How can he not see that he's done exactly as he pleased all his life?
Laura takes the train to Paris with her mother Tania, to visit her wealthy grandparents, exiled from St. Petersburg two years previously as a result of high political maneuvres. Her sick grandmother needs urgent medical attention and Tania is very worried. Laura and the aging count, whose physical and spiritual size dwarfs that of any ordinary mortal, are packed off by train to stay with an American great-aunt somewhere on the coast. Kamensky, the count's devoted right-hand man, is at the last moment prevented from joining them by a trivial incident.
Soon after the train gets under way the carriage is invaded by an aristocratic but scruffy Russian who subjects the count and Laura to a long and involved narrative. He claims that the Tsar is scheming to lure Count Diakonov back to Russia for a mock trial, after which he will be left to languish and die in prison. He has been betrayed by trusted members within his household. Finally convinced, the count insists on leaving the train, has a heart attack on the station platform and dies later in a nearby hotel where he is installed in the state bedroom. Though fussed over by various well-meaning local dignitaries, Laura is fearful and very much alone.
Re-enter (a) Kamensky and (b) Laura's father, roused at the last moment from the House of Commons. We return on the train to Paris and further events take their exciting course.
One of the many interesting things about this book is that it came out in 1966, when Rebecca West was in her 70's, at the culmination of a long career, which suggests that she worked on it and had it in mind for a large part of her life. Her involvement with, and love for, Russian culture, history, and religion are readily apparent. The book is built around three great monologues: Chubinov's revelations in the train, the count's sublime meditations on his deathbed, and Kamensky's apology. While appreciating her grandfather's loyalty and devotion to the Tsar, his heroism as a solder, his wisdom as an administrator, his deep and all-embracing faith, his difficulty in discovering at the end any serious cause for self-reproach, Laura is under no illusions. How can he not see that he's done exactly as he pleased all his life?
June 17, 2017
Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres and I was so happy to finally get one from the list. This novel and author are new to me and I am glad that I liked them both. Rebecca West has several books on the list and I look forward to reading them all.
Set in time during the fall of Tsarists Russia and the rise of communism, the novel is about exiled Count Nikolai living in France. The story centers around Nikolai, his granddaughter Laura, and Nikolai's assistant Kamensky. Nikolai and Laura set off on a train ride and meet a man that will forever change the course of their journey. There are many themes to this novel. 1) Relationships: Husband and wife; father and daughter; employer and employee. 2) Political: tsarists and revolutionary. 3): Nationalism: France, England, and Russia. Throughout the novel there is an underlying theme of loyalty and who to trust. I was engaged throughout, invested in the relationships and curious to see how it would all come together. A well written novel.
“Do not believe what this fool has said about the Tsar. He is speaking of him as if her were a man. So he is, but he is the man chosen to be an intermediate between God and Man, and he takes on himself the guilt of earthly power, so that other men, unsullied by political action, can the more easily work out the destiny which in the end brings them to reconciliation with God.”
Set in time during the fall of Tsarists Russia and the rise of communism, the novel is about exiled Count Nikolai living in France. The story centers around Nikolai, his granddaughter Laura, and Nikolai's assistant Kamensky. Nikolai and Laura set off on a train ride and meet a man that will forever change the course of their journey. There are many themes to this novel. 1) Relationships: Husband and wife; father and daughter; employer and employee. 2) Political: tsarists and revolutionary. 3): Nationalism: France, England, and Russia. Throughout the novel there is an underlying theme of loyalty and who to trust. I was engaged throughout, invested in the relationships and curious to see how it would all come together. A well written novel.
“Do not believe what this fool has said about the Tsar. He is speaking of him as if her were a man. So he is, but he is the man chosen to be an intermediate between God and Man, and he takes on himself the guilt of earthly power, so that other men, unsullied by political action, can the more easily work out the destiny which in the end brings them to reconciliation with God.”
June 26, 2015
Life can be difficult at times. Moving forward can at times appear to be an uphill task sucking up all the energy in us.
That is how I felt when I started this book. I had to push myself to read it since I myself bought it and I didn't want to see my money going to waste.
The book is about trust and betrayal. Nikolai has lived with Kamensky in England before he meets up with Vasili Illyevitch who exposes the true character of Kamensky. He is a spy for the Tsar of Russia.
Vasili elaborates why he believes that Kamensky is Gorin the spy. He tells us biz past experiences with him which leads us to believe that indeed Kamensky is a spy.
If you are to read this, you need a lot of patience.
That is how I felt when I started this book. I had to push myself to read it since I myself bought it and I didn't want to see my money going to waste.
The book is about trust and betrayal. Nikolai has lived with Kamensky in England before he meets up with Vasili Illyevitch who exposes the true character of Kamensky. He is a spy for the Tsar of Russia.
Vasili elaborates why he believes that Kamensky is Gorin the spy. He tells us biz past experiences with him which leads us to believe that indeed Kamensky is a spy.
If you are to read this, you need a lot of patience.
Read
October 11, 2010I think it will be amazing ...........
this is what my friends told me........
this is what my friends told me........
December 30, 2019
Terrific book. The writing just flows from beginning to end. It seems easy, at least for me, to except that the narrator, a young girl, is as wise and as brave as she is. The time is around the turn of the 19th century; the action centers around a conversation in a train, in France, having to do with the early days of the Russian revolution. The narrator is the daughter of an English politician and a Russian aristocrat.
I first got to know Rebecca West by reading her book about Yugoslavia, Black Lamb, Grey Falcon. I read that book shortly after my father died, when I decided that I needed to know more about the country of his birth. The book, Black Lamb, is high on most lists of best non-fiction of the twentieth century. It has come to be a Gold Standard for travel writing. For about thirty years, I've made it my mission to read really good non-fiction. Why, is another question, that I may answer at some point.......
March 26, 2014
Rebecca West wrote some marvelously talented works. But she was not Dostoyevsky. She attempted to do too much here, and so only 3 characters are truly given life; that's a major problem when a novelist is trying to create an epic. The story-telling is erratic. Little rhyme or reason is given for character's actions. Scenes that should take several pages take 40. Events which should be more fully explained take a paragraph. Nonsense side plots, if one can even call them plots, come in and out, as if West was writing stream-of-consciousness, and her own subconscious was distracting and yanking her off-track.
Still, she's Rebecca West, and it's at least mildly interesting to read her thoughts on Russian politics. Mildly.
Still, she's Rebecca West, and it's at least mildly interesting to read her thoughts on Russian politics. Mildly.
February 14, 2015
I have collected a number of Rebecca West's books since I discovered her two years ago. She is my favourite author of political historical thrillers and commentary. Each time I re-read her works I am appreciate her intelligence of the intricate plots and machinations of our political systems. She speak of these systems in all their aspects including family. She has a playful and deep sense of humour; gently or sharply apparent through the dialogue or narrative. Her works will always keep me coming back for more. If this is one of your interests, I highly recommended her works.
June 29, 2012
Did like this, but some elements of the whole conspiracy plot were confusing, what exactly was the point? What had set this latest plot in motion? and how did the identity of the state police spy suddenly become evident.
December 27, 2018
How have I gone all my life without Rebecca West? I picked this up for a dollar because I liked the pattern on the dust jacket and the summary intrigued me--but, oh, what an immense treasure. I fell instantly in love with West's language, and gradually in love with her characters, and then in love with her life. Little nuggets of perfect description adorn the text:
"the nuns at the head of a crocodile of little girls" (p. 74)
"the convex profile of a cow" (p. 225)
"edging the plumpness of a pillow into its slip" (p. 225)
"His manner was to real cheerfulness as false teeth are to teeth." (p. 226)
One of the things that intrigued me was learning more about Russia.
The story was not at all what I expected. I thought from the description that it would be more political in nature, but while there are revolutionaries and monarchists, it is much more personal. The encounter on the train is not a hostage situation or a negotiation between political powers. It is a meeting of old friends now on opposite sides, and their common betrayal. It may have changed history, but not because of any momentous deals brokered or intricate operations plotted. It's just a plan sprung from one man's idealism--but he can barely control it, maybe doesn't control it. West seems to be saying: You can change this one thing, but what does that get you in the end? The universe moves along, a million things are out of your control.
In spite of the seriousness of the novel, it is peppered with humor. I chuckled throughout, especially at Laura's observations of her grandfather Nikolai. The mixture of suspense and humor kept me glued to the pages. I also learned about Russia and Russians in a way I haven't from actual Russian authors. The crosscultural position of Laura, with an English father and a Russian mother and Russian grandparents living in France, lets West explore Russian character more effectively than a solely Russian character in Russia would have.
The Birds Fall Down, like all the best books, is a melding of styles. It is a character-based novel with a hint of a political thriller and bits of social satire. The end is a resolution but also a beginning, and it uses our knowledge of what comes next in history to temper any readerly smugness we may feel with how things wrapped up. I don't think there's a thing I'd change about it, and it has taken its place alongside my most beloved books. Looking beautiful in its lovely dust jacket.
---
Nikolai growled, "The French lost Strasbourg, they lost Alsace, they lost Lorraine, which they pretended was sacred to them because of their saint, though they are deeply infidel. A republican people deserves to lose all, must lose all."
"But," objected Laura, "when France lost Strasbourg and Alsace-Lorraine, France wasn't a republican, it was ruled by the Emperor."
"No matter," said Nikolai, "the French were a people who once had it in them to make France a republican country, and had it in them to make it one again." (p. 30)
"They grumbled on. They talked about a lot of people. In Russian conversations there always seemed a crowd of faceless personalities doing violent things. It seemed that many of them lived very uncomfortable lives." (p. 121)
"But again neither of them heard her. They were sitting in a fog of solemnity, though surely what they had found out should have made them angry instead of impressing them. Were men perhaps no good? Even when things were still going well at home, she had suspected that though her mother loved her father she did not feel an all-out respect for him." (p. 192)
"Really, you're incredibly silly," exclaimed Laura. "He may be simple, but he can't be so simple that he couldn't pick out a number of differences between you and Christ. People in the Old Testament are as silly as you, but absolutely nobody in the New Testament." (p. 211)
"Rather than die out in the street she would choose to live the natural term of her life standing there on the spinach-green carpet, which had the matted texture of carpets not privately owned, in hotels or theatres or concert halls, and looking through the unsunned twilight at the gross door and listening to the whine of the elevator rope. She had thought the same at Grissaint station, sitting beside her grandfather, and deliberating on Chubinov's warning; she had been willing to spend her life looking at the stained and sordid masonry of the railway-cutting beyond the platform. It was disgusting of her to want to live as much as that." (p. 390)
"the nuns at the head of a crocodile of little girls" (p. 74)
"the convex profile of a cow" (p. 225)
"edging the plumpness of a pillow into its slip" (p. 225)
"His manner was to real cheerfulness as false teeth are to teeth." (p. 226)
One of the things that intrigued me was learning more about Russia.
The story was not at all what I expected. I thought from the description that it would be more political in nature, but while there are revolutionaries and monarchists, it is much more personal. The encounter on the train is not a hostage situation or a negotiation between political powers. It is a meeting of old friends now on opposite sides, and their common betrayal. It may have changed history, but not because of any momentous deals brokered or intricate operations plotted. It's just a plan sprung from one man's idealism--but he can barely control it, maybe doesn't control it. West seems to be saying: You can change this one thing, but what does that get you in the end? The universe moves along, a million things are out of your control.
In spite of the seriousness of the novel, it is peppered with humor. I chuckled throughout, especially at Laura's observations of her grandfather Nikolai. The mixture of suspense and humor kept me glued to the pages. I also learned about Russia and Russians in a way I haven't from actual Russian authors. The crosscultural position of Laura, with an English father and a Russian mother and Russian grandparents living in France, lets West explore Russian character more effectively than a solely Russian character in Russia would have.
The Birds Fall Down, like all the best books, is a melding of styles. It is a character-based novel with a hint of a political thriller and bits of social satire. The end is a resolution but also a beginning, and it uses our knowledge of what comes next in history to temper any readerly smugness we may feel with how things wrapped up. I don't think there's a thing I'd change about it, and it has taken its place alongside my most beloved books. Looking beautiful in its lovely dust jacket.
---
Nikolai growled, "The French lost Strasbourg, they lost Alsace, they lost Lorraine, which they pretended was sacred to them because of their saint, though they are deeply infidel. A republican people deserves to lose all, must lose all."
"But," objected Laura, "when France lost Strasbourg and Alsace-Lorraine, France wasn't a republican, it was ruled by the Emperor."
"No matter," said Nikolai, "the French were a people who once had it in them to make France a republican country, and had it in them to make it one again." (p. 30)
"They grumbled on. They talked about a lot of people. In Russian conversations there always seemed a crowd of faceless personalities doing violent things. It seemed that many of them lived very uncomfortable lives." (p. 121)
"But again neither of them heard her. They were sitting in a fog of solemnity, though surely what they had found out should have made them angry instead of impressing them. Were men perhaps no good? Even when things were still going well at home, she had suspected that though her mother loved her father she did not feel an all-out respect for him." (p. 192)
"Really, you're incredibly silly," exclaimed Laura. "He may be simple, but he can't be so simple that he couldn't pick out a number of differences between you and Christ. People in the Old Testament are as silly as you, but absolutely nobody in the New Testament." (p. 211)
"Rather than die out in the street she would choose to live the natural term of her life standing there on the spinach-green carpet, which had the matted texture of carpets not privately owned, in hotels or theatres or concert halls, and looking through the unsunned twilight at the gross door and listening to the whine of the elevator rope. She had thought the same at Grissaint station, sitting beside her grandfather, and deliberating on Chubinov's warning; she had been willing to spend her life looking at the stained and sordid masonry of the railway-cutting beyond the platform. It was disgusting of her to want to live as much as that." (p. 390)
March 30, 2018
Be warned: some long and tedious political and religious speech-ify! But, despite this, I ended up enjoying the book -- some beautifully detailed descriptions and even some laugh out loud moments (e.g. “Human beings have produced nothing more persistently and in greater quantities than excrement.”).
I've never read anything quite like it, maybe because I've never read a Rebecca West book before. I plan to read more.
---
“All other winters, it had been wonderful to go into the drawing-room and find Tania in a tea-gown by a bright fire, with mounds of bronze and gold chrysanthemums piled cunningly where they were reflected in the chinoiserie mirrors, one curtain left undrawn so that one could see the bare trees against the night sky and the yellow street-lamps shining on the farther side of the garden, which for no reason at all shone with the aching sweetness of sad music, sad verse.”
“That taught me a lesson I’ve always found it useful to remember if I have to deal with difficult men. When they are hard, they are probably dealing with things they do not understand. If one brings them back to what is familiar to them, they become soft.”
"She never lost her temper, though sometimes she decided to do without it for a time, as she sometimes decided to wear no jewels."
“I can never see lights coming on in summer twilight without emotion.”
“He spoke with a passionate insincerity, as if he felt he had suffered a wrong, which gave him a right to say what he knew to be untrue, and rantingly too, as if he hoped to start an argument in which he would exercise that right still more freely.”
“She recognized what he was doing; piling up grievances to kill his sense that he was in the wrong. She often did it herself, but had hoped that she would grow out of it.”
“Human beings were never so exquisite as the things they made.”
I've never read anything quite like it, maybe because I've never read a Rebecca West book before. I plan to read more.
---
“All other winters, it had been wonderful to go into the drawing-room and find Tania in a tea-gown by a bright fire, with mounds of bronze and gold chrysanthemums piled cunningly where they were reflected in the chinoiserie mirrors, one curtain left undrawn so that one could see the bare trees against the night sky and the yellow street-lamps shining on the farther side of the garden, which for no reason at all shone with the aching sweetness of sad music, sad verse.”
“That taught me a lesson I’ve always found it useful to remember if I have to deal with difficult men. When they are hard, they are probably dealing with things they do not understand. If one brings them back to what is familiar to them, they become soft.”
"She never lost her temper, though sometimes she decided to do without it for a time, as she sometimes decided to wear no jewels."
“I can never see lights coming on in summer twilight without emotion.”
“He spoke with a passionate insincerity, as if he felt he had suffered a wrong, which gave him a right to say what he knew to be untrue, and rantingly too, as if he hoped to start an argument in which he would exercise that right still more freely.”
“She recognized what he was doing; piling up grievances to kill his sense that he was in the wrong. She often did it herself, but had hoped that she would grow out of it.”
“Human beings were never so exquisite as the things they made.”
January 25, 2021
The Goodreads average is pretty accurate. This book is very good, recommendable to anyone who reads fiction. Certainly better than much fiction I've seen receiving glowing reviews more recently.
Reading old reviews of this book in periodicals is a bit frustrating. Some take issue with the 100+ page dialogue that forms the precipitating event and the first plot turn, saying that this structure saps the narrative energy of the story.
I find that criticism hard to understand. The book marries format to theme brilliantly; the dialogue is English Laura's abrupt baptism into Russian preoccupations. At the beginning of the conversation, Laura sees the situation as simple, so simple that a headmaster at a boys schoolin England could resolve it with a call to the police. Yet by the end of the conversation Laura sees every person as suspect, every event fraught with hidden meaning, and a conspiratorial universe bent on denying her salvation. In other words, she feels like a Russian.
And so too does the reader, who can't be precisely sure of who is a spy, counterspy, or both at once, and who might be bringing flowers for a funeral or perhaps an engagement.
I think it's a great read, kind of an abbreviated fictional relative to Black Lamb and Grey Falcon that explores the necessity and allure of violence, and whether violence is needed or useful to effect changes in government and society. And it's written in sparkling, fluent prose.
Reading old reviews of this book in periodicals is a bit frustrating. Some take issue with the 100+ page dialogue that forms the precipitating event and the first plot turn, saying that this structure saps the narrative energy of the story.
I find that criticism hard to understand. The book marries format to theme brilliantly; the dialogue is English Laura's abrupt baptism into Russian preoccupations. At the beginning of the conversation, Laura sees the situation as simple, so simple that a headmaster at a boys schoolin England could resolve it with a call to the police. Yet by the end of the conversation Laura sees every person as suspect, every event fraught with hidden meaning, and a conspiratorial universe bent on denying her salvation. In other words, she feels like a Russian.
And so too does the reader, who can't be precisely sure of who is a spy, counterspy, or both at once, and who might be bringing flowers for a funeral or perhaps an engagement.
I think it's a great read, kind of an abbreviated fictional relative to Black Lamb and Grey Falcon that explores the necessity and allure of violence, and whether violence is needed or useful to effect changes in government and society. And it's written in sparkling, fluent prose.
January 14, 2025
This a fascinating, very unusual, deeply thoughtful book. It is ponderous and slow, and will be condemned for that, but I love it for the meticulous pacing. It is full of suspense, intrigue, and political philosophy, but free of the unrealistic spectacle and frenzy of so many “thrillers.” It is a book with many varied themes, but fidelity and disloyalty are prominently investigated from a variety of perspectives. Dame Rebecca West illustrates her study of treason brilliantly in this novel set in the murky uncertainties of the turn of the twentieth century, a time of profound skepticism and unbridled political, scientific, and moral idealism. The book reminds me in so many ways of Henry James’ The Princess Casamassima, a ponderous and thought provoking book with many similar themes and dramatic engines. I love both these books.
October 27, 2018
Interesting novel that stays with the reader for a long time afterwards...interesting because it first appeared in 1966 but seems to belong more in the Victorian tradition, defying the contemporary dogma of creative writing classes. It 'tells' and doesn't 'show' for much of the time, and the plot and dramatic action occur in lengthy conversations. Yet it works nonetheless. It's an intriguing thriller, really, and has a very deep and atmospheric sense of Russia on the edge of revolution.
October 10, 2017
what a perfectly adequate novel with a perfectly depressing ending hidden as a happy one (think 'beauty and the beast')
truth be told, this book was neither bad nor good, just right there on the point when you can't think of anything wrong nor anything exceptional--perhaps a hundred pages shorter and it would not have felt like such a chore at times
truth be told, this book was neither bad nor good, just right there on the point when you can't think of anything wrong nor anything exceptional--perhaps a hundred pages shorter and it would not have felt like such a chore at times
April 28, 2018
A moving read
A story about a girl who happens to leave her childhood behind and becomes embroiled in a political plot most foul. I was not expecting to be taken by this book, until about half way through when the intrigues of the story found me. Russian spies, terrorist plots? Who can say no?? And all from the point of view of a proper young lady.
A story about a girl who happens to leave her childhood behind and becomes embroiled in a political plot most foul. I was not expecting to be taken by this book, until about half way through when the intrigues of the story found me. Russian spies, terrorist plots? Who can say no?? And all from the point of view of a proper young lady.
August 20, 2023
West packed a lot into this book: intrigue, political debate between the Tsarists and the revolutionaries, lost souls after a revolution, maturing youth, dynastic politics. The central character is a young woman from the English upper class who finds herself in the midst of a spy story that ends in murder. There are times when West is mocking the gravity of the whole thing.
December 14, 2018
Reminded me of Henry James "A Portrait of a Lady" and then I noted that Ms. West's first book was "Henry James, A Critical Biography" - aha! Made me curious about the real conversation the book is based on - the one that resulted in "the cool-headed Lenin found the reins in his hands"
April 1, 2020
An exiled Russian in the time of the Tsar (it sounds like the last one) and a granddaughter on a train are joined by a former friend. But is he a friend or foe? Is who he speaks of a friend or a foe? You decide. At the end of the book, you're still not sure.
A little wordy, the book should have been a little more condensed. An enjoyable read.
A little wordy, the book should have been a little more condensed. An enjoyable read.
September 12, 2021
Sooo slow! The time it took to read the conversation with Laura, her grandfather and a strange man on the train took days -- longer than the actual train trip would have taken! Livened up a bit later on.
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