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The Quantock Quartet #2
Frances's Story
Originally published in Britain as The Beckoning Hills.
Successful landscape artist Frances Purcell, burdened with responsibility for her three younger sisters and their English country home since their parents died in 1910, fears her art will suffer if she marries the man she has always loved.
Successful landscape artist Frances Purcell, burdened with responsibility for her three younger sisters and their English country home since their parents died in 1910, fears her art will suffer if she marries the man she has always loved.
300 pages, Paperback
First published October 29, 1987
About the author
Ruth Elwin Harris
7 books23 followersRuth Elwin Harris says that her historic quartet of novels, THE SISTERS OF THE QUANTOCK HILLS, had its beginnings while she was growing up during World War II. To escape the wartime bombing, she and her brother were sent to live with their grandfather in rural Somerset, England. His house and garden became the model for Hillcrest, the Purcell sisters' family home in the four-part series.
Another influence came later, when Ruth Elwin Harris emigrated to Canada at the age of twenty-one . "There was no such thing as e-mail then," the author says, "and the telephone was rarely used -- it was expensive and calls had to be booked. Letter writing was the way we kept in touch. Friends and family wrote often, and I was amazed at how accounts of the same incidents and people were often so different."
Years later, when Ruth Elwin Harris sat down to tell the story of the orphaned Purcell sisters, she remembered those letters and their different viewpoints and incorporated the idea into her writing. Each book has a different sister as heroine, and the story is told from that sister's point of view. "It was strange how partisan I became," the author says . " When I was writing SARAH'S STORY, the first in the series, I became very indignant about the way Frances was behaving, yet when I came to write about the same incidents in FRANCES'S STORY Frances's behavior seemed to me absolutely logical and right."
Ruth Elwin Harris won writing competitions as a schoolgirl, and also dramatized a children's novel for a school production. Before starting on the Quantocks series she wrote short stories for the British Broadcasting Corporation and for magazines. While researching the background for JULIA'S STORY, she came across a collection of family letters in the Imperial War Museum in London, which resulted in her only nonfiction book, BILLIE: THE NEVILL LETTERS 1914-16.
The author enjoys gardening ("very good for working out writing problems in one's mind"); music, particularly opera; traveling; and, of course, reading. She lives with her husband in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England.
Another influence came later, when Ruth Elwin Harris emigrated to Canada at the age of twenty-one . "There was no such thing as e-mail then," the author says, "and the telephone was rarely used -- it was expensive and calls had to be booked. Letter writing was the way we kept in touch. Friends and family wrote often, and I was amazed at how accounts of the same incidents and people were often so different."
Years later, when Ruth Elwin Harris sat down to tell the story of the orphaned Purcell sisters, she remembered those letters and their different viewpoints and incorporated the idea into her writing. Each book has a different sister as heroine, and the story is told from that sister's point of view. "It was strange how partisan I became," the author says . " When I was writing SARAH'S STORY, the first in the series, I became very indignant about the way Frances was behaving, yet when I came to write about the same incidents in FRANCES'S STORY Frances's behavior seemed to me absolutely logical and right."
Ruth Elwin Harris won writing competitions as a schoolgirl, and also dramatized a children's novel for a school production. Before starting on the Quantocks series she wrote short stories for the British Broadcasting Corporation and for magazines. While researching the background for JULIA'S STORY, she came across a collection of family letters in the Imperial War Museum in London, which resulted in her only nonfiction book, BILLIE: THE NEVILL LETTERS 1914-16.
The author enjoys gardening ("very good for working out writing problems in one's mind"); music, particularly opera; traveling; and, of course, reading. She lives with her husband in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 20, 2015
I do enjoy this author's style and bright characters! She lets you see beyond what the characters say, and into what they feel. That said, I liked Sarah's Story better, mainly because of the kind of person Sarah was. Frances is very different from her sisters. She lives in her own world made of paint and she tries to keep it that way, not letting herself become too bothered by the outside world.
She loves her family, and would do nearly anything for them. But she doesn't come out of her paint box often or long enough to completely understand them. That frustrated me, because I wanted her to SEE everything more like Julia, Understand more like Gwen and try to please people who mattered like Sarah. But she doesn't entirely understand herself, and puts paint above people and relationships thinking she didn't need them. So how could I expect her to do those things? I don't know, but I did.
That's part of the beauty of this book though, we see the four sisters grow up, we see them make decisions that change their lives and we see the grow mentally. When The Great War comes, Julia takes action, Gwen silently watches with open eyes and a steady hand, Sarah keeps working at school and Frances ignores it all as best as she can while everyone else's lives spin out of control.
That's the first half of the book in a nutshell, and to me it was good, but a bit unsatisfactory. The second half sees the war finally hits Frances right in the face, and at last she opened her eyes to see beyond her easel.
Then I really enjoyed the book. Frances came alive, she worked for something that meant more to her than making beautiful pictures. I love how she gained the trust of her friends who couldn't quite believe that this new Frances was real. Better, she came to understand what really made her tick, and it wasn't paint though that did mean a great deal to her.
Despite a happy ending I thought it was kind of depressing, I'm not sure why. Perhaps because it was almost too happy, too late?
PG Light swearing, one character is a bit bohemian.
She loves her family, and would do nearly anything for them. But she doesn't come out of her paint box often or long enough to completely understand them. That frustrated me, because I wanted her to SEE everything more like Julia, Understand more like Gwen and try to please people who mattered like Sarah. But she doesn't entirely understand herself, and puts paint above people and relationships thinking she didn't need them. So how could I expect her to do those things? I don't know, but I did.
That's part of the beauty of this book though, we see the four sisters grow up, we see them make decisions that change their lives and we see the grow mentally. When The Great War comes, Julia takes action, Gwen silently watches with open eyes and a steady hand, Sarah keeps working at school and Frances ignores it all as best as she can while everyone else's lives spin out of control.
That's the first half of the book in a nutshell, and to me it was good, but a bit unsatisfactory. The second half sees the war finally hits Frances right in the face, and at last she opened her eyes to see beyond her easel.
Then I really enjoyed the book. Frances came alive, she worked for something that meant more to her than making beautiful pictures. I love how she gained the trust of her friends who couldn't quite believe that this new Frances was real. Better, she came to understand what really made her tick, and it wasn't paint though that did mean a great deal to her.
Despite a happy ending I thought it was kind of depressing, I'm not sure why. Perhaps because it was almost too happy, too late?
PG Light swearing, one character is a bit bohemian.
March 19, 2023
When I read these books when I was a teenager, I remember finding Frances' Story slow moving and a bit boring after Sarah's Story, but that is not the case at all on my re-read as an adult. I enjoyed this book as much (if not a bit more than) the first book. We already know the broad strokes about what happened to the Purcells (and the Mackenzies) from 1910-1920, but we see the years again through Frances' eyes and some of the events and details Sarah could not have known are sketched out.
I enjoyed seeing Frances as she saw herself, not just as the stern (occasionally unfeeling) older sister that Sarah saw her as. I understood Frances as an adult in a way I didn't when I was young. I found her refusal to marry perfectly valid, and in fact got a little annoyed that Gabriel kept asking, as it felt like he was infantilizing her in his refusal to accept that she knew her own mind. I also liked that she allowed herself to grow and change her mind towards the end of the book. Her realization that there was a world outside of Hillcrest and her art, and the growth she went through in the last few chapters when she went to Ireland was so well done and realistic.
So far on my re-read these books have held up amazingly well, the writing and the stories even better than I remembered.
The British title of this book is The Beckoning Hills, which is much more romantic and less utilitarian than the Frances' Story we get in America.
I enjoyed seeing Frances as she saw herself, not just as the stern (occasionally unfeeling) older sister that Sarah saw her as. I understood Frances as an adult in a way I didn't when I was young. I found her refusal to marry perfectly valid, and in fact got a little annoyed that Gabriel kept asking, as it felt like he was infantilizing her in his refusal to accept that she knew her own mind. I also liked that she allowed herself to grow and change her mind towards the end of the book. Her realization that there was a world outside of Hillcrest and her art, and the growth she went through in the last few chapters when she went to Ireland was so well done and realistic.
So far on my re-read these books have held up amazingly well, the writing and the stories even better than I remembered.
The British title of this book is The Beckoning Hills, which is much more romantic and less utilitarian than the Frances' Story we get in America.
July 7, 2009
After her parents die, Frances, the eldest of the Purcell sisters, is responsible for three younger siblings. She alternates between worrying about them and obsessing about her own career as an artist, and is convinced that romantic love would simply distract her from fulfilling her potential. This may be unfair to the man that both she and her youngest sister love.
April 21, 2020
Continuing my re-read of these books I loved as a young adult. When I was younger I didn't warm to Frances that much but now I am older (older than she is in the book, strange thought...) I see her as more relatable and realise things are not as black and white. Her love story with Gabriel is very engaging.
July 30, 2007
Did you like testament of youth? Read this series.
February 24, 2019
This book was perfectly pleasurable for me, focusing on young women in England during the Edwardian era moving through WWI, finding themselves and a place in the world, names dropped of people I know from my lengthy reading about Bloomsbury some years ago (Gertler, Carrington, Augustus John), utterly believable characters, setting, etc. details that give me the illusion I am reading an older book rather than a book from the 1980s -- except with the extra pleasure that there is none of the sort of thing that tends to rub me raw (misogyny, racism) when I read actual older novels from this period.
In addition to all of those joys, as the second book in the quartet it retells some of the story of the first novel, but from a new perspective, illuminating aspects of the time that were invisibile to the protagonist of the first book, but also moving forward in time a little further, so it is not just a repeat of the first novel but something new. I assume the third & fourth will do the same, adding dimension to the picture and going further and further ahead in time so that there is a sense of completion about the lives.
In addition to all of those joys, as the second book in the quartet it retells some of the story of the first novel, but from a new perspective, illuminating aspects of the time that were invisibile to the protagonist of the first book, but also moving forward in time a little further, so it is not just a repeat of the first novel but something new. I assume the third & fourth will do the same, adding dimension to the picture and going further and further ahead in time so that there is a sense of completion about the lives.
February 7, 2018
This was the first time I had reread this series in many, many years, and for the most part I still enjoyed it. I did, however, find these books rather more slowly going than I remember them being. The writing is very descriptive - beautiful! Yet descriptive. And yet there were scenes I remember being powerful and heartbreaking that on this reread felt emotionally lacking. An interesting reread of a series I remember fondly, but not sure I would recommend to many younger readers today (even if it wasn't out of print!).
January 1, 2022
A book from my childhood, that still makes my heart skip a beat whenever I think of it. I loved the Quantocks books, and I fell in love with the sense of place as much as I did the sisters.
I loved the way the interwoven stories, the slightly different viewpoints.
I loved the way the interwoven stories, the slightly different viewpoints.
February 1, 2021
Beautiful story
September 17, 2014
I confess that Frances is my least favourite of the sisters. I enjoyed pieces of this book, but overall I was less than enchanted. In theory I'm all for women who refuse to marry in order to pursue their passion/work, but the execution of this plot is rarely satisfactory. Especially in this case, as Frances keeps insisting it's what she wants... only to change her mind after a tragedy. Which maybe wouldn't have bothered me so much if I actually liked Gabriel, but I couldn't stand him in this book. (I can't remember if I felt the same way when reading Sarah's Story.) Ah well. On to the next two books in the series, which I am much more excited about!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2010
At first I felt like I was re-reading Sarah and felt impatient but as the story progressed I was drawn more and more into Frances' story and it was excellent. Looking forward to beginning the next book shortly. I was so fortunate to be able to borrow all four at the same time.
November 3, 2007
This is in a series. I just read Sarah's story and liked it so kept reading the series. I have a feeling this one will be better than the last.
June 15, 2016
I really can't find any words to describe how much I love this book.
September 12, 2016
It's got nice parts, but overall I found the book all too predicatble and tedious.
December 1, 2016
Liked: Beautiful writing, fantastic character development, good capture of the era.
Didn't like: Sexual innuendo near the end.
Didn't like: Sexual innuendo near the end.
June 24, 2024
3.75
personages: 4.5
verhaallijn: 4
schrijfstijl: 3.75
doorlezen: 3.75
==> 80/100
personages: 4.5
verhaallijn: 4
schrijfstijl: 3.75
doorlezen: 3.75
==> 80/100
June 30, 2011
its was ok...
March 3, 2012
skimmed large chunks, I really couldn't handle the self-centred-ness of the main character.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews