The Court [Paperback]

by Elizabeth Neff Walker

The four highly visible, much-talked-about Hellyn children, heirs to their crumbling family edifice, The Court, struggle with their own, individual problems while trying to save their ancestral home

Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

A pseudonym for Elizabeth Rotter.
AKA Laura Matthews, Elizabeth Walker

Reviews

[John Farrell · Rating 1 out of 5]

"The Court" must be regarded as a seriously bad novel. It's not that Elizabeth Walker can't write nor is it that she can't sustain a coherent narrative. It's that she has absolutely no conception of how real people act, interact, behave, and treat each other. The Hellyn family, owners of the legendary Court, are a group of anachronistic snobs who believe that to be aristocratic is to treat everyone around them like three-day old fish. Forced into sudden poverty, the teenaged remnants of the family make their way in the world by variously descending into prostitution, madness, politics, and sexual frigidity. Through it all, they maintain their contempt for all those around them, including those with whom they deign to have sex (which is often) and those they decide to marry. Through it all, they neither grow nor learn, just use others as if droit du seigneur were still the law of the land. In the end, one wishes their beloved Court would collapse with these four brats inside, along with the doormats who have the ill-fortunate to love them.

[Kim]

Page 95 and I've had enough. Nearly every character annoyed me. Even minor characters. These are people that if I met them in real life I would not like them. Leapt ahead to see what becomes of everyone but only interested enough to skim.

[Camilla Lindqvist]

Svensk titel: Arvingarna

[Megha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just picked this book from the books-per-kilo exhibition. Looking at the cover, name and summary it gave me a feel of some historic and aristocratic tale, I like to read historical.

But when I read on, I started to get the feeling if I had bought an erotic novel. I felt to abandon it. But I kept reading on.

The book is as bad as it is good.
Story is fairly okay if I look at the book as whole, I liked it. I really don't know how many stars to give but after you finish half of the book it gets interesting and the writing gets beautiful. And the most I like is the romance of Lisa-Toby.

But I am sure this book is not for everyone. Some may find it boring, some obnoxious while some beautiful.

[Jasmiina F · Rating 2 out of 5]

I haven’t read much of romantic novels lately and I’m having hard time deciding what I think about this book. Somehow the characters didn’t seem that real, although I liked Lisa and sometimes Toby too. It’s just that all of the characters were kind of stupid and really weak. It was hard not to hate most of the characters.

[The Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was ok. I felt that they didn't want to deal with working out some of the troubles the characters had. The book also led up to conculsions, but didn't really go into what happened. IN someways, it felt very much of the disney.. and they lived "happily ever after" type of ending.

[Debi Lodge · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unlikeable characters, immoral, boorish, with gratuitous sex. Read it all to see if it improved..it didn't.