The House in Paris in Around the World in 80 Books

Jul 17, 2017 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it really liked it

Shelves: france

It starts with a young girl arriving at a house in Paris for the day, just a layover on a trip she is taking. A young boy also arrives, and he is to meet his mother.

And then the boy opens a purse, and takes out letters inside, and reads them, and suddenly, the characters are revealed to have secrets upon secrets, all tied together, and bound up in the house in Paris.

It's a beautifully written story, carefully placed and plotted out, so that in the end the reader is left to marvel at the marvelou ...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Daisy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites-2nd-place, england, france, ireland, knitters-mentioned, certain-british-women, aroundtheworld2013

Pick a random sentence: every word in it is carefully, beautifully chosen. And brutal truths are revealed in character descriptions and situations.

To-day was to do much to disintegrate Henrietta's character, which, built up by herself, for herself, out of admonitions and axioms (under the growing stress of: If I am Henrietta, then what is Henrietta?), was a mosaic of all possible kinds of prejudice. She was anxious to be someone, and, no one having ever voiced a prejudice in her hearing without ...more

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Oct 05, 2009 Jayme Pendergraft rated it liked it

Shelves: 2009

I did not know what I was getting into with this book and I was unsure about my star rating for this one. It took me a very long time to adjust to the writing style, and while that set the tone for the novel, I think it took away from the book overall for me.

Eleven year old Henrietta is staying with friends of her grandmother's while on her way to stay with her grandmother. At this house is also another child, Leopold. He is there to meet his mother for the first time. The two strike up a conver ...more

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