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In the years when Victorian standards and ideals began to dance an increasingly rapid jig before amazed lookers-on, who presently found themselves dancing as madly as the rest-in these years, there lived in Mayfair, in a slice of a house, Robert Gareth-La
344 pages, Paperback
First published July 21, 1922
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About the author
Frances Hodgson Burnett
1,504 books5,006 followersFrances Eliza Hodgson Burnett was a British-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886), A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911).
Frances Eliza Hodgson was born in Cheetham, Manchester, England. After her father died in 1853, when Frances was 4 years old, the family fell on straitened circumstances and in 1865 emigrated to the United States, settling in New Market, Tennessee. Frances began her writing career there at age 19 to help earn money for the family, publishing stories in magazines. In 1870, her mother died. In Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1873 she married Swan M. Burnett, who became a medical doctor. Their first son Lionel was born a year later. The Burnetts lived for two years in Paris, where their second son Vivian was born, before returning to the United States to live in Washington, D.C. Burnett then began to write novels, the first of which (That Lass o' Lowrie's), was published to good reviews. Little Lord Fauntleroy was published in 1886 and made her a popular writer of children's fiction, although her romantic adult novels written in the 1890s were also popular. She wrote and helped to produce stage versions of Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess.
Beginning in the 1880s, Burnett began to travel to England frequently and in the 1890s bought a home there, where she wrote The Secret Garden. Her elder son, Lionel, died of tuberculosis in 1890, which caused a relapse of the depression she had struggled with for much of her life. She divorced Swan Burnett in 1898, married Stephen Townesend in 1900, and divorced him in 1902. A few years later she settled in Nassau County, New York, where she died in 1924 and is buried in Roslyn Cemetery.
In 1936, a memorial sculpture by Bessie Potter Vonnoh was erected in her honor in Central Park's Conservatory Garden. The statue depicts her two famous Secret Garden characters, Mary and Dickon.
Frances Eliza Hodgson was born in Cheetham, Manchester, England. After her father died in 1853, when Frances was 4 years old, the family fell on straitened circumstances and in 1865 emigrated to the United States, settling in New Market, Tennessee. Frances began her writing career there at age 19 to help earn money for the family, publishing stories in magazines. In 1870, her mother died. In Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1873 she married Swan M. Burnett, who became a medical doctor. Their first son Lionel was born a year later. The Burnetts lived for two years in Paris, where their second son Vivian was born, before returning to the United States to live in Washington, D.C. Burnett then began to write novels, the first of which (That Lass o' Lowrie's), was published to good reviews. Little Lord Fauntleroy was published in 1886 and made her a popular writer of children's fiction, although her romantic adult novels written in the 1890s were also popular. She wrote and helped to produce stage versions of Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess.
Beginning in the 1880s, Burnett began to travel to England frequently and in the 1890s bought a home there, where she wrote The Secret Garden. Her elder son, Lionel, died of tuberculosis in 1890, which caused a relapse of the depression she had struggled with for much of her life. She divorced Swan Burnett in 1898, married Stephen Townesend in 1900, and divorced him in 1902. A few years later she settled in Nassau County, New York, where she died in 1924 and is buried in Roslyn Cemetery.
In 1936, a memorial sculpture by Bessie Potter Vonnoh was erected in her honor in Central Park's Conservatory Garden. The statue depicts her two famous Secret Garden characters, Mary and Dickon.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 17, 2010
I really should not give this four stars. It is absolutely sickeningly sentimental. It is utter bathos. Whatever! I adore the wretched yet impossibly beautiful and innocent Robin, and her divinely handsome (if somewhat inarticulate) lover Donal.
"Robin" picks up where "The Head of the House of Coombe" leaves off: it is the eve of WWI, soldiers are leaving to fight the Kaiser, and Donal, despite his beauty, charm, and noble estate, is prime cannon fodder. Donal may never come home again, so he and Robin engage in some pre-war indiscretions. Consequences ensue, but lucky for Robin, the Earl of Coombe is still watching over her, even though she still detests him.
Lots of Burnett-ish wanderings down Spiritualism byways, but again I say, I DON'T CARE. I'm a sucker for a too-obvious love story, and I can handle the sickly-sweet better than just about anyone I know. I might want to visit the dentist after all this sugar, though.
"Robin" picks up where "The Head of the House of Coombe" leaves off: it is the eve of WWI, soldiers are leaving to fight the Kaiser, and Donal, despite his beauty, charm, and noble estate, is prime cannon fodder. Donal may never come home again, so he and Robin engage in some pre-war indiscretions. Consequences ensue, but lucky for Robin, the Earl of Coombe is still watching over her, even though she still detests him.
Lots of Burnett-ish wanderings down Spiritualism byways, but again I say, I DON'T CARE. I'm a sucker for a too-obvious love story, and I can handle the sickly-sweet better than just about anyone I know. I might want to visit the dentist after all this sugar, though.
January 3, 2022
I actually finished this a few days ago. When I was young I read The Head of the House of Coombe so many times. I really loved it. This is really saccharine, but it was nice to find out what happened to Robin and Donal.
March 25, 2013
Most people when they think of Frances Hodgson Burnett, if they think of her at all, remember The Little Princess, The Secret Garden, and Little Lord Fauntleroy and dismiss her as a writer of children's books. But Burnett wrote many adult novels, including The Making of a Marchioness, which was republished not long ago by Persephone and has become popular among discerning novel readers. She wrote about 30 adult novels and 15 or more children's books, many short stories, and a few plays and some of this work is excellent.
The Head of the House of Coombe and its sequel, Robin, which were published in 1922, were the last books Burnett wrote. They tell the story of a flighty woman, so flighty people called her Feather, and her daughter, Robin. Feather's husband dies, leaving her with a child she does not want and an enormous load of debt. When the servants, long unpaid, leave her and the child alone in the house she is frantic. . . .
To see the rest of my review, go to my blog at:
http://maryslibrary.typepad.com/my_we...
The Head of the House of Coombe and its sequel, Robin, which were published in 1922, were the last books Burnett wrote. They tell the story of a flighty woman, so flighty people called her Feather, and her daughter, Robin. Feather's husband dies, leaving her with a child she does not want and an enormous load of debt. When the servants, long unpaid, leave her and the child alone in the house she is frantic. . . .
To see the rest of my review, go to my blog at:
http://maryslibrary.typepad.com/my_we...
August 1, 2013
his romantic drama by the author of A Little Princess and The Secret Garden takes place during WWI in a rapidly changing England where all the charm and beauty of the world seems to be disappearing. Lost in their own bubble of love, Robin and Donal Muir are elated to find each other again after being parted after their first meeting as children about 15 years earlier. Robin is the lonely only child of an uncaring mother, who upon the death of her husband, accepted financial support from the elderly Head of the House of Coombe. Assuming that Robin's mother is the mistress of the Marquis, other mothers did not allow their children to play with Robin. A chance meeting with a strange boy in the garden while her nanny wasn't paying attention introduced Robin to her one true love. Donal loved Robin instantly and wanted to protect her. He promised to return the next day but his mother cruelly whisked him away. Robin and Donal meet again at a house party given by Robin's employer, the Dowager Duchess of Darte. Donal is instantly smitten with Robin and she never stopped worshiping him. The two find ways to be together and romance blooms as if the pair were lost in a bubble of love. The world is at war however, and the love bubble bursts cruelly when Donal marches off to war and is missing, presumed dead. Robin's world is shattered and she feels as if life can not go on. It must though, for the sake of her unborn child. Robin discovers a beautiful, sacred thing that helps her get through long and dark nights. This book explores the powers of mysticism. Apparently this is a sequel to a book called The Head of the House of Coombe. One does not have to read the first to follow the plot of this book. I really wanted to like this novel because I love her children's books, but I just couldn't like it. It was very slow in the beginning and hard to get in to. I couldn't stand Robin who is far too selfless and innocent for me to relate to or like. I prefer heroines with some backbone. Donal is also quite silly and not a very strong hero. I have a hard time believing the mystic elements. The combination of innocent, doe-eyed heroine plus mysticism was just too much for me. If you like Eva Ibbotson's adult romance novels then you will probably like this one.
November 2, 2014
Burnett was one of my favorite writers when I was young. I must have read The Little Princess six times at least. Just revisited it and found it holds up very well as an adult read. I was thrilled to find that Burnett's works are out of copyright and free for Kindle, so I downloaded a boatload of titles and have been working my way through. Robin is the sequel to The Head of the House of Coombe, the story of a Marquis who supports a distant relative out of a sense of duty. Robin is the child of this irresponsible, pretty, frivolous woman. Robin is a child in the first book, and she grows up to be a very different woman from her mother, who is appropriately named Feather.
There is a sweet, old-fashioned innocence about Burnett's writing that is a refreshing change from the edgy contemporary fiction I usually read. I did a lit-map search (www.literature-map.com) and was surprised to find Rumor Godden as the nearest link. I would have picked Gene Stratton Porter instead. Burnett's work and the author of Freckles and Girl of the Limberlost have much in common. If you like one, you'd like the other. If you've never heard of either and are looking for some innocent, romantic escapism, either of these writers will scratch that itch for you.
There is a sweet, old-fashioned innocence about Burnett's writing that is a refreshing change from the edgy contemporary fiction I usually read. I did a lit-map search (www.literature-map.com) and was surprised to find Rumor Godden as the nearest link. I would have picked Gene Stratton Porter instead. Burnett's work and the author of Freckles and Girl of the Limberlost have much in common. If you like one, you'd like the other. If you've never heard of either and are looking for some innocent, romantic escapism, either of these writers will scratch that itch for you.
Want to read
September 3, 2014Read this book for free through Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18945/...
December 26, 2018
Intense Drama
The two books that detail the marvelous connection of Robin and Donal are so captivating I could hardly wait each day to pick up the story and continue reading to the end. I gave an outstanding rating to the first part, The Heir of the House of Coomb, where the two met and were sadly separated for years, and then I eagerly began this book, hoping I wouldn’t be let down. Most assuredly the author came through. Melodramatic at times, it still seemed perfectly natural and in keeping with the background of the Great War during the early 20th century. I do not wish to reveal the plot but only recommend a highly addictive read.
The two books that detail the marvelous connection of Robin and Donal are so captivating I could hardly wait each day to pick up the story and continue reading to the end. I gave an outstanding rating to the first part, The Heir of the House of Coomb, where the two met and were sadly separated for years, and then I eagerly began this book, hoping I wouldn’t be let down. Most assuredly the author came through. Melodramatic at times, it still seemed perfectly natural and in keeping with the background of the Great War during the early 20th century. I do not wish to reveal the plot but only recommend a highly addictive read.
Read
September 8, 2019This book makes a rather fascinating and in some ways surprising counterpart to The Head of the House of Coombe. While one part is an interesting example of Hodgson Burnett's interest in Spiritualism expounded, the rest is a very vivid (and occasionally shocking) contemporary illustration of life in WWI England. Everything from the political cynicism of the Brits about the US entering the war, to graphic descriptions of prisoner of war camps. I review it at some length in a blog post at: https://pams-pictorama.com/2019/09/08... and other reviews of Hodgson Burnett's adult fiction can be found searching my blog at Pams-Pictorama.com.
February 19, 2018
Ancora una bellissima storia della Burnett, stavolta fortemente incentrata sulla guerra (si tratta proprio della 'grande guerra') e di tutto il male che può fare agli uomini, intesi come collettività e come singoli. Nel corso del racconto, emerge e si precisa sempre più la personalità di Lord Coombe: il vero protagonista dei due romanzi, una splendida figura che fa da ponte tra l'età vittoriana e il nuovo secolo.
L'incursione conclusiva nel soprannaturale (che non è il mio genere) è poco invasiva, e assolutamente tollerabile.
L'incursione conclusiva nel soprannaturale (che non è il mio genere) è poco invasiva, e assolutamente tollerabile.
February 25, 2017
Well written, fluff, I guess, but all about a bird?
March 5, 2017
Esta es la segunda parte de dos volúmenes que sigue la historia de Robin luego de terminar la primera parte de la serie, El señor de la casa de Coombe, en el esperado encuentro entre Robin y Donal.
Tal y como se esperaba, ambos jóvenes terminan enamorándose y precipitándose sin atenerse a las consecuencias de ese amor a las puertas del estallido de la Primera Guerra Mundial. Muchos jóvenes conocidos en el primer libro perecen y Donal también se va a la guerra.
Pluma sigue indiferente hacia su hija y Coombe toma ya los colores propios de su carácter, terminando así con el misterio que envolvía a su personaje.
A pesar de que la autora sigue con una narrativa deliciosa, este libro ahondó demasiado en el espiritualismo y fue eso lo que no me gustó del mismo. Por otro lado el papel de Robin se estanca en un egoísmo propio teniendo en cuenta que Inglaterra está en guerra, aunque al final se redime algo, pero para mí era ya tarde. Otro punto negativo es que el personaje de Pluma se queda en el aire, viviendo y gozando de la buena vida a pesar de la escasez económica que trajo consigo la guerra. La autora deja su destino en el aire y el lector supone que no habrá cambios ni justicia para la forma en la que trató a su hija.
Un final romántico y sentimental para cerrar la serie y tristemente la obra de la autora, pues este fue el último libro que escribió. Sin duda es un libro necesario de leer si se lee el primero. El señor Coombe, para mí, es lo que da vida realmente a los dos libros. Si tuviera que compararlo con algún personaje de otra autora, sería sin duda con los antihéroes de Georgette Heyer.
Tal y como se esperaba, ambos jóvenes terminan enamorándose y precipitándose sin atenerse a las consecuencias de ese amor a las puertas del estallido de la Primera Guerra Mundial. Muchos jóvenes conocidos en el primer libro perecen y Donal también se va a la guerra.
Pluma sigue indiferente hacia su hija y Coombe toma ya los colores propios de su carácter, terminando así con el misterio que envolvía a su personaje.
A pesar de que la autora sigue con una narrativa deliciosa, este libro ahondó demasiado en el espiritualismo y fue eso lo que no me gustó del mismo. Por otro lado el papel de Robin se estanca en un egoísmo propio teniendo en cuenta que Inglaterra está en guerra, aunque al final se redime algo, pero para mí era ya tarde. Otro punto negativo es que el personaje de Pluma se queda en el aire, viviendo y gozando de la buena vida a pesar de la escasez económica que trajo consigo la guerra. La autora deja su destino en el aire y el lector supone que no habrá cambios ni justicia para la forma en la que trató a su hija.
Un final romántico y sentimental para cerrar la serie y tristemente la obra de la autora, pues este fue el último libro que escribió. Sin duda es un libro necesario de leer si se lee el primero. El señor Coombe, para mí, es lo que da vida realmente a los dos libros. Si tuviera que compararlo con algún personaje de otra autora, sería sin duda con los antihéroes de Georgette Heyer.
March 17, 2012
Volume 2 of "The Head of the House of Coombe". It is not as good as the first. It sounds like Burnett was seriously converted to the early 20th century spiritualism movement and she went overboard in her inclusion of it. It's fine to include it, but paragraphs about the wonder and mystery of it were a little much. And Robin, the main character, after being quite resilient in volume 1, becomes extremely passive and, in the face of tragedy, almost dies of a broken heart. I missed her younger stamina. However, the further character development of the head of the house of Coombe and the spectacular end of Robin's nasty mother were unexpected and well done.
This volume takes place during the early years of WWI and I think Burnett does a legitimate job of portraying varied British responses to the war and the increasing news of horrors on the front.
If you read volume 1, "The Head of the House of Coombe", take the time to read volume 2. It's not as well done as the first, but it does wrap things up well.
This volume takes place during the early years of WWI and I think Burnett does a legitimate job of portraying varied British responses to the war and the increasing news of horrors on the front.
If you read volume 1, "The Head of the House of Coombe", take the time to read volume 2. It's not as well done as the first, but it does wrap things up well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 27, 2009
Robin is the companion book to The Head of the House of Coombe. Though it was melodramatic in spots and the middle of the book dragged, I enjoyed it. Robin takes place during World War 1 in England. Burnett stresses the horrors of war way too much. I have always had passionate emotions about both the world wars, but have to say she overdid in even my opinion. I understand why, however. Straight out of the Victorian era, some of the changes in morals and conventions, as well as supernatural thinking, had to be broached in a cautious way. Burnett used the war to give motivation to these new mores.
The main character, Robin, is believable because her unusual history has been set up in the first book. If not for that, one would be tempted to claim she was too good to be true.
The main character, Robin, is believable because her unusual history has been set up in the first book. If not for that, one would be tempted to claim she was too good to be true.
July 30, 2007
The sequel to The Head of the House of Coombe, Robin deals much more with WWI and its aftermath. Unfortunately, it is laughably trite. The main two points seem to be "Spiritualism is right! Completely right! I talk to the deeeeeeaaaad" and "oh that Robin, so beautiful and perfect and pure and delicate. We must protect her at all costs because she's just so darned feminine and fragile." Coombe was wonderful; I could barely finish the sequel. The Head of the House of Coombe himself, btw, is a great character (if you like erudite, foppish, highly educated, too-clever British peers...) and well worth reading THotHoC.
March 29, 2014
I thought the first part was weird but you really have to read both books to get the full basket of odd that is this novel. The second part spends 100s of pages on the horrors of WWI for those women and old men left behind in England. Then because it's a romance it has a twist you see coming for miles while still suddenly veering into nascent theories about psychology and metaphysics. It reminded me of the Maisie Dobbs novels (which I love) and also of Georgette Heyer a more modern writer who wrote mildly feminist romances set in the regency era but Burnett pre-dates both authors by a century (I think). I'm very glad my internet research got me reading Burnett's unknown works.
June 8, 2011
This book wasn't great but was a satisfying sequel. I have a deliciously soft leather bound copy with gold lettering on the spine. In this one Robin wastes away her nymph/sylph beauty on hearing that the man she had wed in secret is dead. There are some extremely sentimental scenes in fairytale woods, but they are tempered with the tangible horror of the German war machine creeping ever closer, beautiful manse turned hospitals, the wonderful character of the Head of the House of Coombs, et cetera.
December 2, 2024
It pains me to say this, but this book was far too melodramatic and sickeningly saccharine for my taste. By the time I finished it, I felt exhausted, and had no sense of pleasure and satisfaction that a good book leaves me with. I can't recommend that kind of experience to anyone, so, as much as it hurts to give Burnett a one-star review, I can't feel justified doing anything else.
October 21, 2011
It was a sweet story until the middle, then turned very sad until the last page. Not one of my favorite old romances. They're usually much happier.
November 25, 2014
This book is terrible and it pisses me off. Longer review to come later.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews