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Penhallow Group Read June 2017 Spoilers thread
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Teresa wrote: "Am I the only one who liked this book?????? I enjoyed the characterisations. I know it wouldn't be at all PC in our world today but she was writing this at a very different time. I'm not saying tha..."Oh, I liked this book (gave it 4★) I just didn't love it. In my review I described it as excellent but flawed.
Carol ♔Type, Oh Queen!♕ wrote: "Teresa wrote: "Am I the only one who liked this book?????? I enjoyed the characterisations. I know it wouldn't be at all PC in our world today but she was writing this at a very different time. I'm..."The characters were so flawed that they made me cringe. Which is what I do when I meet with self-centered and/or selfish people in real life...
Karlyne wrote: The characters were so flawed that they made me cringe.For me the main flaw was that Rachel effectively disinherited her son. I was just thinking it would have been more believable if GH had reversed Rachel & Delia's characters.
Teresa, I liked this book, too, though I wouldn't say it's one of my favorites. I found myself wondering what inspired her to write it --I don't suppose we'll ever know. I thought there was a touch of Daphne du Maurier in it. Perhaps she was just having fun writing something different.
Actually Sheila I know what you mean about du Maurier maybe that's why I liked it so much.
Actually Sheila I know what you mean about du Maurier maybe that's why I liked it so much.
Du Maurier had a talent for unlikable characters, too, so there is a familiar quality to this! And compelling story writers, both Du Maurier & Heyer.
I think GH was a creative writer who longed to stretch herself, but had to keep turning out the Regencies because of her financial problems.
That's certainly what comes across in any of the biographies I've read. She was supporting so many people.
Teresa wrote: "That's certainly what comes across in any of the biographies I've read. She was supporting so many people."Have to be honest - it was our gain! But I do sometimes feel sad for her.
And I think that what comes easily is not often as valued as the difficult stuff. She was a genius at witty comedies, and although she knew they were "good", I don't think she realized how excellent some of them really were. She was perhaps afraid that their "fluff" wouldn't stand the test of time. Thankfully for us, they have.
I am grateful she had to write the Regencies & Georgians, they are my favorites. But I can empathize with being put in a genre box and wanting to stretch one's wings.
Kim wrote: "I am grateful she had to write the Regencies & Georgians, they are my favorites. But I can empathize with being put in a genre box and wanting to stretch one's wings."Like an actor being typecast isn't it? :)
Yes! Once a villain always a villain!
Karlyne wrote: "Yes! Once a villain always a villain!"Makes JK Rowling's success as an adult writer all the more amazing doesn't it?
Carol ♔Type, Oh Queen!♕ wrote: "Karlyne wrote: "Yes! Once a villain always a villain!"Makes JK Rowling's success as an adult writer all the more amazing doesn't it?"
Yes and she wrote anonymously at first because of that fear she wouldn't be able to write anything else besides Harry that people would enjoy. Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables),like Heyer, continued to churn out best sellers (Anne and other children's stories) to pay the bills and longed to write a serious story. She managed one "adult" (YA by today's standards) novel before her death. I don't fault any writer for wanting to stretch their wings and try something new or put on paper something that's been churning around in their heads for a long time, I just don't care to read about extremely unlikable people.
I went to a talk many years ago by NZ Mills & Boon writer, Susan Napier. As I remember she did say she was scared she wouldn't be successful, but that when she looked at her books on a display shelf while she got satisfaction out of it, she would have got even more if they had been published under her real name.
I think Penhallow is the only, the one & only, book I actually like while disliking 90% of the characters! I tend to have to have at least one character in a book that I could be friends with, otherwise I'm not interested.
Karlyne wrote: "I think Penhallow is the only, the one & only, book I actually like while disliking 90% of the characters! I tend to have to have at least one character in a book that I could be friends with, othe..."Usually I do but Forever Amber was a favourite of mine & I don't remember liking any of the characters. & I didn't like many of the characters in My Cousin Rachel.
The only thing I remember about Forever Amber is that I didn't like her. What I remember of Rachel was its air of weird, but I've never re-read either of them. And Wuthering Heights? Last time, I said Never Again!
Karlyne wrote: "The only thing I remember about Forever Amber is that I didn't like her. What I remember of Rachel was its air of weird, but I've never re-read either of them. And Wuthering Heights? Last time, I s..."I couldn't get through Wuthering Heights. Only Bronte work I both liked & finished was Jane Eyre.
I re-read Jane last year, and it really holds up, but the rest of the Brontes i just dont find memorable or likable. Wuthering is the worst of the lot, though, thinks I!
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Yes, I assumed that was the point of that episode, and was rather puzzled that it didn't happen!
Did anybody else think that Raymond knocking his pipe out into the waste paper basket was going to set the house on fire?
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i didn't really like any of them either, though i agree Char seems okay. i think she may be a lesbian though i don't know if heyer really means us to think that, rachel choosing Ray as heir over her own children makes no sense to me at all. But then the whole family is very peculiar. i agree the ending was hopeless, really anti climatic as you say. i think Faith will probably go completely barmy and end up in the loony bin - they did have an insanity plea in those days i think, i remember the ending of one Agatha Christie novel where it is suggested the murderer may not hang because of being barmy. i can imagine delia will end up like that too, ray's death will probably push her over the edge.