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In a Summer Season
In a Summer Season is one of Elizabeth Taylor's finest novels in which, in a moving and powerful climax, she reveals love to be the thing it beautiful, often funny, and sometimes tragic.
'You taste of rain', he said, kissing her. 'People say I married her for her money', he thought contentedly, and for the moment was full of the self-respect that loving her had given him.
Kate Heron is a wealthy, charming widow who marries, much to the disapproval of friends and neighbours, a man ten years her the attractive, feckless Dermot. Then comes the return of Kate's old friend Charles - intelligent, kind and now widowed, with his beautiful young daughter. Kate watches happily as their two families are drawn together, finding his presence reassuringly familiar, but slowly she becomes aware of subtle undercurrents that begin to disturb the calm surface of their friendship. Before long, even she cannot ignore the gathering storm . . .
'You taste of rain', he said, kissing her. 'People say I married her for her money', he thought contentedly, and for the moment was full of the self-respect that loving her had given him.
Kate Heron is a wealthy, charming widow who marries, much to the disapproval of friends and neighbours, a man ten years her the attractive, feckless Dermot. Then comes the return of Kate's old friend Charles - intelligent, kind and now widowed, with his beautiful young daughter. Kate watches happily as their two families are drawn together, finding his presence reassuringly familiar, but slowly she becomes aware of subtle undercurrents that begin to disturb the calm surface of their friendship. Before long, even she cannot ignore the gathering storm . . .
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 1961
About the author
Elizabeth Taylor
169 books456 followersElizabeth Taylor (née Coles) was a popular English novelist and short story writer. Elizabeth Coles was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1912. She was educated at The Abbey School, Reading, and worked as a governess, as a tutor and as a librarian.
In 1936, she married John William Kendall Taylor, a businessman. She lived in Penn, Buckinghamshire, for almost all her married life.
Her first novel, At Mrs. Lippincote's, was published in 1945 and was followed by eleven more. Her short stories were published in various magazines and collected in four volumes. She also wrote a children's book.
Taylor's work is mainly concerned with the nuances of "everyday" life and situations, which she writes about with dexterity. Her shrewd but affectionate portrayals of middle class and upper middle class English life won her an audience of discriminating readers, as well as loyal friends in the world of letters.
She was a friend of the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett and of the novelist and critic Robert Liddell.
Elizabeth Taylor died at age 63 of cancer.
Anne Tyler once compared Taylor to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Bowen -- "soul sisters all," in Tyler's words . In recent years new interest has been kindled by movie makers in her work. French director Francois Ozon, has made "The Real Life of Angel Deverell" which will be released in early 2005. American director Dan Ireland's screen adaptation of Taylor's "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" came out in this country first in 2006 and has made close to $1 million. A British distributor picked it up at Cannes, and the movie was released in England in 2009.
In 1936, she married John William Kendall Taylor, a businessman. She lived in Penn, Buckinghamshire, for almost all her married life.
Her first novel, At Mrs. Lippincote's, was published in 1945 and was followed by eleven more. Her short stories were published in various magazines and collected in four volumes. She also wrote a children's book.
Taylor's work is mainly concerned with the nuances of "everyday" life and situations, which she writes about with dexterity. Her shrewd but affectionate portrayals of middle class and upper middle class English life won her an audience of discriminating readers, as well as loyal friends in the world of letters.
She was a friend of the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett and of the novelist and critic Robert Liddell.
Elizabeth Taylor died at age 63 of cancer.
Anne Tyler once compared Taylor to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Bowen -- "soul sisters all," in Tyler's words . In recent years new interest has been kindled by movie makers in her work. French director Francois Ozon, has made "The Real Life of Angel Deverell" which will be released in early 2005. American director Dan Ireland's screen adaptation of Taylor's "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" came out in this country first in 2006 and has made close to $1 million. A British distributor picked it up at Cannes, and the movie was released in England in 2009.
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February 19, 2022
Elizabeth Taylor is one of the most deceptively quiet writers I have ever encountered. You read her books with a sense that you are just peeking in on someone’s life. There is nothing major going on, much of the book is spent eavesdropping over the serving of tea or the setting of dinner placements, but there is a kind of electricity that hovers over everything, a testament that a storm is brewing somewhere and someone should be fastening down any loose items that might blow away.
I want to say that Taylor expends all her energies on character development, but that would imply that there is not a plot, and when you look back from the last pages, you know there always was more action going on than your conscious mind acknowledged. The meat is there, though, in the intricate characters, their subtle imperfections, their silent struggles, their mysterious undercurrents.
There are some very serious topics being explored in these everyday lives. Amid the teacups, we are often treated to the inner souls of these people and their struggle to find meaning in lives that can appear to be too idle.
‘We’re all of us just passing time,’ she thought, feeling irritated by the sound. A lack of purpose was an imperfection Dermot may have introduced. It seemed to her that it was worse for herself, without religion, to be squandering her life, expecting no other and chilled by the passage of time.
When we come into this novel, we are introduced to an upper middle class English family. Kate Heron is a widow, remarried to a younger man, Dermot, who is unemployed and somewhat insecure. Living with them are her children by the first marriage, twenty-two year old Tom, who struggles to please his grandfather, who has him in training to take over the family business; sixteen year old Louisa, who is suffering from her first “love” with the local curate; Kate’s aunt Ethel, who spends most of her time prying into the affairs of the others; and the cook/housekeeper, Mrs. Meacock, who dreams of traveling abroad and writing a book of inspirational sayings. Into this motley crew come the Thorntons, Charles and Araminta, the husband and daughter of Kate’s deceased best friend. These two extra personalities are what serve as the catalyst for all the carefully repressed anxieties to flame in the sweltering summer heat.
What goes on between these individuals is serious, without doubt. Not all of the novel is serious, however, for we have been gifted the marvelous Aunt Ethel, who made me laugh more than once. I had a very vivid image of her, dwarfed by the cello she is constantly carrying up and down the stairs, so that it will not be seen as an intrusion upon the family space, and slipping into rooms where she disappears into the wallpaper. She is constantly whipping off letters, teeming with family secrets, to her friend, Gertrude. They are peppered with other bits of wisdom, the two spinsters share, such as this,
In Mediterranean countries as one knows, the sun brings girls to maturity much earlier—and I have my own theory that the Vitamin E in ripe olives has a stimulating effect on the sexual organs.
Another element that Taylor handles with perfection is the subtle, but very real, differences between the generations, from the naive love-sickness of Lou to the thorny recognition of aging that Kate finds in herself. With Dermot planted right between the young and the old, and unable to easily fit into either group, there is a poignantly heightened awareness of the divide. Each of Taylor’s characters, young or old, is drawn with an authenticity that brings them to life, exposing their inner thoughts, insecurities and dreams with a kind and loving hand. Even the minor characters, such as the curate and Dermot’s mother, are fully-realized and stir sympathies and understanding.
In a Summer Season is a novel about time and timing, about love and loss, about finding the place where you fit or being unable to. There are family tensions and stirrings of recognition that spring from natural sources, the kind of feelings each of us has probably known at one time or the other in the course of our lives. There are fragile hearts, trying not to be damaged and inevitably damaging others, and a sense that life is a series of changes and regardless of our intents or wishes, relationships morph, and grow or die.
Taylor addresses all of this with such a spartan style in which not a word or thought is wasted. It is this very restraint that makes the impact of her writing so effective. My appreciation for her grows with each of her novels I read, and I am looking forward with relish to the next one.
I want to say that Taylor expends all her energies on character development, but that would imply that there is not a plot, and when you look back from the last pages, you know there always was more action going on than your conscious mind acknowledged. The meat is there, though, in the intricate characters, their subtle imperfections, their silent struggles, their mysterious undercurrents.
There are some very serious topics being explored in these everyday lives. Amid the teacups, we are often treated to the inner souls of these people and their struggle to find meaning in lives that can appear to be too idle.
‘We’re all of us just passing time,’ she thought, feeling irritated by the sound. A lack of purpose was an imperfection Dermot may have introduced. It seemed to her that it was worse for herself, without religion, to be squandering her life, expecting no other and chilled by the passage of time.
When we come into this novel, we are introduced to an upper middle class English family. Kate Heron is a widow, remarried to a younger man, Dermot, who is unemployed and somewhat insecure. Living with them are her children by the first marriage, twenty-two year old Tom, who struggles to please his grandfather, who has him in training to take over the family business; sixteen year old Louisa, who is suffering from her first “love” with the local curate; Kate’s aunt Ethel, who spends most of her time prying into the affairs of the others; and the cook/housekeeper, Mrs. Meacock, who dreams of traveling abroad and writing a book of inspirational sayings. Into this motley crew come the Thorntons, Charles and Araminta, the husband and daughter of Kate’s deceased best friend. These two extra personalities are what serve as the catalyst for all the carefully repressed anxieties to flame in the sweltering summer heat.
What goes on between these individuals is serious, without doubt. Not all of the novel is serious, however, for we have been gifted the marvelous Aunt Ethel, who made me laugh more than once. I had a very vivid image of her, dwarfed by the cello she is constantly carrying up and down the stairs, so that it will not be seen as an intrusion upon the family space, and slipping into rooms where she disappears into the wallpaper. She is constantly whipping off letters, teeming with family secrets, to her friend, Gertrude. They are peppered with other bits of wisdom, the two spinsters share, such as this,
In Mediterranean countries as one knows, the sun brings girls to maturity much earlier—and I have my own theory that the Vitamin E in ripe olives has a stimulating effect on the sexual organs.
Another element that Taylor handles with perfection is the subtle, but very real, differences between the generations, from the naive love-sickness of Lou to the thorny recognition of aging that Kate finds in herself. With Dermot planted right between the young and the old, and unable to easily fit into either group, there is a poignantly heightened awareness of the divide. Each of Taylor’s characters, young or old, is drawn with an authenticity that brings them to life, exposing their inner thoughts, insecurities and dreams with a kind and loving hand. Even the minor characters, such as the curate and Dermot’s mother, are fully-realized and stir sympathies and understanding.
In a Summer Season is a novel about time and timing, about love and loss, about finding the place where you fit or being unable to. There are family tensions and stirrings of recognition that spring from natural sources, the kind of feelings each of us has probably known at one time or the other in the course of our lives. There are fragile hearts, trying not to be damaged and inevitably damaging others, and a sense that life is a series of changes and regardless of our intents or wishes, relationships morph, and grow or die.
Taylor addresses all of this with such a spartan style in which not a word or thought is wasted. It is this very restraint that makes the impact of her writing so effective. My appreciation for her grows with each of her novels I read, and I am looking forward with relish to the next one.
August 9, 2017
There is a category of English novels that belong to a very small class of women writers who wrote during the middle half of the twentieth century. Barbara Pym, Elizabeth von Arnim, Mollie Panter-downes, Rosamond Lehman, and Jane Gardam, just to name a few. These authors wrote quiet tales of ordinary women dealing with ordinary circumstances, often only of importance to themselves. Their knowledge of the interior lives of their characters set them apart from others.
Now I can add Elizabeth Taylor to that list as well. I have read a lot of praise for her novels, but until now had never read one. This book was published in 1961, and is about a wealthy widow with two children, a 22 year old son and a 16 year old daughter, who remarries to a charming ne'er-do-well 10 years her junior. Things go just as you think they might, until an old friend whose wife has also died moves back into the village with his grown daughter. Things begin to get difficult for everyone involved.
What I appreciated most about this novel is the gentle way of telling the story, the way I related to all of the characters, and the sly humor inserted into every paragraph. Every one of them reacted in thought, word, and deed, exactly as I would have done in the same situation. The humor was sometimes wicked, but appropriate, and made me feel like a member of a special club of readers who "got" the private jokes.
So add me to the fan club for this lady.
Now I can add Elizabeth Taylor to that list as well. I have read a lot of praise for her novels, but until now had never read one. This book was published in 1961, and is about a wealthy widow with two children, a 22 year old son and a 16 year old daughter, who remarries to a charming ne'er-do-well 10 years her junior. Things go just as you think they might, until an old friend whose wife has also died moves back into the village with his grown daughter. Things begin to get difficult for everyone involved.
What I appreciated most about this novel is the gentle way of telling the story, the way I related to all of the characters, and the sly humor inserted into every paragraph. Every one of them reacted in thought, word, and deed, exactly as I would have done in the same situation. The humor was sometimes wicked, but appropriate, and made me feel like a member of a special club of readers who "got" the private jokes.
So add me to the fan club for this lady.
December 5, 2022
I liked this, but not as much as 'At Mrs Lippincote's', which has a bubbly excitement which I only realized was so much the charm of her first novel, as I read this. I suppose Taylor has ironed out some of her stylistic foibles by number eight. I also found part one a little flat; it basically introduces us to the characters and I found that I was only interested in our main character Kate Heron and her unbelievably awful struggles with her '10-years younger' husband, Dermot. I found her struggles awful - her extreme patience with him - proposing for example a visit to the local pub to lift his spirits only to be blamed on the drive home, when one of his drunken attempts to engage with Kate's acquaintances from her first marriage goes awry. Alan, Kate's previous husband, has unfortunately died.
The second half is the action half and much more engaging. As soon as Charles appears on the scene, and I mean instantly the moment he arrives, we all know he is much the better match for Kate. So the critical question I would think of the whole plot is why on earth does Kate fall for the charming and handsome Irish Dermot in the first place.
I think the sub-plots of Kate's children, Tom and Louisa - their romantic entanglements, help to demonstrate the nature of sexual attraction. Taylor goes to some length to show our protagonist, Kate, enjoying a full and active love-life with her younger partner. So surely, we ask ourselves - shouldn't she be happy? Well, the answer is two-fold. Gradually, there are revelations of lack in Dermot's character and indications of weakness in his role as married partner. And a second thread is Taylor asking us to re-evaluate the priority of sex in love relationships. She is noting that erotic love is not the only or most important type of love.
The real enjoyment of the novel, however, lies in Taylor's dissection of how her characters evolve and her analysis of what motivates them to behave as they do. There is one particular scene that I liked immensely. Charles invites Kate on a picnic and once they are seated, enjoying wine from the same glass, he asks her directly:
'Talk to me about Dermot,' Charles said. Her surprise at his words made her turn her head quickly to look at him.
He propped himself on an elbow and began to play a teasing game with a beetle, barring its way with a twig until he realized how demented it was. 'Are you happy?' he asked.
'Very happy,' she replied.
'Good. That's what I want you to be.' He threw the twig away and let the beetle run into the grass.
Kate was conscious of all bliss dissolving, of a stain upon the day, now that -reminded of Dermot- she realised how little she wanted to tell him about her outing. The thought troubled her enough to make her forget her objective pose, the alert expression. Charles noted the change in her and, sitting up and beginning to pack up the picnic things, he asked, 'You are telling the truth, Kate?'
She nodded.
And there you have it, the person who loves you notices all those small things about you. But Kate is loyal to Dermot and of course her commitment to her original decision, and to be honest I think she does tell the truth here: she believes that love requires sacrifice and work and understanding. Charles, however, knows better.
Poor Kate is about to discover other disastrous character traits in her chosen partner, and finally as the reader understands, our author, must intervene, and take measures, because Kate will never behave disloyally to her husband, or put herself first.
The other point of note in this novel are the several references to Henry James' 'The Spoils of Poynton' which I haven't read but I can see James' influence on Taylor's plotting, especially with James' fairly waspish take on like will attract like - Dermot's attraction to his similar in Araminta - another charming creature, whose good looks allow her to move through the world with fairly little regard for others' feelings. So a sub-plot if you like, but one which I think doesn't really suit Taylor.
So, despite my reservations, I think 5 stars, because Taylor is demonstrating quite beautifully how someone with high moral integrity can unfortunately be taken advantage of, by someone who is not of the same 'level'. Kate does suggest that Dermot is not fully aware of their differences and therefore not entirely responsible for his transgressions against her. Her point is made with the reference to her favourite book, 'The Spoils of Poynton', which Dermot purloins with the intention of reading. He's curious; but as Kate notes - 'he didn't get very far'.
The second half is the action half and much more engaging. As soon as Charles appears on the scene, and I mean instantly the moment he arrives, we all know he is much the better match for Kate. So the critical question I would think of the whole plot is why on earth does Kate fall for the charming and handsome Irish Dermot in the first place.
I think the sub-plots of Kate's children, Tom and Louisa - their romantic entanglements, help to demonstrate the nature of sexual attraction. Taylor goes to some length to show our protagonist, Kate, enjoying a full and active love-life with her younger partner. So surely, we ask ourselves - shouldn't she be happy? Well, the answer is two-fold. Gradually, there are revelations of lack in Dermot's character and indications of weakness in his role as married partner. And a second thread is Taylor asking us to re-evaluate the priority of sex in love relationships. She is noting that erotic love is not the only or most important type of love.
The real enjoyment of the novel, however, lies in Taylor's dissection of how her characters evolve and her analysis of what motivates them to behave as they do. There is one particular scene that I liked immensely. Charles invites Kate on a picnic and once they are seated, enjoying wine from the same glass, he asks her directly:
'Talk to me about Dermot,' Charles said. Her surprise at his words made her turn her head quickly to look at him.
He propped himself on an elbow and began to play a teasing game with a beetle, barring its way with a twig until he realized how demented it was. 'Are you happy?' he asked.
'Very happy,' she replied.
'Good. That's what I want you to be.' He threw the twig away and let the beetle run into the grass.
Kate was conscious of all bliss dissolving, of a stain upon the day, now that -reminded of Dermot- she realised how little she wanted to tell him about her outing. The thought troubled her enough to make her forget her objective pose, the alert expression. Charles noted the change in her and, sitting up and beginning to pack up the picnic things, he asked, 'You are telling the truth, Kate?'
She nodded.
And there you have it, the person who loves you notices all those small things about you. But Kate is loyal to Dermot and of course her commitment to her original decision, and to be honest I think she does tell the truth here: she believes that love requires sacrifice and work and understanding. Charles, however, knows better.
Poor Kate is about to discover other disastrous character traits in her chosen partner, and finally as the reader understands, our author, must intervene, and take measures, because Kate will never behave disloyally to her husband, or put herself first.
The other point of note in this novel are the several references to Henry James' 'The Spoils of Poynton' which I haven't read but I can see James' influence on Taylor's plotting, especially with James' fairly waspish take on like will attract like - Dermot's attraction to his similar in Araminta - another charming creature, whose good looks allow her to move through the world with fairly little regard for others' feelings. So a sub-plot if you like, but one which I think doesn't really suit Taylor.
So, despite my reservations, I think 5 stars, because Taylor is demonstrating quite beautifully how someone with high moral integrity can unfortunately be taken advantage of, by someone who is not of the same 'level'. Kate does suggest that Dermot is not fully aware of their differences and therefore not entirely responsible for his transgressions against her. Her point is made with the reference to her favourite book, 'The Spoils of Poynton', which Dermot purloins with the intention of reading. He's curious; but as Kate notes - 'he didn't get very far'.
April 14, 2019
3.5 stars
It has been an interesting experience reading Taylor’s novels one after the other. This is Taylor’s eighth novel and it is about love, but don’t let that put you off, it is an interesting examination (and very English). It is set over a single summer. The title being the opening lines of Piers Ploughman. It revolves around a middle-aged woman called Kate. Her husband has died and she has remarried to Dermot, a man ten years her junior. Her son Tom has started working in the family firm and her daughter Louise is sixteen and home from school for the summer.
There are some strong minor characters. Dermot’s mother Edwina lives in London. Living with Kate and Dermot is a relative, Ethel who is an ex-suffragette. Mrs Meacock is the cook who dreams of other things. Halfway through the novel an old friend of Kate’s returns to the neighbourhood; Charles and his daughter Araminta (Minty). There are also, in the first half several female acquaintances of Tom. Louise manages to fall in love with the local curate Father Blizzard.
The novels revolves around the relationship of Kate and Dermot and she analyses rather well, positives:
‘Separated from their everyday life, as if in a dream or on a honeymoon, Kate and Dermot were under the spell of the gentle weather and blossoming countryside. They slept in bedrooms like corners of auction rooms stacked with old fashioned furniture, they made love in hummocky beds, and gave rise to much conjecture in bar parlours where that sat drinking alone, not talking much, though clearly intent on each other.’
And negatives:
‘On the way home they quarreled – or, rather, she listened to Dermot quarreling with an imaginary Kate, who supplied him with imaginary retorts, against which he was able to build up his indignation. Then, when they were nearly home, he began to punish himself, and Kate realised that the more he basked in blame, the more it would turn out to be all hers; her friends, for close friends of hers they would become, would seem to have lined up to aggravate him, and her silence would be held to account for his lack of it.’
There is a dry comic element:
“Aunt Ethel descended the stairs wearing her beaded jersey and a touch of talcum powder… – a concession she made in the evenings. She had the ample, maternal, bosomy looks to be found in so many elderly spinsters….Living in her niece’s house involved her in all sorts of problems that no one else knew existed… Ethel had a way of bending her head at closed doors, not listening, as she told herself, but ascertaining.”
and some rather wry observations about the English middle class. The persecution of Father Blizzard for being too high church is an interesting side plot. The buildup and development of relationships is done well and the reader does wonder where it is all headed. The ending is interesting and has been speculated about. It felt to me like Taylor thought “let’s crash the thing and see what happens”, it’s all so sudden, but interesting none the less.
It has been an interesting experience reading Taylor’s novels one after the other. This is Taylor’s eighth novel and it is about love, but don’t let that put you off, it is an interesting examination (and very English). It is set over a single summer. The title being the opening lines of Piers Ploughman. It revolves around a middle-aged woman called Kate. Her husband has died and she has remarried to Dermot, a man ten years her junior. Her son Tom has started working in the family firm and her daughter Louise is sixteen and home from school for the summer.
There are some strong minor characters. Dermot’s mother Edwina lives in London. Living with Kate and Dermot is a relative, Ethel who is an ex-suffragette. Mrs Meacock is the cook who dreams of other things. Halfway through the novel an old friend of Kate’s returns to the neighbourhood; Charles and his daughter Araminta (Minty). There are also, in the first half several female acquaintances of Tom. Louise manages to fall in love with the local curate Father Blizzard.
The novels revolves around the relationship of Kate and Dermot and she analyses rather well, positives:
‘Separated from their everyday life, as if in a dream or on a honeymoon, Kate and Dermot were under the spell of the gentle weather and blossoming countryside. They slept in bedrooms like corners of auction rooms stacked with old fashioned furniture, they made love in hummocky beds, and gave rise to much conjecture in bar parlours where that sat drinking alone, not talking much, though clearly intent on each other.’
And negatives:
‘On the way home they quarreled – or, rather, she listened to Dermot quarreling with an imaginary Kate, who supplied him with imaginary retorts, against which he was able to build up his indignation. Then, when they were nearly home, he began to punish himself, and Kate realised that the more he basked in blame, the more it would turn out to be all hers; her friends, for close friends of hers they would become, would seem to have lined up to aggravate him, and her silence would be held to account for his lack of it.’
There is a dry comic element:
“Aunt Ethel descended the stairs wearing her beaded jersey and a touch of talcum powder… – a concession she made in the evenings. She had the ample, maternal, bosomy looks to be found in so many elderly spinsters….Living in her niece’s house involved her in all sorts of problems that no one else knew existed… Ethel had a way of bending her head at closed doors, not listening, as she told herself, but ascertaining.”
and some rather wry observations about the English middle class. The persecution of Father Blizzard for being too high church is an interesting side plot. The buildup and development of relationships is done well and the reader does wonder where it is all headed. The ending is interesting and has been speculated about. It felt to me like Taylor thought “let’s crash the thing and see what happens”, it’s all so sudden, but interesting none the less.
June 19, 2017
A hidden gem of a novel.
Elegant prose and a sharp eye for observation.
Loved this book and perfect for a summer read!
Elegant prose and a sharp eye for observation.
Loved this book and perfect for a summer read!
June 15, 2020
2 stars.
I’ve now read 11 of Elizabeth Taylor’s 12 novels. I’ve looked at my ratings of them and 5 have garnered 4 stars from me, and this is the second one that has garnered a ‘2’. I’m afraid to admit that if this were the first novel I picked up and read by this author it would probably have been the last time. So, I am glad I picked up ‘Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont’ as the first novel I read by her. I was hooked.
I understand Elizabeth Taylor’s style is to have people saying one thing and then in the same short paragraph that person thinking something discordant with what they said, always in a negative way. And this book was no different — it just seemed that every paragraph in the novel had this format. Every character was saying something and thinking of something discordant that was unpleasant, and it got old really fast. In addition, maybe I just need something else besides characters being upper-crust British folks with an occasional poor housekeeper, cook, or curate thrown in for good measure, mooning about displaying or thinking their neuroses.
As noted in the Wikipedia, The Summer Season “is her most sex-infused work.” More mentions of bosoms and mammary glands than usual and a number of times in which “made love” is mentioned. Heavens to Betsy! The ones who are making love are Kate and Dermot. Kate is in her 40s and marries a Dermot, a man 10 years younger her, after her first husband dies. Dermot is a total laze. Kate has a teenage daughter, Louisa, who is home from boarding school and has a crush on the curate, and a son, Tom, who is a bit older and has a job at his grandfather’s factory. Add to the mix an aunt of Kate’s who lives with them and two people who arrive in the middle of the novel, Charles, best friend of Kate’s first husband and his 19 year old daughter Araminta and there you have it. Something shocking does happen at the end of the novel, but for the most part the book is without a plot, which is not unusual in a Taylor novel.
An interesting tidbit I found out is that Elizabeth Taylor was a governess before she started her writing career to a child by the name of Oliver Knox (https://rsliterature.org/fellow/olive...). Well, it turns out Oliver Knox is cousin to another well-known and respected author, Penelope Fitzgerald (The Blue Flower, Offshore). Small world! 😊
Very interesting review on a biography of Elizabeth Taylor: https://web.archive.org/web/200905071...
Regarding the novel, there were 3 reviews I could find and they were are extremely enthusiastic about the novel, so once again I find myself an outlier. ☹ :
• I really like the reviews of this blogger: https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2019...
• A review from another blogger: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2012/...
• Another review from a blogger: https://www.bookword.co.uk/in-a-summe...
I’ve now read 11 of Elizabeth Taylor’s 12 novels. I’ve looked at my ratings of them and 5 have garnered 4 stars from me, and this is the second one that has garnered a ‘2’. I’m afraid to admit that if this were the first novel I picked up and read by this author it would probably have been the last time. So, I am glad I picked up ‘Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont’ as the first novel I read by her. I was hooked.
I understand Elizabeth Taylor’s style is to have people saying one thing and then in the same short paragraph that person thinking something discordant with what they said, always in a negative way. And this book was no different — it just seemed that every paragraph in the novel had this format. Every character was saying something and thinking of something discordant that was unpleasant, and it got old really fast. In addition, maybe I just need something else besides characters being upper-crust British folks with an occasional poor housekeeper, cook, or curate thrown in for good measure, mooning about displaying or thinking their neuroses.
As noted in the Wikipedia, The Summer Season “is her most sex-infused work.” More mentions of bosoms and mammary glands than usual and a number of times in which “made love” is mentioned. Heavens to Betsy! The ones who are making love are Kate and Dermot. Kate is in her 40s and marries a Dermot, a man 10 years younger her, after her first husband dies. Dermot is a total laze. Kate has a teenage daughter, Louisa, who is home from boarding school and has a crush on the curate, and a son, Tom, who is a bit older and has a job at his grandfather’s factory. Add to the mix an aunt of Kate’s who lives with them and two people who arrive in the middle of the novel, Charles, best friend of Kate’s first husband and his 19 year old daughter Araminta and there you have it. Something shocking does happen at the end of the novel, but for the most part the book is without a plot, which is not unusual in a Taylor novel.
An interesting tidbit I found out is that Elizabeth Taylor was a governess before she started her writing career to a child by the name of Oliver Knox (https://rsliterature.org/fellow/olive...). Well, it turns out Oliver Knox is cousin to another well-known and respected author, Penelope Fitzgerald (The Blue Flower, Offshore). Small world! 😊
Very interesting review on a biography of Elizabeth Taylor: https://web.archive.org/web/200905071...
Regarding the novel, there were 3 reviews I could find and they were are extremely enthusiastic about the novel, so once again I find myself an outlier. ☹ :
• I really like the reviews of this blogger: https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2019...
• A review from another blogger: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2012/...
• Another review from a blogger: https://www.bookword.co.uk/in-a-summe...
October 11, 2021
Another lovely novel by Elizabeth Taylor - her writing is so good, very like Elizabeth Jane Howard, effortless to read and very witty. This one is all about love: Kate, newly married to much younger and feckless Dermot, after the death of her first husband. Kate's adult son, Tom who ghosts Ignazia after he falls in love with a neighbour, Araminta. Lou, Kate's younger daughter who is in love with the curate. The curate who has fallen out of love with the church. Charles - Araminta's widower father, who is falling in love with Kate. Dermot who who is also falling in love with Araminta. And aloof Araminta who appears to love no one. Sounds complicated? It's not. It's warm and subtle, and then shocking (although, I could see that by the end Taylor needed to get the plot out of a tangle).
June 11, 2022
Another find in the local library, this one is Taylor's eighth novel, and was first published in 1961. Like all of her books, it is an enjoyable read full of perceptive observations, but this one has a rather more domestic canvas than most. The main protagonist is Kate Heron, a mother of two whose sensible first husband is now dead. She is now married to the rather less reliable Dermot, who is significantly younger. Her son Tom is a young adult working in the family business who is pursuing a casual affair with a Spanish woman. The daughter is still at school and and is becoming obsessed with a young local clergyman whose high church views bring him into conflict with the village.
The main action starts when Kate's neighbour Charles and his glamorous daughter Araminta return from a lengthy trip abroad. This sets in motion a somewhat farcical series of events, which build to a dramatic denouement which I won't spoil.
I have yet to find a book by Taylor which isn't enjoyable, but this one is probably not the best place to start.
The main action starts when Kate's neighbour Charles and his glamorous daughter Araminta return from a lengthy trip abroad. This sets in motion a somewhat farcical series of events, which build to a dramatic denouement which I won't spoil.
I have yet to find a book by Taylor which isn't enjoyable, but this one is probably not the best place to start.
June 29, 2015
Kate Heron is a wealthy, middle-aged woman who feels fragile as her life is changing. She was a widow with children, Tom and Louisa, that no longer needed her constant attention. She is now married to Dermot, much to her friends silent disapproval. Dermot is ten years her junior and a troubled character. A close friend of Kate's returns and this stirs up feelings in Kate which cause conflict.
The theme of ageing is threaded through the novel. The difference in generations and the ghosts of previous partners cause problems. There is a feeling of being unintentionally excluded for some characters from times and memories shared. Hot, sultry days are wasted in unhappiness, rancour and pretence.
It is a thoughtfully written novel and as the tension slowly builds, the summer heat pervades the air.
The theme of ageing is threaded through the novel. The difference in generations and the ghosts of previous partners cause problems. There is a feeling of being unintentionally excluded for some characters from times and memories shared. Hot, sultry days are wasted in unhappiness, rancour and pretence.
It is a thoughtfully written novel and as the tension slowly builds, the summer heat pervades the air.
August 29, 2017
This was my fourth Taylor novel (her eighth in publication order), and my second favorite after Mrs. Palfrey. The ensemble cast is led by Kate Heron – newly remarried to Dermot, a man ten years her junior, after the death of her first husband – and made up of her family circle, a few members of the local community, and her late best friend’s widower and daughter, who return from living abroad about halfway through the book. Set in the London commuter belt, this is full of seemingly minor domestic dilemmas that together will completely overturn staid life before the end.
Dermot is an idler who can’t keep a job longer than a few weeks, whether it’s cultivating mushrooms in the shed or working for a travel agency. He’s as tied to his mother’s apron strings as he is to his wealthy wife’s. Meanwhile, Kate’s twenty-two-year-old son Tom has a Spanish girlfriend and a good job at his grandfather’s factory, but isn’t sure he wants either. No one is markedly happy; everyone is pierced with longing for better prospects – even the local curate, Father Blizzard, who’s more “High Church” than is appreciated round here, and Kate’s housekeeper, Mrs. Meacock, who longs to travel and publish a book of aphorisms.
The return of Charles and Araminta Thornton brings many of the characters’ desires to the forefront. You might predict some of what happens next, but exactly how Taylor does it is a surprise. I didn’t care for the events of the last seven pages and wished things could have happened differently, yet the conclusion effectively sews things up within a cozy 220 pages. If you enjoy writers like Muriel Spark and Barbara Pym, you must try Elizabeth Taylor. Her books are similarly built around wry, perceptive observations about relationships and ways of life. The sophisticated atmosphere she creates is something that Tessa Hadley has inherited.
From Kate dyeing her hair yet being keen to avoid accusations of “mutton dressed as lamb” to Tom’s disgust at his grandfather’s ageing body, the fear of old age and of wasting one’s time on trivialities are a twin paranoia here. As Kate realizes about her sixteen-year-old daughter Louisa’s school friends, “They are appalled for us that we are middle-aged.” The title is not only a literal note of when most of the action takes place, but also a metaphor for the fleeting nature of happiness as well as of life itself. Kate remembers pleasant days spent with her best friend Dorothea, now dead, and their young children. “It was a long summer’s afternoon and it stood for all the others now. There had been many. And she and Dorothea were together day after day. Their friendship was as light and warming as the summer’s air.”
Dermot is an idler who can’t keep a job longer than a few weeks, whether it’s cultivating mushrooms in the shed or working for a travel agency. He’s as tied to his mother’s apron strings as he is to his wealthy wife’s. Meanwhile, Kate’s twenty-two-year-old son Tom has a Spanish girlfriend and a good job at his grandfather’s factory, but isn’t sure he wants either. No one is markedly happy; everyone is pierced with longing for better prospects – even the local curate, Father Blizzard, who’s more “High Church” than is appreciated round here, and Kate’s housekeeper, Mrs. Meacock, who longs to travel and publish a book of aphorisms.
The return of Charles and Araminta Thornton brings many of the characters’ desires to the forefront. You might predict some of what happens next, but exactly how Taylor does it is a surprise. I didn’t care for the events of the last seven pages and wished things could have happened differently, yet the conclusion effectively sews things up within a cozy 220 pages. If you enjoy writers like Muriel Spark and Barbara Pym, you must try Elizabeth Taylor. Her books are similarly built around wry, perceptive observations about relationships and ways of life. The sophisticated atmosphere she creates is something that Tessa Hadley has inherited.
From Kate dyeing her hair yet being keen to avoid accusations of “mutton dressed as lamb” to Tom’s disgust at his grandfather’s ageing body, the fear of old age and of wasting one’s time on trivialities are a twin paranoia here. As Kate realizes about her sixteen-year-old daughter Louisa’s school friends, “They are appalled for us that we are middle-aged.” The title is not only a literal note of when most of the action takes place, but also a metaphor for the fleeting nature of happiness as well as of life itself. Kate remembers pleasant days spent with her best friend Dorothea, now dead, and their young children. “It was a long summer’s afternoon and it stood for all the others now. There had been many. And she and Dorothea were together day after day. Their friendship was as light and warming as the summer’s air.”
April 1, 2024
Elizabeth Taylor is a master of writing novels that demonstrate human behavior from a domestic perspective with just the perfect amount of intricate details of life mixed in and amazing insight. In a Summer Season explores different types of love and tensions within a single family and doesn’t hide the fact that relationships are fragile and ever-changing.
We meet Kate Heron, a widow who marries a man ten years younger, named Dermot. Her children live with them in the home in which she lived with her previous husband. Tom is twenty-two and struggling to please his grandfather in the family business. Louisa, a 16-year-old student comes home from boarding school on holidays. And finally, Kate’s elderly Aunt Ethel rounds out the immediate family with her witty and pointed observations of her niece’s new marriage. Mrs. Meacock is their cook whose desire in life is to travel and compile an anthology of sayings.
Kate’s new relationship is very different from her first marriage. Dermot is aimless and fails to hold down a job and always lacks money. His mother, Edwina, is constantly trying to butt in to find a new situation for him. Kate, however, accepts him and his shortcomings and Dermot seems to experience emotional love for the very first time in his life with Kate. We learn that the marriage does have its weak areas – mainly in the name of Charles, Kate’s best friend Dorothea’s widower neighbor who returns to the village with his daughter Araminta. Charles’ sophistication and charm unsettle Dermot who has never met him before.
At this time of evening Kate felt that he was restless. He had too many years of pubs and clubs and pleasing himself. Not be free to walk out of the house when he wanted to must seem a monstrous tyranny. She, herself, sometimes in the course of this second marriage, found it a tyranny, too; found other people’s presence irksome.
Tensions build as quarrels ensue and the couple exposes the dividing lines in their relationship. At the same time, Louisa and Tom are having relationship troubles of their own. Tom is figuring out which of two women he truly loves – his current Spanish girlfriend or his childhood friend, Araminta, who has grown up into a beautiful and fashionable woman. Louisa has been dealing with a crush on the local curate, Father Blizzard. It is a friendship she wishes could be more.
The seriousness of the family dynamics is lightened by the humor of Aunt Ethel and her gossipy letters to her friend Gertrude with all of the highlights and observations of the family’s affairs.
I am now looking forward to my next Elizabeth Taylor novel. I have quite a few to choose from!
We meet Kate Heron, a widow who marries a man ten years younger, named Dermot. Her children live with them in the home in which she lived with her previous husband. Tom is twenty-two and struggling to please his grandfather in the family business. Louisa, a 16-year-old student comes home from boarding school on holidays. And finally, Kate’s elderly Aunt Ethel rounds out the immediate family with her witty and pointed observations of her niece’s new marriage. Mrs. Meacock is their cook whose desire in life is to travel and compile an anthology of sayings.
Kate’s new relationship is very different from her first marriage. Dermot is aimless and fails to hold down a job and always lacks money. His mother, Edwina, is constantly trying to butt in to find a new situation for him. Kate, however, accepts him and his shortcomings and Dermot seems to experience emotional love for the very first time in his life with Kate. We learn that the marriage does have its weak areas – mainly in the name of Charles, Kate’s best friend Dorothea’s widower neighbor who returns to the village with his daughter Araminta. Charles’ sophistication and charm unsettle Dermot who has never met him before.
At this time of evening Kate felt that he was restless. He had too many years of pubs and clubs and pleasing himself. Not be free to walk out of the house when he wanted to must seem a monstrous tyranny. She, herself, sometimes in the course of this second marriage, found it a tyranny, too; found other people’s presence irksome.
Tensions build as quarrels ensue and the couple exposes the dividing lines in their relationship. At the same time, Louisa and Tom are having relationship troubles of their own. Tom is figuring out which of two women he truly loves – his current Spanish girlfriend or his childhood friend, Araminta, who has grown up into a beautiful and fashionable woman. Louisa has been dealing with a crush on the local curate, Father Blizzard. It is a friendship she wishes could be more.
The seriousness of the family dynamics is lightened by the humor of Aunt Ethel and her gossipy letters to her friend Gertrude with all of the highlights and observations of the family’s affairs.
I am now looking forward to my next Elizabeth Taylor novel. I have quite a few to choose from!
September 3, 2018
The introduction (which you MUST NOT read before reading the book, I always read them afterwards) talks about how Taylor did not like tragedy. Ha. This book was super tragic. In fact, two days later and I am still not quite recovered. May never recover in fact!
August 23, 2017
Elizabeth Taylor wrote wrote beautiful, subtle human dramas with such wonderful clarity. The stories that she wrote were wonderfully insightful about people and their relationships; and they reward close reading because she had such a wonderful eye and ear and because she was so very good at making every detail exactly right – and worthy of notice.
This novel – her eighth – is about love. It shows different kinds of love, it shows how love can change; and it shows how love affects one family and the people around them, and how it changes them and their lives, over the course of one summer season.
Kate was a young widow and she has recently married for the second time. Her new husband, Dermot, has tried a number of careers without ever finding the right one. He isn’t particularly driven, but he wants to do something, to play the role that he feels he should be playing.
Kate and Dermot are happy together as a couple.
‘Separated from their everyday life, as if in a dream or on a honeymoon, Kate and Dermot were under the spell of the gentle weather and blossoming countryside. They slept in bedrooms like corners of auction rooms stacked with old fashioned furniture, they made love in hummocky beds, and gave rise to much conjecture in bar parlours where that sat drinking alone, not talking much, though clearly intent on each other.’
Family life though, brings complications
Dermot has a good relationship with Kate’s son, Tom, who is working his way up in his grandfather’s business and having fun with a string of girlfriends; but he struggles with Kate’s daughter, Lou, who is back from boarding school for the holidays and hates that somebody else is taking her father’s place and making her mother the subject of gossip.
Kate is fully aware of Dermot’s weaknesses, but she accepts them, and tells herself that they can be – they will be happy.
But it becomes clear that their marriage has fault lines.
‘On the way home they quarreled – or, rather, she listened to Dermot quarreling with an imaginary Kate, who supplied him with imaginary retorts, against which he was able to build up his indignation. Then, when they were nearly home, he began to punish himself, and Kate realised that the more he basked in blame, the more it would turn out to be all hers; her friends, for close friends of hers they would become, would seem to have lined up to aggravate him, and her silence would be held to account for his lack of it. '
Dermot doesn’t share many of the interests and attitudes of Kate and her friends; he feels inferior, he resents that, and he resents that he can’t quite establish himself in the position he wants.
This becomes clear over the course of the summer.
In the first act of this two act drama family life simply plays out. Lou is drawn to the young local curate and she spends her summer caught up with parish affairs and events. Kate’s Aunt Ethel, who lives with the family is caught up with her own concerns, but she is worried about the family and she quietly does what she can for them.
In the second act Kate prepares for the return home of her best friend’s widower Charles and his daughter Araminta. They have been away since his wife died, they have never met Dermot, and Kate worries that the presence of an old friend, with so much shared history and so many common interests will unsettle him.
'They were walking in circles around each other, Kate thought – both Dermot and Charles. When she had introduced them, Dermot had shaken hands with an air of boyish respect, almost adding ‘Sir’ to his greeting, and Charles seemed to try and avoid looking at him or showing more than ordinary interest. Although he had not met him before, even as far away as Bahrain he had heard stories, and Kate, writing to tell him of her marriage, had done so in a defensive strain, as if an explanation were due and she could think of no very good one.'
She is right, and, quite unwittingly, Tom and Araminta, upset the precarious balance of Kate’s family. Tom is fascinated by Araminta, an aspiring model, who is beautiful, cool and distant; the first girl he wants but cannot win. And the return of her own friend unsettles Kate as well as Dermot.
There is little plot here, but the characters and the relationships are so well drawn that it really doesn’t matter.
The minor characters are particularly well drawn. I was particularly taken with Ethel, a former suffragette who wrote gossipy letters to her old friend in Cornwall but also had a practical and unsentimental concern for family; with Dermot’s mother, Edwina, who tried to push her son forward and was inclined to blame Kate for his failings; and with the cook, Mrs Meacock, who experimented with American food and was compiling a book.
They brought a different aspects to the story, as did Lou’s involvement with the curate.
There are so many emotions here, including some wonderful moments of humour that are beautifully mixed into the story.
‘Love was turning Tom hostile to every one person but one. They all affronted him by cluttering up the earth, by impinging on his thoughts, He tried to drive them away from his secret by rudeness and he reminded Ethel of an old goose she had once had who protected her nest with such hissings, such clumsy ferocity, that she claimed the attention of even the unconcerned.’,
I believed in these people and their relationships; they all lived and breathed, and Elizabeth Taylor told all of their stories so very well.
The summer is perfectly evoked, and this book is very well rooted in its particular time and place.
I loved the first act of this book, when I read that I thought that this might become my favourite of Elizabeth Taylor’s books, but I loved the second act a little less. It felt just a little bit predictable, a little bit like something I’ve read before and I couldn’t help wondering if the dénouement came from a need to do something to end the story rather than simply being a natural end.
It was love though, and I can explain away all my concerns by telling myself that stories do repeat in different lives and that lives often take unexpected turns, and can be changed by events that are quite unexpected.
I’m glad that I finally picked this book up, and that I have other books by Elizabeth Taylor to read and to re-read.
This novel – her eighth – is about love. It shows different kinds of love, it shows how love can change; and it shows how love affects one family and the people around them, and how it changes them and their lives, over the course of one summer season.
Kate was a young widow and she has recently married for the second time. Her new husband, Dermot, has tried a number of careers without ever finding the right one. He isn’t particularly driven, but he wants to do something, to play the role that he feels he should be playing.
Kate and Dermot are happy together as a couple.
‘Separated from their everyday life, as if in a dream or on a honeymoon, Kate and Dermot were under the spell of the gentle weather and blossoming countryside. They slept in bedrooms like corners of auction rooms stacked with old fashioned furniture, they made love in hummocky beds, and gave rise to much conjecture in bar parlours where that sat drinking alone, not talking much, though clearly intent on each other.’
Family life though, brings complications
Dermot has a good relationship with Kate’s son, Tom, who is working his way up in his grandfather’s business and having fun with a string of girlfriends; but he struggles with Kate’s daughter, Lou, who is back from boarding school for the holidays and hates that somebody else is taking her father’s place and making her mother the subject of gossip.
Kate is fully aware of Dermot’s weaknesses, but she accepts them, and tells herself that they can be – they will be happy.
But it becomes clear that their marriage has fault lines.
‘On the way home they quarreled – or, rather, she listened to Dermot quarreling with an imaginary Kate, who supplied him with imaginary retorts, against which he was able to build up his indignation. Then, when they were nearly home, he began to punish himself, and Kate realised that the more he basked in blame, the more it would turn out to be all hers; her friends, for close friends of hers they would become, would seem to have lined up to aggravate him, and her silence would be held to account for his lack of it. '
Dermot doesn’t share many of the interests and attitudes of Kate and her friends; he feels inferior, he resents that, and he resents that he can’t quite establish himself in the position he wants.
This becomes clear over the course of the summer.
In the first act of this two act drama family life simply plays out. Lou is drawn to the young local curate and she spends her summer caught up with parish affairs and events. Kate’s Aunt Ethel, who lives with the family is caught up with her own concerns, but she is worried about the family and she quietly does what she can for them.
In the second act Kate prepares for the return home of her best friend’s widower Charles and his daughter Araminta. They have been away since his wife died, they have never met Dermot, and Kate worries that the presence of an old friend, with so much shared history and so many common interests will unsettle him.
'They were walking in circles around each other, Kate thought – both Dermot and Charles. When she had introduced them, Dermot had shaken hands with an air of boyish respect, almost adding ‘Sir’ to his greeting, and Charles seemed to try and avoid looking at him or showing more than ordinary interest. Although he had not met him before, even as far away as Bahrain he had heard stories, and Kate, writing to tell him of her marriage, had done so in a defensive strain, as if an explanation were due and she could think of no very good one.'
She is right, and, quite unwittingly, Tom and Araminta, upset the precarious balance of Kate’s family. Tom is fascinated by Araminta, an aspiring model, who is beautiful, cool and distant; the first girl he wants but cannot win. And the return of her own friend unsettles Kate as well as Dermot.
There is little plot here, but the characters and the relationships are so well drawn that it really doesn’t matter.
The minor characters are particularly well drawn. I was particularly taken with Ethel, a former suffragette who wrote gossipy letters to her old friend in Cornwall but also had a practical and unsentimental concern for family; with Dermot’s mother, Edwina, who tried to push her son forward and was inclined to blame Kate for his failings; and with the cook, Mrs Meacock, who experimented with American food and was compiling a book.
They brought a different aspects to the story, as did Lou’s involvement with the curate.
There are so many emotions here, including some wonderful moments of humour that are beautifully mixed into the story.
‘Love was turning Tom hostile to every one person but one. They all affronted him by cluttering up the earth, by impinging on his thoughts, He tried to drive them away from his secret by rudeness and he reminded Ethel of an old goose she had once had who protected her nest with such hissings, such clumsy ferocity, that she claimed the attention of even the unconcerned.’,
I believed in these people and their relationships; they all lived and breathed, and Elizabeth Taylor told all of their stories so very well.
The summer is perfectly evoked, and this book is very well rooted in its particular time and place.
I loved the first act of this book, when I read that I thought that this might become my favourite of Elizabeth Taylor’s books, but I loved the second act a little less. It felt just a little bit predictable, a little bit like something I’ve read before and I couldn’t help wondering if the dénouement came from a need to do something to end the story rather than simply being a natural end.
It was love though, and I can explain away all my concerns by telling myself that stories do repeat in different lives and that lives often take unexpected turns, and can be changed by events that are quite unexpected.
I’m glad that I finally picked this book up, and that I have other books by Elizabeth Taylor to read and to re-read.
December 18, 2022
Set in 1950s England, Taylor’s novel revolves around Kate Heron, a well-to-do widow in her early forties who has quickly remarried after the death of her children’s father. Her new husband, Dermot, is ten years her junior. He’s a ne’er-do-well who’s managed to coast through life on looks and charm. Edwina, his mother, has swept in periodically to rescue him financially. Now he’s got Kate to keep him . . . though he finds it humiliating to have to ask her for money. Dermot’s charisma is wearing thin, while his phoney Irish brogue is just wearing. He’s drifted along purposelessly, never settling down to any sort of gainful employment. His latest scheme is growing mushrooms in a shed full of manure on Kate’s property. Yes, Taylor retains her sense of humour in depicting his character.
Kate and Dermot live with Kate’s 22-year-old, restless son, Tom—a bit of a Dermot himself—who’s employed by his irascible self-made grandfather at the factory business the old man spent his life building. There’s also Kate’s 16-year-old daughter Louisa (“Lou”) who’s home for school holidays; Ethel, an elderly spinster aunt, former teacher, and hanger-on; and their cook, Mrs. Meacock, an avid scrapbooker. They all live a comfortable life in a Thames Valley London-commuter-belt village. The ease of their existence is courtesy of Kate’s deceased husband, Alan, who appears to have been a successful businessman. If anyone still grieves for Alan, it’s not in evidence. (It’s unclear how long ago he actually died or from what.)
There’s lots of speculation as to why Kate married Dermot—and plenty of community disapproval. Her mothering role now mostly ended, she likely felt empty and at loose ends, conjectures the young curate, Father Blizzard. It’s due to sex, writes Aunt Ethel to her old suffragette friend, Gertrude. Ethel gives the marriage five years, by which time the “physical side” will have certainly subsided. No, it’s all down to jealousy, Louisa opines to the curate: Tom had been off having fun with one girlfriend after another, paying little attention to Kate, so she went for a combo boyfriend/son figure who’d take her out and about and make her feel young again. Taylor leaves no doubt in the reader’s mind that Dermot satisfies Kate’s womanly desires, perhaps in a way her first husband did not. Having married her, Dermot’s given her a boost—but also made her anxious about her age. The grey hairs coming in are worrisome.
This being Taylor, In a Summer Season is an ensemble piece: the reader is privy to the stories, small challenges, and mundane miseries of a supporting cast of characters. Louisa has found religion via her infatuation with the young Anglican clergyman who’s too high-church for most in the village and plans to leave—to join the Catholics, heaven forbid! Tom falls for Araminta (“Minty”), the pretty flibbertigibbet daughter of Charles and Dorothea Thornton, his parents’ old friends. (Dorothea died around the same time as Alan, and her bereaved husband and daughter who’d left the Thames Valley to go abroad for a time have now returned.) Aunt Ethel, spends her days providing her friend down in Cornwall with written reports on the petty drama of Kate and Dermot’s relationship. When not preparing her less-than-savoury American-inspired meals, Mrs. Meacock dreams of overseas adventures and culinary responsibilities elsewhere.
While Taylor’s writing is reliably fluent, this novel is, on the whole, a rather bland one, very light on incident. Kate is a dull and occasionally exasperatingly stupid woman; unsympathetic Dermot the drifter’s plight is less than compelling; Tom and Minty’s love neither convinces nor interests. I found Lou and Ethel mildly engaging, but not enough to actually save the book. I really didn’t care what happened to any of these people. This is not a good thing in a character-driven novel.
The significant event upon which the novel turns is Charles and Minty’s coming back to the village . Mature, kind, and gentlemanly Charles is, of course, a stark contrast to Dermot. His ditzy daughter in her endlessly ridiculous garments is training to be a model. She becomes Tom’s obsession. A “tragedy”—can one even call it that when none of these characters evokes sympathy or even interest?—occurs in the eleventh hour, hastily clearing away inconvenient characters so that all may resolve tidily.
A few years ago, I took part in a reading group that worked its way through Taylor’s novels. While I admire the author’s perceptive, sometimes sardonic writing and do like two or three of her novels, reading several in a row was too much of a muchness. I left the group before reading In a Summer Season. The long break from Taylor allowed me to finally take on the only novel of hers I hadn’t read. Unfortunately, I can’t summon up much enthusiasm for it.
Rating: 2.5, rounded up
Kate and Dermot live with Kate’s 22-year-old, restless son, Tom—a bit of a Dermot himself—who’s employed by his irascible self-made grandfather at the factory business the old man spent his life building. There’s also Kate’s 16-year-old daughter Louisa (“Lou”) who’s home for school holidays; Ethel, an elderly spinster aunt, former teacher, and hanger-on; and their cook, Mrs. Meacock, an avid scrapbooker. They all live a comfortable life in a Thames Valley London-commuter-belt village. The ease of their existence is courtesy of Kate’s deceased husband, Alan, who appears to have been a successful businessman. If anyone still grieves for Alan, it’s not in evidence. (It’s unclear how long ago he actually died or from what.)
There’s lots of speculation as to why Kate married Dermot—and plenty of community disapproval. Her mothering role now mostly ended, she likely felt empty and at loose ends, conjectures the young curate, Father Blizzard. It’s due to sex, writes Aunt Ethel to her old suffragette friend, Gertrude. Ethel gives the marriage five years, by which time the “physical side” will have certainly subsided. No, it’s all down to jealousy, Louisa opines to the curate: Tom had been off having fun with one girlfriend after another, paying little attention to Kate, so she went for a combo boyfriend/son figure who’d take her out and about and make her feel young again. Taylor leaves no doubt in the reader’s mind that Dermot satisfies Kate’s womanly desires, perhaps in a way her first husband did not. Having married her, Dermot’s given her a boost—but also made her anxious about her age. The grey hairs coming in are worrisome.
This being Taylor, In a Summer Season is an ensemble piece: the reader is privy to the stories, small challenges, and mundane miseries of a supporting cast of characters. Louisa has found religion via her infatuation with the young Anglican clergyman who’s too high-church for most in the village and plans to leave—to join the Catholics, heaven forbid! Tom falls for Araminta (“Minty”), the pretty flibbertigibbet daughter of Charles and Dorothea Thornton, his parents’ old friends. (Dorothea died around the same time as Alan, and her bereaved husband and daughter who’d left the Thames Valley to go abroad for a time have now returned.) Aunt Ethel, spends her days providing her friend down in Cornwall with written reports on the petty drama of Kate and Dermot’s relationship. When not preparing her less-than-savoury American-inspired meals, Mrs. Meacock dreams of overseas adventures and culinary responsibilities elsewhere.
While Taylor’s writing is reliably fluent, this novel is, on the whole, a rather bland one, very light on incident. Kate is a dull and occasionally exasperatingly stupid woman; unsympathetic Dermot the drifter’s plight is less than compelling; Tom and Minty’s love neither convinces nor interests. I found Lou and Ethel mildly engaging, but not enough to actually save the book. I really didn’t care what happened to any of these people. This is not a good thing in a character-driven novel.
The significant event upon which the novel turns is Charles and Minty’s coming back to the village . Mature, kind, and gentlemanly Charles is, of course, a stark contrast to Dermot. His ditzy daughter in her endlessly ridiculous garments is training to be a model. She becomes Tom’s obsession. A “tragedy”—can one even call it that when none of these characters evokes sympathy or even interest?—occurs in the eleventh hour, hastily clearing away inconvenient characters so that all may resolve tidily.
A few years ago, I took part in a reading group that worked its way through Taylor’s novels. While I admire the author’s perceptive, sometimes sardonic writing and do like two or three of her novels, reading several in a row was too much of a muchness. I left the group before reading In a Summer Season. The long break from Taylor allowed me to finally take on the only novel of hers I hadn’t read. Unfortunately, I can’t summon up much enthusiasm for it.
Rating: 2.5, rounded up
October 8, 2023
"In the summer, white jasmine made the dark flint walls less gloomy"
Kate a cougar of sorts, a mother of two adult children (whom she loves and wants so much for but dreading that she cannot prevent the bad), and a gentleman family friend that disrupts the lives of the triangle.
Kate has married for fun. For pleasure, a young, handsome man, with no ambition, out of his league, always scheming to cover up his unintentional embarrassments and clings to Kate so as not to grow up.
My favorite? Ethel with her way of bending her head at closed doors, not listening, "but ascertaining.”
Written in a time of women wearing the latest, those tall bouffant hairdos and the ending? Elizabeth Taylor has a way with detail and easy rich dialogue that makes it all flow with a twist of perception coming across as believable. Packed with those stolen glances, loaded sentences and light wit. A new author for me this year and I have really enjoyed her style and I love the covers!
Kate a cougar of sorts, a mother of two adult children (whom she loves and wants so much for but dreading that she cannot prevent the bad), and a gentleman family friend that disrupts the lives of the triangle.
Kate has married for fun. For pleasure, a young, handsome man, with no ambition, out of his league, always scheming to cover up his unintentional embarrassments and clings to Kate so as not to grow up.
My favorite? Ethel with her way of bending her head at closed doors, not listening, "but ascertaining.”
Written in a time of women wearing the latest, those tall bouffant hairdos and the ending? Elizabeth Taylor has a way with detail and easy rich dialogue that makes it all flow with a twist of perception coming across as believable. Packed with those stolen glances, loaded sentences and light wit. A new author for me this year and I have really enjoyed her style and I love the covers!
August 2, 2012
I loved this novel when I first read it, and I still love it now having re-read it for the Librarything readalong of Elizabeth Taylor, and the beginning of All Virago all August. I had remembered it very well though, so the ending (which I’ll say no more about) is much less dramatic when one knows what’s coming.
In Kate we have a typical Elizabeth Taylor character - one of the especially likeable ones who I imagine is very like Elizabeth Taylor was herself. Kate is a middle aged woman with two children Tom, a young man working for his grandfather, and Louisa who is still at school. Widowed from Alan, with whom she shared a love of Henry James, she then married Dermot ten years her junior. Dermot - hard drinking, given to sudden rages is suspected by some of having married Kate for her money – has no job. His mother Edwina – another marvellous character - is interfering in her attempts to find something for him to do. Sharing their home in the country is Aunt Ethel with her cello, and her dog. Ethel writes to her friend Gertrude long letters about the various domestic dramas, and contemplates what they refer to as the “physical side” – of Kate and Dermot’s relationship, which she obviously doesn’t quite approve of or understand. Home from school for the holidays Louisa develops an affection for the local curate, while her older brother plays fast and loose with Ignazia. Alongside the family is Mrs Meacock, who cooks American meals, and in her spare time compiles her anthology ‘Five thousand and one witty and humorous sayings’ I do love how Elizabeth Taylor invests such time and detail in her minor characters. They help to make her worlds complete and real.
The tension between characters builds slowly and perfectly, in this wonderfully domestic novel that has surprisingly sexual undertones. As the summer begins Kate prepares for the return of her best friend’s widower Charles and his daughter Araminta. Charles has never met Dermot, and Kate aware of Dermot’s deficiencies is nervous. Charles shares Kate’s love of Henry James’ novel The Spoils of Poynton, and there is a wonderfully excruciating scene where Charles makes reference to the novel in a private joke about someone and Dermot mistakes the name of a character of the novel for that of a real person. Araminta meanwhile is enormously changed from her time abroad, tall slender and beautiful she begins to drive poor Tom mad as she picks her way barefoot across the lawn her dress becoming soaked from the sprinkler. Like the title suggests, summer is ever present in this novel, the beginning of summer, the heat of the height of the season, windows open to let in the warm air, illicit seeming picnics, then as the season comes to a close preparing for the new school term. The climatic ending to this novel is perfectly balanced with the quiet tension that comes before it.
The people of Elizabeth Taylor novels are very English, they have tea at the proper time, and go to London to have their hair done, send their children away to school and have someone else cook the family dinner. Yet it is impossible not to understand them, their hopes, fears, and secret longings. Elizabeth Taylor understands her characters absolutely.
In Kate we have a typical Elizabeth Taylor character - one of the especially likeable ones who I imagine is very like Elizabeth Taylor was herself. Kate is a middle aged woman with two children Tom, a young man working for his grandfather, and Louisa who is still at school. Widowed from Alan, with whom she shared a love of Henry James, she then married Dermot ten years her junior. Dermot - hard drinking, given to sudden rages is suspected by some of having married Kate for her money – has no job. His mother Edwina – another marvellous character - is interfering in her attempts to find something for him to do. Sharing their home in the country is Aunt Ethel with her cello, and her dog. Ethel writes to her friend Gertrude long letters about the various domestic dramas, and contemplates what they refer to as the “physical side” – of Kate and Dermot’s relationship, which she obviously doesn’t quite approve of or understand. Home from school for the holidays Louisa develops an affection for the local curate, while her older brother plays fast and loose with Ignazia. Alongside the family is Mrs Meacock, who cooks American meals, and in her spare time compiles her anthology ‘Five thousand and one witty and humorous sayings’ I do love how Elizabeth Taylor invests such time and detail in her minor characters. They help to make her worlds complete and real.
The tension between characters builds slowly and perfectly, in this wonderfully domestic novel that has surprisingly sexual undertones. As the summer begins Kate prepares for the return of her best friend’s widower Charles and his daughter Araminta. Charles has never met Dermot, and Kate aware of Dermot’s deficiencies is nervous. Charles shares Kate’s love of Henry James’ novel The Spoils of Poynton, and there is a wonderfully excruciating scene where Charles makes reference to the novel in a private joke about someone and Dermot mistakes the name of a character of the novel for that of a real person. Araminta meanwhile is enormously changed from her time abroad, tall slender and beautiful she begins to drive poor Tom mad as she picks her way barefoot across the lawn her dress becoming soaked from the sprinkler. Like the title suggests, summer is ever present in this novel, the beginning of summer, the heat of the height of the season, windows open to let in the warm air, illicit seeming picnics, then as the season comes to a close preparing for the new school term. The climatic ending to this novel is perfectly balanced with the quiet tension that comes before it.
The people of Elizabeth Taylor novels are very English, they have tea at the proper time, and go to London to have their hair done, send their children away to school and have someone else cook the family dinner. Yet it is impossible not to understand them, their hopes, fears, and secret longings. Elizabeth Taylor understands her characters absolutely.
November 11, 2022
I love reading books! A surprising confession, don't you think! ;-)) But seriously, what I love in books is that they are so different. Not only different genres but also different styles of writing.
It was my third novel by Elizabeth Taylor(after The Sleeping Beauty and A View of the Harbour). In each cases, when I started reading I wasn't fully gripped. I mean there are books which struck to the core from the first page. Taylor's writing bloomed gradually, but when you saw what had bloomed you are totally in it since.
I simply love Taylor's:
--> stories and characters ['A View of the Harbour' showed better her brilliant and observant eye - here my review]
--> her wisdom (especially of human nature)
--> her wit (sometimes a bit shocking)
--> her study of family relasionship
--> her understanding of love [although in 'The sleeping beauty' one can see it much better - here my review]
Although there was (in each book) some sadness, there was no melodrama. Taylor wasn't trying to make you cry, she just told us a story about people.
I have only one complain [warning: it is a big spoiler, don't read it if you haven't read a book yet]
I admit, I loved more two other Taylor's novels, but still this one deserves 5 stars too.
It was my third novel by Elizabeth Taylor(after The Sleeping Beauty and A View of the Harbour). In each cases, when I started reading I wasn't fully gripped. I mean there are books which struck to the core from the first page. Taylor's writing bloomed gradually, but when you saw what had bloomed you are totally in it since.
I simply love Taylor's:
--> stories and characters ['A View of the Harbour' showed better her brilliant and observant eye - here my review]
'Tom is like those sailors who will not learn to swim, for fear of slow death.'
--> her wisdom (especially of human nature)
Kate refused to go to bed - for if she slept, she would have to wake up, she said, and that she could not bear to do-to face afresh the grief she was as yet so little used to.
--> her wit (sometimes a bit shocking)
'Oh well, I'm very sorry,' Araminta said. 'At the last moment, I remember I must shave under my arms.'
--> her study of family relasionship
'Don't leave your light on too long.' Kate was always, like most mothers, wasting words and knowing she wasted them.
'I used never to think about them - Mother and Father - I don't think one should have to think about one's parents'.
--> her understanding of love [although in 'The sleeping beauty' one can see it much better - here my review]
'Who is as save as we? Where none can do
Treason to us, except one of us two?
Although there was (in each book) some sadness, there was no melodrama. Taylor wasn't trying to make you cry, she just told us a story about people.
I have only one complain [warning: it is a big spoiler, don't read it if you haven't read a book yet]
I admit, I loved more two other Taylor's novels, but still this one deserves 5 stars too.
July 23, 2017
This was a very well written book by very important woman writer from the mid 20th Century.
At her peak Elizabeth Coles Taylor had stories published in American literary magazines. Now she is often forgotten. Virago has done a wonderful thing keeping Taylor's books in print.
This story deals with a May, December relationship and how it plays out in the end. I already knew how the story was going to end. I read a biography about Taylor from Persephone Books. And the bio was full of spoilers, but I still wanted to read the story.
I don't know how easy it is to find Taylor's books in other parts of the world. All of mine were second hand. But they should hopefully be easy to find.
At her peak Elizabeth Coles Taylor had stories published in American literary magazines. Now she is often forgotten. Virago has done a wonderful thing keeping Taylor's books in print.
This story deals with a May, December relationship and how it plays out in the end. I already knew how the story was going to end. I read a biography about Taylor from Persephone Books. And the bio was full of spoilers, but I still wanted to read the story.
I don't know how easy it is to find Taylor's books in other parts of the world. All of mine were second hand. But they should hopefully be easy to find.
July 14, 2018
I just finished In a Summer Season and this is a book to savor. It commences with an amazing conversation between a mother and daughter-in-law. Within seven pages, the insights the reader has gained perfectly set the stage for the rest of the novel. Toward the end of the book, there is a lengthy interchange between probably eight or nine people that is so masterful that it quite took my breath away. She inhabits her characters so perfectly! I really cannot do it justice with these few lines.
April 1, 2024
Whenever I’m in a reading slump and pick up something published by Virago (or another similar publisher), it makes me wonder why I bother reading anything else.
(Kidding, but also not kidding.)
(Kidding, but also not kidding.)
November 4, 2019
4.5 Stars
Longstanding followers of my reviews will be aware of my fondness for Elizabeth Taylor and her beautifully executed stories of human behaviour – the small-scale dramas of a domestic nature, typically portrayed with great insight and attention to detail. In a Summer Season is no exception to the rule – a novel of love, family tensions and the fragile nature of changing relationships, all conveyed with this author’s characteristic economy of style.
The novel revolves around Kate Heron, previously widowed and now married to Dermot, a man ten years her junior. Also living with the Herons at their comfortable home in Denham are Kate’s children from her first marriage: twenty-two-year-old Tom, who is struggling to please his punctilious grandfather in the family business, and sixteen-year-old Louisa, a slightly awkward teenager home from boarding school for the holidays. Completing the immediate family are Kate’s elderly aunt, Ethel, a kindly, sharp-eyed woman who delights in noting the smallest of developments in the Herons’ marital relationship, and the cook, Mrs Meacock, who longs to travel and compile an anthology of sayings.
Kate’s relationship with Dermot is a very different affair to that of her previous marriage to Alan. Where Alan was cultured and dependable, Dermot is uninformed and aimless, failing to hold down any kind of job for more than a few weeks – a situation that frequently leaves him short of money when he most desires it. While Kate is aware of many of Dermot shortcomings, she accepts them relatively willingly, believing herself to be liberated in this new relationship. Dermot, for his part, also seems to be very taken with Kate, the emotion of love being a relatively new experience for him, albeit one that comes with its own anxieties.
To read the rest of my review, please visit:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2019...
Longstanding followers of my reviews will be aware of my fondness for Elizabeth Taylor and her beautifully executed stories of human behaviour – the small-scale dramas of a domestic nature, typically portrayed with great insight and attention to detail. In a Summer Season is no exception to the rule – a novel of love, family tensions and the fragile nature of changing relationships, all conveyed with this author’s characteristic economy of style.
The novel revolves around Kate Heron, previously widowed and now married to Dermot, a man ten years her junior. Also living with the Herons at their comfortable home in Denham are Kate’s children from her first marriage: twenty-two-year-old Tom, who is struggling to please his punctilious grandfather in the family business, and sixteen-year-old Louisa, a slightly awkward teenager home from boarding school for the holidays. Completing the immediate family are Kate’s elderly aunt, Ethel, a kindly, sharp-eyed woman who delights in noting the smallest of developments in the Herons’ marital relationship, and the cook, Mrs Meacock, who longs to travel and compile an anthology of sayings.
Kate’s relationship with Dermot is a very different affair to that of her previous marriage to Alan. Where Alan was cultured and dependable, Dermot is uninformed and aimless, failing to hold down any kind of job for more than a few weeks – a situation that frequently leaves him short of money when he most desires it. While Kate is aware of many of Dermot shortcomings, she accepts them relatively willingly, believing herself to be liberated in this new relationship. Dermot, for his part, also seems to be very taken with Kate, the emotion of love being a relatively new experience for him, albeit one that comes with its own anxieties.
To read the rest of my review, please visit:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2019...
March 13, 2019
This is the March choice for the Elizabeth Taylor Reading Project.
The slow start almost put me off, but once again the author expertise in writing about simple characters with such detail and accuracy that I was won over and thoroughly enjoyed this book and the journey it took me on.
Kate is married to Dermot - very different characters - and their marriage is one that puzzles many around them and it's their viewpoints which made this story so sparkling for me. In fact I'd have loved to have read more from the viewpoint of Aunt Ethel as she was biting, witty and whilst writing letters to her friend she summed up the personalities and lives of her family superbly.
When the widower of her best friend returns, it adds a different element to the relationships of them all as many feeling bubble to the surface and the way these are captured make the second half of this book fly by, leading up to a tragic end which was one I never expected.
The slow start almost put me off, but once again the author expertise in writing about simple characters with such detail and accuracy that I was won over and thoroughly enjoyed this book and the journey it took me on.
Kate is married to Dermot - very different characters - and their marriage is one that puzzles many around them and it's their viewpoints which made this story so sparkling for me. In fact I'd have loved to have read more from the viewpoint of Aunt Ethel as she was biting, witty and whilst writing letters to her friend she summed up the personalities and lives of her family superbly.
When the widower of her best friend returns, it adds a different element to the relationships of them all as many feeling bubble to the surface and the way these are captured make the second half of this book fly by, leading up to a tragic end which was one I never expected.
March 9, 2012
Taylor is my reading equivalent of 'comfort food'. In a Summer Season is one book I could read over and over. Marvellous characters, light humour and just the right number of twists and turns in the plot. Read my full review here - http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...
May 13, 2012
only read this if you are a fan of English insipidness, disjointed conversation with the story ending only being lifted by a somewhat crisp ending.
February 1, 2016
Some good characters and an interesting look at relationships but I found this story predictable and less subtle than Taylor's other stories.
February 24, 2021
There’s no way I could do this book justice by trying to write a review. Let’s just say it was fantastic.
June 5, 2019
Kate Heron, an attractive widow in her early forties, gets married to Dermot, a handsome man who is ten years younger-- and not too much older than her son, Tom, or her daughter, Lou. Her friends and neighbours disapprove and expect (wish?) the marriage will disintegrate soon enough. Dermot is not very ambitious and his half hearted attempts to make a living are not successful at all. He drinks too much and, to make things worse, he becomes attracted to a young girl.
However, Dermot is no monster. He loves Kate, he feels awkward in the company of Kate’s friends, and the reader feels compassion for him because of the gaffes that expose him and his dedication to keeping up appearances for Kate’s benefit.
IN THE SUMMER SEASON (1961) is a story about the vulnerabilities and uncertainties of love. For all the characters, - Kate, Dermot, Tom and Lou - the summer season will change their experience of love. Although I enjoyed so much the many humorous parts of this novel, it is the nuanced observation of character that will remain memorable for me.
I did not see the end coming and it did not leave me very satisfied. It seemed too abrupt, too contrived. However, it is a quiet, satisfying novel which seems to have been a couple of steps ahead of its time.
However, Dermot is no monster. He loves Kate, he feels awkward in the company of Kate’s friends, and the reader feels compassion for him because of the gaffes that expose him and his dedication to keeping up appearances for Kate’s benefit.
IN THE SUMMER SEASON (1961) is a story about the vulnerabilities and uncertainties of love. For all the characters, - Kate, Dermot, Tom and Lou - the summer season will change their experience of love. Although I enjoyed so much the many humorous parts of this novel, it is the nuanced observation of character that will remain memorable for me.
I did not see the end coming and it did not leave me very satisfied. It seemed too abrupt, too contrived. However, it is a quiet, satisfying novel which seems to have been a couple of steps ahead of its time.
January 17, 2021
This was an unexpected book. I appreciated that it seemed to have it's own course.
It's the first book read by Elizabeth Taylor, although she is highly recommended. I thought her writing here brilliant. She captured scenes and emotions in wonderful detail and gave life to the story she gives us.
I was a bit unsure in the beginning...I didn't really like any of the characters. But, as the novel unfolded and you learn more about the principal players and how they got where they were, I found more compassion for some. Kate especially...I wanted to dislike her for her choices, but I understood and couldn't fault her for it, I wanted to pity her more.
The ending was satisfying for me, if abrupt, but still tidied up to my liking at any rate.
It's the first book read by Elizabeth Taylor, although she is highly recommended. I thought her writing here brilliant. She captured scenes and emotions in wonderful detail and gave life to the story she gives us.
I was a bit unsure in the beginning...I didn't really like any of the characters. But, as the novel unfolded and you learn more about the principal players and how they got where they were, I found more compassion for some. Kate especially...I wanted to dislike her for her choices, but I understood and couldn't fault her for it, I wanted to pity her more.
The ending was satisfying for me, if abrupt, but still tidied up to my liking at any rate.
May 22, 2020
I had never read this writer but now i must read everyone of her novels. Stories full of emotions and an up close look at ordinary lives and what we believe and endure so we can make it all Happy?? So great i am ready to read another right away-
March 19, 2019
In this, there is only the undertone that things are not quite right in the marriage of Kate and Dermot. Kate was widowed when she married this younger man, but professes herself to be quite happy married to him "and would do so again." But in the opening pages, Kate is lunching with Dermot's mother who doesn't withhold criticism of her son't idleness. Even Dermot acknowledges to himself that everyone thinks he married Kate for her money. The reader can only think trouble is brewing. There are other characters where Taylor shows us longing and conflict. It seemed just too much.
My quibble is that, though the trouble does seem to brew for Kate and Dermot, I had to almost read between the lines. I'm not good at that. The other conflicts were more obvious, but I found them decidedly less interesting. On the plus side, I thought Taylor's humor comes through in this more clearly than in some of her other novels. Example: Dermot was on the phone with his mother. Though we hear only part of Dermot's side of the conversation, it is obvious they are arguing. After hanging up, Dermot attempts to have an argument with his wife. Her response was "if you want to have an argument, call your mother."
I like Elizabeth Taylor, for the most part, and I liked this one. I especially liked the beginning and well beyond the halfway mark. Then, I'm almost ashamed to admit, I got a bit bored. I just wanted it to be over and be able to move on to my next read. I remember early on reading a review where someone said her novels are pretty much the same. After reading the first two or three, this seemed entirely wrong. Now that I've read 8 of them, there is definitely some truth to it. Because of a GR group, I have been reading one of her novels a month for 8 months. I think I need a break.
This is a strong 3-stars. Had I stayed as interested as I was in the first half, I would happily add another star.
My quibble is that, though the trouble does seem to brew for Kate and Dermot, I had to almost read between the lines. I'm not good at that. The other conflicts were more obvious, but I found them decidedly less interesting. On the plus side, I thought Taylor's humor comes through in this more clearly than in some of her other novels. Example: Dermot was on the phone with his mother. Though we hear only part of Dermot's side of the conversation, it is obvious they are arguing. After hanging up, Dermot attempts to have an argument with his wife. Her response was "if you want to have an argument, call your mother."
I like Elizabeth Taylor, for the most part, and I liked this one. I especially liked the beginning and well beyond the halfway mark. Then, I'm almost ashamed to admit, I got a bit bored. I just wanted it to be over and be able to move on to my next read. I remember early on reading a review where someone said her novels are pretty much the same. After reading the first two or three, this seemed entirely wrong. Now that I've read 8 of them, there is definitely some truth to it. Because of a GR group, I have been reading one of her novels a month for 8 months. I think I need a break.
This is a strong 3-stars. Had I stayed as interested as I was in the first half, I would happily add another star.
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