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Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment....and a delight.
Review: Although I have always been and will be a fan of Lively's writing, I was somewhat disappointed in this book. Once or twice I thought she got way off the subject of the house. I would have appreciated more details about the house's inhabitants over the years, its contents and what all these meant to her at different times of her life. There could have been a few more details about things were done and what it was really like to be a girl in England during those times. These fascinating subjects were somewhat glossed over, I thought....I would have enjoyed it quite a bit more had she included lots of photos of the house, gardens, rooms, the family heirlooms mentioned, old photos of relatives and retainers, and family events. These would have made the book so much more meaningful. Even if that had meant a higher price,I would still have bought it. (It would be interesting to know what's become of the house since her family left it. Is it still a private home? Converted to a business of some kind? Being loved and kept up the way it once was?) All that said, I very much enjoyed the things she DID write about, as well as her writing style. Perhaps some day she might reissue the book in a satisfyingly "illustrated" form. More please!
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful, but....
Review: I am a great admirer of Ms. Lively's work, both fiction and nonfiction, and I think this is a wonderful book. My only disappointment is that there are no photographs in the book--not even an author photo on the jacket cover! Photographs would have raised the book's price, I suppose, and it might seem childish to request them, but when there is such detailed and vivid description of specific objects (that embroidered firescreen, for instance) and people, I don't believe it is unreasonable for the reader to want even more--and to feel a bit cheated. Was it her decision, or a stingy move on the part of her publisher? Still, I love this book and plan to re-read it many times.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointment....and a delight.
Review: Penelope Lively's extended essay centers on the home of her grandmother, who was born in Victorian times and in Edwardian days was a young wife and mother, mistress of a country estate. Through her description of hundreds of items considered vitally necessary to the household, she ponders the cast-in-stone class structure, the assumptions which underlay the roles and behavior of men and women, the status of children, the notions of childcare, the sturdy outdoor motif of country living. The weather, she said, was simply ignored, and people went about what they meant to do, rain or sun. Hunting and gardening figured prominently; many social activities centered around
these activities. Americans who know the work of writers like Agatha Christie will be familiar with this English world, dissimilar from our own country especially because of rigid class distinctions. A middle class household, Lively tells us, would be expected to employ servants. Her grandmother could spend hour upon hour doing rigorous physical labor in her gardens, but she felt much put upon when in later days, she was faced with doing her own "washing up" (kitchen dishes and pans). Lively also describes well the distance between genders, the attitude that men and women were utterly different, with different interests and orientations, unlike the more intimate, nose-to-nose marriages that began around mid-century.
Lively's essay is composed of personal perceptions, and although I find the limitations of this subjectivity its one drawback, I recommend it as an entertaining view to a vanished era.
Rating:
Summary: A country estate of a previous era
Review: Penelope Lively's extended essay centers on the home of her grandmother, who was born in Victorian times and in Edwardian days was a young wife and mother, mistress of a country estate. Through her description of hundreds of items considered vitally necessary to the household, she ponders the cast-in-stone class structure, the assumptions which underlay the roles and behavior of men and women, the status of children, the notions of childcare, the sturdy outdoor motif of country living. The weather, she said, was simply ignored, and people went about what they meant to do, rain or sun. Hunting and gardening figured prominently; many social activities centered around
these activities. Americans who know the work of writers like Agatha Christie will be familiar with this English world, dissimilar from our own country especially because of rigid class distinctions. A middle class household, Lively tells us, would be expected to employ servants. Her grandmother could spend hour upon hour doing rigorous physical labor in her gardens, but she felt much put upon when in later days, she was faced with doing her own "washing up" (kitchen dishes and pans). Lively also describes well the distance between genders, the attitude that men and women were utterly different, with different interests and orientations, unlike the more intimate, nose-to-nose marriages that began around mid-century.
Lively's essay is composed of personal perceptions, and although I find the limitations of this subjectivity its one drawback, I recommend it as an entertaining view to a vanished era.
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