The Greengage Summer

Product Information

To keep them from underfoot, the manager banishes the children into the garden by day. Sometimes they go to the river, but mostly they lounge in the grass and watch the adult goings-on from afar. Madame Zizi, the owner, is obsessed with her handsome, well-dressed English lover, Eliot, who, when he is the mood, takes the Grey children under his wing. After 16-year-old Joss recovers from her illness, Eliot, wants to be with them all the time, because she is beautiful. Joss knows that he is flirting, but remains innocent of the implications until Madame Zizi makes a unforgivable scene. Then Joss plays the person she is not–with calamitous results. The time is the 1920s, some years after the end of World War I. Who did what in the war, who collaborated, or hid secrets, or profited from others’ misery are still topics of gossip and shame. There are too many women alone and there is too little money—but on the Marne there are also visitors, pilgrims really, who come from all over the world to see the battlefields and find graves of lost ones. Les Oeillets caters to these battlefield visitors and the owner, Mademoiselle Zizi, and the manager, Madame Corbet, make the most of the gruesome relics—the bullet holes on the staircase and a bloodstain in one of the guest rooms, carefully renewed with pan drippings at regular intervals. Do not be under any misapprehension, the children are a part of the cover too, but he loves them, give them a great deal more, for they are never the same after their holiday in France. There were a few, on the trees, overripe in the sun but still firm under the leaves; I ate both kinds and they added to the chaotic feeling in my stomach."

Or going to a movie expecting a new version of The Sound of Music& discovering it is more like Last Tango in Paris. If planting in a lawn, remove a circle of grass at least 1m (3¼ft) in diameter, so the tree’s roots don’t have to compete with the grass for water and nutrients as they get established. Gages can also be trained flat against a wall or fence. This is a good option if space is tight or if you want to grow several fruit trees. Trees can be bought ready-trained, partly trained or untrained, depending on how much work you want to do. The two most suitable shapes for gages are: As with ‘Episode of Sparrows,’ I was amazed and impressed by the adult issues that Godden was able to inject into this book without thrusting them — in an overly politically-correct fashion — in the reader’s face. Two main characters are obviously tempestuous lovers, although not married. Which might seem innocuous now, but ‘The Greengage Summer’ was published in 1958 when sex outside of marriage was still frowned on. The only boy of the five kids, Willmouse, designs clothes for his two dolls, Miss Dawn and Dolores. No gender stereotypes for Rumer Godden! Although she veers close to stereotypical characters when it comes to the French, but she ensures that every person is a distinct individual and each a genuine portrayal. The Greengage Summer’ contains a credible cops-and-robbers plot involving bank robbery, but the book derives its real tension most effectively from a growing realization by the two older daughters (Cecil and Joss) of the power of Joss’s newfound sexual attraction — she becomes the centre of attention for most of the men in the book from a lowly kitchen boy to an elderly painter. Joss’s recent maturity is made obvious by the attentions of a louche and seemingly selfish Englishman, Eliot, who is one of the aforementioned lovers. His partner is the temperamental and jealous Mademoiselle Gigi, part owner of the hotel. Eliot cannot disguise his infatuation with Joss, with resulting disastrous histrionics from Mlle. Gigi.

The young ones find a willing guide, companion, and protector in charming Englishman Eliot, a longtime resident at Les Oeillets and Mlle. Zizi’s apparent paramour. But as these warm days of freedom, discovery, and adolescent adventure unfold, Eliot’s interest becomes more and more focused on the eldest of the Grey children, sixteen-year-old daughter Joss. The older man’s obsession with the innocent, alluring, heartbreakingly beautiful woman-child soon threatens to overstep all bounds of propriety. And as Eliot’s fascination increases, so does the jealousy of his disrespected lover, adding fuel to a dangerously smoldering fire that could erupt into unexpected violence at any moment. Gage and plum trees are sold either bare-root (without soil around the roots) or in containers. Bare-root trees are only available while dormant, from late autumn to late winter, for immediate planting. Containerised trees are available all year round. In an attempt to have a less structured approach to my reading this year, I decided most of my choices would be based on the appeal of the moment. Having started off with three fairly serious reads, I was looking for something light when I read the excellent review of my friend, Megan, for The Greengage Summer. It sounded so delightful and so what I was needing, that I rushed off, found a copy and dove in.

The story is narrated by Cecil (actually Cecilia) and the writing is gorgeous; it really is as though a thirteen-year-old girl wrote it, in terms of her thoughts and emotions, anyway, although the words are more sophisticated than that. Her descriptions of places, events and emotions feel genuine and heartfelt, and very powerful. The characters are well described and feel like real people, and I am sure this is down not only to the cleverness and skill of the author in remembering what it was like to be a teenager but also because much of what happens really happened to her and her family. The older man’s obsession with the innocent, alluring, heartbreakingly beautiful woman-child soon threatens to overstep all bounds of propriety. And as Eliot’s fascination increases, so do the jealousy of his disrespected lover, adding fuel to a dangerously smoldering fire that could erupt into unexpected violence at any moment. Some of the best caretaking I ever had in my life. I could have died from that infected insect bite the London doctor told me….. This would make a Motion Picture of the Year. The only one with such visuals I could think of in comparison would be "A Room with a View" filmed in Florence and Positano, Italy. This one, the Marne, the Greengage Orchards, the flower fields, that couple at the top of the stairs -meeting them for the first time in their Formal Dining Ensemble.

A Plot Summary of The Greengage Summer 

Greengage indigestion!"This summer was a definitely a loss of Eden experience for the Grey siblings.