The House at Riverton

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Lady Ashbury/Lady Violet (inconsistency in title - she could not be both Lady Violet and Lady Ashbury) Kate Morton is the eldest of three sisters. Her family moved several times before settling on Tamborine Mountain where she attended a small country school. She enjoyed reading books from an early age, her favourites being those by Enid Blyton. australianauthor #contemporaryfiction #crime #domesticdrama #familysaga #friendship #historicalfiction #mystery #romance Ich habe dieses Buch 2008 schon einmal gelesen und hatte nun Lust, mich erneut in die Geschichte fallenzulassen. Ich mag Familiengeheimnisse und alte englische Herrenhäuser, somit ist dieses Buch natürlich die ideale Lektüre.

An extraordinary debut . . . written with a lovely turn of phrase. [Morton] knows how to eke out tantalizing secrets and drama.’— Sunday Telegraph (UK) Mir hat es sehr gefallen, wie hier das Leben des früheren Dienstmädchens Grace erzählt wird. Dabei erzählt uns Grace ihre Geschichte selbst; das Buch ist in der Ich-Erzählform geschrieben. This book is a must read for lovers of historical novels and enthralling, well-written, atmospheric mysteries, The House at Riverton is a literary feast for those who love writers like Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan or Daphne DuMaurier and books reminiscent of The Forsythe Saga, Upstairs,Downstairs and Water for Elephants.I have surprised myself. While moths have torn holes in my recent memories, I find the distant past is sharp and clear. They come often lately, those ghosts from the past, and I am surprised to find I don’t much mind them. Not nearly so much as I had supposed I would. Indeed, the specters I have spent my life escaping have become almost a comfort, something I welcome, anticipate, like one of those serials Sylvia is always talking about, hurrying her rounds so that she can watch them down at the main hall. I had forgotten, I suppose, that there were bright memories in amongst the dark. Duty is very important to the youthful Grace. Did Grace's sense of duty contribute to the novel's conclusion? If so, how? Would things have turned out better for the characters if Grace had made different decisions? Summer 1924 : On the night of a glittering Society party, by the lake of a grand
English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters
Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again.

The House at Riverton is the reminiscences of Grace, a housemaid who was working at Riverton for the Hartford family during and after the first World War. It was Hannah, in her wedding dress, mud splattered across the front, clinging to the appliquéd roses. She looked up at me, her face pale where it emerged from shadow. Her voice chilled my blood. “You’re too late.” She pointed at my hands. “You’re too late.”Tiene un final tan... tan... No sé. Fuerte, impactante, te da ganas de romper todo y gritar. Es una de las conclusiones que más me explotaron la cabeza. Here, why don’t I read that for you,” Sylvia said, giving the pillows a final, hopeful plump. “Give your eyes a bit of a rest?” ABOUT 'THE HOUSE AT RIVERTON': Summer 1924: on the eve of a glittering Society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again. There is no way to know for certain that things would have changed if by a single alteration. Hannah was always ignorant of life. She never questioned whether or not Grace actually knew shorthand, she assumed. She never gave way to rhetoric when speaking to Grace because she retained her taught beliefs; Grace was a servant to the house. Regardless of how much progress each of the characters made, they remained stiff in their ways of ignorance. I suppose this is not so different from the non-fictional world which is what makes this story all the more devastating. The Shifting Fog by Kate Morton is a hard novel to assess. Its story of an English aristocratic family in terminal decline (surely not) is mildly interesting and competently structured. In fact, it all seems a bit too easy: the sort of novel that you or I could write, if only we had the time and the incentive and a reliable home computer.