Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Chatto & Windus (1969), Hardcover, 192 pages
Description
When newly-orphaned Cassandra Dashwood arrives as governess to little Sophy, the scene seems set for the archetypal romance between young girl and austere widowed employer. Cassandra is to discover that in real life tragedy, comedy and embarrassment are never far apart.
User reviews
LibraryThing member LyzzyBee
(03 Feb 2012)
Purchased and read for the LibraryThing Virago Group’s Taylor read – I think the only one of her books I didn’t already own. Taylor’s second novel, and her take on Janes Austen and Eyre. Orphaned Cassandra leaves what passes for the real world (school, then a quiet life with
Spare, exacting writing mercilessly dissects the characters just as failed medical student Tom draws images of his dissected household, and Taylor does not even flinch from a somewhat shocking death part way through (which is foreshadowed by a sad pet bit that I was glad to be warned about in advance but that I managed OK).
Unsparing and uncompromising as it is, it is a good read, which must have influenced Barbara Comyns in her writing (do we know about this?). Not enjoyable, exactly, but intriguing and beautifully done.
Purchased and read for the LibraryThing Virago Group’s Taylor read – I think the only one of her books I didn’t already own. Taylor’s second novel, and her take on Janes Austen and Eyre. Orphaned Cassandra leaves what passes for the real world (school, then a quiet life with
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her father) for seclusion as a governess, all too ready to fall in love with the master of the house.Spare, exacting writing mercilessly dissects the characters just as failed medical student Tom draws images of his dissected household, and Taylor does not even flinch from a somewhat shocking death part way through (which is foreshadowed by a sad pet bit that I was glad to be warned about in advance but that I managed OK).
Unsparing and uncompromising as it is, it is a good read, which must have influenced Barbara Comyns in her writing (do we know about this?). Not enjoyable, exactly, but intriguing and beautifully done.
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LibraryThing member alexdaw
I read this as part of the Elizabeth Taylor Centenary celebrations that are happening on the Virago Group here on Librarything.
It is my second Elizabeth Taylor and we are reading her work in chronological order.
This is a slim volume - 191 pages to be precise. It was easy to read on trains and in
The novel has been described as a parody of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.
The plot describes orphaned Cassandra Dashwood's great adventure - taking up the offer of employment as governess for only child, Sophy, at Cropthorne Manor - a rather neglected estate owned by Marion (that's a bloke) Vanbrugh.
Cropthorne Manor is home to a few hangers-on - Marion's cousins Margaret and Tom and his Aunt Tinty. Marion suffers regularly from bouts of neuralgia and seems somewhat put upon by all and sundry, except when it comes to Cassandra.
Cropthorne Manor is not what one would call a jolly sort of place and one wonders how the innocent Cassandra will find her way amidst the lethargic yet demanding bunch of characters, including her precocious charge. Sophy.
This little novel has a deceptively wry tone which lulls you into a false sense of "ennui" plot-wise. I hope it takes you rather by surprise, as it did me.
It is my second Elizabeth Taylor and we are reading her work in chronological order.
This is a slim volume - 191 pages to be precise. It was easy to read on trains and in
Show More
lunch rooms in short spurts.The novel has been described as a parody of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.
The plot describes orphaned Cassandra Dashwood's great adventure - taking up the offer of employment as governess for only child, Sophy, at Cropthorne Manor - a rather neglected estate owned by Marion (that's a bloke) Vanbrugh.
Cropthorne Manor is home to a few hangers-on - Marion's cousins Margaret and Tom and his Aunt Tinty. Marion suffers regularly from bouts of neuralgia and seems somewhat put upon by all and sundry, except when it comes to Cassandra.
Cropthorne Manor is not what one would call a jolly sort of place and one wonders how the innocent Cassandra will find her way amidst the lethargic yet demanding bunch of characters, including her precocious charge. Sophy.
This little novel has a deceptively wry tone which lulls you into a false sense of "ennui" plot-wise. I hope it takes you rather by surprise, as it did me.
Show Less
LibraryThing member BeyondEdenRock
Cassandra Dashwood, at the age of eighteen is quiet, bookish and, dare I say, a little dull. And, after her father’s recent death, she is alone in the world.
Fortunately Mrs. Turner, her former headmistress, takes an interest in Cassandra, and finds her a post: Marion Vanbrugh is a widower with a
It was so, so easy for Cassandra to cast herself and Jane Eyre and Marion as Mr Rochester.
But reality would prove to be a little different.
Marion was as quiet, bookish and dull as Cassandra. And he was weighed down by his family; an elderly aunt, who kept house quite ineffectually; a cousin, pregnant by her lover, not her husband; another cousin, who was charming but quite directionless; and Violet, his wife who had died but still had a presence.
And they all lived together, their lives stagnating in a crumbling mansion.
It was fortunate that Sophy was charming, and that her father took a great interest in his daughter and her governess …
This is a story with echoes of other authors: Jane Austen in the heroine’s name, and in more besides; Charlotte Bronte in the heroine’s position; Ivy Compton-Burnett in some of the dialogue and relationships; Daphne Du Maurier in the presence, and untold story, of Marion’s wife; Molly Keane in the crumbling mansion; Thomas Hardy in some of the darker moments; and maybe even more that have passed me by when I was caught up …
Not a satire, not a pastiche, but something rather different, and rather more interesting. Something I can’t quite explain.
A dark tale, but the darkness is offset by wry humor and dry wit.
Events unfold slowly, but every sentence brings a new insight, or a new development. There are small, subtle changes, and there is one sudden, tragic, utterly real event that will change everything
Everything is driven by the characters; characters I found difficult to like, but they were pinpointed so accurately that I was always fascinated. Because I understood their situations, their inner lives, their motivations, and what made each of them unique.
And there is a nicely drawn love song threaded through. Though there will not be happy endings for all …
Palladian is a strangely intriguing novel – just as good as I had hoped but not at all what I had expected.
Fortunately Mrs. Turner, her former headmistress, takes an interest in Cassandra, and finds her a post: Marion Vanbrugh is a widower with a
Show More
young daughter, Sophy, and he needs a governess.It was so, so easy for Cassandra to cast herself and Jane Eyre and Marion as Mr Rochester.
But reality would prove to be a little different.
Marion was as quiet, bookish and dull as Cassandra. And he was weighed down by his family; an elderly aunt, who kept house quite ineffectually; a cousin, pregnant by her lover, not her husband; another cousin, who was charming but quite directionless; and Violet, his wife who had died but still had a presence.
And they all lived together, their lives stagnating in a crumbling mansion.
It was fortunate that Sophy was charming, and that her father took a great interest in his daughter and her governess …
This is a story with echoes of other authors: Jane Austen in the heroine’s name, and in more besides; Charlotte Bronte in the heroine’s position; Ivy Compton-Burnett in some of the dialogue and relationships; Daphne Du Maurier in the presence, and untold story, of Marion’s wife; Molly Keane in the crumbling mansion; Thomas Hardy in some of the darker moments; and maybe even more that have passed me by when I was caught up …
Not a satire, not a pastiche, but something rather different, and rather more interesting. Something I can’t quite explain.
A dark tale, but the darkness is offset by wry humor and dry wit.
Events unfold slowly, but every sentence brings a new insight, or a new development. There are small, subtle changes, and there is one sudden, tragic, utterly real event that will change everything
Everything is driven by the characters; characters I found difficult to like, but they were pinpointed so accurately that I was always fascinated. Because I understood their situations, their inner lives, their motivations, and what made each of them unique.
And there is a nicely drawn love song threaded through. Though there will not be happy endings for all …
Palladian is a strangely intriguing novel – just as good as I had hoped but not at all what I had expected.
Show Less
LibraryThing member nordie
When newly-orphaned Cassandra Dashwood arrives as governess to little Sophy, the scene seems set for the archetypal romance between young girl and austere widowed employer. But conventions are subverted. Cassandra is to discover that in real life, tragedy, comedy and acute embarrassment are never
Show More
far apart. Show Less
LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
Just a wonderful almost-gothic read. A sort of 20th century Jane Eyre without the crazy woman in the attic. Perfect characters---waspish women and pain-ridden men. Crumbling mansions. And ghosts of a sort. Loved it.
Read in 2012
Read in 2012
Original publication date
1946
ISBN
0701114290 / 9780701114299