Status
Available
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Publication
Virago Press Ltd (1989), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 224 pages
Description
The Soul of Kindness, like many of Elizabeth Taylor's novels, is so expert that it seems effortless. As it progresses, it seems as if the cast are so fully rounded that all the novelist had to do was place them, successively, in one setting after another and observe how they reacted to each other ... Taylor is one of the hidden treasures of the English novel
User reviews
LibraryThing member LyzzyBee
(1989?)
My customary sticky backed plastic and bookplate with ‘Elizabeth’ written on it date this to pre-1989. A portrait of a self-deluding monster, but a more subtle portrait of a monster than “Angel”, maybe because Flora here doesn’t have a ‘talent’ to share with the world, just an
A novel with an empty heart and marvellous, rich minor characters – Richard’s father, Percy and his mistress, Ba, and Liz especially. I loved the housekeeper, Mrs Lodge, with her yearning for birds and the countryside (in fact, birds occur throughout). In the lost London souls and unrequited love, a bit reminiscent of Anita Brookner, with the piercing skewering of tiny moments of human interaction – especially the excruciating scenes between Mrs Secretan and her companion, Miss Folley – all Taylor’s own.
My customary sticky backed plastic and bookplate with ‘Elizabeth’ written on it date this to pre-1989. A portrait of a self-deluding monster, but a more subtle portrait of a monster than “Angel”, maybe because Flora here doesn’t have a ‘talent’ to share with the world, just an
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unwavering self-belief and a need to bestow herself on people. In this melancholic novel, there are unlikely pairings that will never work, and unlikely alliances that do, such as the invisible lines that put the marvellous painter, Liz, in secret cahoots with downtrodden Meg, and Flora’s husband helping her mother to escape her self- and Flora-created prison.A novel with an empty heart and marvellous, rich minor characters – Richard’s father, Percy and his mistress, Ba, and Liz especially. I loved the housekeeper, Mrs Lodge, with her yearning for birds and the countryside (in fact, birds occur throughout). In the lost London souls and unrequited love, a bit reminiscent of Anita Brookner, with the piercing skewering of tiny moments of human interaction – especially the excruciating scenes between Mrs Secretan and her companion, Miss Folley – all Taylor’s own.
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LibraryThing member ParadisePorch
This was originally published in 1964; the copy I read was the Virago Modern Classic with a 1983 introduction by Philip Hensher. This was my first sample of Taylor’s writing and I was slightly disappointed: the writing is beautiful but the story didn’t live up to the cover hype.
Yes, Flora is a
“It’s so miserable of everybody. I thought it would please them to be asked. It would please me. And if I were in their place, I’d do anything rather than spoil my happiness.”
But the cover and the intro promised something almost sinister.
I’ll definitely try Taylor again, but I rate this 3½ stars.
Read this if: you feel you’re being manipulated by someone in your life – perhaps looking at an objective situation will help you gain perspective – and tools to snip the strings.
I read this as this month’s random pick from my TBR wish list spreadsheet of 2,323 items for the Random Reads Challenge hosted by I’m Loving Books.
Yes, Flora is a
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spoiled brat masquerading as everyone’s golden girl,“It’s so miserable of everybody. I thought it would please them to be asked. It would please me. And if I were in their place, I’d do anything rather than spoil my happiness.”
But the cover and the intro promised something almost sinister.
I’ll definitely try Taylor again, but I rate this 3½ stars.
Read this if: you feel you’re being manipulated by someone in your life – perhaps looking at an objective situation will help you gain perspective – and tools to snip the strings.
I read this as this month’s random pick from my TBR wish list spreadsheet of 2,323 items for the Random Reads Challenge hosted by I’m Loving Books.
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LibraryThing member lisapeet
A comedy of manners and sort of field study of the various ways an utter lack of self-awareness can trickle through relationships—in this case, among the mid-1960s British middle class. Taylor has very little sentiment—but is not without compassion—for her misguided, smug, and often lonely
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cast of characters. She paints them wonderfully with a few brushstrokes, and you get a strong feeling of them going on to live their lives busily off the page, leaving the reader to sit and think about them while they move on. Show Less
LibraryThing member therebelprince
The novelist Elizabeth Taylor is quietly cunning, devastatingly precise in her anatomy of the human mind The smallest sentences 'Sometimes, optimism briefly unsettled Mrs. Secretan" - provide so much. I will say that the modern re-releases of these books have the most atrocious covers: a glamorous
Other reviewers have said everything required about this novel, so I will just leave you with a longer quote below.
“A quiz programme. Two rows of people facing one another. A pompous, school-masterly man asking the questions. Those answers that Percy knew he spoke out loudly and promptly; when he was at a loss he pretended (as if he were not alone) that he had not quite caught the question, or he was busy blowing his nose to make a reply, or had to go to help himself to whiskey.”
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woman's face in artful black-and-white, as if this were an advertisement for Chanel. I know "novels about slightly weary, deluded mid-20th century British people" is a tough sell, but making them look like upscale romance novels aimed at young urban types who work in marketing...well, that just seems irresponsible!Other reviewers have said everything required about this novel, so I will just leave you with a longer quote below.
“A quiz programme. Two rows of people facing one another. A pompous, school-masterly man asking the questions. Those answers that Percy knew he spoke out loudly and promptly; when he was at a loss he pretended (as if he were not alone) that he had not quite caught the question, or he was busy blowing his nose to make a reply, or had to go to help himself to whiskey.”
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Language
Original publication date
1964
Physical description
224 p.; 7.64 inches
ISBN
0860683451 / 9780860683452