DDC/MDS
| 823.912 |
Publication
London : Hogarth press, 1964.
Original publication date
1945
Description
"Loving is set in the vast hereditary house of the Tennants, an aristocratic Anglo-Irish family, but the story mainly involves their servants. The war has led to a scarcity of experienced staff, and when Eldon the butler dies, Raunce the head doorman is assigned his job. The other servants are taken aback by this irregular promotion, but lovely young Edith, a recent hire, is quite attracted to the older Raunce and a flirtation begins. And it is Edith who discovers Mrs. Tennant's daughter, whose husband is fighting at the front, in bed with a neighbor one morning, scandalizing the whole household. When the Tennants depart for England, Raunce is left in charge of the house and struggles to control its disputatious inhabitants as well as to secure the love of Edith, especially after a precious family jewel disappears. In Loving, Henry Green explores the deeply precarious nature of ordinary life against the background of the larger world at war"--… (more)
Status
Available
Call number
Collection
User reviews
LibraryThing member motleystu
It took me a while to finish this, but it's the most memorable thing - the peacocks, the barn containing mirrors where the Irish groundsman (?) sleeps, the two maids chatting together in their bedrooms - beautiful.
LibraryThing member wendyrey
Life in an Irish Country House during the Second world war when Ireland was a neutral country. The lives , loves and misunderstandings of the owners and their staff. Written in an interesting but hard to follow style with unusual usage of words , no chapters, speech marks or indicators and often no
Hard work and I can't say I enjoyed it but I can see its literary merit (I think)
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dividing devices when the actors or theme changes.Hard work and I can't say I enjoyed it but I can see its literary merit (I think)
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LibraryThing member Bjace
Entertaining novel about life (mostly below stairs) on an Irish estate during WWII. The story is told mainly in dialogue and is sometimes difficult to follow due to the structure of the novel, which has no chapters. The central romance (between a 40-ish butler and a much younger maid) is less than
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riveting. More interesting is the attitude of the almost completely English household to the Ireland that surrounds them (contemptuous) and the sense that everyone is taking refuge from the War. This is a good read, but why anyone thought this belonged in the Modern Library 100 is beyond me. Show Less
LibraryThing member wcarter
Confused, boring and rambling with a sudden inconclusive and unconvincing ending.
LibraryThing member Kristelh
I am a fan of Henry Green's writing and I really loved this book! Loved Loving! This story is set in Ireland which is neutral at this time of the war with Germany. The servants in the castle of Mrs Tennant (a widow) and her daughter-in-law Violet or Mrs Jack. Jack, the son, is in the military. The
There are pigeons and peacocks in this story. Three children (two girls of Violet's or Mrs. Jack and the cook's nephew brought over to avoid dangers of war). There is the missing sapphire ring, a dead peacock, a missing waterglass and eggs.
Servant include, the butler just died and the one stepping into his shoes and "books". The cook who likes a bit of gin, The housekeeper and her girls, the nanny who is old and obviously a Pollyanna. The lamplighter who can't speak clear English and loves the peacocks.
The style of this novel is perhaps challenging to some. I did not find it so. I loved the opening as if we are being introduced to a fairly tale. "Once upon a day an old butler called Eldon lay dying..... and the end; ...and lived happily ever after.
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intro in my book, by Roxana Robinson, refers to the book as a "sexy book" and yes their is love affairs here and there and innuendoes of love between pigeons, and a hint of lesbian love all without anything actually appearing on the page! Unlike more modern novels to their shame. On the surface the story is of servants working in this very grand castle full of the riches deserving a museum and the changes the war is bringing to the known life of these people and the class structure. It is also about trust and distrust among the servants and the masters, and between the lovers and family members. The book is the 5th book by the author who wrote under a pseudonym. Loving was published in 1945, near the end of the war and is mostly comedic but not underneath the layers. There are pigeons and peacocks in this story. Three children (two girls of Violet's or Mrs. Jack and the cook's nephew brought over to avoid dangers of war). There is the missing sapphire ring, a dead peacock, a missing waterglass and eggs.
Servant include, the butler just died and the one stepping into his shoes and "books". The cook who likes a bit of gin, The housekeeper and her girls, the nanny who is old and obviously a Pollyanna. The lamplighter who can't speak clear English and loves the peacocks.
The style of this novel is perhaps challenging to some. I did not find it so. I loved the opening as if we are being introduced to a fairly tale. "Once upon a day an old butler called Eldon lay dying..... and the end; ...and lived happily ever after.
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LibraryThing member DanielSTJ
A detailed story of a manor, and its inhabitants, in Ireland during the Second World War. There are intrigues, fights, gossips, and interrelationships between all of the characters that mould together to form the story. Overall, it was decent.
3 stars.
3 stars.
LibraryThing member stravinsky
very british.
LibraryThing member japaul22
[Loving] could be a traditional English (well, Irish) countryside estate family novel. But this 1945 book by Henry Green treats the familiar story in an unfamiliar way. The servants are the focus, the book is written in almost all dialogue, and there's quite a lot of sexual tension for this type of
Most of the plot involves the death of the long-time butler and the assumption of the role by Charley Raunce. He struggles to navigate this new role. WWII is going on and the family goes to England to see the son who is on a brief leave. The servants take full advantage of this departure and things get a little crazy.
The magic of this brief novel is the writing style. Because it's virtually all dialogue, there is a lot taking place behind the words that the reader needs to extrapolate. The scattered thoughts of the characters lead to verbal misunderstandings and some of the exchanges are pretty confusing. Green also doesn't use punctuation in a traditional manner. At first all of this annoyed me, but in the end I am surprised at how close I got to the characters and how memorable they are.
Though this was published in 1945, it still feels like a modern take on the Victorian novel and I recommend it.
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novel. Most of the plot involves the death of the long-time butler and the assumption of the role by Charley Raunce. He struggles to navigate this new role. WWII is going on and the family goes to England to see the son who is on a brief leave. The servants take full advantage of this departure and things get a little crazy.
The magic of this brief novel is the writing style. Because it's virtually all dialogue, there is a lot taking place behind the words that the reader needs to extrapolate. The scattered thoughts of the characters lead to verbal misunderstandings and some of the exchanges are pretty confusing. Green also doesn't use punctuation in a traditional manner. At first all of this annoyed me, but in the end I am surprised at how close I got to the characters and how memorable they are.
Though this was published in 1945, it still feels like a modern take on the Victorian novel and I recommend it.
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LibraryThing member bookomaniac
If you start to read this novel with heedless attention, then you’re in for a surprise: after an endless stream of dialogues (200 pages on end) you come to the conclusion that there’s barely a storyline in this book. Place of action is a country estate in Ireland, inhabited by British
But as a reader you hardly get a grip on Green's story. He alternates intimate scenes with stiff ones, occasionally lets it come to a comedy of errors (about a lost ring, for example), and especially sows confusion with peacocks that appear at the most unexpected moments. The transitions between scenes are barely noticeable, and nothing is as it seems; the scenes between the love couple Edith and Charley, for example, are apparently charming, but at the same time there appears to be an enormous distance between them.
As a reader you are constantly wrestling with the question of what the actual purpose of the story is. But that clearly turns out to be the wrong attitude. I cannot put it better than Sebastian Faulks, who wrote an introduction to this book: “The inner shape of the novel in this way imitates our experience of living: it promises pattern, then withholds it, insisting on a formless banality; it describes intensity, but as part of a grudgingly accepted monotony; it glimpses poetry, but only from the corner of its eye.” In other words: life as it is. Nicely done, indeed, but with this book Green confirms his reputation of being a “writer’s writer”.
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aristocrats, in the midst of the Second World War. Green mainly focuses on the domestic staff, a motley crew who are more or less left to their own devices by the (usually) absent owners, and do almost nothing but bicker and speak ill of each other. On the surface, the setting seems to have a high “Upstairs, Downstairs” content, and “Dowton Abbey” inevitably comes to mind as well.But as a reader you hardly get a grip on Green's story. He alternates intimate scenes with stiff ones, occasionally lets it come to a comedy of errors (about a lost ring, for example), and especially sows confusion with peacocks that appear at the most unexpected moments. The transitions between scenes are barely noticeable, and nothing is as it seems; the scenes between the love couple Edith and Charley, for example, are apparently charming, but at the same time there appears to be an enormous distance between them.
As a reader you are constantly wrestling with the question of what the actual purpose of the story is. But that clearly turns out to be the wrong attitude. I cannot put it better than Sebastian Faulks, who wrote an introduction to this book: “The inner shape of the novel in this way imitates our experience of living: it promises pattern, then withholds it, insisting on a formless banality; it describes intensity, but as part of a grudgingly accepted monotony; it glimpses poetry, but only from the corner of its eye.” In other words: life as it is. Nicely done, indeed, but with this book Green confirms his reputation of being a “writer’s writer”.
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LibraryThing member TheAmpersand
"Loving" is the story of the upstairs-downstairs goings-on at a Protestant-owned and -run manse in the first decades after the founding of the Irish republic. It's also a books I'd never even heard of before it showed up on the Modern Library's list of the twentieth century's one hundred best
Some reviewers here have mentioned that the dialect is challenging, and, for many American readers, it may be. Although it's set during the Second World War, the language it's written in struck me as much older as less accessible. It makes no concessions to an American -- or even non-Irish -- audience. But what really slowed things down for me was the extraordinary intimacy of every conversation and interaction in the book. The characters here live lives governed by custom, even as they are they are, understandably, beset by the usual run of human passions, and they do so in such close quarters that they might as well be at sea. Sometimes I thought that there wasn't a single exchange in "Loving," no matter how practical or inconsequential, that couldn't be seen as uncomfortably intimate. It feels that these people have been living all over each other for generations. It's hardly surprising, then, that can be exhausting to read about.
Luckily, there are some memorable characters here to hold your interest. Charley Raunce -- the new butler, formerly the footman -- is the book's center, and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if he was clever, a fool, a scoundrel or a sincere suitor. My estimation of him kept shifting as I read on, and, honestly, he may be all of these things. At any rate, his charisma is undeniable. There's also the maids: lovely Edith, roommate and complement to the more ordinary but still attractive Kate, both of whom display an easy, irresistible sensuality. There's a set of characters -- Nanny Swift, Miss Burch, and Miss Welch -- who seem as old and dug-in as the castle itself, and, finally, there's Mrs. Tennant, the lady of the manor, who displays the kind of eccentricity that only money and inherited privilege can produce.
In the end, to borrow from Joyce, this isn't just a novel about loving but also one about leaving. The house is mostly shut up, the business model that built it expired generations ago, and the castle's residents can only pretend that time hasn't advanced a second since the summer of 1914 for so long. What Green is describing here -- along with a complex web of professional and personal relationships -- is the slow undoing of an institution and a way of life. I didn't find this one easy to read or quite to my taste, but only a writer of real talent could have written it. Recommended.
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novels. I think it's a quality book, but not necessarily an enjoyable read. "Loving" might the longest two-hundred pages you'll ever read, and if you're going to get anything at all out of them, you'll have to read them carefully. Some reviewers here have mentioned that the dialect is challenging, and, for many American readers, it may be. Although it's set during the Second World War, the language it's written in struck me as much older as less accessible. It makes no concessions to an American -- or even non-Irish -- audience. But what really slowed things down for me was the extraordinary intimacy of every conversation and interaction in the book. The characters here live lives governed by custom, even as they are they are, understandably, beset by the usual run of human passions, and they do so in such close quarters that they might as well be at sea. Sometimes I thought that there wasn't a single exchange in "Loving," no matter how practical or inconsequential, that couldn't be seen as uncomfortably intimate. It feels that these people have been living all over each other for generations. It's hardly surprising, then, that can be exhausting to read about.
Luckily, there are some memorable characters here to hold your interest. Charley Raunce -- the new butler, formerly the footman -- is the book's center, and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if he was clever, a fool, a scoundrel or a sincere suitor. My estimation of him kept shifting as I read on, and, honestly, he may be all of these things. At any rate, his charisma is undeniable. There's also the maids: lovely Edith, roommate and complement to the more ordinary but still attractive Kate, both of whom display an easy, irresistible sensuality. There's a set of characters -- Nanny Swift, Miss Burch, and Miss Welch -- who seem as old and dug-in as the castle itself, and, finally, there's Mrs. Tennant, the lady of the manor, who displays the kind of eccentricity that only money and inherited privilege can produce.
In the end, to borrow from Joyce, this isn't just a novel about loving but also one about leaving. The house is mostly shut up, the business model that built it expired generations ago, and the castle's residents can only pretend that time hasn't advanced a second since the summer of 1914 for so long. What Green is describing here -- along with a complex web of professional and personal relationships -- is the slow undoing of an institution and a way of life. I didn't find this one easy to read or quite to my taste, but only a writer of real talent could have written it. Recommended.
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LibraryThing member pamelad
During WWII, the British Tennant family - the widowed Mrs Tennant, her son's wife Violet, and Violet's two young daughters - is living on its Irish estate. Mrs Tennant's son is in Britain in the armed forces, waiting to be sent overseas. Ireland is neutral, so the Tennants are avoiding the wartime
The book begins with the death of the old butler, Eldon. Rauch, the footman, is next in line for Eldon's position. As we know from Downton Abbey, there is a strict hierarchy amongst house servants, with the butler at the top. Any other comparisons to Downton Abbey are, however, erroneous, because you cannot compare book so witty, perspicacious and subtle with a soap opera. Green's characters have depth and complexity. His imagery is striking. He always uses the right word, never a cliche.
Well worth reading.
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shortages, the bombing and the blackouts, but are in fear of the IRA. The Tennants provide the background: the main characters are their servants.The book begins with the death of the old butler, Eldon. Rauch, the footman, is next in line for Eldon's position. As we know from Downton Abbey, there is a strict hierarchy amongst house servants, with the butler at the top. Any other comparisons to Downton Abbey are, however, erroneous, because you cannot compare book so witty, perspicacious and subtle with a soap opera. Green's characters have depth and complexity. His imagery is striking. He always uses the right word, never a cliche.
Well worth reading.
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Awards
Physical description
229 p.; 20 cm