Review by Booklist Review
It is deliciously easy to be swept away by Colette's masterful storytelling, and she is just one of the writers featured in this collection. In "The Kepi," it is apparent almost from the outset that an emotional descent awaits the woman who has just taken her first lover--a much younger man. Her initially "blissful immolation" is destined to end in heartbreak. And in "The Nerdlecase" by Elizabeth Bowen, it is not difficult to determine the paternity of the child born to an unmarried seamstress. Once Miss Fox is ensconced in the rather threadbare country home of her genteel employers, they are in for a rude surprise when she unveils a picture of the little boy. An atmosphere of weariness pervades these stories. The predominant and unmistakable mood is love, but love followed too closely by abandonment. ~--Alice Joyce
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Previously published in Great Britain in 1990, this collection of 18 stories about love and its many guises represents an uneven gathering of authors, from Stella Whitelaw to Ivan Turgenev, Jilly Cooper to John Updike. But whether written by a literary heavyweight or a popular romance writer, the stories share a simplicity of narrative and rather dramatic tone. Typical of the more romantic tales are Catherine Cookson's ``Miss Geraldine Parkington,'' about a spinster from a well-to-do English family who proposes marriage to her longtime gardener, and Pilcher's ``Lalla,'' in which a plain girl relates how her beautiful older sister gave up a dashing fiancé and modeling career to return to her childhood sweetheart. Updike's ``A Constellation of Events,'' a housewife's account of the beginning of an affair, stands out for its author's familiar ability to shade and alter narrative with a telling glance, or through tone of voice. Unfortunately, despite the presence of other major writers (Daphne du Maurier, Guy de Maupassant, H.E. Bates, Colette), such subtlety and craftsmanship are rare in this volume, which proves satisfying without being challenging, interesting without being memorable. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Authors ranging from Guy de Maupassant to John Updike are represented in this collection, first published in Great Britain in 1990. Many of the stories have little to do with love in the traditional sense, and even fewer display any romance, so that readers looking for happy endings might be disappointed. Infatuation, self-sacrificing adoration, comfort and companionship, brief affairs, love betrayed, and even destructive and dangerous relationships are among the themes. Those interested in more complex relationships can find some thought-provoking stories. Unfortunately, the selection is uneven and some of the stories are simply old-fashioned. A marginal purchase for most collections.-Barbara E. Kemp, SUNY at Albany (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
