Monday, May 10, 2010

Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary

First of all a bit of acknowledgement for Paperback Reader and The B Files for hosting Persephone Reading Week, as a Persephone fan of some six years standing it’s a been a pleasure to come across so many of their books being discussed, but collating, reading, and commenting on all of those posts has to be hard work and I’m very grateful that someone else was doing it for my reading pleasure.

Ruby Ferguson’s ‘Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary’ is a book I’ve tried to read once before, and which didn’t really grab me at the time. This reading week coupled with Paperback Reader’s enthusiasm for this title made me pick it up again and I took it to London with me to read on the train. I feel a little guilty about admitting that it’s still not really a book for me, but I do feel happier about saying it now I’ve finished it. I’ve had a look at a couple of very positive reviews this afternoon, and whilst they haven’t changed my mind they have confirmed a feeling that this would be a terrific book for a reading group because I do feel it’s one to polarise opinion. I’m also pleased to be able to link to fans of the book because I feel it leaves me free to be a bit negative (but not I hope too negative).

Whilst trying not to give too much away this is the story of The Lady Rose as related by an old family retainer to three chance tourists on a sunny afternoon in the 1930’s. Lady Rose is a considerable heiress, a favourite of Queen Victoria, imaginative and passionate and seemingly blessed by every good fairy. (SPOILERS) Eventually she marries, her husband is a ruthlessly repressed man, and despite three children she adores it’s not a terribly happy marriage. At this point I thought I knew what would happen, I thought there would be divorce (because sometimes I can’t resist reading the end of a book before I’ve finished, and yes I do know this makes me a terrible person, but it also revealed that something big was on the way). Anyway it wasn’t divorce, but suffice it to say that the husband is no longer an issue.

So then at the point when it all feels like it should work out it all sort of goes wrong again, except by this point it’s almost the end of the book, and it all happens quite quickly and has left me a bit non plussed. I suspect I would have loved this book when I had a crush on the Scarlet Pimpernel, and was reading Kidnapped, thinking that Bonnie Prince Charlie was a romantic hero, but now I think of him as a vicious alcoholic, bad general, and all round bad egg. For Lady Rose he’s a hero. There was too much of the fairy tale about this book for me, I couldn’t go along with it, and kept doubting the veracity of little things within the plot.

Things which interested me like the powerlessness of married women in the 1880’s, even a woman like Lady Rose, with wealth and title of her own were – to my mind- skipped over a bit, when she puts herself beyond the pale of society she seems to do it so carelessly, and with so little regard for her children that I find it deeply troubling. This is a book for people who believe the world well lost for love, and not for those, like me, of a slightly more cautious and cynical frame of mind.

13 comments:

  1. You're very welcome, Hayley.

    I'm a hopeless romantic, which is why Lady Rose & Mrs Memmary works for me and I can completely see why it doesn't for everyone.

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  2. Ach, I feel so bad for not liking it more because there are bits I really enjoyed - the strong attachment to home, love for Scotland - the court presentation is wonderful, and the sort of love affair with the romantic past all great, but in the end I couldn't sympathise with Lady Rose's decisions. Hope you'll forgive my lapse of taste and cold southern heart;)

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  3. This book is one of the Persephones I liked least so it's interesting that you didn't like it too.

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  4. Oh dear oh dear. I am so confused about this book now. People whose opinions I really rate, like Paperback Reader, likes it, my literary Mum didn't, now you don't, but then again Nymeth did. The suspense is building, I think it has jumped to the top of my hopper full of TBR's.

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  5. Brilliant review, and I love the fact that we had such differing reactions Hayley! I think one of the things I did like about it is that Lady Rose takes the responsibility herself for her actions (the good and the bad). She can only hope for understanding or forgiveness from others and doesn't fall apart when she doesn't get it. But yes of course it's all terribly Romantic :) You're so right it would be a very good book for a book group.

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  6. Thank you - you're very welcome as Claire said. But it's nice to be acknowledged too as it was hard work!!! It is a while since I read Lady Rose - I don't think I was bowled over by it as many people have been; I think I prefer Ruby Ferguson's Jill pony books!

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  7. It does seem to be a book you either like a lot or not at all. I'm always faintly surprised when I don't love a Persephone - s I'm probably not helping myself by having such high expectations every time. Comparing this to something like 'the expendable man' has made me question how much of a persephone style there is. Do they have a typical book?

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  8. This seems to be a bit like marmite - love it or hate it! Like Claire I am a hopeless sap when it comes to romance so I'm sure I'll lap it up - I need to read it and find out!

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  9. I look forward to your post femminist review! Hoping you find something between the lines to make me re evaluate. It really does seem to be a marmite book though, your right.

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  10. I really enjoyed reading your review. I wasn't so sure when I started the book about the story but it grew and grew on me. Your comment about when we read a book in our life is so so true.

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  11. For me, it wasn't so much that she showed no regard for her children, it was that she was completely powerless to keep them with her. I think that's why she gave up - to us it may seem that she did so without a fight, but I think that at the time the fight would be completely hopeless.

    I loved this book, but like Claire I completely understand why not everyone would. And reading a different perspective is always interesting :)

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  12. Nymeth, what bothered me in the book was that there really was no need to loose the children. Even if I could go along with the idea that she met a man and decided on the back of two hours in a park that he was the one (and he really is a one dimensional character so apart from being handsome what does he have going for him) why couldn't she wait for a little longer? The Children are removed by two other single women, and as such a wealthy woman herself she should have been well placed to keep them.

    On top of that she's already aparently calculated that they are part of the price to pay for doing exactly as she pleases when she pleases and it just seems outrageous to me, but still that would be fair enough but that she never makes the effort to get back in touch.

    The more I think about it the more I can understand why this works for others, but just not for me, but I do love a book that makes me think this hard about it!

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  13. I haven't read this one myself, but a friend brought it home from London and said it was a "ridiculous fairytale". While I'll doubtless read it eventually, I'm not quite as keen to read it now, especially following your review.

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