Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #772856 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Synopsis
It is 1912 when Harriet Morton, who lives with her father in Cambridge, is discovered by a Russian ballet master during the weekly lessons that are her only real pleasure. She runs away with the dancers to the golden city of Manaus in Brazil, but her father and intended husband set out in pursuit.

Customer Reviews

Worth a read, not her best.
Really good beginning, vivid, likable characters, Ibbotson returns to her beloved South American setting where she excels in describing the flora and fauna. You are immediately sucked into the story and captivated.

It feels like the author can't be bothered towards the end though and it's all a little contrived, hence only 3 stars.

enchantingly funny romance for intelligent readers
I read Company of Swans years ago before discovering Ibbotson's wonderful novels for children, and was amazed by how much I remembered. She really is several cuts above the usual kind of romance writer, being steeped in culture (music especially) and a sense of character that bring her closer to the ideal world of Jane Austen than the deplorable vogue for chick lit.
Set in the Edwardian era, the novel follows the adventures of Harriet, daughter of a grim and joyless Cambridge professor (academics are always awful in Ibbotson's world)who runs away to join the ballet. The Company are bound for Manaus, the city up the Amazon that Maia also travels to in Journey to the River Sea. It's prima ballerina is a fading Russian star who sees that this plain, intelligent lonely girl has talent; but Harriet has promised an equally lonely small boy that she will find his uncle Rom, who is a rubber-planter in Manaus. Fabulously rich and devastatingly handsome, Rom has mistresses galore but none intrigue him as much as the plain girl dancing in the corps. Meanwhile, Harriet's vile father and aunt have sent the man they want her to marry in hot pursuit of her before she is ruined...

The plot is less conventional than it sounds, and full of delightful descriptions of character and place. An excellent entertaining read.

A good read with well-written characters
This is the story of a girl whose only escape from her strict family life is ballet - it literally becomes her escape as she travels to South America to dance. The book has some subtly funny scenes - you have to read carefully to notice some of them. There is a dramatic rescue towards the end and all the threads are tied up. A love story with a difference, like all the author's books.