Product Description

These are people, or a sample of them, who ordain the London season, glorify Ascot, make or unmake the fortune of small Continental watering-places, inspire envy, emulation, and snobbishness' Sebastian and Viola, brother and sister, are children of the English aristocracy. Handsome and moody, at nineteen Sebastian is a duke and heir to the vast country estate, Chevron. A deep sense of tradition and love of the English countryside tie him to his inheritance, yet he loathes the glittering cold extravagant society of which he is a part. Viola, at sixteen, is more thoughtful, more independent: an unfashionable beauty who scorns every part of her inheritance, most particularlythat of womanhood. It is July 1905, Chevron is once again the site of a lavish house party. The guests include Lady Roehampton, a great beauty and seductress, and the explorer Leonard Anquetil. It is Lady Roehampton who will initiate Sebastian in the art of love, but it is Anquetil, rough but humane, who opens for both brother and sister the gateway to another world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #103463 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 349 pages

Review
'Seldom can a novelist have expressed so clearly her conception of the capacity of the human spirit' Nigel Nicolson

About the Author
Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962), distinguished novelist, poet and critic, was brought up at Knole, and lived with her husband, Harold Nicolson, at Sissinghurst in Kent.

Customer Reviews

a perceptive account of a lost world
This book was rather better than I expected: Vita-Sackville-West is well known for her life and garden rather than her talent as a writer. The book is set in a time of transition and deals with the conflicts between generations and classes as the new order asserts itself. (J. Mordaunt Crook's 'the rise of the nouveau riche' makes interesting parallel reading). It is the detail of a lifestyle which has disappeared and the humanity with which the characters are portrayed that give the book it's strength. The gossipy nature of the narrative, with the official line and reality at odds with one another, is fascinating. A must for anyone interested in the Bloomsbury set, generational conflicts and the lure of older women.

Compelling subjects, lucid writing, unsentimental.
I disagree with the previous reviewers account of what makes this book great. (I read an earlier edition.)

Indeed this book was not written to sentimentalize its own time and place, but as a call to action out of it! Sackville-West felt the limitations of her sex and lineage, and couragously, if not narcissistically, (through writing,travelling and relastionships of all sorts) took risks and made every attempt to live to the fullest and not just consume it. The first paragraph pretty much says it all and if you don't give a damn about Sebastian after it, you're dead. Although descriptive of homes that are castles with ancient rugs on the walls, these illustrations are merely necessary to the story and matterof fact. The character dynamics are much more interesting than the genre.

I found the writing style refreshingly rich and unprententious, and for once felt that the author really should write for a living. We're just starved for this stuff over here!