Product Description

The Williamson's arrive on the French Riviera, find a home and start building a life of comfort though a shadow lies across their domestic utopia, not only in Henry's health but the European conflict. As the story unfolds, the marriage seems freighted with the seeds of its own destruction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #992146 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

About the Author
Giles Waterfield was brought up in Paris and Geneva. Having worked at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and for sixteen years as Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, in 1996 he abandoned arts administration in order to write, teach and curate exhibitions. This is his first novel.

Customer Reviews

A fascinating psychological study of a marriage
This novel is especially interesting in that it can be taken on several levels. First, it is a very interesting and as far as I can see accurate portrayal of a style of English emigre life on the French Riviera which begins before the Great War and carries on until the fall of France in 1940. On a deeper level, we see the psychological portrait of a very flawed woman and how she carries the seeds of destruction into her marriage, which she prefers to believe is blissful. At first, Helen's own view of the world, herself and her marriage is presented as truth. When we begin to hear the voices of the Scottish governess of their children, and later her children themselves and their girlfriends, we begin to realise that all is not as she presents it. It is deeply significant that her husband, Henry, has little or no voice at all. In the end, his passive indulgence of his wife contributes to their destruction both literally and metaphorically. The novel is entrancing both for character delineation and for detail, but most of all in its relentless following of the course of an increasingly troubled marriage and a very neurotic woman and the effects her behaviour has on her husband, sons, and servants. I should recommend this book quite highly.

wonderful
The Long Afternoon has that lazy, drifting quality of long afternoons, spent doing nothing in particular, while at the same time telling the story of The Williamsons and their apparently idyllic life in Lou Paradou. The life Helen Williamson has created for them has a surface layer of tranquility, covering her own neurotic outlook, which is hinted at subtly throughout the book. This is superbly written, and can only be described tragically perfect.