Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Alice
Alice | Elizabeth Eliot
8 posts | 5 read | 16 to read
But the servants! Anything might happen to them. They might go in a train to Woolwich and meet the love of their lives, or be murdered almost for the asking. Not that one wanted to be murdered exactly, but there was frustration in being denied the possibility. From an author The Queen called "a humorist of the first order" comes the deliciously dark tale of the strange and woeful young womanhood of Margaret, the narrator of Elizabeth Eliot's debut novel, and her friend Alice, from their final year at boarding-school in the late 1920s until just before World War II. The girls have adventures at school, are presented at court, and experience the vicissitudes of high society and their eccentric, increasingly impoverished families. Alice marries, unhappily, and involves Margaret in her hardships, until she suddenly decides--with fabulous success--to become an actress. And through it all the young women engage in loopy existential ponderings about their fates, gleefully detailing the radical instability of their world. Anxious characters marooned in a world without safe harbour--a tragic circumstance, but, in Eliot's hands, an absolutely hilarious one. Evoking by turn the morbid humour of Barbara Comyns and the high society sorrows of Rachel Ferguson, Alice is very much its own brilliant confection. Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press also publish three of Eliot's later novels--Henry, Mrs. Martell, and Cecil--all back in print for the first time in more than half a century. They all feature a new introduction by Elizabeth Crawford. "Miraculously good . . . delightful and wise and irreproachably understanding" The Bookman "This is surely the most impressive first novel of the year. Elizabeth Eliot is a writer to watch" The Queen "A first novel of singular originality . . . so endearing in spirit that it is hard not to feel for it a kind of personal affection" Daily Telegraph "I can pay her no higher compliment than to say that the nearest thing to it I know in literature are the deliciously malicious books of Elizabeth and Her German Garden." The Sphere "An enticing book" Tatler "Miss Eliot is a superb portrait painter" The Spectator
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
MrsK
Alice | Elizabeth Eliot
post image
Pickpick

Eliot‘s writing is surprising. The only way I can describe it is that it is very spare. No vivid detail, the characters are never fully fleshed out, and the narrative often takes unexpected detours. But through Margaret as the narrator, Eliot creates a diverse cast of characters and conveys a wealth of information with simple passages or phrases that are often laced with humor and satirical wit. #MiddlebrowSyllabus

Tamra I love spare writing! 1y
LeahBergen I was surprised by the quirkiness of this novel. 1y
MrsK @LeahBergen so was I…especially considering what were very serious issues. 1y
20 likes2 stack adds3 comments
blurb
MrsK
Alice | Elizabeth Eliot
post image

Starting a personal reading challenge today. Reading my way through the Middlebrow Syllabus. This list of 100 works by female British authors was compiled by Scott Thompson (aka Furrowed Middlebrow). I‘m looking forward to a lot of great reads😊.

LeahBergen Scott‘s Middlebrows Syllabus has been my reading (and buying!) list for years. 😆😆 I loved this book and hope you like it, too. 1y
batsy A fabulous idea. I look forward to your thoughts on what you read. His Middlebrow list is what made me aware of the wealth of books out there! 1y
14 likes2 comments
review
sisilia
Alice | Elizabeth Eliot
post image
Pickpick

4⭐️ “... because of those repeated failures she could not allow herself to realise success had come. For by now she was attuned only to failure.” 💔

BookishMe Oh 😔😥 4y
51 likes1 stack add1 comment
blurb
sisilia
Alice | Elizabeth Eliot
post image

Current read and immediate TBR for May and June

rubyslippersreads What a wonderful stack! 😍 4y
batsy 😍😍 4y
wanderinglynn Great stack! Several of those sound interesting. 👍🏻👍🏻 4y
See All 6 Comments
BarbaraBB Great stack!! 4y
Cathythoughts I havnt read any of these , but I see I have the tagged one & the Elizabeth Taylor one stacked 👍🏻❤️ 4y
sisilia Thank you @rubyslippersreads @batsy @wanderinglynn @BarbaraBB @Cathythoughts I‘m looking forward to all of these 😊 4y
57 likes6 comments
blurb
sisilia
Alice | Elizabeth Eliot
post image

I decided to take a break from Don Quixote, and read this story about boarding school girls. Happy Sunday, all! 😃

saresmoore Ooh, stacked! 4y
TheSpineView Happy Sunday to you!😊 4y
merelybookish Pretty cover! 4y
Cathythoughts Happy Sunday ! I see I have this one stacked. Look forward to your thoughts 4y
63 likes3 stack adds4 comments
blurb
LeahBergen
Alice | Elizabeth Eliot
post image

#TopSixReads of 2019 (so far, anyway... and I could probably pick six different ones tomorrow 😆).

Thanks for the tags, @Cinfhen and @ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled ! 😘😘

sblbooks The Quest for Queen Mary sounded interesting, so I stacked it. 5y
vivastory I know mine changed the day after 😂 5y
Ruthiella I love Dorothy Whipple!😍 5y
See All 19 Comments
BarbaraBB The Whipple is a favorite? Good to know! 5y
Cinfhen You‘re too smart for me 😂😂😜😘 (edited) 5y
Cathythoughts I see I have Alice stacked already ... must investigate your others ♥️👍🏻 5y
ValerieAndBooks Great list! I especially want to read the Queen Mary one! 5y
LeahBergen @sblbooks It‘s fascinating (especially if you‘re a royalty/aristocracy buff)! 5y
LeahBergen @vivastory I can never pick favourite books. I might be able to work with a top 50 list. 😆😆 5y
LeahBergen @Ruthiella I do, too! 5y
LeahBergen @BarbaraBB It was actually quite the page-turner for me. Have you read Whipple before? 5y
LeahBergen @Cinfhen 😆😆 Hardly!!! 5y
LeahBergen @Cathythoughts Alice is quite weird but strangely captivating. 😄 5y
LeahBergen @ValerieAndBooks It‘s gossipy and good! 👍🏻 5y
ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled Im going to look into these!! 5y
Eyelit I loved Someone at a Distance! One of my fave #persephonebooks 💜 5y
BarbaraBB Nope but I bought this one recently, probably because of you! 5y
Reviewsbylola I loved Someone at a Distance!! 5y
emilyhaldi What a mix!😍 5y
115 likes2 stack adds19 comments
blurb
Aimeesue
Alice | Elizabeth Eliot
post image

"The Principal, Miss Hartley-Jones, said that she would be very pleased to have me as a pupil, and that she was sure I would be very happy with them. She mentioned that of course all her pupils were gentlewomen. I was beginning to wonder where really common people learned to type. Maybe they just picked it up for themselves." Hahahaha!

Thanks, @LeahBergen for sharing this book - I'm really enjoying it.
@jillrhudy You'd like this. SO Mitfordish!

LeahBergen This bit made me laugh! Isn‘t Margaret appealingly dim? 😆 5y
jillrhudy Downloaded and at the ready! 5y
28 likes3 stack adds2 comments
blurb
LeahBergen
Alice | Elizabeth Eliot
post image

A Sunday afternoon spent reading another oldie which is, happily, turning out to be darkly comic and unputdownable.

This 1949 novel has recently been republished in the Furrowed Middlebrow series by #DeanStreetPress. 👏🏻👏🏻

Melissa_J I‘m just over here admiring your teacup 😊 5y
shawnmooney Oooh, off to check the book and its publisher out!😘 5y
saresmoore What Shawn said! 5y
See All 19 Comments
ShyBookOwl Love the cover art 5y
rubyslippersreads I just bought this ebook, but yours is so much prettier. 😍 5y
Tonton Furrowed Middlebrow !😎 5y
batsy Lovely cover! And "darkly comic and unputdownable" is music to my ears ? 5y
Cathythoughts I‘m stacking too ♥️👍🏻 5y
Aimeesue After seeing this post yesterday, I looked to see if there was an ebook. There is! I'd rather have a hard copy, but alas, there's so little room on my shelves. The ebook is $3.99 in the US. 5y
LeahBergen @Melissa_J It‘s one of my newest and in heavy rotation at the moment. 😆 5y
LeahBergen @shawnmooney I think you‘d like some of the Furrowed Middlebrow books. 👍🏻 5y
LeahBergen @saresmoore And I think you‘d like them, too! 😘 5y
LeahBergen @ShyBookOwl It‘s lovely, isn‘t it? 😊 5y
LeahBergen @rubyslippersreads @Aimeesue I really like that they offer their ebooks for a good deal when they republish these forgotten books. 👍🏻 5y
LeahBergen @Tonton I love them (and Furrowed Middlebrow blog, too 👍🏻). 5y
LeahBergen @batsy @Cathythoughts It‘s a strangely appealing little book (so far!) 5y
Aimeesue "The Principal, Miss Hartley-Jones, said that she would be very pleased to have me as a pupil, and that she was sure I would be very happy with them. She mentioned that of course all her pupils were gentlewomen. I was beginning to wonder where really common people learned to type. Maybe they just picked it up for themselves." Hahahahahaha! This book is very Mitfordish. I'm enjoying it! (edited) 5y
LeahBergen @Aimeesue It‘s a quirky one, isn‘t it? 😆 Look closely at this photo of my cover when you get to the description of Alice‘s favourite painting. It‘s almost exactly what‘s described! 5y
Aimeesue @LeahBergen It‘s EXACTLY the painting! 5y
126 likes4 stack adds19 comments