Forster, Margaret

Average customer rating:

portrait of an artist

Daphne Du Maurier
Margaret Forster
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0385420684
Release Date: 1993-09-01

Customer Reviews:

portrait of an artist.......2007-06-04

Daphne du Maurier was a consummate artist and Forster's excellent biography portrays her sympathetically, yet realistically. To begin to understand du Maurier one must understand that she considered fantasy more exciting than the real world. A child of privilege, Daphne grew up in a highly social and colorful artist's family, yet she greatly valued being alone. Her work was very lucrative, yet she spent much more money to help family and friends than on herself. Her writing is part of college curriculum and extremely popular. She was accepted into the Order of Knighthood for her contribution to the arts. Forster's apparently well-researched biography is written in a casual style, often humorous. Many people have something to say about Daphne and I found her own quotes the most interesting, yet, chameleon-like, she eludes the reader and remains mysterious.

Average customer rating:

A great historical fiction read
irritating
Thoroughly engaging novel of Victorian times
An absorbing and well written account of Victorian life
a prolific book about a prolific artist

Lady's Maid
Margaret Forster
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0449907155
Release Date: 1992-04-28

Book Description

"Absorbing...Heartbreaking...Forster paints a vivid picture of class, station, hypocrisy and survival in Victorian society....Grips the reader's imagination on every page."
-- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
She was Elizabeth Barrett's lady's maid. But "Wilson" was more than that. She was a confidante, friend and conspirator in Elizabeth's forbidden romance with Robert Browning. Wilson stayed with Elizabeth for sixteen years, through every trial and crisis, and when Wilson's affairs took a dramatic turn she expected the same loyalty from Elizabeth....

Customer Reviews:

A great historical fiction read.......2005-01-21

I picked up Lady's Maid because someone recommended it to me as a great historical fiction book and finished it in the course of a weekend. What was most appealing to me about it was not the relationship between the Brownings though, but the relationship between the narrator Lily, Elizabeth Barrett's maid, and her mistress, and the discussion of class differences between the two, a topic that most likely would have been prevalent at the time. According to Foster, there really was a Lily and many of the features of her story were based on this Lily's own circumstances, and I found that very fascinating. The book got a little tiresome at the end but overall it was very good, both in writing and structure, as well as in storyline and development of characters. I'd give it a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

irritating.......2004-04-16

I like this book but I was SO irritated by the characters. They are probably realistic for 19th century but the Brownings are unbelievably manipulative and Wilson is so subsservient to them. I know, I know, it's realistic but 21st century (even 20th century) people will find it irritating.

Thoroughly engaging novel of Victorian times.......2003-06-01

As an English teacher, I'm ashamed to admit that I knew very little about either Elizabeth Barrett or Robert Browning before picking up this book. The story of their maid, Lily Wilson, gives an interesting perspective on the private life of Elizabeth and Robert. And I admired that Forster depicted the two famous literary figures as she saw to be accurate, rather than glamorizing and glorifying them as there might be a temptation to do. The two poets are very human, often fussy, melodramatic, and given to self-aggrandizement. That made me all the more interested in the story of Lily and the difference in their lifestyle and hers, and of course their indifference to the way they treated her. It's been a while since I read something like Jane Austen, so it was refreshing and fascinating to dip back into a world with social codes so different from ours today. This book must have taken years to research, and Forster's depiction of Victorian life shows the evidence of that research.

There was a page-long afterword that explained which parts of the book were true, but I wanted more. I wish Margaret Forster had written more books like this! You won't be sorry you picked it up.

An absorbing and well written account of Victorian life.......2001-10-11

I knew next to nothing about the subject matter of this book when my mother lent it to me (she loved it as well). Forster is able to completely personalize the social constrictions of Victorian society through the eyes of Wilson, Lady's Maid to the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Honestly enjoyable and a treat to read. I couldn't help noticing all the 5 star ratings here - well deserving of this fine author. Bravo!

a prolific book about a prolific artist.......2001-01-24

I have to start out by saying that it has been 9 years since I read this book, but even now it stands out as one of the most telling books I have ever read about a genious writer named Elizabeth Barret Browning. In Lady's maid the story of Elizabeth Barret Browning is told from the eyes of her Maid servant. This unusual perspective gives the reader the ability to see the writer(Elizabeth Barret) from a third party focus instead of a introspective focus. The book is sooo good that you are instantly transfixed after the first page. If you are wise you will buy the book and read it when you can literaly sit down and read it cover to cover and enjoy it. It is that good! Enjoy and be edducated. Remember to have lots of tissue at the end, you will need it!

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Georgy Girl
Margaret Forster
Manufacturer: Vintage Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0099478498
Release Date: 2005-05-24

Average customer rating:

A 5 star rated book!
Why not 5 stars?
A great read
Would be a decent read if it was 100 pages shorter

Have the Men Had Enough?
Margaret Forster
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science

ASIN: 0140127690
Release Date: 2000-11-01

Book Description

This is the story of the day-to-day emotional demands of impossible domestic situations. It is a story of female courage, where black comedy turns to disturbing pathos revolving around the rights of an indomitable woman.

Customer Reviews:

A 5 star rated book!.......2003-01-13

Have the men had enough is one of the best books I have ever read...it made me laugh and cry and I felt it depicted the nightmare of dementia within a family briliantly. Margaret Forster is a very astute woman.

Why not 5 stars?.......1999-12-30

This book is funny, touching and very realistically written - and well written too! Grandma in Had the Men had Enough reminds me very much of old people with senile dementia I knew in real life - all those extremely comical situations mixed with tragedy and insights into the personality the aged used to be. A must for anybody with old family members (who not?). It makes you look at old age in a new and (emotionally) better informed way, a more pensive way maybe. Given the subject the book is not at all heavy reading, it is rather light and straightforward. The only drawback to me lies in the construction of the novel (one star off for that is a lot, I know). The story is told by a mother (Grandma's daughter-in-law) and her daughter (Grandma's grandchild) alternatively. They give a kind of diary account of everything that happens with Grandma - but almost no word about the rest of their lives. A very lively way to tell a story, but it has also its unnatural aspects one perceives only after a while or after having finished the book. Nevertheless, Had the Men had Enough is very much worth reading.

A great read.......1999-12-14

I thought that Have the Men had enough was a very funny and emotional book. It was well written . Although the book does not have the same action and compelling drama as some, it does keep you laughing and crying the whole way through.

Would be a decent read if it was 100 pages shorter.......1999-01-09

To put it bluntly, the content of this book is too depressing. This is the story of an 80-something year old lady suffering senile dementia, and her family's struggle to provide loving care for her. I think the main problem with this book is that from the beginning, we can see exactly where the story is heading and how it will end, yet we are subjected to 200-odd pages in the middle which really need to be compelling and gripping but are not. The purpose of the middle of this book is to give us an insight into the old lady's family and the way they struggle to provide adequate care for her as her condition declines (too slowly for my liking). It becomes too repetitive as we see the same problems arising for the family over and over again, which may well be how it would happen in real life but it hardly makes for compelling reading. I just kept finding myself wishing the old lady would die already, to provide a new angle for the story. Now if the book was 100 pages shorter, I doubt I would have lost interest the way I did. But essentially it all comes down to the fact that the story is depressing and unenjoyable. I mean who really wants to read a book which makes an issue out of changing the underwear of a doubly-incontinent 80 year old woman. Not me.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Selected Poems

Average customer rating:

One great and memorable poem justifies a life - work
Some of the best love poetry ever written

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Selected Poems
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0801837545

Book Description

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints-I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!-and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Bloomsbury Poetry Classics are selections from the work of some of our greatest poets. The series is aimed at the general reader rather than the specialist and carries no critical or explanatory apparatus. This can be found elsewhere. In the series the poems introduce themselves, on an uncluttered page and in a format that is both attractive and convenient. The selections have been made by the distinguished poet, critic, and biographer Ian Hamilton.

Customer Reviews:

One great and memorable poem justifies a life - work .......2005-12-25

Reading through this volume I find it difficult to become deeply engaged. Something in the archaic, quaint language of much of the poetry deters.
Yet there is a poem, the poem of all the anthologies that is a great and memorable one, one that justifies a life- work.
" How do I love thee , Let me count the ways" is one of the most beautiful and inspiring love- poems ever written.

Some of the best love poetry ever written.......2000-04-24

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry, especially the "Sonnets from the Portuguese," is beautiful, intelligent, and honest love poetry. Anyone who has experienced the doubts, fears, and transformation of love will recognize the truth of the poet's struggle to trust and to love.

Average customer rating:

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Biography
Margaret Forster
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Victorian Women Poets: Writing Against the Heart (Victorian Literature and Culture Series)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Selected Poems

ASIN: 0385249594
Release Date: 1989-01-24

Average customer rating:

I
The first review

The Memory Box
Margaret Forster
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140284117

Customer Reviews:

I.......2007-04-11

I came across this book through "the reading group, by Elizabeth Noble". She has a great list of books to read.

The first review.......2000-09-18

Margaret Forster takes us on a wonderful journey through Catherine's discovery of her dead mother. The 'memory box' her mother leaves her daughter as she dies, when the child is only six months old, reminds us of the importance of personal history and the sense that it gives us all of our grounding in life. The journey that Catherine undertakes leads her to question her own lifestyle and the relationships with her father, stepmother and Tony her boyfriend. To the very end she reconciles her feelings for the mother she tried to ignore and discovers unexpected truths about herself. The box for thirty years enclosed and contained within the attic of her family home, once opened like Pandoras Box, couldnt be closed again. An engaging story which will make you question your history.

Gerald: A Portrait (Virago Modern Classics)

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Gerald: A Portrait (Virago Modern Classics)

Manufacturer: Virago Press, Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1844080668

Book Description

Daphne du Maurier's celebrated biography of her father, Gerald du Maurier, last of the great actor-managers.

Sir Gerald du Maurier was the preeminent actor-manager of his day, knighted in 1922 for his services to the theater. Published within six months of her father's death, Daphne du Maurier's frank portrait was considered shocking by many of his admirers—but it was a huge success, winning her critical acclaim and launching her career. Here, du Maurier captures the spirit and charm of the charismatic actor who played the original Captain Hook, amusingly recounting his eccentricities, his humor, as well as his darker side.

Hidden Lives
Average customer rating:

Mystery

a wonderful piece on social history

I've read it 3 times and still can't put it down.

Hidden Lives
Margaret Forster
Manufacturer: Penguin Putnam~trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140239820

Customer Reviews:

Mystery.......2006-03-28

this is an excellent and riveting tale of the depressing lives of the author's mother and grandparents. But, at the end it is akin to turning the last page of an Agatha Christie and reading "and thus the identity of the murderer remains a mystery". The fundamental questions raised in the first pages are never resolved.

a wonderful piece on social history.......1998-10-27

I really enjoyed this book. It moved me to think about all the people in my life and all the people before me. Margaret Forster writes with so much feeling and depth. She guides you through the people and the events surrounding these characters and it seems you too may have family relatives just like hers somewhere. Margaret Forster is a highly skilled writer. The strength of this memoir I felt was in is the detail and the social commentary. It is also a great tribute to women and their work and their many roles in life.

I've read it 3 times and still can't put it down........1998-08-23

Hidden Lives is the story of four generations of women in Forster's own family. She uses her brilliance as a novelist to create a fascinating and emotionally compelling history. Without going into dry statistics she gives us a picture of the lives of working class women in Carlisle, England from the late 1800s to her own successful life today. It tells social history through the ordinary details of everyday lives, but on another level, the book is just a great read and highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

Rather depressing

Keeping the World Away: A Novel
Margaret Forster
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0345496337
Release Date: 2007-07-03

Book Description

A classic Margaret Forster novel with the same satisfying appeal as her bestselling Diary of an Ordinary Woman — the story of an actual early 20th century painting and its fictional adventures through the century and of the women whose lives it touches.

Customer Reviews:

Rather depressing.......2006-10-21

This is a strange book with an overlying sense of depression to it. Gwen John, sister of the famous artist and sculptor, Augustus John, paints a small picture of a corner of her garret in Paris where she is struggling to "find" herself in the world of art. She is one of the many mistresses of Rodin and is totally obsessed by him, even when he discards her for other women. When women, rather than men, view her painting, they seem to recognise her unhappiness, and so begins a tale of a painting through the next 100 years, to different continents and through two world wars. I had thought that this would be a fascinating tale of artists and art lovers, but the overiding sense of unhappiness and depression swamped all of my interest in the book, even though it takes the reader through many owners, all of whom are living unsatisfactory lives. Now I need either a rollicking good yarn or a bloody murder to cheer myself up!

Authors:

Authors

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