I'm determined to make up for not reading any VMCs last week by reading my four newest acquisitions this week, which don't fit onto the VMC TBR shelf. First of the four is Crewe Train by Rose Macaulay. Macaulay was a fairly prolific novelist, most famous for her last novel, The towers of Trebizond, but only three of her books have made it into Virago Modern Classics, none of which I have yet read for the blog.
Set in the 1920s, Crewe Train tells the story of Denham Dobie (what an amazing name that is!), who lives with her unsociable father in Andorra. Her late mother's relatives visit, and take her back to London for a visit, putting her straight into the world which her father has sought to escape. It is difficult for her to join in with the socialising and dinner parties - it is definitely beyond her comfort zone. Eventually, she finds another serious person, Arnold, who she falls in love with and marries.
What I liked about this book was that it made me feel that my dislike of the glittering social worlds portrayed in Edith Wharton books which I always struggle to finish was perhaps justified. Certain sorts of people are just perhaps not as good at social situations as other people, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they won't settle down happily.
It's been published just once by Virago with a modern green cover - interestingly, it is numbered VMC 385, which is a duplicate with Where the apple ripens!
Sounds interesting, will have to keep my eye out.
ReplyDeleteI love this novel - in fact, I wrote quite a lot on this and Keeping Up Appearances for my thesis, all of which has since been cut. Macaulay is so wonderfully dry.
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