A wreath for the enemy (Frankau)

I was spurred onto read this Frankau when a reader called Harriet visited this blog and commented on one of my other Frankau posts, The Willow Cabin (the other being The Winged Horse, which I did not enjoy so much) which reminded me that I still had another volume of hers to go.

A "coming of age" novel, the book, which falls into three sections, centres around the character of Penelope Wells. A precocious child, she lives in a hotel in the French Riviera with her parents. One summer she meets the far more conventional Bradley children; whilst the children get on well, the Bradley parents find the hotel disreputable and the friendship sadly ends. But the childhood encounters and an episode at the end of their friendship proves strongly influential on the lives of both Penelope, and Don Bradley. Penelope seeks order as an adult, and Don rebels against his family values, and it is this which is explored in the other two sections of the book. The middle section is told through the eyes of Don, as he develops a friendship with a man called Crusoe, involved in the horse-racing scene, and the final section returns to Penelope.

Perhaps it wasn't quite as captivating as some of the other "coming of age" VMC novels, I capture the castle or The constant nymph, for example, but I did find it very absorbing and different, and not at all dated (which, although I hate to say it about a range branded as "classics" can sometime be the case), and according to the introduction by Rafaella Barker, it is strongly autobiographical.

It's just been published once by Virago with an original green cover, but bizarrely appears in my VMC master-list with two numbers - I can't quite explain this. I love the cover image and would be glad to see the Frankau books (which I have now read all of, or at least the VMC ones - she wrote 33 in total) back in print. I think however that The Willow Cabin remains my favourite of the three.

*edit* the second number is a mistake - 272 which I previously mentioned on this post actually belongs to Willa Cather - One of ours

Winged horse (Frankau) 311

The winged horse was a kind gift from Heather who reads this blog and I wasted no time in getting around to reading it. I'd read Frankau's The willow cabin earlier in the year, without many expectations and had greatly enjoyed it, and was hoping for more of the same. Unfortunately, although it was quite a good read, it was not in my opinion as enjoyable as The willow cabin. In some ways this may reflect where Frankau was in her career; The willow cabin was written aged 19 and was her first published book; The winged horse was written in her late 40s, and was quite a different read - a more intricate plot line and more complex prose.

The story involves a number of characters, but it revolves around the newspaper tycoon JG Baron and his children and those that work for him. He is successful and those around him seem to lead a charmed life, but under the surface things are not quite so; Celia his eldest daughter is trapped in an unhappy marriage and then filing for divorce, another son is killed, another daughter struggles to live up to the perfection that her father believes she has.

Has anyone else read both The winged horse and The willow cabin? If so, how did you feel that they compare? Must read A wreath for the enemy which is her final VMC and see what I think of that.

The willow cabin (Frankau) 293

The willow cabin was a VMC that I acquired without knowing anything about, and thus did not expect high things from (it's weird what makes you anticipate some books more than others). I can't even remember where I got it from. But it turned out to be a hidden gem.

The book is divided into three sections, telling the story of Caroline. In the first section, she seems set for a promising stage career - we see her perform as Viola (a speech of whom's provides the title for this book). She then meets, and falls in love with Michael Knowle, a surgeon, and her career takes second place to spending time with him and trying to evade the spectre of his first marriage and his ex-wife Mercedes. The Second World War then breaks out, and Michael is called up, and Caroline decides also to undertake war service as being the best way of trying to stay close to Michael. Unfortunately, Michael is killed in action. In the third section, we meet Mercedes, and we go back in time to when she first met Michael, and track the course of their relationship. The two stories then come together, when Caroline seeks out Mercedes as part of her attempt to come to terms with Michael's death.

I loved the story, and the period details (am always a fan of wartime fiction and this as particularly well done) and liked Frankau's style of writing very much.

Only published the once by Virago. However, they have published two other novels by Frankau - The winged horse, and A wreath for the enemy - which I shall be keenly looking out for.