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salalander's review against another edition
emotional
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
mrswythe89's review against another edition
3.0
This was a funny one. It was so incredibly mannered it was ridiculous. All the characters sounded the same, and their dialogue was all equally unnatural. I don't remember the other Rebecca West book I read being so artificial. And it was so super obsessed with this dividing line between ordinary people and SPECIAL people (the main characters being the speshulest snowflakes ever).
I really wanted to find out why Cousin Rosamund married the dude. I know they tell you in the afterword, but it isn't the same. And I still want that ending to have been written and for me to have read it even though I suspect it would have been spectacularly faily -- the description of her husband is so weirdly racialised. Also, she married him so she could be martyred in a concentration camp? I just ... Rebecca West. Dude. How could you think that was a good idea?
And yet there's something there. West has a way of expressing feminist insights that feel particularly fresh, that seem to reveal something new about society, or really reveal something you already knew but in a way that makes it even more convincing. And feminist insight aside, the book was absorbing, I couldn't put it down. Mind you, British interwar women's fiction is the genre of my er not really heart, probably loins or something embarrassing like that, so I'm not sure that says much about it. But West had something. It's weird how obscure she is now.
I really wanted to find out why Cousin Rosamund married the dude. I know they tell you in the afterword, but it isn't the same. And I still want that ending to have been written and for me to have read it even though I suspect it would have been spectacularly faily -- the description of her husband is so weirdly racialised. Also, she married him so she could be martyred in a concentration camp? I just ... Rebecca West. Dude. How could you think that was a good idea?
And yet there's something there. West has a way of expressing feminist insights that feel particularly fresh, that seem to reveal something new about society, or really reveal something you already knew but in a way that makes it even more convincing. And feminist insight aside, the book was absorbing, I couldn't put it down. Mind you, British interwar women's fiction is the genre of my er not really heart, probably loins or something embarrassing like that, so I'm not sure that says much about it. But West had something. It's weird how obscure she is now.
alexsbooksandsocks's review against another edition
Het derde deel over de Aubrey-familie en ook al is de titel Rosamund, ze komt zelf amper aan bod in het boek. Het past wel bij de gehele trend van deze drie boeken. Er is zoveel dat geschreven word, en toch zo weinig.
De zussen trekken doorheen de wereld als gevierde pianisten maar het gemis van hun ouders en broer - iets wat zeer regelmatig opnieuw aan bod komt - zorgt ervoor dat genieten toch iets moeilijks blijkt te zijn. Getroebleerd, zelfs wanneer ze uiteindelijk, afzonderlijk van elkaar en elk op hun eigen manier, gelukkig zijn.
De schrijfstijl is zoals de vorige boek heel verhalend en gedetailleerd, er zijn heel veel woorden om een enkel iets te vertellen en mis ik nog enkele puzzelstukjes, zoals in verband met Rosamund. Het voelde toch vertrouwd om dit boek in te duiken en voor de derde keer te ontdekken waarom dit de noemer klassieker krijgt want dat snap ik wel.
Ik moet na drie boeken dus concluderen - net zoals de vorige delen - dat ik deze familie Aubrey moeilijk kan loslaten ook al ben ik niet de grootste fan van de manier waarop de auteur haar verhaal heeft willen vertellen.
lnatal's review against another edition
3.0
This is the third and final book of the Aubrey trilogy.
Even if the style of writing of Rebecca West is not considered as being as romain-fleuve, the last two volumes of this series certainly have the similar characteristics used by Romain Rolland and Marcel Proust.
Even if the style of writing of Rebecca West is not considered as being as romain-fleuve, the last two volumes of this series certainly have the similar characteristics used by Romain Rolland and Marcel Proust.
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