Scan barcode
readingoverbreathing's review
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
One of my main takeaways from the Persephone festival was how little Whipple I've really read — picking up another has been long overdue!
The very first chapter, that spellbinding opening onto the Priory just after dusk, each of its characters shrouded in the darkness, I was utterly enthralled. Whipple writes everything well — atmosphere, plot, and characters and domestic details especially. Though on a surface level, this appears a very simple plot, I never quite knew where it was going, and how it would all end, happily or not.
Like most of her books, there is definitely a heaviness and a sadness here, very much akin to the true bittersweetness of life. But it's of course beautifully handled, almost heartbreakingly so, so I would absolutely recommend if you're in a place to take that in.
Overall, it's Whipple — what more can I really say!
The very first chapter, that spellbinding opening onto the Priory just after dusk, each of its characters shrouded in the darkness, I was utterly enthralled. Whipple writes everything well — atmosphere, plot, and characters and domestic details especially. Though on a surface level, this appears a very simple plot, I never quite knew where it was going, and how it would all end, happily or not.
Like most of her books, there is definitely a heaviness and a sadness here, very much akin to the true bittersweetness of life. But it's of course beautifully handled, almost heartbreakingly so, so I would absolutely recommend if you're in a place to take that in.
Overall, it's Whipple — what more can I really say!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Miscarriage
Minor: Death of parent
siria's review
4.0
The Priory centres around a once-grand English stately home in the interwar years, and the lives of the family who live there and some of their servants. This is the first Dorothy Whipple that I've read, and I found this is a book to sink into: part comedy of manners, part low-key melodrama. While some aspects of the book feel a little dated from a 2020s perspective, Whipple showed a deft touch with creating rounded characters and having them respond believably to the changes that buffet them. I particularly liked her keen awareness of how hemmed in a woman's choices were in this time. The ending is perhaps a little pat, and there's no way Whipple could have known what changes a matter of months would bring to the political landscape of Europe, but I still enjoyed this and will look out for more of her work.
philippakmoore's review
5.0
I am yet to read a Dorothy Whipple book that I don’t declare magnificent - she is a simply wonderful writer and probably one of the twentieth-century’s most under-appreciated. The main story of The Priory takes place around the crumbling estate of Saunby, which has been in the family for generations but now being run into the ground by Major Marwood whose main priority in life is cricket. He is reluctant to spend money on anything else, including his two grown daughters Christine and Penelope (who still live in the estate’s nursery!) and his spinster sister, Victoria. All of this changes when the Major decides it’s time he remarried. His new wife, Anthea, is determined to get her new home into some sort of order and does away with many relics of the estate’s former life - including the hapless cook Mrs Nall and the Major’s beloved cricket - and, finding herself pregnant with twins (to the Major’s great horror), decides Christine and Penelope must leave the nursery and engages a no-nonsense nanny Nurse Pye (reminiscent of Sister Evangelina in Call the Midwife!) to come and live with the family and help her with the new babies. Christine and Penelope are aghast and actively look for ways they might be able to escape. Unfortunately, as they didn’t have much of an education and therefore have little chance of getting decent jobs to support themselves, their only option is to get married themselves.
Behind the scenes - or below-stairs - are the lives of the servants at Saunby, equally interesting and full of drama. There’s a love triangle between the Major’s right-hand man Thompson, a former professional cricketer, and the two maids, sweet and sunny Bessy and the manipulative Bertha, which plays out very dramatically!
It’s a fascinating novel and entirely absorbing. I love Whipple’s stories for their remarkable insights into human nature and observations about the changing nature of life, and The Priory is no exception. It’s a treat to see the characters grow and change too as they adapt to their altered circumstances - some characters start off as admirable, earnest and well-meaning but turn out to be very selfish, and vice versa. This novel also explores the lack of options available for women at the time - if a marriage did not eventuate or, even worse, failed, things really could get very desperate (and indeed they do for some women in this book). I loved the ending, as it was so hopeful, though it was also tinged with sadness, knowing that the Second World War was just around the corner.
Behind the scenes - or below-stairs - are the lives of the servants at Saunby, equally interesting and full of drama. There’s a love triangle between the Major’s right-hand man Thompson, a former professional cricketer, and the two maids, sweet and sunny Bessy and the manipulative Bertha, which plays out very dramatically!
It’s a fascinating novel and entirely absorbing. I love Whipple’s stories for their remarkable insights into human nature and observations about the changing nature of life, and The Priory is no exception. It’s a treat to see the characters grow and change too as they adapt to their altered circumstances - some characters start off as admirable, earnest and well-meaning but turn out to be very selfish, and vice versa. This novel also explores the lack of options available for women at the time - if a marriage did not eventuate or, even worse, failed, things really could get very desperate (and indeed they do for some women in this book). I loved the ending, as it was so hopeful, though it was also tinged with sadness, knowing that the Second World War was just around the corner.
paperbacksandpines's review
4.0
When you are happy, you can be alone. When you are unhappy, you need other people.
I had no idea what I was getting into when I opened this book. It was the premise of two young women living at home when their father decides to remarry and their lives are upended which drew me to this book.
I had assumed that I would be picking up a book reminiscent of Angela Thirkell when in reality it read more like a Thomas Hardy for large portions of the book.
Love is only happy when it is confident. When it is humble, it is full of pain and misgiving; there is hardly any happiness to be had out of it at all.
I've never read a book quite like this in terms of characters and their motivations. I really couldn't predict what they would feel or do next. At times, I felt myself rooting for them, or at least pitying them, and then prompting rejecting that I had ever rooted for them in the first place.
This book touched upon so many themes: the importance of having a home (so much so that the priory became a character), infatuation, love in all of its stages, sisterhood, family, friendship, and loyalty.
I'm not sure whether I liked this book as a whole because it had too much pathos for my taste but I will remember this book and I will remember its characters and their struggles and triumphs.
I had no idea what I was getting into when I opened this book. It was the premise of two young women living at home when their father decides to remarry and their lives are upended which drew me to this book.
I had assumed that I would be picking up a book reminiscent of Angela Thirkell when in reality it read more like a Thomas Hardy for large portions of the book.
Love is only happy when it is confident. When it is humble, it is full of pain and misgiving; there is hardly any happiness to be had out of it at all.
I've never read a book quite like this in terms of characters and their motivations. I really couldn't predict what they would feel or do next. At times, I felt myself rooting for them, or at least pitying them, and then prompting rejecting that I had ever rooted for them in the first place.
This book touched upon so many themes: the importance of having a home (so much so that the priory became a character), infatuation, love in all of its stages, sisterhood, family, friendship, and loyalty.
I'm not sure whether I liked this book as a whole because it had too much pathos for my taste but I will remember this book and I will remember its characters and their struggles and triumphs.
divyasehgal's review
5.0
So pleased to have discovered such a wonderful author such as Dorothy Whipple. The Priory was a joy to read.
lindseysparks's review
4.0
This started of slow, but I loved it in the end. Yet another story that makes me happy to live now. I thought the part about the war being called off was interesting - wishful thinking.
sloatsj's review
4.0
Big fan of Dorothy Whipple. My favorite is "Because of the Lockwoods," but I haven't read one I didn't like.