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rebroxannape's review against another edition
4.0
The Flowering Thorn is a rather unsentimental novel about the journey of a pleasure-addicted, fashion-obsessed party-loving “bright young thing.” of 1920’s London. She unaccountably takes on the care of a four-year-old orphan son of a servant of her aunt.
Why? Towards the end of the book, Lesley Frewen looks back:
I remember quite well the reasons why I adopted him. I had been very bored in London, and had also failed to look my best at an important dinner-party. At least, I thought it was important.… The next day I went down to my aunt’s, and found her at her wits’ end to know what to do with Pat. I thought that if I adopted him it would provide me with a new and amusing topic of conversation. If I’d known what I was taking on I shouldn’t have done it. And when I did know.… I felt like wrapping him in a shawl and leaving him on a doorstep.” “But you didn’t, did you?” said Mrs. Brooke.
She soon realizes that she can no longer afford to keep both her little apartment in her fashionable neighborhood and the child.
[The realtors] all said the same thing. For the accommodation Madam required, and at the rent Madam was prepared to pay, Madam would probably do better to try the suburbs. Lesley listened incredulously: it was as though they advised her to try Australia. There were the suburbs, of course, through which one occasionally passed in a car, and where people out of Punch borrowed each other’s mowers: but as for living there— ‘Impossible!’and so step by step, fighting every inch of the way, she was driven into the country.
Why does not she just admit defeat and give him back? Nothing legally prevents her.
She thought, ‘If I don’t see this thing out I shall have something rotten inside me for the rest of my life.’ Rotten like an apple—the brown decaying core under the firm red skin.…
There is more to this girl than meets the eye.
From there we are on a very gradual journey of experiences and insights that lead to her letting go of one kind of life, and choosing to live and appreciate another kind. By the end of her growth, she becomes a “countrywoman” with all that entails: a sea change involving food, nature, fashion, physical activity, and friendship. Curiously, it does not involve becoming a devoted loving mother to young Pat ala Auntie Mame.
“I don’t like this place,” said Patrick suddenly. From the sound of his voice she knew the tears to be near: but no impulse to console awoke in her, only a faint shiver of revulsion. A crying child, a dark house.…she looked at him with an intensity of dislike so nearly bordering on hatred … for in all their enforced companionship she never once spoke to him without consciously masking her face. It was a hatred to be ashamed of, ignoble and unjust: but she did not love him the more for making her ashamed.
That is very painful to read, But surprisingly she is a great parent to Pat who is not a brilliant or exceptional boy. He is not intelligent or clever or particularly attractive. He is just ordinary in every way except in his determination to succeed in whatever he attempts. And because of necessity and propinquity, the hatred does not last. But she never adores him.
Despite the lack of sentimentality, I was moved to tears in a few places near the end, one of which does involve Pat and Leslie’s relationship. And it is funny and witty along the lines of Angela Thirkell and D.E. Stevenson. Doubtless, some readers will not have the patience to journey with Lesley or “Frewen” as Pat calls her, along her slow learning curve. There is no series of dramatic revelations, great romance, or emotional epiphanies. But it is an evocative and amusing portrait of a young woman, a boy, and her friends and neighbors. I closed the book loving them all.
https://rebekahsreadingsandwatchings.com/
Why? Towards the end of the book, Lesley Frewen looks back:
I remember quite well the reasons why I adopted him. I had been very bored in London, and had also failed to look my best at an important dinner-party. At least, I thought it was important.… The next day I went down to my aunt’s, and found her at her wits’ end to know what to do with Pat. I thought that if I adopted him it would provide me with a new and amusing topic of conversation. If I’d known what I was taking on I shouldn’t have done it. And when I did know.… I felt like wrapping him in a shawl and leaving him on a doorstep.” “But you didn’t, did you?” said Mrs. Brooke.
She soon realizes that she can no longer afford to keep both her little apartment in her fashionable neighborhood and the child.
[The realtors] all said the same thing. For the accommodation Madam required, and at the rent Madam was prepared to pay, Madam would probably do better to try the suburbs. Lesley listened incredulously: it was as though they advised her to try Australia. There were the suburbs, of course, through which one occasionally passed in a car, and where people out of Punch borrowed each other’s mowers: but as for living there— ‘Impossible!’and so step by step, fighting every inch of the way, she was driven into the country.
Why does not she just admit defeat and give him back? Nothing legally prevents her.
She thought, ‘If I don’t see this thing out I shall have something rotten inside me for the rest of my life.’ Rotten like an apple—the brown decaying core under the firm red skin.…
There is more to this girl than meets the eye.
From there we are on a very gradual journey of experiences and insights that lead to her letting go of one kind of life, and choosing to live and appreciate another kind. By the end of her growth, she becomes a “countrywoman” with all that entails: a sea change involving food, nature, fashion, physical activity, and friendship. Curiously, it does not involve becoming a devoted loving mother to young Pat ala Auntie Mame.
“I don’t like this place,” said Patrick suddenly. From the sound of his voice she knew the tears to be near: but no impulse to console awoke in her, only a faint shiver of revulsion. A crying child, a dark house.…she looked at him with an intensity of dislike so nearly bordering on hatred … for in all their enforced companionship she never once spoke to him without consciously masking her face. It was a hatred to be ashamed of, ignoble and unjust: but she did not love him the more for making her ashamed.
That is very painful to read, But surprisingly she is a great parent to Pat who is not a brilliant or exceptional boy. He is not intelligent or clever or particularly attractive. He is just ordinary in every way except in his determination to succeed in whatever he attempts. And because of necessity and propinquity, the hatred does not last. But she never adores him.
And as a result of all this non-devotion, you’ve brought Pat up damned well. “A child should be—how can I put it?—not too much concentrated on…An only child supporting the whole weight of the mother’s emotions—and sometimes the father’s as well—he leads the most exhausting life on earth. It’s what might very well have happened to Pat, if you’d been another kind of woman. My dear Lesley—you know all this better than I do, of course—a child doesn’t want to absorb a life, he wants to inhabit one. Make a happy life for him to inhabit, and you make your child happy too.—I’ve never tried it myself,” admitted Sir Philip, “but that’s the theory.”
Despite the lack of sentimentality, I was moved to tears in a few places near the end, one of which does involve Pat and Leslie’s relationship. And it is funny and witty along the lines of Angela Thirkell and D.E. Stevenson. Doubtless, some readers will not have the patience to journey with Lesley or “Frewen” as Pat calls her, along her slow learning curve. There is no series of dramatic revelations, great romance, or emotional epiphanies. But it is an evocative and amusing portrait of a young woman, a boy, and her friends and neighbors. I closed the book loving them all.
https://rebekahsreadingsandwatchings.com/
cimorene1558's review against another edition
5.0
A charming story. A fashionable, bored London woman adopts a child on a whim, and finds peace, happiness and eventually romance.
kittykornerlibrarian's review against another edition
5.0
Published in 1934, this novel begins with a detached young modern woman living the high life in London. She gets bored and decides, offhandedly, to adopt a four-year-old child and bury herself in a country cottage. Her character transformation and her growth into a person deeply connected with the world around her makes a beautiful, cleverly-written story. Sharp's mastery of creating memorable minor characters pervades in this novel.
marrrk's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
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
4.5
we_are_all_mad_here26's review against another edition
4.0
London 1929, and a woman who adopts a four-year-old child primarily for the amusing anecdotes his existence might provide. When she decides that surely he can be left at home alone until 3am - after all, he's sleeping so peacefully! - I really thought, no. I cannot tolerate this woman for another 200+ pages.
Of course I was wrong; Margery Sharp's writing is wonderful and her characters sharply realistic. Nothing sentimental here at all and yet somehow, all the appropriate sentiments come though.
Side note: no matter what you might be writing, it can almost always be improved by the inclusion of a post office and a vicar.
Of course I was wrong; Margery Sharp's writing is wonderful and her characters sharply realistic. Nothing sentimental here at all and yet somehow, all the appropriate sentiments come though.
Side note: no matter what you might be writing, it can almost always be improved by the inclusion of a post office and a vicar.
quietjenn's review against another edition
4.0
I like Margery Sharp so much that I'm making myself ration the books out at a respectable interval. They witty and smart and emotional without being cloying or melodramatic and twee. In this one, a bored society girl adopts a young boy on a whim and must then retreat to the country to begrudgingly (kind of) raise him. Of course, she finds that it's really where she belongs but there's absolutely none of the sentimentality in it, as you'd get with so many other writers.
libdibs's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Randomly adopting kids when you don't like them: 👎. Growing, loving and learning together in the countryside: 👍.
extemporalli's review against another edition
3.0
This was enjoyable, but I couldn't fully get into the book because for so much of it Lesley was really disagreeable, which made it tough reading. Added to which, the little boy she adopts seems to require little from her, which was part of Sharp's philosophy that the disengaged parent is probably a better and less exhausting parent than the overly engaged one, but which made for a very distant and unemotional novel. Added to which, Lesley's best friend from the city (who pops up throughout the novel as a motif for what Lesley left behind when she moved to the country) was unpleasant and insincere throughout without getting a fitting comeuppance, so what was the point really?
lynn_pugh's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
4.0
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