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Aubrey Trilogy #2
Nel cuore della notte
È trascorso qualche anno da quando abbiamo salutato la famiglia Aubrey. Le bambine non sono più tali: i corsetti e gli abiti si sono fatti più attillati, le acconciature più sofisticate; l’ozio delle giornate estive è solo un ricordo. Oggi le Aubrey sono giovani donne, e ognuna ha preso la sua strada: le gemelle Mary e Rose sono due pianiste affermate e vivono le difficoltà che comporta avere un talento straordinario. La sorella maggiore, Cordelia, ha abbandonato le velleità artistiche per sposarsi e accomodarsi nel ruolo di moglie convenzionale. La cugina Rosamund, affascinante più che mai, lavora come infermiera. La madre comincia piano piano a spegnersi, mentre il padre è sparito definitivamente. Poi c’� lui, il piccolo Richard Quin, che si è trasformato in un giovane seduttore brillante e, sempre più, adorato da tutti. La guerra, che piomberà sulla famiglia come una catastrofe annunciata, busserà anche alla sua porta, e sconvolgerà ogni cosa. Mentre l’Inghilterra intera è costretta a separarsi dai suoi uomini, l’universo delle Aubrey si fa sempre più esclusivamente femminile: gli uomini e l’amore rimangono un grande mistero, un terreno inesplorato da attraversare, pagine ancora tutte da scrivere che, forse, troveranno spazio nel prossimo volume di questa appassionante saga familiare.
Dopo La famiglia Aubrey, Nel cuore della notte è il secondo capitolo della trilogia di Rebecca West.
Dopo La famiglia Aubrey, Nel cuore della notte è il secondo capitolo della trilogia di Rebecca West.
406 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1984
36 people are currently reading
1134 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca West
147books435followersCicely Isabel Fairfield, known by her pen name Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, DBE was an English author, journalist, literary critic, and travel writer. She was brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she attended George Watson's Ladies College.
A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of the twentieth century. She reviewed books for The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Sunday Telegraph, and the New Republic, and she was a correspondent for The Bookman. Her major works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), on the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder (1955), her coverage of the Nuremberg trials, published originally in The New Yorker; The Meaning of Treason, later The New Meaning of Treason, a study of World War II and Communist traitors; The Return of the Soldier, a modernist World War I novel; and the "Aubrey trilogy" of autobiographical novels, The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund. Time called her "indisputably the world's number one woman writer" in 1947. She was made CBE in 1949, and DBE in 1959, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to British letters.
A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of the twentieth century. She reviewed books for The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Sunday Telegraph, and the New Republic, and she was a correspondent for The Bookman. Her major works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), on the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder (1955), her coverage of the Nuremberg trials, published originally in The New Yorker; The Meaning of Treason, later The New Meaning of Treason, a study of World War II and Communist traitors; The Return of the Soldier, a modernist World War I novel; and the "Aubrey trilogy" of autobiographical novels, The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund. Time called her "indisputably the world's number one woman writer" in 1947. She was made CBE in 1949, and DBE in 1959, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to British letters.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews
January 26, 2018
Having enjoyed 'The Fountain Overflows' so much I thought this might not live up to my expectations. So glad I was wrong, it was lovely, the characters are wonderful to be with and when I had finished the book it felt like some friends had moved away. I loved the characters of Mary and Rose and felt sympathy with them over Cordelia. I liked the scene at the Morpurgo's, Mrs Morpurgo being rude was descibed by Rose noticing 'she did not suddenly start being disagreeable this afternoon, she was so good at it, she had evidently practised whatever are the scales and arpeggios of rudeness every day of her life ' Funny and sad, the book meanders through their lives and with the outbreak of war towards inevitable sadness.
December 29, 2021
I was quite disappointed in this work. I hesitate to call it a novel. I am not sure Rebecca West gave her blessing that this be published. It was to be part of a trilogy, the first part of it being ‘The Fountain Overflows�, which I very much liked (4 stars). But this was a series of long drawn-out conversations between one or more the following, Rose, the narrator of this work, her mother, her younger brother Richard Quin, her older sister Cordelia, her cousin Rosamund, her twin sister Mary, and several relatives and several friends of the family. The time period was shortly before and during the early part of World War One, in England.
The earliest edition of this work was 1984; Rebecca West died in 1983.
I have the last part of the pseudo-trilogy on my bookshelves, ‘Cousin Rosamund�, so I will probably read that in 2022, although I have read that that it is even less finished/complete than ‘This Real Night�.
I’ve only heard good things about Rebecca West, so I won’t let this deter me from moving on and reading more of her oeuvre. 😉
Reviews
� Both this work and ‘the last part of the trilogy are reviewed (My Cousin Rosamund):
�
�
�
The earliest edition of this work was 1984; Rebecca West died in 1983.
I have the last part of the pseudo-trilogy on my bookshelves, ‘Cousin Rosamund�, so I will probably read that in 2022, although I have read that that it is even less finished/complete than ‘This Real Night�.
I’ve only heard good things about Rebecca West, so I won’t let this deter me from moving on and reading more of her oeuvre. 😉
Reviews
� Both this work and ‘the last part of the trilogy are reviewed (My Cousin Rosamund):
�
�
�
May 10, 2014
Having enjoyed , I picked this up in a charity shop, without realising it was the second of a trilogy until after I started reading it. Fortunately, it still works as a standalone book.
This is a coming of age novel, set in in the run up to WW1: "I wanted to make friends... to be part of the general web, to be linked with boys and girls and men and women who were not yet what they would be in the end."
PLOT
Clare Aubrey, a retired concert pianist, has been abandoned by her gambling husband and is raising their teenage children: Cordelia (the oldest and least warm), twins Rose (the narrator) and Mary (both destined to follow in their mother's musical footsteps), and Richard Quinn (charming, bright, wise and still at school). Cousin Rosamund and her mother, Constance, live with them, too. They are upper-middle class, and by selling some paintings, on the advice of Mr Morpurgo, family finances are now reasonably secure.
As the family rebuild their lives, they relish small victories such as being able to afford flowers to plant in the garden, "We were able to do the things that other people could do". But as they progress, the shadow of war looms, and "we saw a fungoid bloom of ruin slowly creep across the familiar objects among which we had been reared".
At times, it's a little florid, mannered and self-consciously erudite - like a diluted version of Ivy Compton-Burnett. There is not much plot (though there is a murder), but there is some sharp wit, especially at the expense of the dreadful Mrs Morpurgo.
CLASS
The Aubreys are a little adrift: they have the background, tastes and education of the elite, but not quite the income. The mother has become (or maybe always was) oblivious to many social cues, and their friendships cross boundaries in a way that may have shocked some: Mr Morpurgo is a wealthy and generous Jewish art dealer, but they also regularly stay in a pub on the Thames, where they're related by marriage to the landlord.
This can cause awkwardness: "Like all people brought up in households destitute of manservants, we regarded them as implacable enemies... who could implement their ill-will by means of supernatural powers which enabled them to see through a guest's pretensions."
Appropriate clothing is a potential pitfall, but also a source of wry observation. For a prison visit, a man wore "clothes which suggested he had not made up his mind whether he was going to a funeral or to Ascot."
RADICAL FOR HER TIME
West was a member of the Bloomsbury set, that also included Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes and E M Forster. They were known for their progressive attitudes to women and relationships amongst other things, and although this is not a radical novel, there are glimpses of this aspect of West's thinking.
She portrays strong, independent women, and although she doesn't suggest all men are feckless or dangerous, the twins do have such fears, which is one reason why they are determined not to marry.
But there are admirable men in the story, with Richard Quin held up as the ideal man - even before he's a man. Cousin Rosamund says of Richard Quin "I love him... but it's a shame he has to be a man... what will happen to him in a world where men are so awful?"
Uncle Len is also a reliable chap: a lower middle class a publican who is a quirky and admirable auto-didact, something the Aubreys encourage. It sometimes has amusing consequences, such as when he assumes Darwinism is a new and controversial topic for the doctor and the rector: "he was not making the mistakes of a stupid man, he was guessing like an explorer". For all his good qualities, he's still a bit old-school, wanting to keep the women away from any trouble, though Rose asserts "There was no difference in courage between men and women, if what happened wasn't fit for me it wasn't fit for men to see either".
There is also a lengthy and educational look at perceptions of gypsies.
A child is not a different species, as Victorians sometimes thought, but "an adult temporarily enduring conditions which exclude the possibility of happiness".
The mixed feelings of adolescence are probably not as anti-feminist as they first seem, but rather reflect typical mix of fear and excitement, coupled with the limitations women of the time faced. For example, on becoming aware of the attention of men, "We liked this, and did not like it. We wished we were growing up into something other than women."
On the other hand, Clare's advice to a shy, pretty daughter is a little off: "people like young girls who are pretty... when you go to any new place and you feel nervous, just stand there and let people look at you"!
IDENTITY
It's not just in class terms and in the travails of reaching adulthood that characters have identity issues.
Is Clare, married, abandoned, or widowed?
When they leave music college, one of the twins has to change her surname to avoid confusion.
Loss of identity is one of Rose's reasons for fearing marriage.
Uncle Len tries to hide his gypsy background.
One can't help wondering if Mr Morpurgo's collecting of Christian art is, at least in part, a turning aside from his Jewish heritage.
MUSIC
Music is integral to the lives of the main characters, and there is no shying away from the hardships of training: "That was why I had had not childhood and why I had seen so much sunlight through windowpanes". There's always a higher target, but perfection is always just out of reach. They are torn between the desire to succeed and the difficulty of doing so.
When Cordelia gives up professional musicianship, the twins feel they "had so little in common with her that she seemed almost abstract: an inorganic burden like a knapsack."
QUOTES
* "One cannot live slowly as one can play music slowly."
* "Kate wore her wooden look of consequence."
* A butler "spoke with gloating discretion" about an extra guest.
* "Mrs Morpurgo had no secrets, She controlled her words well enough... but as she spoke the truth was blared aloud by the intonation of her commanding voice, the expressions which passed over her face, legible as the words on a poster, and her vigorous movements."
* "She had meant to be nearly, but not quite, intolerable."
* "She had not been abandoned to grief... she had been recovering her faculty for insolent surprise."
* "Her hands clasped before her dark flowing skirts, and a thread in every line of pent up emotion about to burst its dam."
* "There was a faint, sharp sweetness about her, like the taste of raspberries. She wore fussy and frilly clothes and jingling bracelets whit an air of surprised distaste, as if she had been put to sleep by a witch and had awoken to find herself in these trappings."
* "It had been furnished by Maples in the Japanese style, not that the family had any oriental connection, but simply because the backwash of the aesthetic movement had by then reached the suburbs."
* "A Victorian mansion... and within its walls Asia had taken its revenge against colonialism... the drawing room, which really did not look so bad now they had taken out the enormous ivory model of the Taj Mahal."
* Two sisters (not Aubreys) who had been "barmaids, not at the height of their profession. They had wandered in a defeated continent of the vulgar world, where vulgarity had lost its power and its pride... Listening to Aunt Lily's conversation was like having emptied at one's feet a dustbin full of comic songs and jokes from pantomimes."
* "The river, the grey-green mystery, the mirror which reflects solid objects so steadily but is not solid, the fugitive which remains."
* A mob in a pub: "Their faces were clay-coloured and featureless, yet not stupid; they might have been shrewd turnips."
* "Constance was like a statue, not a very good statue, imperfectly Pygmalionised."
* "The plane trees were casting their last crumpled maroon and silver leaves on the pewter pavements, the lights of the passing traffic paid out yellow ribbons of reflection on the shining roadway."
* "She looked as if she were about to burst into tears, but she was wonderful at catching the ball of her own mood in mid-air."
* "I was overcome by an abstract sense of grief, something like the moan of shingle dragging back to sea between breakers."
* "Waltzes and one-steps and tangoes were exhaled from the porticoes wearing striped awnings like masks, and in the gardens dancers walked on the moon-frosted lawns, the moonlight shining with phantom coldness from the young women's bare shoulders."
* "The silence that had been silting up in the rooms... now filled it as an invisible solid. "
This is a coming of age novel, set in in the run up to WW1: "I wanted to make friends... to be part of the general web, to be linked with boys and girls and men and women who were not yet what they would be in the end."
PLOT
Clare Aubrey, a retired concert pianist, has been abandoned by her gambling husband and is raising their teenage children: Cordelia (the oldest and least warm), twins Rose (the narrator) and Mary (both destined to follow in their mother's musical footsteps), and Richard Quinn (charming, bright, wise and still at school). Cousin Rosamund and her mother, Constance, live with them, too. They are upper-middle class, and by selling some paintings, on the advice of Mr Morpurgo, family finances are now reasonably secure.
As the family rebuild their lives, they relish small victories such as being able to afford flowers to plant in the garden, "We were able to do the things that other people could do". But as they progress, the shadow of war looms, and "we saw a fungoid bloom of ruin slowly creep across the familiar objects among which we had been reared".
At times, it's a little florid, mannered and self-consciously erudite - like a diluted version of Ivy Compton-Burnett. There is not much plot (though there is a murder), but there is some sharp wit, especially at the expense of the dreadful Mrs Morpurgo.
CLASS
The Aubreys are a little adrift: they have the background, tastes and education of the elite, but not quite the income. The mother has become (or maybe always was) oblivious to many social cues, and their friendships cross boundaries in a way that may have shocked some: Mr Morpurgo is a wealthy and generous Jewish art dealer, but they also regularly stay in a pub on the Thames, where they're related by marriage to the landlord.
This can cause awkwardness: "Like all people brought up in households destitute of manservants, we regarded them as implacable enemies... who could implement their ill-will by means of supernatural powers which enabled them to see through a guest's pretensions."
Appropriate clothing is a potential pitfall, but also a source of wry observation. For a prison visit, a man wore "clothes which suggested he had not made up his mind whether he was going to a funeral or to Ascot."
RADICAL FOR HER TIME
West was a member of the Bloomsbury set, that also included Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes and E M Forster. They were known for their progressive attitudes to women and relationships amongst other things, and although this is not a radical novel, there are glimpses of this aspect of West's thinking.
She portrays strong, independent women, and although she doesn't suggest all men are feckless or dangerous, the twins do have such fears, which is one reason why they are determined not to marry.
But there are admirable men in the story, with Richard Quin held up as the ideal man - even before he's a man. Cousin Rosamund says of Richard Quin "I love him... but it's a shame he has to be a man... what will happen to him in a world where men are so awful?"
Uncle Len is also a reliable chap: a lower middle class a publican who is a quirky and admirable auto-didact, something the Aubreys encourage. It sometimes has amusing consequences, such as when he assumes Darwinism is a new and controversial topic for the doctor and the rector: "he was not making the mistakes of a stupid man, he was guessing like an explorer". For all his good qualities, he's still a bit old-school, wanting to keep the women away from any trouble, though Rose asserts "There was no difference in courage between men and women, if what happened wasn't fit for me it wasn't fit for men to see either".
There is also a lengthy and educational look at perceptions of gypsies.
A child is not a different species, as Victorians sometimes thought, but "an adult temporarily enduring conditions which exclude the possibility of happiness".
The mixed feelings of adolescence are probably not as anti-feminist as they first seem, but rather reflect typical mix of fear and excitement, coupled with the limitations women of the time faced. For example, on becoming aware of the attention of men, "We liked this, and did not like it. We wished we were growing up into something other than women."
On the other hand, Clare's advice to a shy, pretty daughter is a little off: "people like young girls who are pretty... when you go to any new place and you feel nervous, just stand there and let people look at you"!
IDENTITY
It's not just in class terms and in the travails of reaching adulthood that characters have identity issues.
Is Clare, married, abandoned, or widowed?
When they leave music college, one of the twins has to change her surname to avoid confusion.
Loss of identity is one of Rose's reasons for fearing marriage.
Uncle Len tries to hide his gypsy background.
One can't help wondering if Mr Morpurgo's collecting of Christian art is, at least in part, a turning aside from his Jewish heritage.
MUSIC
Music is integral to the lives of the main characters, and there is no shying away from the hardships of training: "That was why I had had not childhood and why I had seen so much sunlight through windowpanes". There's always a higher target, but perfection is always just out of reach. They are torn between the desire to succeed and the difficulty of doing so.
When Cordelia gives up professional musicianship, the twins feel they "had so little in common with her that she seemed almost abstract: an inorganic burden like a knapsack."
QUOTES
* "One cannot live slowly as one can play music slowly."
* "Kate wore her wooden look of consequence."
* A butler "spoke with gloating discretion" about an extra guest.
* "Mrs Morpurgo had no secrets, She controlled her words well enough... but as she spoke the truth was blared aloud by the intonation of her commanding voice, the expressions which passed over her face, legible as the words on a poster, and her vigorous movements."
* "She had meant to be nearly, but not quite, intolerable."
* "She had not been abandoned to grief... she had been recovering her faculty for insolent surprise."
* "Her hands clasped before her dark flowing skirts, and a thread in every line of pent up emotion about to burst its dam."
* "There was a faint, sharp sweetness about her, like the taste of raspberries. She wore fussy and frilly clothes and jingling bracelets whit an air of surprised distaste, as if she had been put to sleep by a witch and had awoken to find herself in these trappings."
* "It had been furnished by Maples in the Japanese style, not that the family had any oriental connection, but simply because the backwash of the aesthetic movement had by then reached the suburbs."
* "A Victorian mansion... and within its walls Asia had taken its revenge against colonialism... the drawing room, which really did not look so bad now they had taken out the enormous ivory model of the Taj Mahal."
* Two sisters (not Aubreys) who had been "barmaids, not at the height of their profession. They had wandered in a defeated continent of the vulgar world, where vulgarity had lost its power and its pride... Listening to Aunt Lily's conversation was like having emptied at one's feet a dustbin full of comic songs and jokes from pantomimes."
* "The river, the grey-green mystery, the mirror which reflects solid objects so steadily but is not solid, the fugitive which remains."
* A mob in a pub: "Their faces were clay-coloured and featureless, yet not stupid; they might have been shrewd turnips."
* "Constance was like a statue, not a very good statue, imperfectly Pygmalionised."
* "The plane trees were casting their last crumpled maroon and silver leaves on the pewter pavements, the lights of the passing traffic paid out yellow ribbons of reflection on the shining roadway."
* "She looked as if she were about to burst into tears, but she was wonderful at catching the ball of her own mood in mid-air."
* "I was overcome by an abstract sense of grief, something like the moan of shingle dragging back to sea between breakers."
* "Waltzes and one-steps and tangoes were exhaled from the porticoes wearing striped awnings like masks, and in the gardens dancers walked on the moon-frosted lawns, the moonlight shining with phantom coldness from the young women's bare shoulders."
* "The silence that had been silting up in the rooms... now filled it as an invisible solid. "
November 13, 2022
Secondo capitolo della trilogia dedicata alla famiglia Aubrey, naturale proseguimento in termini puramente narrativi di una vicenda già ben delineata nel primo volume, eppure accessibile anche ad una lettura isolata visto il buon raccordo offerto all’inizio. La voce narrante, Rose, ripercorre infatti la vita della sua famiglia per poi seguire, sul filo della memoria, i successivi sviluppi. Lei e le sue sorelle affrontano l’ingresso nella vita adulta: è il momento di inquadrare il proprio destino, consapevoli dei sacrifici necessari per perseguire la carriera da pianiste professioniste o per accettare la propria identità e percorrere nuove strade. È il doloroso momento della crescita ad essere rappresentato qui, quello che porta alla definizione più chiara della propria identità e che al contempo misura, irrimediabilmente, la distanza dal nucleo familiare: sorelle e fratelli diventano universi distinti ai quali non è poi così spontaneo o opportuno accostarsi come in passato e gli stessi genitori assumono una nuova identità, filtrata stavolta dalla maturata consapevolezza degli occhi di chi li vede e della mente e del cuore che li decodificano. La famiglia Aubrey, dunque, quell’universo atipico e compatto rappresentato nel primo volume non c’� più, qui ci sono i brandelli, i superstiti, eppure ancora capaci di aggregare a sé persone, affetti, amicizie vere. Il tempo scorre sempre lento, la lettura fiocca, una placidità ristoratrice accompagna il lettore e lo sorprende con le difficoltà della vita mentre irrompe la prima guerra mondiale a generare fratture insanabili e a modificare delicati equilibri. È la notte , il cuore della notte, il suo momento topico, il più buio, consegnato ad un epilogo commovente, delicato e struggente al tempo stesso, degno di una narrazione pacata, impalpabile dallo stile inconfondibile, una prosa limpida e chiara, avvolgente e rasserenante. Buona lettura.
April 21, 2017
‘This Real Night� was to be the second volume of a trilogy that would tell the story of a century, but the trilogy was never completed. The first book, ‘The Fountain Overflows� was published in 1956 but this book wasn’t published until 1984, a year after the author’s death, and the final, incomplete book was published not long after, with notes suggesting what might have followed.
I loved ‘The Fountain Overflows� and I was delighted to find that this book picked up the threads of that story not too much further into the future. I was pulled right back �
The Aubrey children have lost their father, who left one day and never came back, but their world is stable, and their mother had been able to sell paintings that she knew were real but had led him to believe were copies for significant sums of money.
The musical daughters, Mary and Rose, were moving towards careers as concert pianists, have were studying in musical academies in London. They suffered some setbacks as they stepped out into the world, but there was nothing that really hindered their progress.
Though that's not to say that they were entirely confident.
“Every time we left our pianos the age gave us such assurances that there was to be a new and final establishment of pleasure upon earth. True that when we were at our pianos we knew that this was not true. There is something in the great music that we played which told us that promise will not be kept.�
They were determined to be independent, and unimpressed by the only alternative that might be open to them:
“Indeed marriage was to us a descent into a crypt where, by the tremulous light of smoking torches, there was celebrated a glorious rite of a sacrificial nature. Of course it was beautiful, we saw that. But we meant to stay in the sunlight, and we knew of no end which we could serve by offering ourselves up as a sacrifice.�
Their elder sister, Cordelia, saw the world rather differently. She had been heartbroken when she had been forced to face the fact that she lacked the emotional understanding of music needed to make it a career. She had picked it up and re-set her course in life, hoping for a secure future as the wife of a successful man, and fearing that her unconventional home and her inexplicably absent father would harm her prospects.
I was sorry that her sisters, her mother and her author completely failed to understand Cordelia, that they had no time or sympathy for her. She could be trying, but she really deserved better.
They had much more time for their cousin Rosamund; maybe because shared their desire for independence and was working towards a career as a nurse, and maybe because they understood that she had talents quite unlike their own. She had played chess with their father, she and her mother continued to sew to support themselves �.
The family was completed by their young brother, Richard Quinn, who seemed almost too lovely, bright and charming to be true.
The picture of family life was captivating and rich with detail. Rebecca West wrote beautifully and her writing is full of sentences and expressions to cherish.
Familiar family friends re-appeared; the family’s social circle was small but it cut right across social classes. They often saw Mr Morpurgo, who was both wealthy and generous, and they also regularly visited a riverside pub, where the landlord was an old family friend.
Those friendships allowed Rebecca West to say a great deal about social issues, by means of extended scenes portraying two very different visits.
This book stands alone, but you really should read ‘The Fountain Overflows� first.
I think that first book is stronger than this one; they are both idiosyncratic and oddly structured, but the first book was more polished, it had a stronger narrative, and I found the characters rather more engaging when they were younger. I can quite believe that Rebecca West hadn’t quite finished with her manuscript when she died.
The ending is perfectly done and heart-breaking. The passing of time has consequences, and the Great War casts a shadow.
This is a story that draws on the authors own life, without being entirely autobiographical; and it does feel authentic. That’s why I feel so attached to this family, why I can love this book for its strengths and forgive it for its weaknesses; and why I want to read the next, unfinished book to find out the future holds for the surviving members of the Aubrey family.
I loved ‘The Fountain Overflows� and I was delighted to find that this book picked up the threads of that story not too much further into the future. I was pulled right back �
The Aubrey children have lost their father, who left one day and never came back, but their world is stable, and their mother had been able to sell paintings that she knew were real but had led him to believe were copies for significant sums of money.
The musical daughters, Mary and Rose, were moving towards careers as concert pianists, have were studying in musical academies in London. They suffered some setbacks as they stepped out into the world, but there was nothing that really hindered their progress.
Though that's not to say that they were entirely confident.
“Every time we left our pianos the age gave us such assurances that there was to be a new and final establishment of pleasure upon earth. True that when we were at our pianos we knew that this was not true. There is something in the great music that we played which told us that promise will not be kept.�
They were determined to be independent, and unimpressed by the only alternative that might be open to them:
“Indeed marriage was to us a descent into a crypt where, by the tremulous light of smoking torches, there was celebrated a glorious rite of a sacrificial nature. Of course it was beautiful, we saw that. But we meant to stay in the sunlight, and we knew of no end which we could serve by offering ourselves up as a sacrifice.�
Their elder sister, Cordelia, saw the world rather differently. She had been heartbroken when she had been forced to face the fact that she lacked the emotional understanding of music needed to make it a career. She had picked it up and re-set her course in life, hoping for a secure future as the wife of a successful man, and fearing that her unconventional home and her inexplicably absent father would harm her prospects.
I was sorry that her sisters, her mother and her author completely failed to understand Cordelia, that they had no time or sympathy for her. She could be trying, but she really deserved better.
They had much more time for their cousin Rosamund; maybe because shared their desire for independence and was working towards a career as a nurse, and maybe because they understood that she had talents quite unlike their own. She had played chess with their father, she and her mother continued to sew to support themselves �.
The family was completed by their young brother, Richard Quinn, who seemed almost too lovely, bright and charming to be true.
The picture of family life was captivating and rich with detail. Rebecca West wrote beautifully and her writing is full of sentences and expressions to cherish.
Familiar family friends re-appeared; the family’s social circle was small but it cut right across social classes. They often saw Mr Morpurgo, who was both wealthy and generous, and they also regularly visited a riverside pub, where the landlord was an old family friend.
Those friendships allowed Rebecca West to say a great deal about social issues, by means of extended scenes portraying two very different visits.
This book stands alone, but you really should read ‘The Fountain Overflows� first.
I think that first book is stronger than this one; they are both idiosyncratic and oddly structured, but the first book was more polished, it had a stronger narrative, and I found the characters rather more engaging when they were younger. I can quite believe that Rebecca West hadn’t quite finished with her manuscript when she died.
The ending is perfectly done and heart-breaking. The passing of time has consequences, and the Great War casts a shadow.
This is a story that draws on the authors own life, without being entirely autobiographical; and it does feel authentic. That’s why I feel so attached to this family, why I can love this book for its strengths and forgive it for its weaknesses; and why I want to read the next, unfinished book to find out the future holds for the surviving members of the Aubrey family.
January 24, 2019
Il secondo libro degli Aubrey è una sinfonia dedicata all'amore delle piccole cose.
Con una prosa come quella di Rebecca West è facile che tutto, anche la descrizione delle porcellane, diventi meraviglioso raffinato e indimenticabile.
Le prime centocinquanta pagine del romanzo sono abbastanza lente, ci sono alcune ripetizioni per ricordare eventi del capitolo precedente, ma se la parte centrale è bella quella finale è un capolavoro.
La competenza di Rebecca West nel raccontare le emozioni umane - tutto lo spettro delle emozioni umane - è qualcosa di perfetto almeno per quanto riguarda i miei gusti.
Così come un musicista di talento deve provare un pezzo, svelandone ogni significato, andando affondo finché la vera bellezza della musica non gli si rivela, anche Rebecca West con la sua scrittura riesce a far rivelare una bellezza pura e dalle proporzioni magnifiche.
La bellezza viene rivelata nella sua totalità, quando c'è, ma anche il dolore.
Per leggere un libro del genere bisogna essere pronti ad assaporare bellezza e dolore con coraggio; un po' come guardare il sole al pieno del suo splendore e sentire male agli occhi.
( Presto recensione accurata sul blog! )
Con una prosa come quella di Rebecca West è facile che tutto, anche la descrizione delle porcellane, diventi meraviglioso raffinato e indimenticabile.
Le prime centocinquanta pagine del romanzo sono abbastanza lente, ci sono alcune ripetizioni per ricordare eventi del capitolo precedente, ma se la parte centrale è bella quella finale è un capolavoro.
La competenza di Rebecca West nel raccontare le emozioni umane - tutto lo spettro delle emozioni umane - è qualcosa di perfetto almeno per quanto riguarda i miei gusti.
Così come un musicista di talento deve provare un pezzo, svelandone ogni significato, andando affondo finché la vera bellezza della musica non gli si rivela, anche Rebecca West con la sua scrittura riesce a far rivelare una bellezza pura e dalle proporzioni magnifiche.
La bellezza viene rivelata nella sua totalità, quando c'è, ma anche il dolore.
Per leggere un libro del genere bisogna essere pronti ad assaporare bellezza e dolore con coraggio; un po' come guardare il sole al pieno del suo splendore e sentire male agli occhi.
( Presto recensione accurata sul blog! )
January 19, 2019
Sono in lacrime come una disperata... West, perché mi fai questo?
July 18, 2020
Decisamente ancora più bello del primo ! Finale molto dolce e commovente : aspetto volentieri il terzo; nel frattempo penso di " consolarmi con
Anzi no..non si trova nè il cartaceo nè l'ebook ....
18-7-2020
Rilettura:
prima di leggere il 3^ , ho preferito rileggere questo: già solamente per le descrizioni dei boschi che la prima volta, con la mia solita irruenza di � come-andrà-a-finire � non avevo gustato completamente, gli aggiungo una stellina. Piccola pausa, poi lettura del 3^ ( e ultimo, purtroppo)
Anzi no..non si trova nè il cartaceo nè l'ebook ....
18-7-2020
Rilettura:
prima di leggere il 3^ , ho preferito rileggere questo: già solamente per le descrizioni dei boschi che la prima volta, con la mia solita irruenza di � come-andrà-a-finire � non avevo gustato completamente, gli aggiungo una stellina. Piccola pausa, poi lettura del 3^ ( e ultimo, purtroppo)
July 8, 2022
This is the second part of the Aubrey Trilogy. Apparently, it was published after the author's death, based on some preliminary notes that she left. It shows, but I nevertheless enjoyed reading the result because of the holes that this volume fills in the full story. The extensive description of the death of one of the main characters is especially cruel and gruesome, with unbearable pain and suffering for all involved. Makes one glad that euthanasia is (or should be) available.
February 22, 2015
This book is the sequel of "The Fountain Overflows", being the second book of the Aubrey trilogy.
The plot follows the lives of the main characters which were described in the first volume of this series.
The author takes the reader 5 year later on, after their father disappearance and showing how the children have grew up and starting a new period of their lives - their adulthood.
Then World War I begins and their destinies will take a new turnover.
Its sequel is Cousin Rosamund.
Aubrey Trilogy:
5* The Fountain Overflows
3* This Real Night
TR Cousin Rosamund
3* The Return of the Soldier
TR The Thinking Reed
TR Harriet Hume
TR Sunflower
TR Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
TR The Birds Fall Down
The plot follows the lives of the main characters which were described in the first volume of this series.
The author takes the reader 5 year later on, after their father disappearance and showing how the children have grew up and starting a new period of their lives - their adulthood.
Then World War I begins and their destinies will take a new turnover.
Its sequel is Cousin Rosamund.
Aubrey Trilogy:
5* The Fountain Overflows
3* This Real Night
TR Cousin Rosamund
3* The Return of the Soldier
TR The Thinking Reed
TR Harriet Hume
TR Sunflower
TR Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
TR The Birds Fall Down
March 13, 2019
La West mi rapisce sempre, facendomi più volte sorridere. Riesce a cogliere i più diversi dettagli e le profonde suggestioni e atmosfere dell’epoca, “sublimando� in più punti, con sottile o palese ironia, le sfaccettature psicologico-emotive dei personaggi.
October 27, 2023
A wonderful continuation of this family's story. I so enjoy this family and their lives. They are humorous, alive, loving, caring and more.
The first book of this trilogy, , tells the story of childhood. This story continues through the teen years and into early adulthood. This family are true to each other, even Cordelia. I can't quite understand the feeling of Cordelia being a misfit. She's not musically talented, a major flaw in this family, but there seems to be more to it. I'm intrigued.
This is a family to get to know. I look forward to the final book in the trilogy, . She's a very interesting character in this book.
The first book of this trilogy, , tells the story of childhood. This story continues through the teen years and into early adulthood. This family are true to each other, even Cordelia. I can't quite understand the feeling of Cordelia being a misfit. She's not musically talented, a major flaw in this family, but there seems to be more to it. I'm intrigued.
This is a family to get to know. I look forward to the final book in the trilogy, . She's a very interesting character in this book.
January 22, 2024
Η οικογένεια Όμπρι, μετά την εξαφάνιση του πατέρα, βρίσκει τη δυνάμη να συνεχίσει. Η μητέρα, πουλά τους πίνακες για να μπορέσει να συντηρήσει τα παιδιά της κι όλοι τους έχουν τη ρουτίνα τους. Οι δίδυμες συνεχίζουν τις σπουδές στη μουσική αν και σε διαφορετικά κολλέγια, η Κορντήλια εξελίσσεται σε καλλονή, αν και διατηρεί μια πικρία κι ο Ρίτσαρντ Κουήν, ο βενιαμίν της οικογένειας κι ο μόνος άντρας σε τόσες γυναίκες, ανοίγει τους ορίζοντές του, γνωρίζει ανθρώπους και βοηθά όποιον τον χρειάζεται. Η Ρόουζ, που είναι κι η αφηγήτρια μας, απολαμβάνει της στιγμές που περνά με την οικογένεια και τους συγγενείς, αλλά νιώθει ότι της λείπει η επαφή με ανθρώπους της ίδιας ηλικίας. Θέλει να φλερτάρει, αλλά όταν δεν έχεις κοινωνικές συναναστροφές, αυτό φαντάζει δύσκολο.
Το δεύτερο βιβλίο της τριλογίας, κύλησε πολύ πιο γρήγορα κι η ανάπτυξη των χαρακτήρων είναι πολύ πιο λεπτομερής. Η οικογένεια έχει βρεί τις ισορροπίες της, τα νεαρά μέλη έχουν ωριμάσει, ιδιαίτερα ο Ρίτσαρντ Κουήν. Οι δίδυμες, ψάχνουν να βρούν τη θέση τους στο κόσμο αλλά η σκιά του ταλέντου της μητέρας τους, πάντα θα της νικά. Η φιλία έχει ρόλο σπουδαίο στις ζωές τους και τους βοηθά να ξεπεράσουν τις δυσκολίες. Ο πόλεμος έρχεται κι η σκιά του πέφτει πάνω τους με τον χειρότερο τρόπο..θα μπορέσουν άραγε να το ξεπεράσουν?
"Όταν σκέφτομαι τι είμαι, βλέπω έναν ψηλό βράχο με μια κυψέλη από αίθουσες και διαδρόμους, που κατοικούνται από παιδιά και κοπέλες και γυναίκες όλων των ηλικιών μικρότερες από μένα, κι είναι οι διάφοροι εαυτοί μου, που επανέρχονται κάθε φορά που γνώριζα την ιδιαίτερη ικανοποίηση ή απόγνωση, επίτευγμα ή άγνοια, η οποία συντηρεί τον καθένα από τη φθορά του χρόνου."
3,5 αστέρια
Το δεύτερο βιβλίο της τριλογίας, κύλησε πολύ πιο γρήγορα κι η ανάπτυξη των χαρακτήρων είναι πολύ πιο λεπτομερής. Η οικογένεια έχει βρεί τις ισορροπίες της, τα νεαρά μέλη έχουν ωριμάσει, ιδιαίτερα ο Ρίτσαρντ Κουήν. Οι δίδυμες, ψάχνουν να βρούν τη θέση τους στο κόσμο αλλά η σκιά του ταλέντου της μητέρας τους, πάντα θα της νικά. Η φιλία έχει ρόλο σπουδαίο στις ζωές τους και τους βοηθά να ξεπεράσουν τις δυσκολίες. Ο πόλεμος έρχεται κι η σκιά του πέφτει πάνω τους με τον χειρότερο τρόπο..θα μπορέσουν άραγε να το ξεπεράσουν?
"Όταν σκέφτομαι τι είμαι, βλέπω έναν ψηλό βράχο με μια κυψέλη από αίθουσες και διαδρόμους, που κατοικούνται από παιδιά και κοπέλες και γυναίκες όλων των ηλικιών μικρότερες από μένα, κι είναι οι διάφοροι εαυτοί μου, που επανέρχονται κάθε φορά που γνώριζα την ιδιαίτερη ικανοποίηση ή απόγνωση, επίτευγμα ή άγνοια, η οποία συντηρεί τον καθένα από τη φθορά του χρόνου."
3,5 αστέρια
July 15, 2019
Rose continues her narration in this second volume of the trilogy. They are a magnificent and complex family. She and Mary move on to careers, and Richard Quin is wise beyond his years, while Cordelia always misses the point. The real night is the war, which arrives late in the story, but changes everything. The ending is so beautifully rendered in its sadness. I loved the first book, The Fountain Overflows, but waited so long to read this one. The 3rd volume awaits me immediately.
October 5, 2021
4 Stars
November 11, 2017
This Real Night is the second book in Rebecca West’s Aubrey family trilogy; A Saga of the Century (there are editions which publish all three books together). The trilogy begins with The Fountain Overflows . I read that wonderful book back at the end of February while I was on holiday with friends in Iceland, I hadn’t meant to leave it quite so long before catching up with these characters again. This Real Night and Cousin Rosamond were published in the 1980s following Rebecca West’s death, from the manuscripts that she left behind. The third book I know is unfinished � and while part of me does still want to read it � I can’t get excited about an unfinished novel.
This Real Night starts a few years after the events of The Fountain Overflows, we find ourselves in the 1900s, in those days before the First World War so changed the world for a generation of young people. Cornelia, Mary and our narrator Rose are now grown up, they discover a freedom to being grown up, happy to throw of the bonds of childhood.
“A child is an adult temporarily enduring conditions which exclude the possibility of happiness. When one is quite little one labours under just such physical and mental disabilities as might be inflicted by some dreadful accident or disease; but while the maimed and paralysed are pitied because they cannot walk and have to be carried about and cannot explain their needs or think clearly, nobody is sorry for babies, though they are always crying aloud their frustration and hurt pride.�
Full review:
This Real Night starts a few years after the events of The Fountain Overflows, we find ourselves in the 1900s, in those days before the First World War so changed the world for a generation of young people. Cornelia, Mary and our narrator Rose are now grown up, they discover a freedom to being grown up, happy to throw of the bonds of childhood.
“A child is an adult temporarily enduring conditions which exclude the possibility of happiness. When one is quite little one labours under just such physical and mental disabilities as might be inflicted by some dreadful accident or disease; but while the maimed and paralysed are pitied because they cannot walk and have to be carried about and cannot explain their needs or think clearly, nobody is sorry for babies, though they are always crying aloud their frustration and hurt pride.�
Full review:
November 20, 2022
Het tweede deel van de familie Aubrey en waar ik best wat moeite had om door het eerste deel te komen, bleek dat ook nu niet vlotter te gaan. Misschien is het niet zozeer de schrijfstijl, maar het verhaal (geschreven in een heel andere tijd, waar schrijven ook gewoon anders was als nu) dat de auteur brengt dat maakt dat ik het niet als heel vlot ervaar.
Het duurde dus best lang voor ik weer in het verhaal zat. Daar tegenover staat wel dat ik deze personages maar moeilijk kan loslaten. Voel je dus mijn ‘frustratie�? Waar in bij het eerste boek zei dat ik hoopte meer diepgang en voeling met de personages te vinden is deel twee en minder aan de thee te zitten, kreeg ik dit keer dus wel waar voor mijn geld.
Al blijft deze Britse klassieker teveel woorden hebben en laat het weer te weinig los. Dat, in combinatie met het verhaal, daar hou je van of niet. Toch, ik snap waarom het een klassieker is. Veel ben je dus niet met deze review omdat deze serie mij ook gewoon met een heel dubbel gevoel laat zitten. Wat ik wel weet, is dat is het volgende deel ook weer zal willen lezen. Dus maakt het toch veel bij me los. Volgen wie volgen kan.
Het duurde dus best lang voor ik weer in het verhaal zat. Daar tegenover staat wel dat ik deze personages maar moeilijk kan loslaten. Voel je dus mijn ‘frustratie�? Waar in bij het eerste boek zei dat ik hoopte meer diepgang en voeling met de personages te vinden is deel twee en minder aan de thee te zitten, kreeg ik dit keer dus wel waar voor mijn geld.
Al blijft deze Britse klassieker teveel woorden hebben en laat het weer te weinig los. Dat, in combinatie met het verhaal, daar hou je van of niet. Toch, ik snap waarom het een klassieker is. Veel ben je dus niet met deze review omdat deze serie mij ook gewoon met een heel dubbel gevoel laat zitten. Wat ik wel weet, is dat is het volgende deel ook weer zal willen lezen. Dus maakt het toch veel bij me los. Volgen wie volgen kan.
January 11, 2013
This REal Night is the second book in the trilogy, taking up where the first leaves off pretty much. The lines are blurred, as if she lost her notes and a copy of her first books. Some events are reserved, as if we didn't already read of them. We now find the two pianist sisters beginning their studies in earnest and playing a little for money at concerts. They realize they aren't even the best of their class as they had assumed. One sister marries, a cousin goes to nursing school and dear brother worries them all by seeming aimless. Then two horrible miserable events occur at the end that felt rather gratuitous. I think I might have had a happier life if only I had skipped the last chapter. But seeing as how I'm all attached and invested in this goofy family, I suppose I'll even find the last book of the trilogy and continue nursing my heartbreak till it comes. Sigh. Curse you Rebecca West.
February 15, 2019
Quando l'ho cominciato ero un po' impaurita, avevo letto alcuni commenti che lo definivano "troppo lento" e sono stata stupita - ancora una volta - dalla ricchezza che ho trovato nella penna di West.
E' vero, gli avvenimenti sono pochi, ma sono sviscerati in tutte le sfaccettature grazie ai caratteri, le reazioni e i pensieri dei personaggi. Appena ho chiuso Nel cuore della notte, di getto ho pensato e scritto: delicato e intenso allo stesso tempo, quiete e tempeste in un solo libro. Nel cuore della notte mi ha conquistato, più ancora del primo volume.
Gli anni sono passati e la famiglia Aubrey è radicalmente cambiata. Rose e Mary stanno continuando i loro studi di musica, con la dedizione e la fatica che comporta avere un talento così spiccato. Destino diverso per l'altra sorella che, non ho mai nascosto, è il personaggio che mi piace meno ma incuriosisce di più.
a notizia della Liberazione, come viene definita dalla stessa Rose voce narrante, è il matrimonio, con tutta probabilità mediocre, che aspetta Cordelia. Sembra destinata ad uscire di scena... ma in realtà i legami di sangue sono legami indissolubili, anche quando non trovano comprensione. Cordelia, una sorta di appendice della famiglia Aubrey, continuerà a ruotare attorno agli altri personaggi nelle gioie, poche, e nei dolori, tanti e profondi.
A scuola Rose e Mary danno il massimo e noi volteggiamo tra le pagine riuscendo a percepire, la fatica, il metodo e la dura disciplina autoimposte dalle ragazze.
RECENSIONE COMPLETA SU:
E' vero, gli avvenimenti sono pochi, ma sono sviscerati in tutte le sfaccettature grazie ai caratteri, le reazioni e i pensieri dei personaggi. Appena ho chiuso Nel cuore della notte, di getto ho pensato e scritto: delicato e intenso allo stesso tempo, quiete e tempeste in un solo libro. Nel cuore della notte mi ha conquistato, più ancora del primo volume.
Gli anni sono passati e la famiglia Aubrey è radicalmente cambiata. Rose e Mary stanno continuando i loro studi di musica, con la dedizione e la fatica che comporta avere un talento così spiccato. Destino diverso per l'altra sorella che, non ho mai nascosto, è il personaggio che mi piace meno ma incuriosisce di più.
a notizia della Liberazione, come viene definita dalla stessa Rose voce narrante, è il matrimonio, con tutta probabilità mediocre, che aspetta Cordelia. Sembra destinata ad uscire di scena... ma in realtà i legami di sangue sono legami indissolubili, anche quando non trovano comprensione. Cordelia, una sorta di appendice della famiglia Aubrey, continuerà a ruotare attorno agli altri personaggi nelle gioie, poche, e nei dolori, tanti e profondi.
A scuola Rose e Mary danno il massimo e noi volteggiamo tra le pagine riuscendo a percepire, la fatica, il metodo e la dura disciplina autoimposte dalle ragazze.
RECENSIONE COMPLETA SU:
February 3, 2019
Le vicende raccontate in "Nel cuore della notte" si svolgono qualche anno dopo quelle che ho conosciuto in "La famiglia Aubrey", ma le protagoniste sono sempre le stesse ragazze, con la loro intelligenza, i loro caratteri fuori dal comune e la loro passione per la musica.
Le Aubrey crescono, Cordelia intraprende la vita da moglie e Richard Quin è costretto a partire per la guerra. Le loro vite diventano sempre più interessanti e piene di intrighi, tanto da tenermi davvero incollata alle pagine. Non so cos'ha di particolare lo stile di Rebecca West, ma mi ha totalmente conquistata sin dal primo volume di questa serie.
I personaggi sono diversi dal solito e quando dico "solito" mi riferisco ai classici protagonisti che troviamo in libri scritti nel novecento e che di solito mi annoiano.
La guerra ha un impatto incredibile sulla famiglia Aubrey e anche sui lettori. Quasi in un attimo la loro esistenza viene totalmente sconvolta. Mi è piaciuto molto come è stato trattato questo aspetto.
Non vedo l'ora di leggere il terzo libro!
Le Aubrey crescono, Cordelia intraprende la vita da moglie e Richard Quin è costretto a partire per la guerra. Le loro vite diventano sempre più interessanti e piene di intrighi, tanto da tenermi davvero incollata alle pagine. Non so cos'ha di particolare lo stile di Rebecca West, ma mi ha totalmente conquistata sin dal primo volume di questa serie.
I personaggi sono diversi dal solito e quando dico "solito" mi riferisco ai classici protagonisti che troviamo in libri scritti nel novecento e che di solito mi annoiano.
La guerra ha un impatto incredibile sulla famiglia Aubrey e anche sui lettori. Quasi in un attimo la loro esistenza viene totalmente sconvolta. Mi è piaciuto molto come è stato trattato questo aspetto.
Non vedo l'ora di leggere il terzo libro!
April 17, 2020
Come AMO ALLA FOLLIA da West. Amo come scrive! TUTTO: i sentimenti, i caratteri dei personaggi, come riesce a rendere credibile ogni singola cosa in ogni sua singola parola, le descrizioni dei paesaggi (ohmmioddiooo, sono troppo evocativi), del passare del tempo e delle stagioni.
Secondo me la West è troppo sopravvalutata, non ne sento mai parlare, forse perché messa in ombra dalla Howard ( che secondo me scrive gran male).
Se volete una storia familiare che vi prenda e vi metta in subbuglio lo stomaco, dovete assolutamente leggere la trilogia della Famiglia Aubrey.
Non vedo l'ora di leggere l'ultimo capitolo!
Secondo me la West è troppo sopravvalutata, non ne sento mai parlare, forse perché messa in ombra dalla Howard ( che secondo me scrive gran male).
Se volete una storia familiare che vi prenda e vi metta in subbuglio lo stomaco, dovete assolutamente leggere la trilogia della Famiglia Aubrey.
Non vedo l'ora di leggere l'ultimo capitolo!
February 4, 2012
This Real Night is the sequel to The Fountain Overflows, taking the Aubrey family through about 5 years after their dad disappears from the picture and the family begins to find its way along. It's an uneven book: the first part d---r----a----g----g----e----d---- along, with huge paragraphs of description and monologues by Richard Quin on all kinds of issues. The ending was devastatingly sad but suddenly intensely powerful, giving a vivid picture into what it was like to be the ones who stayed at home during the start of WWI, and also providing an intense, detailed, and weirdly involving look into a death in a close-knit family (those two events are unrelated. I'm not giving anything away) when such things always occurred at home, not in a hospital. So the mid-range evaluation is an average of "didn't like it" at the start to "it was amazing" (but not cheerful) at the end. . . . Now I"m torn about reading the third one, but I bet I will, just to tie up the loose ends.
April 28, 2025
01-03-2025: Ahh, Rebecca West's prose never disappoints! This novel was everything I hoped it would be. Gorgeously written, with the same touch of childlike wonder and naivety from the protagonist as The Fountain Overflows had, yet making it clear that she is growing up. There's a turn towards the darker and more tragic towards the end that was so well-executed, it genuinely left me speechless for a moment. Just so good!
August 30, 2009
This Real Night, the second book of the Cousin Rosamund trilogy, was definitely less focused than The Fountain Overflows. But I am so enamored of these characters that it didn't matter a bit.
July 18, 2013
The last section just about did me in.
Added to the shelf "Books That Made Me Cry In A Starbucks."
Added to the shelf "Books That Made Me Cry In A Starbucks."
January 18, 2019
“Nel cuore della notte� di Rebecca West (Fazi) è secondo volume di una trilogia familiare iniziata con “La famiglia Aubrey�.
Inizio subito col dirvi che “Nel cuore della notte� non è un libro che potrebbe conquistare tutti: il ritmo molto lento, come ho già scritto nella recensione de “La famiglia Aubrey�, non è amato da alcuni lettori ed è giusto che vi dica che anche questo secondo volume segue l’andamento del primo.
A me, invece, piace perdermi in una dimensione totalmente diversa da quella alla quale siamo abituati e trovo la scrittura della West particolarmente interessante, specie la sua capacità descrittiva. Ho avuto modo, durante la lettura, di cogliere delle differenze tra la descrizione dei luoghi e quella dei personaggi: entrambe sono altamente evocative, ma la prima ha un impianto molto classico, realista; mentre la seconda ha sempre un richiamo inaspettato, un particolare originale che molto spesso mi ha strappato un sorriso.
Zia Milly era una donna minuscola e misurata, con un muso da gattina sotto una montagna di capelli prematuramente ingrigiti, raccolti in cima alla testa in una foggia settecentesca; aveva l’abitudine di allacciare le mani all’altezza della vita, sollevare il mento e abbassare gli occhi verso il nasino all’insù come se fosse in attesa che la vita mettesse le proprie carte in tavola. Zia Lily non aveva più l’aspetto di una bambola fatta cadere troppe volte dalla carrozzina.
Durante la narrazione c’� molta attenzione ai dettagli, ai cambiamenti � seppur minimi � di umore dei personaggi, e un invito a pranzo può durare anche una cinquantina di pagine! È la stessa Rose, ancora una volta voce narrante della storia della sua famiglia, a dirci perché: “Scrivo tutto ciò con la piena consapevolezza che ora potrebbe sembrare irrilevante, dal momento che è proprio uno di quei tratti che differenziano il passato dal presente. Allora, ogni cosa aveva importanza. Ogni cosa dalla quale traevamo godimento aveva il medesimo valore�.
“Ogni cosa aveva importanza� e davvero “ogni cosa� viene riportata all’interno della narrazione di un determinato momento, di un ricordo.
In “Nel cuore della notte� le protagoniste non sono più bambine, ma giovani donne che si affacciano al mondo con tutta la loro sensibilità e le loro idee ben marcate. Si segue l’evolversi dei rapporti tra i personaggi e senza aver letto il libro precedente sarebbe impossibile capire certe cose, come ad esempio il rapporto di odio nei confronti di Cordelia; il richiamo continuo al padre, che nonostante in queste pagine sia assente continua a essere nei ricordi di tutti; il rapporto tra Rosamund e Richard Queen.
Proprio lui, Richard Queen, rimane uno dei miei preferiti: probabilmente l’autrice avrebbe potuto scrivere un libro solo con le sue avventure (quella delle aragoste vinte a freccette valeva un capitolo!), raccontando il suo modo così carismatico e insieme noncurante di stare in mezzo agli altri. Mi ha letteralmente affascinata ma non saprei dire con certezza se è successo perché a raccontarmi di lui è stata Rose, del tutto imparziale quando si tratta del fratello, oppure se anche io sono rimasta colpita dai suoi modi di fare�
L’ultima parte del romanzo assume toni più grevi con lo scoppio della Prima guerra mondiale, che porterà conseguenze terribili per la famiglia Aubrey. Una famiglia che dovrà fare i conti con un nuovo assetto e che presto dovrà capire in che direzione muoversi.
Riusciranno, ad esempio, Rose e Mary a trovare un marito? “Tutti dicevano che eravamo straordinarie, ma poi ci tenevano a distanza�, raccontano, convinte che non riceveranno mai alcuna proposta di matrimonio come è successo a Cordelia. A questo punto sono davvero curiosa di leggere l’ultimo capitolo di questa trilogia.
Inizio subito col dirvi che “Nel cuore della notte� non è un libro che potrebbe conquistare tutti: il ritmo molto lento, come ho già scritto nella recensione de “La famiglia Aubrey�, non è amato da alcuni lettori ed è giusto che vi dica che anche questo secondo volume segue l’andamento del primo.
A me, invece, piace perdermi in una dimensione totalmente diversa da quella alla quale siamo abituati e trovo la scrittura della West particolarmente interessante, specie la sua capacità descrittiva. Ho avuto modo, durante la lettura, di cogliere delle differenze tra la descrizione dei luoghi e quella dei personaggi: entrambe sono altamente evocative, ma la prima ha un impianto molto classico, realista; mentre la seconda ha sempre un richiamo inaspettato, un particolare originale che molto spesso mi ha strappato un sorriso.
Zia Milly era una donna minuscola e misurata, con un muso da gattina sotto una montagna di capelli prematuramente ingrigiti, raccolti in cima alla testa in una foggia settecentesca; aveva l’abitudine di allacciare le mani all’altezza della vita, sollevare il mento e abbassare gli occhi verso il nasino all’insù come se fosse in attesa che la vita mettesse le proprie carte in tavola. Zia Lily non aveva più l’aspetto di una bambola fatta cadere troppe volte dalla carrozzina.
Durante la narrazione c’� molta attenzione ai dettagli, ai cambiamenti � seppur minimi � di umore dei personaggi, e un invito a pranzo può durare anche una cinquantina di pagine! È la stessa Rose, ancora una volta voce narrante della storia della sua famiglia, a dirci perché: “Scrivo tutto ciò con la piena consapevolezza che ora potrebbe sembrare irrilevante, dal momento che è proprio uno di quei tratti che differenziano il passato dal presente. Allora, ogni cosa aveva importanza. Ogni cosa dalla quale traevamo godimento aveva il medesimo valore�.
“Ogni cosa aveva importanza� e davvero “ogni cosa� viene riportata all’interno della narrazione di un determinato momento, di un ricordo.
In “Nel cuore della notte� le protagoniste non sono più bambine, ma giovani donne che si affacciano al mondo con tutta la loro sensibilità e le loro idee ben marcate. Si segue l’evolversi dei rapporti tra i personaggi e senza aver letto il libro precedente sarebbe impossibile capire certe cose, come ad esempio il rapporto di odio nei confronti di Cordelia; il richiamo continuo al padre, che nonostante in queste pagine sia assente continua a essere nei ricordi di tutti; il rapporto tra Rosamund e Richard Queen.
Proprio lui, Richard Queen, rimane uno dei miei preferiti: probabilmente l’autrice avrebbe potuto scrivere un libro solo con le sue avventure (quella delle aragoste vinte a freccette valeva un capitolo!), raccontando il suo modo così carismatico e insieme noncurante di stare in mezzo agli altri. Mi ha letteralmente affascinata ma non saprei dire con certezza se è successo perché a raccontarmi di lui è stata Rose, del tutto imparziale quando si tratta del fratello, oppure se anche io sono rimasta colpita dai suoi modi di fare�
L’ultima parte del romanzo assume toni più grevi con lo scoppio della Prima guerra mondiale, che porterà conseguenze terribili per la famiglia Aubrey. Una famiglia che dovrà fare i conti con un nuovo assetto e che presto dovrà capire in che direzione muoversi.
Riusciranno, ad esempio, Rose e Mary a trovare un marito? “Tutti dicevano che eravamo straordinarie, ma poi ci tenevano a distanza�, raccontano, convinte che non riceveranno mai alcuna proposta di matrimonio come è successo a Cordelia. A questo punto sono davvero curiosa di leggere l’ultimo capitolo di questa trilogia.
February 10, 2019
Sarebbero 4, le stelle, perché rispetto al volume precedente ci sono stati dei momenti di noia e di ridondanza. Forse, però, erano propedeutici al finale, quello che è scritto nel titolo ma che arriva alle spalle e cambia tutto quanto: dal ritmo della narrazione ai contenuti della storia che si conclude con la drammaticità di un atto teatrale. E se prima di iniziare la storia di questa famiglia si immaginavano colpi di scena, è solo quando si è immersi nel racconto che ci si emoziona e ci si addolora, a conferma della bravura di Rebecca West, capace come pochi di creare legami forti fra noi lettori e i personaggi di questa straordinaria famiglia. E se già questa seconda parte ha scalato la pila dei libri in attesa sul comodino, mi immagino cosa succederà con il prossimo....
February 27, 2019
Abbiamo conosciuto i protagonisti della Famiglia Aubrey nel primo volume, ci siamo appassionati alla scrittura della West e dall'ormonia perfetta tra la vita dei protagonisti e la colonna sonora di tutta la trama che si faceva sempre più insistente. Bene, questo secondo volume è perfettamente all'altezza del primo. I protagonisti sono cambiati, cresciuti, ognuno con la sua visione del mondo che purtroppo però deve fare i conti con avvenimenti fuori dal loro controllo e guardare con i propri occhi la guerra. Storia e narrativa si intrecciano, raccontando le vicende di una famiglia che ormai ho imparato ad amare. In attesa di poter leggere il terzo ed ultimo volume, vi consiglio solo una quantità esagerata di fazzolettini. Perché credetemi, vi serviranno 💔
May 14, 2023
I enjoyed The Fountain Overflowed which was the first book in this trilogy, but I found this second book, whilst beautifully written, lacking in content and depth about the characters. Not sure whether I can commit to reading the final book.
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