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The Wedding Group
'You know,' Midge began, and paused. She was rather taken aback, and could not at once think of anything to say. 'Perhaps there's nothing so dangerous as having led a sheltered life.' Cressy has grown up in a world of women, presided over by her eccentric, artistic grandfather Harry Bretton. Rebelling against the wholesome, organic values of her home life, Cressy decides to leave home in search of more ephemeral pleasures. Taking a job in an antiques shop, she meets David, a self-satisfied journalist, also looking for means of fleeing the family nest. But as Cressy cannot fend for herself and David is securely tied to his mother's apron strings, this act of escape for both of them proves a powerful form of bondage.
192 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1968
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May 20, 2021
I was disappointed in this novel — the last novel I had yet to read by Elizabeth Taylor. 😕
She is one of my fave authors — she certainly has her share of admirers by some literary heavyweights (Sarah Waters, Kingsley Amis, Elizabeth Bowen). In looking back over the novels I have read by her, she certainly did not have the same writing style across her oeuvre…. although I am not an expert of her writing in its totality and perhaps I am wrong on that. It’s just that I remember she could be serious at times in her writing, and her characters were believable…and sometimes tragedies ensued in the novels, not that I was looking forward to that, but hey, that’s life. And I was taken into her world of her characters.
But some of her other books have people thinking thoughts that are just clever wisecracks…. that’s all they have in their conscious mind are clever things that they think to themselves, and it gets old after a while. And to me that’s all this novel consisted of — people thinking clever, and most often, jaded thoughts to themselves about other people. And while reading the novel I am taken outside of the characters’ world and become aware that this is a writing exercise by Elizabeth Taylor. 🙁
Main protagonists were David, I guess he was in his 30s, Cressida (Cressy) who was 19, and Midge, David’s mother. All, to me, were unlikable. Apparently, David feels sorry for Cressy and asks her to marry him. Well, that’s a goofy reason to get married. She is woefully inept to do much of anything – when she has a baby thank God for her mother-in-law, Midge, because Cressy is inept at mothering and appears to have no maternal affection for her son, Timmy. She does not suffer from post-partum depression…she just doesn’t seem all that interested in her new role as mother. Her husband is having an affair with Nell, a woman who thought that David was going to ask her to marry him before he asked Cressy. The other cast of characters are either asses or jaded or both. Midge is apparently made to be the baddie because she is manipulative and wants her son to never leave her (because her husband left her and she is lonely).
Reviews (none of these folks rated it as lowly as I did but I don’t think anybody said this was her best work):
• https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
• https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-wedd...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2012/...
• https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordp...
• https://www.bookword.co.uk/the-weddin...
• https://leavesandpages.com/2012/08/24...
She is one of my fave authors — she certainly has her share of admirers by some literary heavyweights (Sarah Waters, Kingsley Amis, Elizabeth Bowen). In looking back over the novels I have read by her, she certainly did not have the same writing style across her oeuvre…. although I am not an expert of her writing in its totality and perhaps I am wrong on that. It’s just that I remember she could be serious at times in her writing, and her characters were believable…and sometimes tragedies ensued in the novels, not that I was looking forward to that, but hey, that’s life. And I was taken into her world of her characters.
But some of her other books have people thinking thoughts that are just clever wisecracks…. that’s all they have in their conscious mind are clever things that they think to themselves, and it gets old after a while. And to me that’s all this novel consisted of — people thinking clever, and most often, jaded thoughts to themselves about other people. And while reading the novel I am taken outside of the characters’ world and become aware that this is a writing exercise by Elizabeth Taylor. 🙁
Main protagonists were David, I guess he was in his 30s, Cressida (Cressy) who was 19, and Midge, David’s mother. All, to me, were unlikable. Apparently, David feels sorry for Cressy and asks her to marry him. Well, that’s a goofy reason to get married. She is woefully inept to do much of anything – when she has a baby thank God for her mother-in-law, Midge, because Cressy is inept at mothering and appears to have no maternal affection for her son, Timmy. She does not suffer from post-partum depression…she just doesn’t seem all that interested in her new role as mother. Her husband is having an affair with Nell, a woman who thought that David was going to ask her to marry him before he asked Cressy. The other cast of characters are either asses or jaded or both. Midge is apparently made to be the baddie because she is manipulative and wants her son to never leave her (because her husband left her and she is lonely).
Reviews (none of these folks rated it as lowly as I did but I don’t think anybody said this was her best work):
• https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
• https://www.stuckinabook.com/the-wedd...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2012/...
• https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordp...
• https://www.bookword.co.uk/the-weddin...
• https://leavesandpages.com/2012/08/24...
June 23, 2019
3.5 stars rounded up
This is one of Taylor’s later novels, written in 1968. The Wedding Group of the title refers to a Wedgewood ornament of a wedding group which plays a symbolic role in the novel. The main protagonist is Cressida (Cressy) who lives in an artistic community called Quayne. It is run by her grandfather Harry Bretton (he self-styles himself as “Master”), who is loosely modelled on Augustus John. It is a Roman Catholic community with a priest. Taylor rather revels in her novelist’s power to send up such communities and the satire is effective. Cressy (who is seventeen) has decided to renounce religion and move out of community. She has also been asked to leave her school:
“Cressy had not been allowed to finish her last year. Not exactly expelled, but the suggestion was that, all the same, it would be better if she did not remain. She had broken bounds, was often missing for hours at a time, and had had some strange notions, which younger girls were all too ready to listen to”
She gets a job in an antique shop in the local village and moves into the flat above it. David is a journalist who has written about Quayne and who lives with his mother Midge. He is much older than Cressy but befriends her and they eventually marry. There are well drawn minor characters as well. There is a bleakness to the novel along with the wry humour.
There are some interesting explorations of relationships including the mother son relationship between Midge and David:
“Serious matters they had always approached lightly. There had not been so very many of them. But the worries that had occurred had been treated in an off-hand, amused manner. It will all come out in the wash. Indeed they had no other manner with one another. For this reason, she had talked of Cressy’s visit and her confession, as if it were rather absurd; entertaining, certainly. Intuitive though she usually was with him, it had been a little time this evening before she realised he was not smiling, might even be angry at her flippancy. He thought the subject should not have been broached – there had been too much talking altogether – and he wished that Cressy had kept her mouth shut, had stayed away, in fact. Midge could not coax him into laughter.”
Silence and avoidance are the order of the day, all very English! As are Cressy’s ambitions for her life:
“It was to that world beyond the beech woods that Cressy was looking. She dreamed of Wimpy Bars and a young man with a sports car, of cheap and fashionable clothes that would fall apart before she tired of them. In that world she might find a place for herself.”
Taylor as always writes really well and her powers of observation are excellent; she also periodically slips in comments which reflect her own views, especially about writing:
“The sandwiches they had ordered were now put in front of them, and Nell lifted a corner of one of hers and peered short-sightedly inside – hard-boiled egg, sliced, with dark rings round the yolk, a scattering of cress, black seeds as well.
“The reason, they say, that women novelists can’t write about men, is because they don’t know what they’re like when they’re alone together, what they talk about and so on. But I can’t think why they don’t know. I seem to hear them booming away all the time. Just listen to this lot, next to me.””
Taylor also makes some points about the Harry Bretton figure, who doesn’t come out of this too well:
“For all our precious ideals, our inventiveness it’s the essential, instinctive mother-wife we crave at last. We return, after our escapades or great deeds, to her, for forgiveness and healing and approval.’
Rachel [his wife] tried to look forgiving and healing and admiring, but had an abstracted air.
He just makes me want to vomit, Cressy thought”
Marriage and loneliness seem to go together and most of the time the characters really struggle to communicate with each other. Life is bleak and without meaning. Religion has failed to deliver, the generations are in conflict and death is on the way. It’s good stuff!!
This is one of Taylor’s later novels, written in 1968. The Wedding Group of the title refers to a Wedgewood ornament of a wedding group which plays a symbolic role in the novel. The main protagonist is Cressida (Cressy) who lives in an artistic community called Quayne. It is run by her grandfather Harry Bretton (he self-styles himself as “Master”), who is loosely modelled on Augustus John. It is a Roman Catholic community with a priest. Taylor rather revels in her novelist’s power to send up such communities and the satire is effective. Cressy (who is seventeen) has decided to renounce religion and move out of community. She has also been asked to leave her school:
“Cressy had not been allowed to finish her last year. Not exactly expelled, but the suggestion was that, all the same, it would be better if she did not remain. She had broken bounds, was often missing for hours at a time, and had had some strange notions, which younger girls were all too ready to listen to”
She gets a job in an antique shop in the local village and moves into the flat above it. David is a journalist who has written about Quayne and who lives with his mother Midge. He is much older than Cressy but befriends her and they eventually marry. There are well drawn minor characters as well. There is a bleakness to the novel along with the wry humour.
There are some interesting explorations of relationships including the mother son relationship between Midge and David:
“Serious matters they had always approached lightly. There had not been so very many of them. But the worries that had occurred had been treated in an off-hand, amused manner. It will all come out in the wash. Indeed they had no other manner with one another. For this reason, she had talked of Cressy’s visit and her confession, as if it were rather absurd; entertaining, certainly. Intuitive though she usually was with him, it had been a little time this evening before she realised he was not smiling, might even be angry at her flippancy. He thought the subject should not have been broached – there had been too much talking altogether – and he wished that Cressy had kept her mouth shut, had stayed away, in fact. Midge could not coax him into laughter.”
Silence and avoidance are the order of the day, all very English! As are Cressy’s ambitions for her life:
“It was to that world beyond the beech woods that Cressy was looking. She dreamed of Wimpy Bars and a young man with a sports car, of cheap and fashionable clothes that would fall apart before she tired of them. In that world she might find a place for herself.”
Taylor as always writes really well and her powers of observation are excellent; she also periodically slips in comments which reflect her own views, especially about writing:
“The sandwiches they had ordered were now put in front of them, and Nell lifted a corner of one of hers and peered short-sightedly inside – hard-boiled egg, sliced, with dark rings round the yolk, a scattering of cress, black seeds as well.
“The reason, they say, that women novelists can’t write about men, is because they don’t know what they’re like when they’re alone together, what they talk about and so on. But I can’t think why they don’t know. I seem to hear them booming away all the time. Just listen to this lot, next to me.””
Taylor also makes some points about the Harry Bretton figure, who doesn’t come out of this too well:
“For all our precious ideals, our inventiveness it’s the essential, instinctive mother-wife we crave at last. We return, after our escapades or great deeds, to her, for forgiveness and healing and approval.’
Rachel [his wife] tried to look forgiving and healing and admiring, but had an abstracted air.
He just makes me want to vomit, Cressy thought”
Marriage and loneliness seem to go together and most of the time the characters really struggle to communicate with each other. Life is bleak and without meaning. Religion has failed to deliver, the generations are in conflict and death is on the way. It’s good stuff!!
October 30, 2023
The Wedding Group was written in the 1960s, toward the end of Elizabeth Taylor’s writing career. Written only a few years before Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, it addresses some similar issues that are in tune with an aging person, whose life is facing inevitable change and who has not prepared for this eventuality. I can imagine Taylor just beginning to come to grips with the fact that she was herself now fifty-six and, even in the longest lives, this is beyond the halfway mark. Perspective cannot help but shift.
The story centers around eighteen year old Cressida (Cressy), who has been raised in a religious/artistic commune established by her grandfather. She is anxious to break free and sample the world, and her ticket to do so comes in the guise of a confirmed bachelor, David, who is living with his mother in the nearby town where Cressy has taken an ill-paying job. Taylor paints a very believable naive and impressionable character in Cressy. She thinks she has won the lottery; we know she is stepping into a life that cannot possibly fulfill her dreams.
It was to that world beyond the beech woods that Cressy was looking. She dreamed of Wimpy Bars and a young man with a sports car, of cheap and fashionable clothes that would fall apart before she tired of them. In that world she might find a place for herself. It was worth trying; for there was none here.
David is the youngest son of a rather manipulative mother, who holds him in the most subtle of ways…she cooks, cleans, and provides a perfect and cozy environment. She plays up her own vulnerability and fears when he is gone from home. In short, she bribes and guilts him into remaining with her. He works in London, makes a long commute, and is very indifferent to the country life he lives. He feels trapped sometimes, but mainly when he thinks of the future responsibility he might have in taking care of mother, Midge.
Taylor’s most interesting character here is Midge. Her husband left her years before and now lives with an aging aunt. He did not leave for any other reason than that he could not bear her company any longer. Midge is not the sweet and independent Mrs. Palfrey, she is more reminiscent of Flora in The Soul of Kindness. She appears to be doting and kind, but I came to see her as more blood-sucking.
Like all of Taylor’s characters, Midge is three-dimensional and stirs a plethora of emotions in the reader. No one is better at depicting loneliness and loss of purpose than Taylor. There is a short scene in a bar in which a mother is being taken for a rare evening out and her daughter talks over her, almost callously. Midge, I think, can see herself reflected here. This is the life she cannot bear to think might overtake her, and she is willing to do almost anything to prevent that from happening.
Cressy undergoes a transformation during the course of the story that I think would make for a ripe conversation in a group read! Like all of Taylor’s works, this one seems pretty simple and perhaps even shallow until you have stepped away for a few minutes, then the depths sweep over you like an ocean. The open ending is almost chilling. I felt prickles, wanting to discuss it with some other reader and hear what they believed happened on the next page that was so purposefully unwritten.
Just my humble opinion, but Elizabeth Taylor has done it again.
The story centers around eighteen year old Cressida (Cressy), who has been raised in a religious/artistic commune established by her grandfather. She is anxious to break free and sample the world, and her ticket to do so comes in the guise of a confirmed bachelor, David, who is living with his mother in the nearby town where Cressy has taken an ill-paying job. Taylor paints a very believable naive and impressionable character in Cressy. She thinks she has won the lottery; we know she is stepping into a life that cannot possibly fulfill her dreams.
It was to that world beyond the beech woods that Cressy was looking. She dreamed of Wimpy Bars and a young man with a sports car, of cheap and fashionable clothes that would fall apart before she tired of them. In that world she might find a place for herself. It was worth trying; for there was none here.
David is the youngest son of a rather manipulative mother, who holds him in the most subtle of ways…she cooks, cleans, and provides a perfect and cozy environment. She plays up her own vulnerability and fears when he is gone from home. In short, she bribes and guilts him into remaining with her. He works in London, makes a long commute, and is very indifferent to the country life he lives. He feels trapped sometimes, but mainly when he thinks of the future responsibility he might have in taking care of mother, Midge.
Taylor’s most interesting character here is Midge. Her husband left her years before and now lives with an aging aunt. He did not leave for any other reason than that he could not bear her company any longer. Midge is not the sweet and independent Mrs. Palfrey, she is more reminiscent of Flora in The Soul of Kindness. She appears to be doting and kind, but I came to see her as more blood-sucking.
Like all of Taylor’s characters, Midge is three-dimensional and stirs a plethora of emotions in the reader. No one is better at depicting loneliness and loss of purpose than Taylor. There is a short scene in a bar in which a mother is being taken for a rare evening out and her daughter talks over her, almost callously. Midge, I think, can see herself reflected here. This is the life she cannot bear to think might overtake her, and she is willing to do almost anything to prevent that from happening.
Cressy undergoes a transformation during the course of the story that I think would make for a ripe conversation in a group read! Like all of Taylor’s works, this one seems pretty simple and perhaps even shallow until you have stepped away for a few minutes, then the depths sweep over you like an ocean. The open ending is almost chilling. I felt prickles, wanting to discuss it with some other reader and hear what they believed happened on the next page that was so purposefully unwritten.
Just my humble opinion, but Elizabeth Taylor has done it again.
July 15, 2020
A slight, almost sadly inconsequential Taylor that explores the familial ties that shape us, bind us, and yet from which we long to be free. The way Taylor explores this across two characters—Cressy and David, both from totally different worlds—is skillfully done, but the writing here feels flat, awkward, and is riddled with sentence fragments that are atypical of Taylor’s usual elegance; the characterization is a bit forced, too, almost two-dimensional.
Recommended only for those seeking to complete their journey through Tayloyr’s oeuvre. I still have one more of her novels to read (The Soul of Kindness), and suspect The Wedding Group to be the dud of them all. It was followed by the hilariously morbid Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and then topped off with one of Taylor’s finest novels, her last published, Blaming.
I wrote at some length for Full Stop on Taylor’s A View of the Harbour, where I also place that novel in the context of several of her others, finding common threads across what is interestingly a very robust, versatile body of work.
For those new to Taylor, I would eschew Angel for your first read, which was the most popular of her novels during her lifetime (why, I’ll never know, as it’s an outlier). Instead, I would highly recommend either beginning with something like A View of the Harbour or In a Summer Season to get a sense of her breadth and scope, or even heading straight for her masterpiece, A Wreath of Roses.
Recommended only for those seeking to complete their journey through Tayloyr’s oeuvre. I still have one more of her novels to read (The Soul of Kindness), and suspect The Wedding Group to be the dud of them all. It was followed by the hilariously morbid Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and then topped off with one of Taylor’s finest novels, her last published, Blaming.
I wrote at some length for Full Stop on Taylor’s A View of the Harbour, where I also place that novel in the context of several of her others, finding common threads across what is interestingly a very robust, versatile body of work.
For those new to Taylor, I would eschew Angel for your first read, which was the most popular of her novels during her lifetime (why, I’ll never know, as it’s an outlier). Instead, I would highly recommend either beginning with something like A View of the Harbour or In a Summer Season to get a sense of her breadth and scope, or even heading straight for her masterpiece, A Wreath of Roses.
December 7, 2018
Taylor’s tenth novel opens with 17-year-old Cressida “Cressy” MacPhail’s return from convent school to Quayne, the family compound, a back-to-the-earth, Catholic artist community founded by her overbearing grandfather, Harry “The Master” Bretton, a once-acclaimed painter. Cressy challenged the rules at school, she was an indifferent student and a bad influence on the other girls, and the administrators had simply had enough of her. Now Cressy is at loose ends. She’s not at all interested in the work at the artist colony—weaving, cooking, harvesting—which is mostly done by the women (her grandmother, mother, and aunts). She knows she is expected to marry, probably one of her grandfather’s young protégés, and move into one of the buildings on the property to begin her own quiet domestic life. However, Cressy wants all that the members of the community spurn—TV, Wimpy��s fast food, and cheaply manufactured dresses that will fall apart so that she can enjoy buying more. One morning at breakfast with her parents, she causes a rumpus by declaring that she has lost her faith. Soon she is working in town as a salesgirl at an antique shop.
Instrumental in her final break from Quayne is David Little, a journalist/feature writer, who has recently produced a piece on the artist colony for a newspaper colour supplement. David misidentified a girl in one of the photos that accompanied the article, and Cressy has written him a haughty letter (riddled with spelling errors) to set him straight. It was not she who was photographed with one of the farm animals, but her cousin Petronella! What’s more, Cressy tells him, she’s not 15 but 17, and she is not uneducated! “I know French for a start!” All of this David reports with some amusement to his mother, Midge, with whom he lives. Midge’s entire life revolves around her son, but she artfully ensures that the apron strings are invisible to his eyes. This isn’t that hard to do because David is oblivious. The workings of his own mind are hidden from him.
Perhaps not surprisingly—this is Taylor, after all—Cressy and the much older David marry. The union is, of course, a disaster. David has been coddled and catered to by his mother, and Cressy, whose life has been even more sheltered, is naïve and entirely ill-equipped for the real world. She certainly cannot manage the running of a household and is easily controlled and manipulated by her mother-in-law, who does everything in her power to maintain the David and Cressy’s dependency. Midge is a brilliant creation, another of Taylor’s “souls of kindness” who is actually driven by shadowy self-centredness. In fact, all three of Taylor’s main characters in this novel are very limited in self-knowledge.
I was slightly disappointed with the novel’s ambiguous ending. However, it’s clear enough that Midge’s leech-like qualities prevail. No one really learns anything, and no one grows. The characters just become more and more themselves. I know some people say this isn’t Taylor’s best, but I found it to be an engrossing and psychologically astute work of literary fiction.
Instrumental in her final break from Quayne is David Little, a journalist/feature writer, who has recently produced a piece on the artist colony for a newspaper colour supplement. David misidentified a girl in one of the photos that accompanied the article, and Cressy has written him a haughty letter (riddled with spelling errors) to set him straight. It was not she who was photographed with one of the farm animals, but her cousin Petronella! What’s more, Cressy tells him, she’s not 15 but 17, and she is not uneducated! “I know French for a start!” All of this David reports with some amusement to his mother, Midge, with whom he lives. Midge’s entire life revolves around her son, but she artfully ensures that the apron strings are invisible to his eyes. This isn’t that hard to do because David is oblivious. The workings of his own mind are hidden from him.
Perhaps not surprisingly—this is Taylor, after all—Cressy and the much older David marry. The union is, of course, a disaster. David has been coddled and catered to by his mother, and Cressy, whose life has been even more sheltered, is naïve and entirely ill-equipped for the real world. She certainly cannot manage the running of a household and is easily controlled and manipulated by her mother-in-law, who does everything in her power to maintain the David and Cressy’s dependency. Midge is a brilliant creation, another of Taylor’s “souls of kindness” who is actually driven by shadowy self-centredness. In fact, all three of Taylor’s main characters in this novel are very limited in self-knowledge.
I was slightly disappointed with the novel’s ambiguous ending. However, it’s clear enough that Midge’s leech-like qualities prevail. No one really learns anything, and no one grows. The characters just become more and more themselves. I know some people say this isn’t Taylor’s best, but I found it to be an engrossing and psychologically astute work of literary fiction.
May 7, 2023
This one was different than what I was expecting. It is about a couple who gets married and has a lot of trouble -- not so unusual, you say? That's right! It's not that unusual, so where's the story?
I like Taylor's writing style so much, but I just hope the next one I read has a little more to it.
I definitely plan to read more by her!
I like Taylor's writing style so much, but I just hope the next one I read has a little more to it.
I definitely plan to read more by her!
October 31, 2016
The Wedding Group, first published in 1968, is Elizabeth Taylor's twelfth novel, and by no means her best. It has been reported in various reviews to be rather enjoyable regardless, so I went to it with open eyes, not expecting the brilliance of Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont and Angel, but fully thinking that I'd be captivated regardless.
The short of it is that I wasn't. It is a very ordered novel, particularly with regard to its character introductions and its measured descriptions, but it never reached the heights which I was expecting. The writing was strong, but there was very little here by way of plot, and if I'd started my reading of Taylor's work with this novel, I don't think I would have been too keen to continue. One of my least favourites, and rather disappointing to boot.
The short of it is that I wasn't. It is a very ordered novel, particularly with regard to its character introductions and its measured descriptions, but it never reached the heights which I was expecting. The writing was strong, but there was very little here by way of plot, and if I'd started my reading of Taylor's work with this novel, I don't think I would have been too keen to continue. One of my least favourites, and rather disappointing to boot.
May 19, 2019
No matter how much I enjoy Elizabeth Taylor's story (a plot) I always see she was a brilliant novelist.
The strongest aspect of this one were characters. They were completely thoughtful and real. So much, that I almost could have touched them. I even want to read it again to savor them more and concentrate more on understanding them.
I would also like to know where she took inspirations from.
The strongest aspect of this one were characters. They were completely thoughtful and real. So much, that I almost could have touched them. I even want to read it again to savor them more and concentrate more on understanding them.
I would also like to know where she took inspirations from.
October 3, 2012
Elizabeth Taylor’s tenth novel first published in 1968 is not among her best and yet I enjoyed it enormously and I think there is plenty in it that is still interesting.
The novel centres on Cressy – a young girl who has been brought up in an odd communal family, a sort of religious/artistic community, presided over by her grandfather Harry Bretton. Like several of the characters in this novel Cressy is somewhat isolated – she wants to escape her family.
“Time always went slowly for Cressy, now that her school days were over. She had come home from the convent to nothing. To be part of a busy, useful, self-sufficing community, her mother had said… She would be expected to marry. Whom? Perhaps one of young men who come to work in the studio with her grandfather. They would live pennilessly in one of the out-buildings (restored) and take their place at the long dining table. She visualised it with the greatest ease.”
In order to make her escape Cressy finds a job and a small flat at an antique shop in the nearby village. Here she lives on things on toast and meets David – a local journalist who is several years older than Cressy. David’s mother Midge long separated from her much older husband relies on David’s presence in her life, while he is thoroughly tied to her apron strings. David’s father lives in his own self-imposed isolation in London, caring for his eccentric aunt until her death; he spends his time cleaning the silver. Midge likes the way things are and doesn’t much care for it to change. As David and Cressy begin to grow closer, Midge takes Cressy under her wing, and yet is unprepared for the inevitable engagement. When David is away from home, Midge is terrified, she is lonely afraid of burglars and works to manipulate these new changes to suit herself. She urges David and Cressy to live in a small broken down cottage, terribly overgrown that has the advantage of being isolated from everyone else but is very close to her.
Cressy is unprepared for grown up responsible living – she becomes more and more reliant upon Midge who is happy to help. David is equally unprepared for the responsibilities of marriage; he had rather unceremoniously finished a relationship with a rather acerbic woman closer to his own age in order to marry Cressy – who he often thinks of as rather a child.
As with so many Elizabeth Taylor novels marriage and loneliness figure strongly, the writing is good – although maybe not quite as good as in some of Taylor’s earlier novels, and I didn’t think the peripheral characters were as strongly explored as in many other novels. I was interested to note how Murdochian this novel felt in parts – especially the beginning. The artistic/religious community headed up by a rather elusive patriarch, a complex family living at close quarters. A few eccentric characters – particularly David’s father and his Aunt, two characters are even writing books (there is almost always someone writing a book in Murdoch). Having read 25 and a half of Iris Murdoch’s 26 novels I was pleased to note these little things.
The novel centres on Cressy – a young girl who has been brought up in an odd communal family, a sort of religious/artistic community, presided over by her grandfather Harry Bretton. Like several of the characters in this novel Cressy is somewhat isolated – she wants to escape her family.
“Time always went slowly for Cressy, now that her school days were over. She had come home from the convent to nothing. To be part of a busy, useful, self-sufficing community, her mother had said… She would be expected to marry. Whom? Perhaps one of young men who come to work in the studio with her grandfather. They would live pennilessly in one of the out-buildings (restored) and take their place at the long dining table. She visualised it with the greatest ease.”
In order to make her escape Cressy finds a job and a small flat at an antique shop in the nearby village. Here she lives on things on toast and meets David – a local journalist who is several years older than Cressy. David’s mother Midge long separated from her much older husband relies on David’s presence in her life, while he is thoroughly tied to her apron strings. David’s father lives in his own self-imposed isolation in London, caring for his eccentric aunt until her death; he spends his time cleaning the silver. Midge likes the way things are and doesn’t much care for it to change. As David and Cressy begin to grow closer, Midge takes Cressy under her wing, and yet is unprepared for the inevitable engagement. When David is away from home, Midge is terrified, she is lonely afraid of burglars and works to manipulate these new changes to suit herself. She urges David and Cressy to live in a small broken down cottage, terribly overgrown that has the advantage of being isolated from everyone else but is very close to her.
Cressy is unprepared for grown up responsible living – she becomes more and more reliant upon Midge who is happy to help. David is equally unprepared for the responsibilities of marriage; he had rather unceremoniously finished a relationship with a rather acerbic woman closer to his own age in order to marry Cressy – who he often thinks of as rather a child.
As with so many Elizabeth Taylor novels marriage and loneliness figure strongly, the writing is good – although maybe not quite as good as in some of Taylor’s earlier novels, and I didn’t think the peripheral characters were as strongly explored as in many other novels. I was interested to note how Murdochian this novel felt in parts – especially the beginning. The artistic/religious community headed up by a rather elusive patriarch, a complex family living at close quarters. A few eccentric characters – particularly David’s father and his Aunt, two characters are even writing books (there is almost always someone writing a book in Murdoch). Having read 25 and a half of Iris Murdoch’s 26 novels I was pleased to note these little things.
June 7, 2012
This is an interesting story of young adults and the families that encompass their lives. It was published in 1968, but it has a timeless atmosphere which makes it easy to imagine taking place in any time period. The main male character David comes from a family, traditional on the surface, but that has also experienced divorce and displacement. Still living at home, David ignores much of the extreme manipulation by his mother. Cressida, the young woman at the center of the story, has grown up in, and rebelled away from, a primitive, secluded artist colony in rural England, ruled by her grandfather, who some call The Master. David and Cressy's lives combine to show how their shadowed childhoods have made them inequipped for carrying out their own lives. They seem to marry each other just by happenstance, and then flounder in a weedy village cottage next door to his mother, unable to feed themselves, care for a baby son, or take or true look at their lives. They both seem to be waiting for orders from both sides of the family before their own living can begin.
This is an interesting, brief study of family, and it reminds me of the phrase regarding how parents should "raise adults rather than raising children."
The Wedding Group is quite different from the previous Taylor I have read, A Game of Hide and Seek. Wedding Group is a less personal story, more of a window on these people's lives. It is more of a simpler observation of personalities rather than inner emotions, with the only exception being that of Midge, David's controlling mother.
This is an interesting, brief study of family, and it reminds me of the phrase regarding how parents should "raise adults rather than raising children."
The Wedding Group is quite different from the previous Taylor I have read, A Game of Hide and Seek. Wedding Group is a less personal story, more of a window on these people's lives. It is more of a simpler observation of personalities rather than inner emotions, with the only exception being that of Midge, David's controlling mother.
May 27, 2019
Cressie is in her late teens and living with her extended family in a religious community. The family grow their own food, dress in homespun clothing, and have little to do with the outside world. Cressie is rebelling against this and longs to experience life outside with it's television and Whimpy Bars.
David is grown up, but still lives with his mother, Her husband left them years ago, so he feels he must stay with her or she would be terribly lonely. He would like to move to London, but feelings of guilt at leaving her prevent him from doing so.
When the two meet, will they finally be able to break free from those ties?
Not her best known, or even best novel, but I really liked it. I really enjoyed reading about Cressie and her childlike joy at discovering everyday things that the rest of us would barely notice.
David is grown up, but still lives with his mother, Her husband left them years ago, so he feels he must stay with her or she would be terribly lonely. He would like to move to London, but feelings of guilt at leaving her prevent him from doing so.
When the two meet, will they finally be able to break free from those ties?
Not her best known, or even best novel, but I really liked it. I really enjoyed reading about Cressie and her childlike joy at discovering everyday things that the rest of us would barely notice.
July 8, 2019
The “other” Elizabeth Taylor never wrote the same novel twice. Here a naive young woman reared in a communal artist colony escapes, only to marry a conventional young man with a subtly possessive mother. The real subtlety here, though, is how the author slowly reveals home truths about her characters in deft, often witty prose.
October 10, 2007
What I learned from this book? People change. Don't be lazy. Don't eat too many éclairs.
April 4, 2021
The characters in Elizabeth Taylor's novels tend to behave in a very subdued, confrontation-averse manner (although they do plenty of cheating). This can make for an interesting read; characters shouldn't say what they want and feel, and 'no' is better than 'yes' for stories, because it causes obstacles. That Taylor's characters usually respond with a kind of quietude to these obstacles is something I, who always wants to write things more dramatically than they ought to be, admire.
However, for this novel, I feel it did not quite work. The concept is interesting, but for the first time, I wish another novelist had had a go at it than Taylor. The idea of the Quayne commune was extremely interesting to me, but it was never explored the way I wanted it to be. Perhaps communes like this (or maybe 'cult' is a bit more appropriate) truly are this quiet and dull in their isolation and persecution, but that does not make them all that interesting to read about. I also felt this novel lacked the beauty with which Taylor normally writes. All the same, it was a quick read, and it definitely had moments of interest, so it still gets 3 stars from me.
However, for this novel, I feel it did not quite work. The concept is interesting, but for the first time, I wish another novelist had had a go at it than Taylor. The idea of the Quayne commune was extremely interesting to me, but it was never explored the way I wanted it to be. Perhaps communes like this (or maybe 'cult' is a bit more appropriate) truly are this quiet and dull in their isolation and persecution, but that does not make them all that interesting to read about. I also felt this novel lacked the beauty with which Taylor normally writes. All the same, it was a quick read, and it definitely had moments of interest, so it still gets 3 stars from me.
February 19, 2013
Once again Elizabeth Taylor explores in almost painful detail the lives of various none-too-admirable characters within the London commuter belt, but this time she adds to the mix the hilarious description of a commune presided over by a successful but terribly vain painter who has complete ascendency over his daughters, son-in-laws and hangers-on. The only member of the tribe to dare rebel, Cressy, ends up marrying a journalist who still makes his home with his divorced mother. The girl, who has exhausted her feeble moral ressources in the fight against her grand-father, is no match for her mother-in-law who will stop at nothing to keep the young couple indebted to her. Again, the loneliness of old folks is one of the main themes of the book, but scheming Midge is too hard to love for the reader to feel sorry for her, which only adds to the subtlety of the book. There is more suspense than in some other titles by Taylor as it remains uncertain until the end whether the young couple will make it on their own terms or not.
January 30, 2017
I am not enjoying this book and don't feel like reading it right now.
Suspended on page 108
Suspended on page 108
October 18, 2018
2.5 stars. Not my favorite Taylor.
October 21, 2021
"What one person must have, another doesn't need."
Just a friendly reminder that you're a fool if you haven't read Taylor. Her forte is surface whimsy underscored by bleak and somehow warm doom. Long seen as a chronicler of the British middle-class, she might be more said to be a chronicler of Muddle Earth with her attention to the awkwardness and secret foibles of the lonely, seemingly disinterested, and the mildly psychotic.
In Group, we are presented with two opposing forces of the desire to escape one's family: young Cressy who lives with her family on a kind of bizarre Catholic artist's commune dominated by her painter grandfather; David Little, journalist and caretaker of his long-divorced parents.
This is a novel of independence and co-dependence and the blurry line where they both meet, crash, collide, and burn. As always with Taylor, the quiet lull of her prose gives way to short, sharp barks of reality crashing in and slashing at the backs of your legs. As you're falling, you will smile and turn back a page or two to read it all over again.
Just a friendly reminder that you're a fool if you haven't read Taylor. Her forte is surface whimsy underscored by bleak and somehow warm doom. Long seen as a chronicler of the British middle-class, she might be more said to be a chronicler of Muddle Earth with her attention to the awkwardness and secret foibles of the lonely, seemingly disinterested, and the mildly psychotic.
In Group, we are presented with two opposing forces of the desire to escape one's family: young Cressy who lives with her family on a kind of bizarre Catholic artist's commune dominated by her painter grandfather; David Little, journalist and caretaker of his long-divorced parents.
This is a novel of independence and co-dependence and the blurry line where they both meet, crash, collide, and burn. As always with Taylor, the quiet lull of her prose gives way to short, sharp barks of reality crashing in and slashing at the backs of your legs. As you're falling, you will smile and turn back a page or two to read it all over again.
March 3, 2025
Maybe I've read too much Taylor in the past six months so I'm beginning to need higher doses of her brilliance to keep me entirely happy. Or maybe this really is the first of her novels where the characters seem a little bit forced, and where at times she seems almost impatient with her own invention. Many chapters end on a rather terse note. The satire on the other hand is quite broad.
But mostly it's formidable women serving awful food to shifty men, so what's not to love.
But mostly it's formidable women serving awful food to shifty men, so what's not to love.
July 18, 2011
Originally published in 1968, this is a gem in the tradition of Jane Austen: a domestic tragic-comedy, written with the understated wit and perception that British women have done so well over the years. There are two central characters: Midge, a middle-aged divorcee and Cressy, a 19-year-old girl who is trying to escape her family's life on a rural commune dominated by her artist grandfather.
Both women, though at the opposite ends of the scale when it comes to experience and resources, have much in common. Each is astoundingly good at getting her way while wreaking havoc in the lives of those around them. Midge's son David, who lives with his mother and commutes to a job in London, gets caught between the two, to his peril. Of course, he is far from blameless, having dodged commitment for most of his adult life while his mother caters to his every whim.
When it comes to depicting human interrelationships, Elizabeth Taylor had few peers. She deserves to be far more widely read; luckily, many of her books are now available on Kindle.
Both women, though at the opposite ends of the scale when it comes to experience and resources, have much in common. Each is astoundingly good at getting her way while wreaking havoc in the lives of those around them. Midge's son David, who lives with his mother and commutes to a job in London, gets caught between the two, to his peril. Of course, he is far from blameless, having dodged commitment for most of his adult life while his mother caters to his every whim.
When it comes to depicting human interrelationships, Elizabeth Taylor had few peers. She deserves to be far more widely read; luckily, many of her books are now available on Kindle.
December 6, 2018
Read this one for the wonderful British writing. Here Cressy, the child of an artist's commune, is brought up in an agrarian world that circles around her grandfather's painting; he paints religious scenes in modern dress, using his female relatives as models. However, Cressy is not satisfied.
She longs for the outside, finding joy in the novelty of machine-made clothing and Wimpy bars, while Midge and David are a comfortable mother and son household. When Cressy meets David, complications ensue.
She longs for the outside, finding joy in the novelty of machine-made clothing and Wimpy bars, while Midge and David are a comfortable mother and son household. When Cressy meets David, complications ensue.
June 24, 2018
I felt obliged to give this three stars due to the author's descriptive skills and marvelous character delineations. In a Taylor book, the reader feels as if (s)he can see every detail and understand each character to a high degree. All of that is present here.
However, the central event happened with so little groundwork laid that it was disheartening. Because of its improbable nature, all that followed it just strengthened my suspicion that it was a great flaw in the plot. I really cannot recommend this book.
However, the central event happened with so little groundwork laid that it was disheartening. Because of its improbable nature, all that followed it just strengthened my suspicion that it was a great flaw in the plot. I really cannot recommend this book.
March 9, 2014
A wonderful book by an often overlooked writer- sharp, heartbreaking, funny, acute. 180 degree twists in destiny in a sentence. beautifully, savagely observed characters. makes me relieved not to have lived in the fifies, and not to live in a village.
"'Gallantry' is such a word,' Nell said, looking about her at all the dark-suited men. She had hauled herself up to a high stool by the bar, and her skirt was rucked up. David glanced at it, thought of telling her, but could not be bothered.
"'Gallantry' is such a word,' Nell said, looking about her at all the dark-suited men. She had hauled herself up to a high stool by the bar, and her skirt was rucked up. David glanced at it, thought of telling her, but could not be bothered.
March 20, 2016
This is another new author for me. She brings together three lonely and unsatisfied people, a man, his mother and a 19 year old woman who has just managed to flee a closed Catholic community. Cressy's lack of contact with the local village people cause her to crave another more open life. Her naivety and almost complete lack of knowledge of the world make her irresistible to sophisticated David and his mother. This cover is totally inappropriate to the story, a pet hate of mine.
November 19, 2012
A wonderfully understated author who reminds me of the novel of manners ala Jane Austen. How we choose who we marry, why we choose them and the consequences on the families involved are the subject of this novel. While the reader knows that this marriage will not end happily ever after, Ms Taylor's characterizations and subtle dialogue are well worth the read.
July 13, 2017
A story about an artist who holds his family close in his own enclave with his grandchildren homeschooled and everyone supporting him, the family business. One child breaks out to live on her own in the nearby village and tries to make a life for herself. Her choices are limited and reflect the narrowness of the story to me.
March 31, 2016
It was strange to read an Elizabeth Taylor set in the 1960s. Somehow it just didn't fit, but that's probably my problem, not hers. The wit and acute observations are there, but I've timelocked the author in the 1940s. However, it was still a real pleasure.
October 24, 2012
Slow and sad, the importance of the everyday and the strings that bind.
January 28, 2014
after loving taylor's 'angel' SO MUCH i've found her other novels to be quite uneven. this one started off wonderfully but dragged about halfway through.
May 23, 2019
May choice for the Elizabeth Taylor Reading Project.
I enjoyed this one more than I thought I was going to! The author captures the difference in characters and their ages perfectly as you have Cressy who has been brought up in a very closed off world looking to find her own way, while David has been dominated for so many years by his mother and they seem to think that if they marry one another it can help them break those chains, whereas it just seems to create more chains!
Cressy is very young and naive going into the marriage and seems to hope that the older David will help guide her and teach her more of life. But he's very set in his ways and feels duty bound to take care of his mother without any thought as to what is best for him and Cressy.
I enjoyed this one more than I thought I was going to! The author captures the difference in characters and their ages perfectly as you have Cressy who has been brought up in a very closed off world looking to find her own way, while David has been dominated for so many years by his mother and they seem to think that if they marry one another it can help them break those chains, whereas it just seems to create more chains!
Cressy is very young and naive going into the marriage and seems to hope that the older David will help guide her and teach her more of life. But he's very set in his ways and feels duty bound to take care of his mother without any thought as to what is best for him and Cressy.
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