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Sherbrookes: Possession / Sherbrookes / Stillness
The collected early novels of an American master.
- GenresFiction
671 pages, Paperback
First published August 25, 2011
1 person is currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Nicholas Delbanco
98 books18 followersNicholas Delbanco is the Robert Frost Distinguished University Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan and Chair of the Hopwood Committee. He has published twenty-five books of fiction and non-fiction. His most recent novels are The Count of Concord and Spring and Fall; his most recent works of non-fiction are The Countess of Stanlein Restored and The Lost Suitcase: Reflections on the Literary Life. As editor he has compiled the work of, among others, John Gardner and Bernard Malamud. The long-term Director of the MFA Program as well as the Hopwood Awards Program at the University of Michigan, he has served as Chair of the Fiction Panel for the National Book Awards, received a Guggenheim Fellowship and, twice, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship. Professor Delbanco has just completed a teaching text for McGraw-Hill entitled Literature: Craft and Voice, a three-volume Introduction to Literature of which he is the co-editor with Alan Cheuse; in 2004 he published The Sincerest Form: Writiing Fiction by Imitation. His new non-fiction book, Lastingness: The Art of Old Age will be published by Grand Central Publishing in 2011.
Full Biography
NOTE: The following biography was composed in 2000 by Jon Manchip White and reflects information only up to and including that year.
Nationality: American. Born: London, England, 1942. Education: Harvard University, B.A. 1963; Columbia University, M.A. 1966. Career: Member of Department of Language and Literature, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, 1966-84, writing workshop director, 1977-84; professor of English, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, 1984-85; Robert Frost Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1985—. Awards: National Endowment for the Arts creative writing award, 1973, 1982; National Endowment of Composers and Librettists fellowship, 1976; Guggenheim fellowship, 1980; Woodrow Wilson fellowship; Edward John Noble fellowship; New York State CAPS Award; Vermont Council of the Arts Award; Michigan Council of the Arts Award. Agent: Brandt & Brandt Literary Agents, Inc., 1501 Broadway, New York, New York 10036, U.S.A.
As a novelist, Nicholas Delbanco can be considered doubly fortunate in that he has always been able to draw inspiration and sustenance from two continents and two cultures.
Of Italian and German descent, he was born in London at the height of the German Blitz, and his family did not depart for America until he was six, and he was not naturalized as an American citizen until he was eleven. It is not surprising that, though later he would anchor himself firmly in New England and particularly in Vermont, and more recently in Michigan as the Robert Frost Professor of English Language and Literature, the influence of his European origins would play a consistent part in his fiction and non-fiction alike.
The cultural ambivalence, if such it may be called, manifested itself early. At Harvard, his B.A. thesis was devoted to a joint study of Rilke and Heredia, two noteworthy wanderers, and the subject of his M.A. thesis was that tragic outcast, Malcolm Lowry. Examining the numerous novels Delbanco has published to date, one finds that only five are set exclusively in the United States and that the majority are set, either in whole or part, in Provence, Tuscany, Greece, Switzerland, or as far afield as Barbados and Mexico. Several of his non-fiction books are concerned with Europe, one of them a study of that remarkable group of literary exiles, including Conrad, Crane, and James, who lived and worked together in a small corner of England at the turn of the last century. Indeed, one of the courses Delbanco has taught over the years is specifically entitled “Exiles,” and is devoted to Becket, Conrad, and Nabokov, while other courses have featured a gallery of roving and displaced novelists such as Joyce, Lawrence, Forster, Ford, Mann, Fitzgerald, and He
Full Biography
NOTE: The following biography was composed in 2000 by Jon Manchip White and reflects information only up to and including that year.
Nationality: American. Born: London, England, 1942. Education: Harvard University, B.A. 1963; Columbia University, M.A. 1966. Career: Member of Department of Language and Literature, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, 1966-84, writing workshop director, 1977-84; professor of English, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, 1984-85; Robert Frost Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1985—. Awards: National Endowment for the Arts creative writing award, 1973, 1982; National Endowment of Composers and Librettists fellowship, 1976; Guggenheim fellowship, 1980; Woodrow Wilson fellowship; Edward John Noble fellowship; New York State CAPS Award; Vermont Council of the Arts Award; Michigan Council of the Arts Award. Agent: Brandt & Brandt Literary Agents, Inc., 1501 Broadway, New York, New York 10036, U.S.A.
As a novelist, Nicholas Delbanco can be considered doubly fortunate in that he has always been able to draw inspiration and sustenance from two continents and two cultures.
Of Italian and German descent, he was born in London at the height of the German Blitz, and his family did not depart for America until he was six, and he was not naturalized as an American citizen until he was eleven. It is not surprising that, though later he would anchor himself firmly in New England and particularly in Vermont, and more recently in Michigan as the Robert Frost Professor of English Language and Literature, the influence of his European origins would play a consistent part in his fiction and non-fiction alike.
The cultural ambivalence, if such it may be called, manifested itself early. At Harvard, his B.A. thesis was devoted to a joint study of Rilke and Heredia, two noteworthy wanderers, and the subject of his M.A. thesis was that tragic outcast, Malcolm Lowry. Examining the numerous novels Delbanco has published to date, one finds that only five are set exclusively in the United States and that the majority are set, either in whole or part, in Provence, Tuscany, Greece, Switzerland, or as far afield as Barbados and Mexico. Several of his non-fiction books are concerned with Europe, one of them a study of that remarkable group of literary exiles, including Conrad, Crane, and James, who lived and worked together in a small corner of England at the turn of the last century. Indeed, one of the courses Delbanco has taught over the years is specifically entitled “Exiles,” and is devoted to Becket, Conrad, and Nabokov, while other courses have featured a gallery of roving and displaced novelists such as Joyce, Lawrence, Forster, Ford, Mann, Fitzgerald, and He
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December 23, 2025
A little over a year ago I found this copy of Sherbrookes at a small town library sale. I was drawn to the Dalkey insignia maze spiral on its spine. While not uncommon, it is rare to find books from publishers like Dalkey at this sale so I decided to buy it on the spot. When I got home. I messaged Kevin of HVBooknerd about it since he was the only one of my friends on Goodreads who had read it. He gave it high praise which led me to take a deeper interest in it.
Taking place in Vermont, I wanted to save this book for the fall (the season most associated with the state). I decided to read it this year, making a reintroduction into longer, more challenging, literary, works.
Originally published between 1976 and 1980 the Sherbrookes Trilogy comprises Possession, Sherbrookes, and Stillness, three early novels from British American author Nicholas Delbanco. In 2011 John O’Brien reached out to Delbanco about reissuing his trilogy as one work via Dalkey Archive. In the afterward Debanco discusses this process, stating that some edits were made to make a more fluid transition between books. While claiming to only change about 7% of the book, he does discuss in the afterward his struggle not to rewrite more of the book. Returning to his novels after decades he had matured as an author and wanted to have that reflected in this newer reissue.
I have not read anything else from Delbanco, so I cannot state if this book does or does not capture Delbanco as an author beyond his early output. I will state that this book does feel like a creation wholly of Nicholas Delbanco.
From the start this was one of the more difficult books I’ve read this year. The narrative structure is one of the most scattered I’ve ever read. While the main plot does exist as a linear narrative it is surrounded by anecdotal vignettes that color the characters and build the world of the story. These vignettes alternate character perspectives, time periods, and plot pertainance rather frequently. These scenes will often continue for about a page before switching to something else. This is a book that demands consistent attention and a slow reading pace.
The first book Possession was my least favorite of the trilogy. We are thrown into this story and storytelling method and are immediately to task with decrypting what is going on. The narrative of the Sherbrookes Trilogy follows the Sherbrooks family. An old money small time Vermont royalty of sorts. Contemporary to the time period in which these books were written, we follow the family patriarch, a 76 year old man named Judah. Stuck in his ways and estranged from his wife and son he finds out his wife Maggie is planning to return to town. A woman who was half his age when he married her. She is highly independent. She has lived for herself, taking many suitors while married, ultimately leading to her departure from the Sherbrookes home.
This first book details the relationship between these two, while introducing many other characters of varying levels of plot impact. I am not one for drawing a family tree while reading a book but I had to here. There are so many characters and the way in which Delbanco introduces them can often lead to more confusion than is necessary. At first I wasn’t quite sure what Judah and Maggie’s relationship actually was. The age gap and estrangement of them made it feel more like a father daughter relationship at first. Delbanco makes a theme of using large age gaps between generations which definitely adds confusion when you are discussing so many different generations all at once.
In Possession we get introduced to characters Hattie and Ian who become more relevant in later books, as well as the previous generations of the Sherbrookes family that initiated the success and notoriety given to the family name. This book culminates with Judah fleeing the house and ultimately meeting his demise.
Sherbrookes, book two, is a book I found to be a lot more enjoyable to read. At this point I was more accustomed to the narrative style and more familiar with the characters. It also helps that an actual plot starts to formulate. Instead of characters sitting around reflecting on the past or discussing their perspectives with each other we get the falling action of Judah’s death. After his passing his son, Ian, is contacted and given the news of a funeral and to return to the family house. 26 years old, Ian is an adventurous and artistic young man who has seen the world and found success running a theater company in the midwest.
I found the character of Ian to be a much more realized character than that of Judah. Maybe it is because I am closer to his age and can relate with his actions more but I think it is more likely that it was because Delbanco was also closer to his age when writing this character and could base it off a more realistic experience in his own life.
Ian is the main male focus of this second book. When he returns to the Sherbrookes house he assumes the position of head patriarch, overseeing the farming and property management, as well as caring for his aging mother and aunt.
In this second book we learn that Maggie is pregnant. In her early 50s, she finds that she is once again pregnant and that her husband Judah is not the father. Much of this book is Maggie reckoning with this and slowly revealing this to her son and sister in law, Hattie. This book culminates with Hattie, a woman in her 80s, running away from the house and meeting her demise, distraught after learning that the new baby will carry the Sherbrookes name without any genetic connection to the bloodline.
Book three, Stillness, has the birth of Jane. This baby is raised by Maggie and Ian. The real father is revealed to be Andrew Kincannon, a previous lover of Maggie’s from New York City. He is told that he has a daughter long after her birth and comes to visit the house. This book culminates with Maggie nearing suicide and ultimately leaving the Sherbrookes property with Andrew, Ian, and Jane.
From how I’ve explained this plot it may seem straightforward but there is a lot of excess that fills out the nearly 700 page count. I don’t necessarily mind the tangents and added detail to flesh out this world. My biggest issue is that very little of this plot interested me.
This is mostly a personal issue. Ever since I read Great Gatsby back in sophomore year of high school I’ve known that plots that revolve around “rich people problems” are not for me. There were a few aspects I thought were interesting. There is a plotline in the third novel that has the Sherbrookes reckon with a changing world where they need to hold public tours of the house in order to apply for a historic landmark designation and delay the construction of an interstate through their land. I found this to be an interesting subject but outside of this many of this plot felt like “soap opera schlock”.
I would have appreciated more of a focus on the earlier generations of Sherbrookes that are introduced. They exist in this story to showcase the legacy of the family and what is at stake by having their house neglected and their family name tainted by adultery. These earlier generations are referenced in reflection by contemporary characters discussing them or reading letters they wrote. I would have appreciated getting a more direct perspective of these characters to show who they really were outside of just a convoluted element portraying the family name.
I would have also appreciated more of a focus on the house itself and the landscape of Vermont. There are scenes in this book that do this and are my favorite sections of this book but they are few and far between. The Sherbrookes house really is the one throughline across generations and yet it is nothing more than the setting of the story. I imagine a book where the house takes on the status of the Gormanghast in Mervyn Peake’s Gormanghast trilogy, where the house is essentially a character in itself. The generations it has seen live and die could offer much in building up this world.
The local color of Vermont also feels lacking in its potential. Early on we get some reflection on the history of this region of the country, showcasing the Green Mountain during the time of the American Revolution, but this element really isn’t explored much in the pages that follow. There are scenes that discuss the muddy springs and harsh winters but really they don’t shine as anything spectacular about this book.
The characters take center stage over every aspect of this book, outside of maybe the writing. For how much focus there is on them they never feel like more than just characters in a book. Sherbrookes is a work of stark realism. Descriptions of breakfast table congregations and grocery store run ins are played out matter of factly. You would think with the amount of detail we get about these characters that they would feel more lifelike. There is varying quality in this department but overall I felt it left something to be desired.
As stated I thought Ian was one of the better written characters but even he is victim to this problem. We are introduced to his worldliness and theater background but it isn’t until a few hundred pages after his introduction that we see any of that character element take hold in the plot.
In book three we get a very convoluted plotline where Ian is producing a play about his parent’s relationship which comes across as 70s metafiction at its worst (and this is coming from someone who loves 70s metafiction)
I will say the writing is a great component to this book. The highly detailed descriptions and great stretches of prose. There were many sentences that I read that proved that Delbanco is above your average writer. A personal favorite example being:
“The cars that idle at the light send smoke at him and at the mountain ash trees in the traffic island. There are, in that one engine, three hundred fifty horses shitting smoke” (233)
The narrative structure is interesting but overall I just didn’t find enough about the plot to keep me invested in doing the work to keep up with the challenging aspects. While I didn’t like book one, books two and three started strong for me. I may not have finished these subsequent works with the same enthusiasm but I could appreciate what they were doing.
I think that my overall malaise with Sherbrookes is due to personal preference as I think there is reason to like this book. If WASPy dramatic family tales interest you I think this is a unique work covering that subject matter. The experimental nature of this book really makes it worthy of the Dalkey insignia, it just didn’t hit the mark for me.
Taking place in Vermont, I wanted to save this book for the fall (the season most associated with the state). I decided to read it this year, making a reintroduction into longer, more challenging, literary, works.
Originally published between 1976 and 1980 the Sherbrookes Trilogy comprises Possession, Sherbrookes, and Stillness, three early novels from British American author Nicholas Delbanco. In 2011 John O’Brien reached out to Delbanco about reissuing his trilogy as one work via Dalkey Archive. In the afterward Debanco discusses this process, stating that some edits were made to make a more fluid transition between books. While claiming to only change about 7% of the book, he does discuss in the afterward his struggle not to rewrite more of the book. Returning to his novels after decades he had matured as an author and wanted to have that reflected in this newer reissue.
I have not read anything else from Delbanco, so I cannot state if this book does or does not capture Delbanco as an author beyond his early output. I will state that this book does feel like a creation wholly of Nicholas Delbanco.
From the start this was one of the more difficult books I’ve read this year. The narrative structure is one of the most scattered I’ve ever read. While the main plot does exist as a linear narrative it is surrounded by anecdotal vignettes that color the characters and build the world of the story. These vignettes alternate character perspectives, time periods, and plot pertainance rather frequently. These scenes will often continue for about a page before switching to something else. This is a book that demands consistent attention and a slow reading pace.
The first book Possession was my least favorite of the trilogy. We are thrown into this story and storytelling method and are immediately to task with decrypting what is going on. The narrative of the Sherbrookes Trilogy follows the Sherbrooks family. An old money small time Vermont royalty of sorts. Contemporary to the time period in which these books were written, we follow the family patriarch, a 76 year old man named Judah. Stuck in his ways and estranged from his wife and son he finds out his wife Maggie is planning to return to town. A woman who was half his age when he married her. She is highly independent. She has lived for herself, taking many suitors while married, ultimately leading to her departure from the Sherbrookes home.
This first book details the relationship between these two, while introducing many other characters of varying levels of plot impact. I am not one for drawing a family tree while reading a book but I had to here. There are so many characters and the way in which Delbanco introduces them can often lead to more confusion than is necessary. At first I wasn’t quite sure what Judah and Maggie’s relationship actually was. The age gap and estrangement of them made it feel more like a father daughter relationship at first. Delbanco makes a theme of using large age gaps between generations which definitely adds confusion when you are discussing so many different generations all at once.
In Possession we get introduced to characters Hattie and Ian who become more relevant in later books, as well as the previous generations of the Sherbrookes family that initiated the success and notoriety given to the family name. This book culminates with Judah fleeing the house and ultimately meeting his demise.
Sherbrookes, book two, is a book I found to be a lot more enjoyable to read. At this point I was more accustomed to the narrative style and more familiar with the characters. It also helps that an actual plot starts to formulate. Instead of characters sitting around reflecting on the past or discussing their perspectives with each other we get the falling action of Judah’s death. After his passing his son, Ian, is contacted and given the news of a funeral and to return to the family house. 26 years old, Ian is an adventurous and artistic young man who has seen the world and found success running a theater company in the midwest.
I found the character of Ian to be a much more realized character than that of Judah. Maybe it is because I am closer to his age and can relate with his actions more but I think it is more likely that it was because Delbanco was also closer to his age when writing this character and could base it off a more realistic experience in his own life.
Ian is the main male focus of this second book. When he returns to the Sherbrookes house he assumes the position of head patriarch, overseeing the farming and property management, as well as caring for his aging mother and aunt.
In this second book we learn that Maggie is pregnant. In her early 50s, she finds that she is once again pregnant and that her husband Judah is not the father. Much of this book is Maggie reckoning with this and slowly revealing this to her son and sister in law, Hattie. This book culminates with Hattie, a woman in her 80s, running away from the house and meeting her demise, distraught after learning that the new baby will carry the Sherbrookes name without any genetic connection to the bloodline.
Book three, Stillness, has the birth of Jane. This baby is raised by Maggie and Ian. The real father is revealed to be Andrew Kincannon, a previous lover of Maggie’s from New York City. He is told that he has a daughter long after her birth and comes to visit the house. This book culminates with Maggie nearing suicide and ultimately leaving the Sherbrookes property with Andrew, Ian, and Jane.
From how I’ve explained this plot it may seem straightforward but there is a lot of excess that fills out the nearly 700 page count. I don’t necessarily mind the tangents and added detail to flesh out this world. My biggest issue is that very little of this plot interested me.
This is mostly a personal issue. Ever since I read Great Gatsby back in sophomore year of high school I’ve known that plots that revolve around “rich people problems” are not for me. There were a few aspects I thought were interesting. There is a plotline in the third novel that has the Sherbrookes reckon with a changing world where they need to hold public tours of the house in order to apply for a historic landmark designation and delay the construction of an interstate through their land. I found this to be an interesting subject but outside of this many of this plot felt like “soap opera schlock”.
I would have appreciated more of a focus on the earlier generations of Sherbrookes that are introduced. They exist in this story to showcase the legacy of the family and what is at stake by having their house neglected and their family name tainted by adultery. These earlier generations are referenced in reflection by contemporary characters discussing them or reading letters they wrote. I would have appreciated getting a more direct perspective of these characters to show who they really were outside of just a convoluted element portraying the family name.
I would have also appreciated more of a focus on the house itself and the landscape of Vermont. There are scenes in this book that do this and are my favorite sections of this book but they are few and far between. The Sherbrookes house really is the one throughline across generations and yet it is nothing more than the setting of the story. I imagine a book where the house takes on the status of the Gormanghast in Mervyn Peake’s Gormanghast trilogy, where the house is essentially a character in itself. The generations it has seen live and die could offer much in building up this world.
The local color of Vermont also feels lacking in its potential. Early on we get some reflection on the history of this region of the country, showcasing the Green Mountain during the time of the American Revolution, but this element really isn’t explored much in the pages that follow. There are scenes that discuss the muddy springs and harsh winters but really they don’t shine as anything spectacular about this book.
The characters take center stage over every aspect of this book, outside of maybe the writing. For how much focus there is on them they never feel like more than just characters in a book. Sherbrookes is a work of stark realism. Descriptions of breakfast table congregations and grocery store run ins are played out matter of factly. You would think with the amount of detail we get about these characters that they would feel more lifelike. There is varying quality in this department but overall I felt it left something to be desired.
As stated I thought Ian was one of the better written characters but even he is victim to this problem. We are introduced to his worldliness and theater background but it isn’t until a few hundred pages after his introduction that we see any of that character element take hold in the plot.
In book three we get a very convoluted plotline where Ian is producing a play about his parent’s relationship which comes across as 70s metafiction at its worst (and this is coming from someone who loves 70s metafiction)
I will say the writing is a great component to this book. The highly detailed descriptions and great stretches of prose. There were many sentences that I read that proved that Delbanco is above your average writer. A personal favorite example being:
“The cars that idle at the light send smoke at him and at the mountain ash trees in the traffic island. There are, in that one engine, three hundred fifty horses shitting smoke” (233)
The narrative structure is interesting but overall I just didn’t find enough about the plot to keep me invested in doing the work to keep up with the challenging aspects. While I didn’t like book one, books two and three started strong for me. I may not have finished these subsequent works with the same enthusiasm but I could appreciate what they were doing.
I think that my overall malaise with Sherbrookes is due to personal preference as I think there is reason to like this book. If WASPy dramatic family tales interest you I think this is a unique work covering that subject matter. The experimental nature of this book really makes it worthy of the Dalkey insignia, it just didn’t hit the mark for me.
May 31, 2024
Picturesque and just exquisite writing. The imagery of Vermont and family I found delightful. A trilogy that can be read altogether or as 3 separate novels.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews