What do you think?
Rate this book
The Setons
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1917
46 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
O. Douglas
51 books72 followersBorn Anna Masterton Buchan, younger sister to the statesman & prolific novelist John Buchan. She began writing in 1911, and published 12 novels and a personal memoir of her brother before her death. Her novels are humorous domestic fiction, focusing on the lives of families in Scotland. Her autobiography was published posthumously, in 1960.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 18, 2024
I love O. Douglas's writing! Her characters are so lively and have such relish in living. I do wonder if D.E. Stevenson was inspired by O. Douglas in her own writing, especially as they're both Scottish.
This is a novel of parts, set just before WWI in Glasgow, Scotland. The novel opens a bit oddly as we spend time with the Thomson family as they're getting ready to host a party at their home. We don't spend a ton of time with the Thomsons in the rest of the novel, though, so if you feel put off by the opening, keep reading. At the Thomsons' party, we do meet Elizabeth Seton, the 28-year-old daughter of the Thomsons' minister. Once we're into the bosom of the Seton family, the story really gets going.
The Seton family is the father, James, who is a Presbyterian pastor in a rather downtrodden neighborhood in Glasgow. It's a varied congregation because people come to Mr. Seton's church just to have him as a minister. He's a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy but with a marvelous sense of humor. Besides Elizabeth, he has two grown up sons working abroad, and a young son still in school named David whom everyone calls Buff. Elizabeth is a very good PK and does many tasks for her father's church out of a combined sense of duty and deep love and admiration for her saintly father. She also spends time taking care of Buff, who is quite a handful but in a lovely imaginative way that kept me in stitches. Elizabeth herself could almost be a 20th century version of Elizabeth Bennet. She has a rather wicked sense of humor that causes her father to raise his eyebrow at her on occasion. She's full of spirit and spunk and has a good heart. You could easily picture some of Elizabeth Bennet's choice lines coming from Elizabeth Seton's mouth.
The narrative shifts a bit when a family connection through Elizabeth's mother comes to stay. Arthur Townshend is an instant hit with Buff and Mr. Seton, so you know it's not long before Elizabeth warms up to him, though she professes to hate guests. We get a lot of details about Mr. Seton's church here. I found these details rather fascinating since I've grown up as a Presbyterian and it's so much more typical to read about Anglican churches/clergyman in British novels than any 'dissenting' churches.
Towards the end of the novel, WWI breaks out and there is a big shift in the focus of the novel. Before, it was very much about the daily lives of the Setons but now O. Douglas takes a step back to examine the war and how it affected the Setons' community. She wrote this novel during the war, so there is a strong sense in the narrative that the author and her characters are still trying to make sense of its incredible suffering. There are some loose ends at the end of the novel because the war wasn't over. I do love a tied-up plot, but as a more experienced reader now, I think there is a particular poignancy in O. Douglas's choice to leave her novel open-ended. The grief was real and raw and powerfully present to her still. These many years later, the shared human empathy for O. Douglas’s suffering world still echoes in my own vulnerable heart.
This is a novel of parts, set just before WWI in Glasgow, Scotland. The novel opens a bit oddly as we spend time with the Thomson family as they're getting ready to host a party at their home. We don't spend a ton of time with the Thomsons in the rest of the novel, though, so if you feel put off by the opening, keep reading. At the Thomsons' party, we do meet Elizabeth Seton, the 28-year-old daughter of the Thomsons' minister. Once we're into the bosom of the Seton family, the story really gets going.
The Seton family is the father, James, who is a Presbyterian pastor in a rather downtrodden neighborhood in Glasgow. It's a varied congregation because people come to Mr. Seton's church just to have him as a minister. He's a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy but with a marvelous sense of humor. Besides Elizabeth, he has two grown up sons working abroad, and a young son still in school named David whom everyone calls Buff. Elizabeth is a very good PK and does many tasks for her father's church out of a combined sense of duty and deep love and admiration for her saintly father. She also spends time taking care of Buff, who is quite a handful but in a lovely imaginative way that kept me in stitches. Elizabeth herself could almost be a 20th century version of Elizabeth Bennet. She has a rather wicked sense of humor that causes her father to raise his eyebrow at her on occasion. She's full of spirit and spunk and has a good heart. You could easily picture some of Elizabeth Bennet's choice lines coming from Elizabeth Seton's mouth.
The narrative shifts a bit when a family connection through Elizabeth's mother comes to stay. Arthur Townshend is an instant hit with Buff and Mr. Seton, so you know it's not long before Elizabeth warms up to him, though she professes to hate guests. We get a lot of details about Mr. Seton's church here. I found these details rather fascinating since I've grown up as a Presbyterian and it's so much more typical to read about Anglican churches/clergyman in British novels than any 'dissenting' churches.
Towards the end of the novel, WWI breaks out and there is a big shift in the focus of the novel. Before, it was very much about the daily lives of the Setons but now O. Douglas takes a step back to examine the war and how it affected the Setons' community. She wrote this novel during the war, so there is a strong sense in the narrative that the author and her characters are still trying to make sense of its incredible suffering. There are some loose ends at the end of the novel because the war wasn't over. I do love a tied-up plot, but as a more experienced reader now, I think there is a particular poignancy in O. Douglas's choice to leave her novel open-ended. The grief was real and raw and powerfully present to her still. These many years later, the shared human empathy for O. Douglas’s suffering world still echoes in my own vulnerable heart.
February 2, 2023
Elizabeth Seton, a Scottish spinster (age 28) is caring for her minister father and precocious younger brother. She is a charming, intelligent heroine who finds goodness and humor in every situation and I loved her gentle mockery of the characters in her Glasgow sphere. Like other readers, I was expecting a happy ending to her little love story. However, this peaceful idyll is shattered by the onset of the First World War and the reader is left in doubt as to how the family will cope. I am going to assume the best possible outcome, although the author really brings home how life was never the same for anyone after that terrible war.
February 17, 2014
The Setons is my second read for the ongoing Libraything Great War theme read. O Douglas (the pen name for Anna Masterton Buchan 1877–1948) is an author who I have wanted to read for a while having seen some good reviews by other bloggers. The Majority of the story is set in 1913 –and so the Great War doesn’t actually feature until the end of the novel (approx. The last 20% or so of my Project Gutenberg version on kindle) but when it does occur it is appropriately shattering. Elizabeth Seton is the twenty eight year old spinster daughter of a Scottish minister in Glasgow. Since her mother’s death Elizabeth has run her father’s household with diligence and love, taking charge of her much younger brother – the adorably impish Buff – who is rarely separated from his friends Billy and Thomas from across the road. Mr Seton’s church is in a poor area of Glasgow – and Elizabeth works hard among their neighbours and at the Sabbath school. A tall golden haired woman, with a lovely singing voice, Elizabeth is a popular member of the community, an intelligent lively young woman often given to giggling irreverence. In the company of the Setons we meet the Thomsons, with their socially ambitious daughter Jessie, Kirsty Christie, Elizabeth’s great friend, another spinster lady – who becomes engaged to a young minister, much to Elizabeth’s delight and surprise. Stewart Stevenson an artist who quietly admires Elizabeth, realises his admiration is useless and turns his attentions elsewhere. The Seton family is relaxed and happy, James Seton a wonderfully calm presence devoted to his flock. Elizabeth navigates her way through the duties and social obligations of being a minister’s daughter with apparent ease, but it is not an easy life.
“It's more difficult than you would think to be a minister's family. The main point is that you must never do anything that will hurt your father's 'usefulness,' and it is astonishing how many things tend to do that—dressing too well, going to the play, laughing when a sober face would be more suitable, making flippant remarks—their name is legion. Besides, try as one may, it is impossible always to avoid being a stumbling-block. There are little ones so prone to stumble that they would take a toss over anything.”
The Setons are visited by Arthur Townshend – the nephew of their Aunt Alice’s deceased husband in London – a man they have never met. Elizabeth expects a swell – a man she will find it difficult to spend time with and who will find little to like in the Glasgow home she loves. Instead Arthur proves an instant hit – instantly loved by young Buff finding a great companion in Elizabeth, even accompanying her on some of her visits during his all too short visit. Arthur pledges to visit the Setons at their country home the next year; however by then the world will have plunged into war. “It is useless to tell over the days of August 1914. They are branded on the memory. The stupefaction, the reading of newspapers until we were dazed and half-blind, the endless talking, the frenzy of knitting into which the women threw themselves, thankful to find something that would at least occupy their hands. We talked so glibly about what we did not understand. We repeated parrot-like to each other, “It will take all our men and all our treasure,” and had no notion how truly we spoke or how hard a saying we were to find it. And all the time the sun shone. It was particularly hard to believe in the war at Etterick. No khaki clad men disturbed the peace of the glen, no trains rushed past crowded with troops, no aeroplanes circled in the heavens. The hills and burn and the peewits remained the same, the high hollyhocks flaunted themselves against the grey garden wall; nothing was changed – and yet everything was different”
The war changes everything for so many people – and O Douglas shows that brilliantly. Written in 1917 by a woman who lost two brothers during the war - there is something of the patriotic fervour that swept Britain about the end of this novel – one could even call it propaganda like. The noble sacrifice of men off to war is much lauded – the suggestion that to die for one’s country a better kind of death than any other. I must say that despite this slightly uncomfortable militaristic fervour I found the last quarter of this novel to be almost unbearably poignant. Not for the first time, when reading a book about the beginning of this terrible conflict, did I wonder how the spoiled youth of today with their sense of entitlement would react to such a call. The world is a different place however; the young men who made that noble sacrifice helped to make it so. I loved this book – and finished with a tear in my eye – and a definite desire to read more by this author.
“It's more difficult than you would think to be a minister's family. The main point is that you must never do anything that will hurt your father's 'usefulness,' and it is astonishing how many things tend to do that—dressing too well, going to the play, laughing when a sober face would be more suitable, making flippant remarks—their name is legion. Besides, try as one may, it is impossible always to avoid being a stumbling-block. There are little ones so prone to stumble that they would take a toss over anything.”
The Setons are visited by Arthur Townshend – the nephew of their Aunt Alice’s deceased husband in London – a man they have never met. Elizabeth expects a swell – a man she will find it difficult to spend time with and who will find little to like in the Glasgow home she loves. Instead Arthur proves an instant hit – instantly loved by young Buff finding a great companion in Elizabeth, even accompanying her on some of her visits during his all too short visit. Arthur pledges to visit the Setons at their country home the next year; however by then the world will have plunged into war. “It is useless to tell over the days of August 1914. They are branded on the memory. The stupefaction, the reading of newspapers until we were dazed and half-blind, the endless talking, the frenzy of knitting into which the women threw themselves, thankful to find something that would at least occupy their hands. We talked so glibly about what we did not understand. We repeated parrot-like to each other, “It will take all our men and all our treasure,” and had no notion how truly we spoke or how hard a saying we were to find it. And all the time the sun shone. It was particularly hard to believe in the war at Etterick. No khaki clad men disturbed the peace of the glen, no trains rushed past crowded with troops, no aeroplanes circled in the heavens. The hills and burn and the peewits remained the same, the high hollyhocks flaunted themselves against the grey garden wall; nothing was changed – and yet everything was different”
The war changes everything for so many people – and O Douglas shows that brilliantly. Written in 1917 by a woman who lost two brothers during the war - there is something of the patriotic fervour that swept Britain about the end of this novel – one could even call it propaganda like. The noble sacrifice of men off to war is much lauded – the suggestion that to die for one’s country a better kind of death than any other. I must say that despite this slightly uncomfortable militaristic fervour I found the last quarter of this novel to be almost unbearably poignant. Not for the first time, when reading a book about the beginning of this terrible conflict, did I wonder how the spoiled youth of today with their sense of entitlement would react to such a call. The world is a different place however; the young men who made that noble sacrifice helped to make it so. I loved this book – and finished with a tear in my eye – and a definite desire to read more by this author.
October 13, 2008
Of all of Buchan's novels, this is the one I find the most interesting and disturbing as a period piece. The heroine of the novel is Elizabeth Seton, the intelligent, witty, hard-working daughter of a Scottish clergyman. She's a charming heroine, and watching her navigate her family and friends, as well as her social duties as a minister's daughter, makes for a delightful book... except that it was written during WWI, and thus the tone of the book shifts dramatically about 3/4 through, as the Great War breaks out within the narrative. Suddenly Elizabeth's concerns are about the losses she may face as her loved ones go off to fight, and both she and her father struggle to support the women who are losing their husbands, brothers and sons -- most especially the latter, as Buchan herself lost two brothers in the war & was deeply sensitive to her mother's grief. It's a fascinating work of semi-propaganda, cheering on the men who march off to war and insisting that they are dying beautifully in a glorious cause; at one point Mr. Seton even suggests that the men who die in the war are better off than those who are too old or too young, since they're going out in a blaze of glory rather than living an ordinary life.
All of this left me with mixed feelings about the novel; glad for having encountered it, but deeply saddened and touched to the heart for the people who were so dedicated to the belief that their loss was justified. I think this is the first novel of WWI (including other contemporary books!) that held fast to the idea that the war was a noble thing, and I was so shocked at first that I almost felt sick. With a few months of perspective (plus the knowledge that Buchan's view on the war changed in her later books) my initial reaction has softened some, so now I can imagine someday rereading it.
All of this left me with mixed feelings about the novel; glad for having encountered it, but deeply saddened and touched to the heart for the people who were so dedicated to the belief that their loss was justified. I think this is the first novel of WWI (including other contemporary books!) that held fast to the idea that the war was a noble thing, and I was so shocked at first that I almost felt sick. With a few months of perspective (plus the knowledge that Buchan's view on the war changed in her later books) my initial reaction has softened some, so now I can imagine someday rereading it.
August 20, 2019
O. Douglas is a voice from a lost era. I adored this book. She writes with humour and makes observations that ring true. The book is worth a read for the character of Buff (David Stuart Seton) alone (the main protagonist Elizabeth Seton's younger brother):
"Aren't there any sausage mines?" asked Buff....
- Just one of many funny 'Buff' moments and lots of well-observed minor characters. Into this entrancing world, WWI hits like a thunderbolt. Despite the humour, the seriousness of life and death is never far away. O. Douglas was writing in 1917 - 'the lives of all of us cracked across'. I want to read more by this writer.
"Aren't there any sausage mines?" asked Buff....
- Just one of many funny 'Buff' moments and lots of well-observed minor characters. Into this entrancing world, WWI hits like a thunderbolt. Despite the humour, the seriousness of life and death is never far away. O. Douglas was writing in 1917 - 'the lives of all of us cracked across'. I want to read more by this writer.
December 3, 2022
A sweet kailyard, comfort read. Always satisfying.
Scottish literature Kailyard school, late 19th-century movement in Scottish fiction characterized by a sentimental idealization of humble village life. Its name derives from the Scottish "kail-yard," a small cabbage patch usually adjacent to a cottage.
Scottish literature Kailyard school, late 19th-century movement in Scottish fiction characterized by a sentimental idealization of humble village life. Its name derives from the Scottish "kail-yard," a small cabbage patch usually adjacent to a cottage.
April 20, 2013
For 18 of its 20 chapters this is a wonderful book. It's the story of a Scottish minister's family written by a daughter of the manse and as a minister I can recognise the world she describes, even with the near-century between us. For example: “It's more difficult than you would think to be a minister's family. The main point is that you must never do anything that will hurt your father's 'usefulness,' and it is astonishing how many things tend to do that—dressing too well, going to the play, laughing when a sober face would be more suitable, making flippant remarks—their name is legion. Besides, try as one may, it is impossible always to avoid being a stumbling-block. There are little ones so prone to stumble that they would take a toss over anything.” p. 148.
But the book was published in 1917 and set in 1913, and so the last two chapters took me into a world I couldn't recognise, a world in which ministers not only encouraged men to go to war, but went themselves; in which ministers comfort the bereaved with the consolation that a noble death in war is a fine thing. One minister says he must enlist: "I'm going to enlist, with as many Langhope men as I can persuade to accompany me. It's no use. I can't stand in the pulpit—a young strong man—and say Go. I must say Come!" (p. 272); one young woman writes to her lover: "To die for one's country is a great privilege—God knows I don't say that lightly, for any day I may hear that you or Alan have died that death—and to those boys the honour has been given in the very springtime of their days." Knowing what we know now about the futility and sheer stupidity of the First World War it's hard to comprehend this.
It's also hard to read because there is a sense in which O. Douglas is comforting herself and her mother for the loss of Alistair Buchan, the original of the little boy 'Buff' in this book. O. Douglas cheats a little; the son and brother who dies in the book is Alan, who is only seen for a few pages; not Buff, who is a major character.
A lovely book, but a strange insight into a very different time.
But the book was published in 1917 and set in 1913, and so the last two chapters took me into a world I couldn't recognise, a world in which ministers not only encouraged men to go to war, but went themselves; in which ministers comfort the bereaved with the consolation that a noble death in war is a fine thing. One minister says he must enlist: "I'm going to enlist, with as many Langhope men as I can persuade to accompany me. It's no use. I can't stand in the pulpit—a young strong man—and say Go. I must say Come!" (p. 272); one young woman writes to her lover: "To die for one's country is a great privilege—God knows I don't say that lightly, for any day I may hear that you or Alan have died that death—and to those boys the honour has been given in the very springtime of their days." Knowing what we know now about the futility and sheer stupidity of the First World War it's hard to comprehend this.
It's also hard to read because there is a sense in which O. Douglas is comforting herself and her mother for the loss of Alistair Buchan, the original of the little boy 'Buff' in this book. O. Douglas cheats a little; the son and brother who dies in the book is Alan, who is only seen for a few pages; not Buff, who is a major character.
A lovely book, but a strange insight into a very different time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2015
While not as wonderful as Douglas' Penny Plain, this is another book about a close-knit family that loves books. The opening chapter tells of an informal dinner party where many characters are introduced. While we are trying to keep them all straight, we finally meet our heroine, Elizabeth Seton, the pretty minister's daughter. She is a kind and vivacious young woman who is refreshingly free of pretension and guile.
The book was published in 1917, just before the end of WWI. The story ends with the advent of the war and Buchan refuses to tie up everything neatly. Some characters lose loved ones. Men talk of going off to war and to glory, but it is only the mothers who seem to be honest about the horrors of bloodshed.
If you like Downton Abbey, you'll enjoy this book set in the same period. There is no servant-filled mansion, but wealthy Aunt Alice does give up her large house to be used as a hospital.
The book was published in 1917, just before the end of WWI. The story ends with the advent of the war and Buchan refuses to tie up everything neatly. Some characters lose loved ones. Men talk of going off to war and to glory, but it is only the mothers who seem to be honest about the horrors of bloodshed.
If you like Downton Abbey, you'll enjoy this book set in the same period. There is no servant-filled mansion, but wealthy Aunt Alice does give up her large house to be used as a hospital.
August 9, 2019
The Setons
A tale of a Scottish minister and his family, already scarred by loss before the story opens in 1913 but cheerful and diligent in their faith. Their friends, servants and congregation are faithfully represented and just as we are led to believe there will be happy endings for those pinched by poverty and suffering, just as the family moves to an Arcadian idyll, the First World War intervenes. The last few sobering chapters are painfully moving as real life intrudes on all of the characters in this heavily biographical novel. The characters draw on their faith to sustain them, but I wonder if such a novel might be written in the modern, more secular age? I doubt people would give up their sons to the glory of God now as they did then. I am not sure that religion would comfort me for making such a sacrifice.
Very much a novel of its own time and place.
A tale of a Scottish minister and his family, already scarred by loss before the story opens in 1913 but cheerful and diligent in their faith. Their friends, servants and congregation are faithfully represented and just as we are led to believe there will be happy endings for those pinched by poverty and suffering, just as the family moves to an Arcadian idyll, the First World War intervenes. The last few sobering chapters are painfully moving as real life intrudes on all of the characters in this heavily biographical novel. The characters draw on their faith to sustain them, but I wonder if such a novel might be written in the modern, more secular age? I doubt people would give up their sons to the glory of God now as they did then. I am not sure that religion would comfort me for making such a sacrifice.
Very much a novel of its own time and place.
Read
June 6, 2017The Setons was a slow starter for me, but I ended up really liking it and shed a few tears toward the end. Set in Scotland, The Setons is the story of a minister's daughter running a household, supporting her father and his congregation, raising her brother, and making her way in a world on the cusp of WWI. It's a quiet book, funny sometimes, especially in its accurate portrayals of human folly. I have an affinity for (and patience with) slowish books featuring tea-drinking people in England, Scotland, and Ireland. I had never heard of O. Douglas until I saw one of her books in my #bookstagram feed. Turns out The Setons (and many other of her novels) are now in the public domain. I found a free edition in the Kindle store and plan to read others as the mood strikes.
January 26, 2021
I was so confused at the start... names and odd descriptions and it was quite difficult to know who we were going to follow with such a large cast! But then our stalwarts came bubbling up to the surface and how we love them! And like with many of the authors books I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out the timeline... references to Ulster doesn’t help much... nor bonnets. Although I almost looked it up. But then a single reference and we knew...we knew which young men we should prematurely mourn. And the ending not tied up neatly but left, rather like life... just so and each person either getting up and going on or not, and whose to know. The dialect is sometimes a challenge, but such immersion in the Scots personality! A joy to read!
December 3, 2025
The Setons are a family living in pre-Great War Glasgow. Mr Seton is a minister given to ex tempore sermons, especially good on St Paul. The focus of the book is more on his daughter, Elizabeth, though, who has effectively been in charge of the household since her mother died.
Curiously, however, the book starts in the home of the Thomsons, who are having an at home to which Elizabeth has been invited. During the conversations we learn Mr Seton’s parish is in a poorer area of the city (later revealed to be the Gorbals) and his congregation is devoted to him, as he is to them. Thereafter we don’t see much of the Thomsons at all.
When not occupied with household matters Elizabeth makes house calls on parishioners in order to collect for the Zenana Mission.
Nothing much happens in the book apart from conversation. At one point Mr Seton says Scots are, “a mixture of hard-headedness and romance, common sense and sentiment, practicality and poetry, business and idealism.” Elizabeth adds, “We have a queer daftness in our blood. We pretend to be dour and cautious, but the fact is that at heart we are the most emotional and sentimental people on Earth.”
A man called John Jamieson opines that, of all Scotland’s historical figures, rather than Walter Scott it is Robert Burns whose words are most often in our memories, Burns whom Scots regard with most sympathy and affection. And why? Because of his humanity, his rich humour and riotous imagination. In a word, his daftness.
One character says Edinburgh’s suburbs comprise, “Rows and rows of smug, well-built houses, each with a front garden, each with a front gate, and each front gate remains closed, shut against the casual caller until you have rung a bell.” By contrast, “Glasgow doesn’t keep visitors at the gate. Glasgow is on the doorstep to welcome them in.”
Promise of plot comes when Elizabeth’s Aunt, Mr Seton’s sister, who lives in London, asks the Setons to put up her husband’s nephew, the monocled Mr Arthur Townshend, for a short visit. (The monocle is not an affectation but is required due to an eye condition.) He leaves on completion of his visit with nothing of substance having occurred.
It is then the book takes an unexpected swing into more serious areas, as it takes up again in 1917 (by which time Mr Seton has had to retire for health reasons) and of course the War is prominent in everyone’s lives, with Arthur Townshend in the Army. They are sustained by the religious sentiment, familiar from the metric version of the Twenty-third Psalm, that goodness and mercy shall follow their every step.
Curiously, however, the book starts in the home of the Thomsons, who are having an at home to which Elizabeth has been invited. During the conversations we learn Mr Seton’s parish is in a poorer area of the city (later revealed to be the Gorbals) and his congregation is devoted to him, as he is to them. Thereafter we don’t see much of the Thomsons at all.
When not occupied with household matters Elizabeth makes house calls on parishioners in order to collect for the Zenana Mission.
Nothing much happens in the book apart from conversation. At one point Mr Seton says Scots are, “a mixture of hard-headedness and romance, common sense and sentiment, practicality and poetry, business and idealism.” Elizabeth adds, “We have a queer daftness in our blood. We pretend to be dour and cautious, but the fact is that at heart we are the most emotional and sentimental people on Earth.”
A man called John Jamieson opines that, of all Scotland’s historical figures, rather than Walter Scott it is Robert Burns whose words are most often in our memories, Burns whom Scots regard with most sympathy and affection. And why? Because of his humanity, his rich humour and riotous imagination. In a word, his daftness.
One character says Edinburgh’s suburbs comprise, “Rows and rows of smug, well-built houses, each with a front garden, each with a front gate, and each front gate remains closed, shut against the casual caller until you have rung a bell.” By contrast, “Glasgow doesn’t keep visitors at the gate. Glasgow is on the doorstep to welcome them in.”
Promise of plot comes when Elizabeth’s Aunt, Mr Seton’s sister, who lives in London, asks the Setons to put up her husband’s nephew, the monocled Mr Arthur Townshend, for a short visit. (The monocle is not an affectation but is required due to an eye condition.) He leaves on completion of his visit with nothing of substance having occurred.
It is then the book takes an unexpected swing into more serious areas, as it takes up again in 1917 (by which time Mr Seton has had to retire for health reasons) and of course the War is prominent in everyone’s lives, with Arthur Townshend in the Army. They are sustained by the religious sentiment, familiar from the metric version of the Twenty-third Psalm, that goodness and mercy shall follow their every step.
October 1, 2025
My second O.Douglas novel.
This was published in 1917 although most of the book takes place in 1913 to June 1914; the final chapter is set during late 1914 and early 1915.
The main section of the book is concerned with Elizabeth Seton who helps in the home of her father ( a Minister in the Free Church of Scotland) after the death of her mother a few years before.She also helps in the upbringing of her younger brother,Buff, who is the funniest and best character in the novel.
There is very little in the way of plot , a lot of religion and some romance among Elizabeth and some of her acquaintances but this all changes in the last chapter and Elizabeth’s romance is left unresolved, which probably suited the mood at the time ( shades of Angela Thirkell’s Cheerfulness Breaks In ,which also has an inconclusive ending due to Dunkirk).
Elizabeth is a bit too jolly for me and the comments amount the deaths of all the young men while fighting seem insensitive now , but generally a pleasant book.
This was published in 1917 although most of the book takes place in 1913 to June 1914; the final chapter is set during late 1914 and early 1915.
The main section of the book is concerned with Elizabeth Seton who helps in the home of her father ( a Minister in the Free Church of Scotland) after the death of her mother a few years before.She also helps in the upbringing of her younger brother,Buff, who is the funniest and best character in the novel.
There is very little in the way of plot , a lot of religion and some romance among Elizabeth and some of her acquaintances but this all changes in the last chapter and Elizabeth’s romance is left unresolved, which probably suited the mood at the time ( shades of Angela Thirkell’s Cheerfulness Breaks In ,which also has an inconclusive ending due to Dunkirk).
Elizabeth is a bit too jolly for me and the comments amount the deaths of all the young men while fighting seem insensitive now , but generally a pleasant book.
October 21, 2024
Those who teach writing urge us to write about what we know. That is what O. Douglas does. The Setons are a family whose life revolves around the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Seton is a vicar of a church in Glasglow. O. Douglas, pen name of Anna Buchan, was brought up in the family of a Presbyterian minister. In this book, we glimpse the every day life of Elizabeth, her young brother, and their father. It is a homey book relating visitations, caring for the ill, asking for money for missions, etc. The mother has died, as has the eldest son. Elizabeth holds things together. She meets a young man. Life could have gone on in this comfortable way, but Mr. Seton develops heart problems, and War raises its ugly head.
June 17, 2023
Set in Glasgow in the family of a Church of Scotland minister. Lots of talk, very little action, and we are too often told how charming and good the heroine is. Unusual ending as it was set 1913-16 and published in 1917 before the outcome of WWI was known. 2.5 stars rounded up.
Read
November 27, 2020Heartbreaking.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews