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SONG OF SONGS
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816 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1908
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 27, 2018
Don't read this book if you are already feeling blue. The depths of despair this story of a woman's systematic physical, emotional, and spiritual breakdown due to the impact of war and its aftermath, will surely put you over the edge if you are already fragile. I cried pretty much every chapter from the beginning of World War I and way beyond, which was somehow worse. The writing is fantastic, the characterization of the first person protagonist so palpable that you are literally experiencing every emotion, stress, and imbalance. I don't normally go for books with so much death, tragedy and horror but I went into it blind and once I got started, there was no way I could put it down. I want to read her other books and I am crossing my fingers that they won't be as dark otherwise I may have to ration them to one per decade so I don't completely lose my mind.
March 10, 2012
one of my all time top 10. A sweeping saga that has the power to reduce a reader to tears. Slightly old-fashioned writing style which suits the story and evokes the atmosphere and culture of a bygone era. If you enjoy good quality historical novels, this is one to buy - although you may have to search hard, I think it's out of print now. I have re-read this book at least 5 times, and it's always hard to put down.
November 12, 2019
This was a LONG book. Took me a full month to read it, but it was good. It was marked by others as a Historical Romance, but I would consider it more WWI fiction. It tells the story of the life of an aristocrat girl who grew to a woman at the time of World War I. The story began when Helena was about three in 1895 and covers through to 1922. She was born to typical selfish parents of her class and was raised by servants. In many ways she was weak, but she was also loyal to those she loved. That gave her strength when she really needed it. Unfortunately, with the war, strength was needed frequently. So much death! Not a light read. It felt very realistic. I experienced the pain with Helena and cried many times.
January 7, 2022
The first 2/3 of this book were amazing and gave me all the WW1/Downton Abbey vibes I was craving, 5 star feels quite honestly. But then that last third happened where it was nothing but sex scene after sex scene and I just needed it to be over. *Queue “DISAPPOINTED” meme*
January 16, 2013
I read this book when I was a teenager. I was totally drawn in by the storyline, the historical setting and finally the (slightly erotic) romance. I read it twice, then the book went missing. I suspect my Mother sent it off to Vinnies!
I remembered this story for years, but could not find it even after doing some google searches for the title. FINALLY I came across it a week ago and promptly purchased it and started reading it the day it arrived.
I loved it. Every page of it. It transports me back into time, I laugh, I cry (lots) and I love the steamy bits.
Best romance novel I have ever read.
The novel tells the story of Helena, a girl from a wealthy aristocratic family in England. It spans from her childhood, showing her love and devotion of her brothers, through her time as a nurse in World War 1 and into her marriage to a commoner, Ben Holden.
I remembered this story for years, but could not find it even after doing some google searches for the title. FINALLY I came across it a week ago and promptly purchased it and started reading it the day it arrived.
I loved it. Every page of it. It transports me back into time, I laugh, I cry (lots) and I love the steamy bits.
Best romance novel I have ever read.
The novel tells the story of Helena, a girl from a wealthy aristocratic family in England. It spans from her childhood, showing her love and devotion of her brothers, through her time as a nurse in World War 1 and into her marriage to a commoner, Ben Holden.
November 4, 2017
An engrossing story about the First World War and it's aftermath.
January 18, 2014
Before there was Downton Abbey there was this novel. There are many parallels in the stories, but think of Sybil and her chauffeur for the story line in this novel.
This novel sparked my interest in WWI, the brave nurses and soldiers who were wounded and saved on the Western front.
I read this novel more than 20 years ago on a drive back to Virginia from Massachusetts. I could not put it down, reading it into the dark and trying to read by the lights on the highway. After the all night drive I wanted to stay up and read more, but made myself go to bed. A wonderful novel with a hopeful ending.
This novel sparked my interest in WWI, the brave nurses and soldiers who were wounded and saved on the Western front.
I read this novel more than 20 years ago on a drive back to Virginia from Massachusetts. I could not put it down, reading it into the dark and trying to read by the lights on the highway. After the all night drive I wanted to stay up and read more, but made myself go to bed. A wonderful novel with a hopeful ending.
June 13, 2023
i have already read this book but am looking forward to reading it again and reading it as a woman rather than a teenager which i was when i first stumbled upon it
July 30, 2012
I don't know what it is about this book that I like it so much, but I do... Read it numerous times and it still always hits the right spot when I'm need of a bit quick fix of romantic saga
October 12, 2009
A disappointing Edwardian saga, Song of Songs had much unfulfilled potential. Lady Helena Girvan is a child of privilege in 1890s England who becomes a war nurse after fiance departs for the battlefield, and the bulk of the novel is how her war experiences affect her life after the armistice. The writing is choppy, especially in the beginning, and the pacing is off. Far less romantic than a typical family saga, Helena makes some dubious choices and her naivete does not ring true in places. The best scenes are those with her beloved younger twin brothers and some of the battlefield nursing sequences. The first person narration and the sudden change in tone for the last third of the book are also problematic. Readers looking for a definitive historical novel set in this era should choose Penny Vincenzi's extraordinary Lytton family series (No Angel, etc.) instead, which covers similar themes with top-notch characterization and plotting.
December 19, 2009
What a wonderful book this is - it sat in my TBR pile for ages and I wish I had read it a long time ago. A great read - terrific story. A must read.
Back Cover Blurb:
At the heart of this stunning novel is Helena, an unforgettable heroine born into a magical Edwardian childhood. Her idyll is shattered by the outbreak of war; her illusions destroyed by the horrors she sees nursing the wounded of the trenches. But peacetime will bring another kind of despair - an unequal marriage, triggered by sexual passion, fuelled by an irresistible erotic love.
Back Cover Blurb:
At the heart of this stunning novel is Helena, an unforgettable heroine born into a magical Edwardian childhood. Her idyll is shattered by the outbreak of war; her illusions destroyed by the horrors she sees nursing the wounded of the trenches. But peacetime will bring another kind of despair - an unequal marriage, triggered by sexual passion, fuelled by an irresistible erotic love.
October 7, 2023
This book I picked up from a charity shop because I liked the old-fashioned cover and it was a long book, perfect to take on holiday with me. And it was a great book to read by the pool but I read it too quickly.
This book is billed as a historical romance and while it is a historical fiction book and there is romance in it, this is much more a story of Lady Helena Garvin's life, as she was raised upper class at the end of the Victorian era, beginning of the Edwardian era, and then how she had to deal with love, loss and the war itself, including when she was nursing during the war. It also dealt with mental illness and what it meant in the time of the 1920s when it wasn't well known.
I spent the second half of the book crying my eyes out mostly. I was not expecting this book to hit that hard but it did. Helena suffers a serious loss and the author does not shy away from the impact this has on her. Moreover, even when Helena seems to be recovering, she reminds the reader that Helena never really dealt with her grief and loss (not just of the people who died but the life she had known and the future she was expecting for herself) and it all comes to a head.
This book, apart from dealing with grief very well, also dealt with characters very well. There was no one who was perfect but also no one who was evil. Helena is a very passive character, not in the terms of writing but in terms of who she is as a person, and while this could get irritating at times, it was a very consistent character trait of hers. The author writes her as having character development, especially when she goes through the war but she doesn't make Helena into a character she's not. Letty is there to be the daring character who breaks the social norms but that isn't who Helena is and the author does that so well. But also the love interests! It would be so easy to make them perfect and make them do all the right things and say all the right things according to the time this book was written in (the 1980s) but she didn't. She made them good but flawed and I think she did that really well.
I don't normally give out five stars but I'm definitely keeping this book and I'm already thinking about rereading it so I have to give it here.
4.5 stars!
This book is billed as a historical romance and while it is a historical fiction book and there is romance in it, this is much more a story of Lady Helena Garvin's life, as she was raised upper class at the end of the Victorian era, beginning of the Edwardian era, and then how she had to deal with love, loss and the war itself, including when she was nursing during the war. It also dealt with mental illness and what it meant in the time of the 1920s when it wasn't well known.
I spent the second half of the book crying my eyes out mostly. I was not expecting this book to hit that hard but it did. Helena suffers a serious loss and the author does not shy away from the impact this has on her. Moreover, even when Helena seems to be recovering, she reminds the reader that Helena never really dealt with her grief and loss (not just of the people who died but the life she had known and the future she was expecting for herself) and it all comes to a head.
This book, apart from dealing with grief very well, also dealt with characters very well. There was no one who was perfect but also no one who was evil. Helena is a very passive character, not in the terms of writing but in terms of who she is as a person, and while this could get irritating at times, it was a very consistent character trait of hers. The author writes her as having character development, especially when she goes through the war but she doesn't make Helena into a character she's not. Letty is there to be the daring character who breaks the social norms but that isn't who Helena is and the author does that so well. But also the love interests! It would be so easy to make them perfect and make them do all the right things and say all the right things according to the time this book was written in (the 1980s) but she didn't. She made them good but flawed and I think she did that really well.
I don't normally give out five stars but I'm definitely keeping this book and I'm already thinking about rereading it so I have to give it here.
4.5 stars!
June 27, 2024
This started off okay, but then I got a bit lost because there were too many characters and it was hard to keep track of who was who in the plot. The war sections where Hellie worked as a nurse to wounded soldiers was interesting, but then the storyline evolved into romance when she fell in love with a soldier she had helped nurse back to health. There were a lot of sex scenes in the non-war half and while I'm not a prude, the scenes really didn't seem to serve much when it came to the actual plot. So I'm giving it two stars...it's readable, but for a better series about WWI, check into John Masters "Loss of Eden" trilogy. Or as another reader suggested, check out Penny Vincenzi's "No Angel" novel (although the two books that follow that one are not as good as the first, IMO).
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August 26, 2021Manías mías pero no soy muy fan de las narraciones en primera persona y se me hizo difícil engancharme en la historia, no sos vos, soy yo.
October 6, 2022
This was one of my teenage favorite book. I cried so much! It’s an epic heartbreaking story, but don’t worry: with a HEA.
January 14, 2024
10 stars!!!!!!
September 20, 2024
Read this book many years ago. Loved the historical context of the WWI love story. Remember it having a Downton Abbey vibe. A story of the upper class and working class divide and how the war changed their lives. Worth a second reading.
November 27, 2014
synopsis:
lady helena grows up in a family of wealth and privilege, with benign neglect being shown to her by her parents. she is actually raised by governess and nurse. as she grows older, she learns that her parents have their separate lives and are only together for convenience sake. she meets someone when she is 17, and believes him to be a god among men. they become engaged, even though everyone else knows that he has a fondness for men instead of women. when he is killed during wwI, helena decides to sign up for nursing. she is posted to the front and no one there knows that she is the daughter of an earl. she lives through many atrocities, the death of one of her brothers and the almost death of another. she meets ben, a man of low birth while he's convalescing, and he forms a tendre for her. when the war is over and helena is back in england, her sole focus is taking care of her brother. when the time comes, she puts her brother out of his misery because the doctor isn't there and has a mental breakdown. ben is the only one who sees it, and marries her while she is recovering. helena feels nothing for him because she is still in love with her gay dead fiance, and it gets to the point where he is alive and ben is keeping them apart in her mind.
what i liked: in spite of my rather sardonic summing up, i really liked the writing style and the hero and heroine. a lot happened, but it covered a lot of years. the descriptions of the war, especially were vivid. i liked that ben wasn't content to just be, that he wanted to be more, and work toward that goal.
what i didn't like: that helena was so clueless about her dead fiance and that she had such a hard time accepting ben, when he was the only one who was there for her.
lady helena grows up in a family of wealth and privilege, with benign neglect being shown to her by her parents. she is actually raised by governess and nurse. as she grows older, she learns that her parents have their separate lives and are only together for convenience sake. she meets someone when she is 17, and believes him to be a god among men. they become engaged, even though everyone else knows that he has a fondness for men instead of women. when he is killed during wwI, helena decides to sign up for nursing. she is posted to the front and no one there knows that she is the daughter of an earl. she lives through many atrocities, the death of one of her brothers and the almost death of another. she meets ben, a man of low birth while he's convalescing, and he forms a tendre for her. when the war is over and helena is back in england, her sole focus is taking care of her brother. when the time comes, she puts her brother out of his misery because the doctor isn't there and has a mental breakdown. ben is the only one who sees it, and marries her while she is recovering. helena feels nothing for him because she is still in love with her gay dead fiance, and it gets to the point where he is alive and ben is keeping them apart in her mind.
what i liked: in spite of my rather sardonic summing up, i really liked the writing style and the hero and heroine. a lot happened, but it covered a lot of years. the descriptions of the war, especially were vivid. i liked that ben wasn't content to just be, that he wanted to be more, and work toward that goal.
what i didn't like: that helena was so clueless about her dead fiance and that she had such a hard time accepting ben, when he was the only one who was there for her.
March 3, 2021
Absolutely loved this when I first read it in the 1990s> I still enjoy the story and the characters today.
SYNOPSIS:
Lady Helena Girvan was born into privilege, the daughter of a wealthy landowner, assured of a life of safety and comfort. Then World War descends.
Volunteering as an auxiliary nurse in London’s gritty East End, Helena quickly loses her naivety, and her illusions. But she has something even more terrifying in store – not only the bloody battlefields of France but deep fears about the safety of the men she loves: her friends, her brothers and her husband.
If you enjoy good quality historical novels, this is one to read .
It is not a light read. It is the story of a woman's systematic physical, emotional, and spiritual breakdown due to the impact of war and its aftermath. As a result ot can feel very realistic. As the reader you experienced the pain along with Helena.
I was totally drawn in by the storyline, the historical setting and finally the (slightly erotic) romance.
Not as highbrow as Testament of Youth by Vera Britten but it's setting and experiences of the female character are very similar
SYNOPSIS:
Lady Helena Girvan was born into privilege, the daughter of a wealthy landowner, assured of a life of safety and comfort. Then World War descends.
Volunteering as an auxiliary nurse in London’s gritty East End, Helena quickly loses her naivety, and her illusions. But she has something even more terrifying in store – not only the bloody battlefields of France but deep fears about the safety of the men she loves: her friends, her brothers and her husband.
If you enjoy good quality historical novels, this is one to read .
It is not a light read. It is the story of a woman's systematic physical, emotional, and spiritual breakdown due to the impact of war and its aftermath. As a result ot can feel very realistic. As the reader you experienced the pain along with Helena.
I was totally drawn in by the storyline, the historical setting and finally the (slightly erotic) romance.
Not as highbrow as Testament of Youth by Vera Britten but it's setting and experiences of the female character are very similar
August 3, 2015
Re-read for the umpteenth time. Just as satisfactorily enjoyable as ever, on a par with Gone with the Wind for epic re-visiting.
in April 2013 I wrote: I don't know how long this book sat on my shelf, me thinking I had read it; I took it down thinking to charity it, read it "just in case" and then umpteen times thereafter. Don't know what was so compelling: it is a period I am anyway drawn to, but the relationship between Ben and Helena has to play a part. Certainly in my top three all time favourites, which feels, somehow, embarrassing!
in April 2013 I wrote: I don't know how long this book sat on my shelf, me thinking I had read it; I took it down thinking to charity it, read it "just in case" and then umpteen times thereafter. Don't know what was so compelling: it is a period I am anyway drawn to, but the relationship between Ben and Helena has to play a part. Certainly in my top three all time favourites, which feels, somehow, embarrassing!
July 24, 2016
One of the best books I have ever read
This is a fabulous story of Lady Helena and her family during a tumultuous period in history. The story starts in the 1890s until the 1920s. Helena is a nurse during world war one. The scenes are described in great detail. I cried a number of times at the sheer brutality of war and the slaughter of so many young men. Cannot recommend this book highly e tough.
This is a fabulous story of Lady Helena and her family during a tumultuous period in history. The story starts in the 1890s until the 1920s. Helena is a nurse during world war one. The scenes are described in great detail. I cried a number of times at the sheer brutality of war and the slaughter of so many young men. Cannot recommend this book highly e tough.
December 16, 2016
I have read this book more times than I can count and I still love it. Even though I think the main character Helena is fairly sappy, I still love this story which says a lot. It's epic, sweeps across some key moments in history and has the detail to pull it off. A atypical love story which does justice to the horror and sacrifice of WW1 and is still thoroughly enjoyable.
December 7, 2014
Must be 20 years since I read this book. Can't remember a great deal about the plot but I do remember being completely sucked into it and not being able to put it down then feeling bereft at the end! Must re-read one day.
September 1, 2014
A beautiful story taking you though the boer war and the great war. Heartbreaking accounts from the front and the nursing tents and a sometimes sad and sometimes happy tale of unequal love after the war.
March 6, 2015
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have re-read it several times, over the years. I have always wished that it would be made into a mini-series, as a movie wouldn't do it justice.
March 5, 2020
One of my favorite romances of all time. Tied with Gone With the Wind.
October 21, 2016
A secret favourite, have read it so many times that the pages are falling out of my copy. I love a war-time romance
July 7, 2013
I've read hundreds of books and this one is the BEST.
April 6, 2019
I recently found a used copy of this old favorite on Abe Books, and what fun to read it again almost 30 years later. The writing style is of an era, the female protagonist a bit subservient to her male partner, yet it is the sort of sweeping saga I grew up loving, and why I re-read Rosamunde Pilcher and the like. Lady Helena's experiences as a nurse during WWI are especially vivid.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews