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The Right-Hand Shore
A masterful novel that confronts the dilemmas of race, family, and forbidden love in the wake of America's Civil War
Fifteen years after the publication of his acclaimed novel Mason's Retreat, Christopher Tilghman returns to the Mason family and the Chesapeake Bay in The Right-Hand Shore.
It is 1920, and Edward Mason is making a call upon Miss Mary Bayly, the current owner of the legendary Mason family estate, the Retreat. Miss Mary is dying. She plans to give the Retreat to the closest direct descendant of the original immigrant owner that she can find. Edward believes he can charm the old lady, secure the estate and be back in Baltimore by lunchtime.
Instead, over the course of a long day, he hears the stories that will forever bind him and his family to the land. He hears of Miss Mary's grandfather brutally selling all his slaves in 1857 in order to avoid the reprisals he believes will come with Emancipation. He hears of the doomed efforts by Wyatt Bayly, Miss Mary's father, to turn the Retreat into a vast peach orchard, and of Miss Mary and her brother growing up in a fractured and warring household. He learns of Abel Terrell, son of free blacks who becomes head orchardist, and whose family becomes intimately connected to the Baylys and to the Mason legacy.
The drama in this richly textured novel proceeds through vivid set pieces: on rural nineteenth-century industry; on a boyhood on the Eastern Shore of Maryland; on the unbreakable divisions of race and class; and, finally, on two families attempting to save a son and a daughter from the dangers of their own innocent love. The result is a radiant work of deep insight and peerless imagination about the central dilemma of American history.
The Right-Hand Shore is a New York Times Notable Book of 2012.
Fifteen years after the publication of his acclaimed novel Mason's Retreat, Christopher Tilghman returns to the Mason family and the Chesapeake Bay in The Right-Hand Shore.
It is 1920, and Edward Mason is making a call upon Miss Mary Bayly, the current owner of the legendary Mason family estate, the Retreat. Miss Mary is dying. She plans to give the Retreat to the closest direct descendant of the original immigrant owner that she can find. Edward believes he can charm the old lady, secure the estate and be back in Baltimore by lunchtime.
Instead, over the course of a long day, he hears the stories that will forever bind him and his family to the land. He hears of Miss Mary's grandfather brutally selling all his slaves in 1857 in order to avoid the reprisals he believes will come with Emancipation. He hears of the doomed efforts by Wyatt Bayly, Miss Mary's father, to turn the Retreat into a vast peach orchard, and of Miss Mary and her brother growing up in a fractured and warring household. He learns of Abel Terrell, son of free blacks who becomes head orchardist, and whose family becomes intimately connected to the Baylys and to the Mason legacy.
The drama in this richly textured novel proceeds through vivid set pieces: on rural nineteenth-century industry; on a boyhood on the Eastern Shore of Maryland; on the unbreakable divisions of race and class; and, finally, on two families attempting to save a son and a daughter from the dangers of their own innocent love. The result is a radiant work of deep insight and peerless imagination about the central dilemma of American history.
The Right-Hand Shore is a New York Times Notable Book of 2012.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published April 24, 2012
About the author
Christopher Tilghman
25 books63 followersChristopher Tilghman is the author of two short-story collections, In a Father’s Place, and The Way People Run, and three novels, The Right-Hand Shore, Mason’s Retreat and Roads of the Heart. Currently the director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Virginia, he and his wife, the writer Caroline Preston, live in Charlottesville, Virginia.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/christ...
http://us.macmillan.com/author/christ...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 149 reviews
November 17, 2021
A friend of mine recommended this book, knowing my father had grown up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In an odd twist, his mother was even a Mason, but from the Virginia side of the Eastern Shore. Christopher Tilghman, is also an Eastern Shoreman, and writes of it knowingly. In fact, this book brought back so many memories of my father’s tales of growing up on a farm over there.
The book takes us from the 1920s back to 1850 and forward through time. It perfectly captured each time period. I felt I learned even more about the history of the area - the economics, the social fabric.
While the writing is gorgeous, I did feel the book was uneven and dragged at times. At heart, it’s a love story. One part, a love of the land. At another, a tale of impossible love. As Thomas at one point says, there’s a difference between difficult and impossible love.
In the end, I think this book would work better as a book than as an audiobook. It moves slowly. And I’m someone who needs my audiobooks to be a little more fast paced. There are also a lot of characters and it was sometimes difficult to keep track of them while listening.
The narrator, Scott Sowers, didn’t add anything.
The book takes us from the 1920s back to 1850 and forward through time. It perfectly captured each time period. I felt I learned even more about the history of the area - the economics, the social fabric.
While the writing is gorgeous, I did feel the book was uneven and dragged at times. At heart, it’s a love story. One part, a love of the land. At another, a tale of impossible love. As Thomas at one point says, there’s a difference between difficult and impossible love.
In the end, I think this book would work better as a book than as an audiobook. It moves slowly. And I’m someone who needs my audiobooks to be a little more fast paced. There are also a lot of characters and it was sometimes difficult to keep track of them while listening.
The narrator, Scott Sowers, didn’t add anything.
June 8, 2012
I knew I would like this from the start, because I read "Mason's Retreat" by the same author, and was hoping for a book just as good. It was a perfect novel in every way, fabulous writing throughout, not a false note anywhere, and an unparalleled story of love and hate and hopes and dreams.
This book is a prequel of sorts to Mason's Retreat, which is a plantation on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Beginning in 1862 with the selling of most of the slaves on the plantation to prevent repercussions after the war (Maryland was a border state not allied to either side), the white and black people remaining behind formed alliances and unions of their own. Their isolation from Baltimore and the mainland by the Chesapeake Bay was hated by Ophelia, loved by her husband, tolerated by their children, and appreciated by the black residents who never knew any other home.
The plot of this book is way too complicated and encompasses way to much to get into here; suffice it to say that you will be surprised and dismayed by the events of the tale, and filled with wonder at Christopher Tilghman's ability as an author.
So glad to have this as my very first read of 2016......hopefully that bodes well for the rest of the year.
This book is a prequel of sorts to Mason's Retreat, which is a plantation on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Beginning in 1862 with the selling of most of the slaves on the plantation to prevent repercussions after the war (Maryland was a border state not allied to either side), the white and black people remaining behind formed alliances and unions of their own. Their isolation from Baltimore and the mainland by the Chesapeake Bay was hated by Ophelia, loved by her husband, tolerated by their children, and appreciated by the black residents who never knew any other home.
The plot of this book is way too complicated and encompasses way to much to get into here; suffice it to say that you will be surprised and dismayed by the events of the tale, and filled with wonder at Christopher Tilghman's ability as an author.
So glad to have this as my very first read of 2016......hopefully that bodes well for the rest of the year.
January 10, 2012
Opening this book is like falling into a time machine -- this place in space and history so beautifully rendered you'll feel disoriented getting back to 2012. Tilghman is a master writer, who spins a Shakesperean tale with effortless grace through deep booming themes and small moments of exquisite meaning. I am a fan.
November 13, 2021
A Tale of the Maryland Eastern Shore
Although it took me a few chapters to become engrossed in this novel about life on a large estate occupied by generations of the Mason family, the beautifully written story drew me in. The author uses two non-Mason family farm managers to tell the story of the poignant life events of the most recent 3 generations of Masons. They recollect the history of the land and family in a somewhat random order as they answer the questions of a distant Mason family member, who may stand to inherit the estate. The time frame is roughly the 1850s to the early 1900s. The two men also tell the story of the former slaves who stayed to work on the farm and raise their families as freed men and women. I loved the slow, sometimes disjointed way that the life stories of all these people emerged. Tilghman is skilled at developing fully drawn, easily visualized characters, with all their strengths, weaknesses, and dreams. He also paints a clear, vibrant picture of the challenges and disappointments of trying to work the land to support the Masons’ wealthy life styles and provide economic survival to the community of estate workers. I love the Maryland Eastern Shore and obviously Tilghman does, too; he knows it well from his own family’s extensive history on this same or similar land. I recommend this historical fiction to anyone interested in this time period, especially as portrayed in this particular place.
Although it took me a few chapters to become engrossed in this novel about life on a large estate occupied by generations of the Mason family, the beautifully written story drew me in. The author uses two non-Mason family farm managers to tell the story of the poignant life events of the most recent 3 generations of Masons. They recollect the history of the land and family in a somewhat random order as they answer the questions of a distant Mason family member, who may stand to inherit the estate. The time frame is roughly the 1850s to the early 1900s. The two men also tell the story of the former slaves who stayed to work on the farm and raise their families as freed men and women. I loved the slow, sometimes disjointed way that the life stories of all these people emerged. Tilghman is skilled at developing fully drawn, easily visualized characters, with all their strengths, weaknesses, and dreams. He also paints a clear, vibrant picture of the challenges and disappointments of trying to work the land to support the Masons’ wealthy life styles and provide economic survival to the community of estate workers. I love the Maryland Eastern Shore and obviously Tilghman does, too; he knows it well from his own family’s extensive history on this same or similar land. I recommend this historical fiction to anyone interested in this time period, especially as portrayed in this particular place.
April 27, 2012
Mighty tasty.
Disguised as a generational saga, this book is a glorious examination of the sins of the father(s), the sons and the daughters; slavery and the Civil War; Maryland flora and fauna; Catholicism in Maryland; 19th-century education in the U.S.; dairy farming; interracial love; and, skimped but there, Black separatism. Enthralling read and, dare I say, unputdownable.
Disguised as a generational saga, this book is a glorious examination of the sins of the father(s), the sons and the daughters; slavery and the Civil War; Maryland flora and fauna; Catholicism in Maryland; 19th-century education in the U.S.; dairy farming; interracial love; and, skimped but there, Black separatism. Enthralling read and, dare I say, unputdownable.
March 28, 2013
This week, for the first time in years, I've been knocked off my feet with the flu. After spending 24 hours in bed, I finally managed to prop my head up and start reading this book. I was thrilled that I'd brought it home from the library the day before the flu hit; the book sounded exactly like the type of book I enjoy (family saga from 1800's). If you have to be home, too sick to move from your bed, you might as well have a good book.
Wrong! I slogged through 252 pages, hoping that it would get better. Nope. This book was so boring, I felt that if the flu didn't kill me, the book would. Major disappointment. I'm not even going to bother jumping to the end to see what happens to the characters because I simply don't care enough about them.
Tilghman writes beautifully for the most part, but I had two issues. One: he favours long, long paragraphs. We're talking paragraphs that run for a page and a half. And there are a lot of them. Maybe if I wasn't so sick, I'd have more patience, but.....
Secondly, I just happen to get irritated when authors throw in French (or other language) words randomly. When Miss Mary is studying in Paris, it made perfect sense to use a little French. I don't have an issue with that. But when French words start popping up in Baltimore, on the farm in Maryland... OK, enough. Ironically, Miss Mary even addresses this in the book: "Mary disliked the affectation of sprinkling French terms into English..." If only the author had followed the good advice of his own main character!
Finally, I think I now know more about peaches than I'd ever thought possible. WAY too much peach information! If I so much as look at a peach in the next week or so, I'll scream.
Wrong! I slogged through 252 pages, hoping that it would get better. Nope. This book was so boring, I felt that if the flu didn't kill me, the book would. Major disappointment. I'm not even going to bother jumping to the end to see what happens to the characters because I simply don't care enough about them.
Tilghman writes beautifully for the most part, but I had two issues. One: he favours long, long paragraphs. We're talking paragraphs that run for a page and a half. And there are a lot of them. Maybe if I wasn't so sick, I'd have more patience, but.....
Secondly, I just happen to get irritated when authors throw in French (or other language) words randomly. When Miss Mary is studying in Paris, it made perfect sense to use a little French. I don't have an issue with that. But when French words start popping up in Baltimore, on the farm in Maryland... OK, enough. Ironically, Miss Mary even addresses this in the book: "Mary disliked the affectation of sprinkling French terms into English..." If only the author had followed the good advice of his own main character!
Finally, I think I now know more about peaches than I'd ever thought possible. WAY too much peach information! If I so much as look at a peach in the next week or so, I'll scream.
May 1, 2012
Bound to the Land
The Right-Hand Shore by Christopher Tilghman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 368 pages; $27).
With The Right-Hand Shore, Christopher Tilghman gives us a quietly beautiful novel about a family, a place, and the ties that both bind and constrain them.
The title refers to Mason's Retreat, an estate on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The Masons have been part of the land since the days after the Gunpowder Plot when their ancestor, the Emigrant, was exiled there. Like people, the land can be complicated.
During the Civil War, Maryland was a border state. Allegedly neither Confederate nor Union, some people's loyalties were still divided. Maryland's location had a strategic importance for both North and South, and each side hoped to sway citizens to their cause. As Tilghman writes, "In the North, there was one principle, one war, one story; in the South, one cause, one defense, one history; but in the borders, in the middle ground, there was as many principles and wars and histories as there were human beings to hold them, to survive them, to preserve them."
Even before the outbreak of war in 1861, some men in Maryland knew that slavery was a dying institution. Ogle S. Mason, the "Duke," is such a man. In 1857, Mason sells most of his field hands but keeps the house slaves. He manumits them but fails to disclose them that information. This is the kind of man he is. On the day the slaves are sold, his daughter, Ophelia, watches, heartsick and helpless.
Tilghman does not shy away from subjects like these. Mason is interested in the bottom line, and he knows that by selling his slaves, he can make a profit. He reads the air and sniffs that war is coming. Mason does not care that he rips families asunder. But his daughter does; she lives with this regret for the rest of her life.
Perhaps because of the scene Ophelia witnesses in 1857, she feels no ties to Mason's Retreat. She wants as far from the Eastern Shore as she can get. Upon her father's death, she does not inherit the property; rather, because of some archaic custom, only men may inherit the land. Her husband, Wyatt Bayly, owns the estate.
Even though he was not born there, Bayly loves the land and grows peaches. While Ophelia flees for Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Paris with their daughter Mary, Bayly stays. The land entrances him; it later kills him. Their son, Thomas, stays with his father and feels abandoned by his mother.
Mary, interestingly, feels a kinship to her ancestral home, although she is miles away from it. Mary is bound to the land. Thomas, in contrast, feels jealousy when his father prefers his African-American best friend, Randall, over his own son. Forbidden love forces Thomas to flee his home. He later renounces all ties to it.
Ties to family and ties to land may be the prevailing themes of this novel, but Tilghman introduces other elements as well. Mary is also constrained by her gender, her class, and her religion (she's Catholic). Randall's sister, Beal, is confined by the same things that hamper Mary, but race and beauty also limit Beal.
By 1920, Mary is unmarried, childless, and dying of cancer. She must find a male heir for Mason's Retreat. Edward Mason arrives with big dreams and dollar signs in his eyes. He hears the history of the place and of the family. Mesmerized, Edward finds the place pulling at him in ways he never expected.
Likewise, Mason's Retreat entrances the reader. More than that, though, the family draws you in. Readers are vested in this family and in this place. Reading this novel compels you to read to the end, despite the rampant racism of some of the characters. That racism is to be expected since the novel takes place from the 1850s to 1920.
Tilghman's research is impeccable. Not only does he tackle the darkest days of American history, but he also intersperses European history throughout. Science and botany are also found within these pages. The Right-Hand Shore will appeal to a wide-ranging audience: history buffs, budding botanists and farmers, and all those who love an epic story.
The writing here is elegant. Tilghman takes readers back and forth through time seamlessly. However, the past he describes is always more interesting than the present. In some instances, this reader finds it difficult to discern who is narrating the passages. At one point, I even wonder if Tilghman tells the story from the place itself. That is not the case.
I think, though, that such a point of view would have made a good novel an even better one. The setting drives this story and actually becomes Tilghman's strongest character.
The Right-Hand Shore by Christopher Tilghman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 368 pages; $27).
With The Right-Hand Shore, Christopher Tilghman gives us a quietly beautiful novel about a family, a place, and the ties that both bind and constrain them.
The title refers to Mason's Retreat, an estate on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The Masons have been part of the land since the days after the Gunpowder Plot when their ancestor, the Emigrant, was exiled there. Like people, the land can be complicated.
During the Civil War, Maryland was a border state. Allegedly neither Confederate nor Union, some people's loyalties were still divided. Maryland's location had a strategic importance for both North and South, and each side hoped to sway citizens to their cause. As Tilghman writes, "In the North, there was one principle, one war, one story; in the South, one cause, one defense, one history; but in the borders, in the middle ground, there was as many principles and wars and histories as there were human beings to hold them, to survive them, to preserve them."
Even before the outbreak of war in 1861, some men in Maryland knew that slavery was a dying institution. Ogle S. Mason, the "Duke," is such a man. In 1857, Mason sells most of his field hands but keeps the house slaves. He manumits them but fails to disclose them that information. This is the kind of man he is. On the day the slaves are sold, his daughter, Ophelia, watches, heartsick and helpless.
Tilghman does not shy away from subjects like these. Mason is interested in the bottom line, and he knows that by selling his slaves, he can make a profit. He reads the air and sniffs that war is coming. Mason does not care that he rips families asunder. But his daughter does; she lives with this regret for the rest of her life.
Perhaps because of the scene Ophelia witnesses in 1857, she feels no ties to Mason's Retreat. She wants as far from the Eastern Shore as she can get. Upon her father's death, she does not inherit the property; rather, because of some archaic custom, only men may inherit the land. Her husband, Wyatt Bayly, owns the estate.
Even though he was not born there, Bayly loves the land and grows peaches. While Ophelia flees for Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Paris with their daughter Mary, Bayly stays. The land entrances him; it later kills him. Their son, Thomas, stays with his father and feels abandoned by his mother.
Mary, interestingly, feels a kinship to her ancestral home, although she is miles away from it. Mary is bound to the land. Thomas, in contrast, feels jealousy when his father prefers his African-American best friend, Randall, over his own son. Forbidden love forces Thomas to flee his home. He later renounces all ties to it.
Ties to family and ties to land may be the prevailing themes of this novel, but Tilghman introduces other elements as well. Mary is also constrained by her gender, her class, and her religion (she's Catholic). Randall's sister, Beal, is confined by the same things that hamper Mary, but race and beauty also limit Beal.
By 1920, Mary is unmarried, childless, and dying of cancer. She must find a male heir for Mason's Retreat. Edward Mason arrives with big dreams and dollar signs in his eyes. He hears the history of the place and of the family. Mesmerized, Edward finds the place pulling at him in ways he never expected.
Likewise, Mason's Retreat entrances the reader. More than that, though, the family draws you in. Readers are vested in this family and in this place. Reading this novel compels you to read to the end, despite the rampant racism of some of the characters. That racism is to be expected since the novel takes place from the 1850s to 1920.
Tilghman's research is impeccable. Not only does he tackle the darkest days of American history, but he also intersperses European history throughout. Science and botany are also found within these pages. The Right-Hand Shore will appeal to a wide-ranging audience: history buffs, budding botanists and farmers, and all those who love an epic story.
The writing here is elegant. Tilghman takes readers back and forth through time seamlessly. However, the past he describes is always more interesting than the present. In some instances, this reader finds it difficult to discern who is narrating the passages. At one point, I even wonder if Tilghman tells the story from the place itself. That is not the case.
I think, though, that such a point of view would have made a good novel an even better one. The setting drives this story and actually becomes Tilghman's strongest character.
November 25, 2012
Finished, but didn't finish. I have a 50-page rule. If a book fails to capture my attention in 50 pages, I usually give up on it. Life's too short to read bad books, especially when there are shelves filled with thousands of good, unread books. If there's a glimmer of promise within the first 50 pages, I'll give it another 50. But this book failed after the first 50. I have no idea how it ends, nor do I care. Just plain boring. Don't bother.
January 15, 2013
In a nutshell, this book is about chickens coming home to roost. Edward Mason comes to buy Mason's retreat from his distant (and dying) relative Miss Mary Bayly. His plans for the Retreat don't include much; his life mostly lies in England. But in the course of the day spent on the Retreat talking to Miss Mary and her farm manager, Mr. French, Edward learns the history of the place. It all begins with Mary's grandfather, the unlamented "Duke" selling his field slaves in 1857 to a man from Virginia, and manumitting the house servants without telling them about it. He can see trouble ahead, and he wants to legitimately claim there are no slaves on the Retreat. His daughter Miss Ophelia marries Wyatt Bayly, a man with no connection to slavery, as part of a lifelong effort to get away from the legacy of her birthplace. But Wyatt has plans to turn the place into a peach orchard, and does so (for a time) aided by the labor of many free blacks who live in nearby Tuckertown. Particularly invested in the peach enterprise is Abel Terrell. It is the relationships among Thomas Bayly, Abel's brilliant son Randall, and Randall's beautiful younger sister, Beal, that provide much of the drama of the book. It tells a powerful tale of race and history, a tragedy of good intentions and failed ambition. But it's the prose that really stands out. Tilghman captures the beauty even of the sadness and defeat that follow the Retreat's inhabitants.
July 21, 2012
• I am really glad I read this book – I really enjoyed it. I will admit that my least fav parts of the book were the first two chapters and the last chapter – but these chapters do connect the book to Mason’s Retreat which was a prior book yet it takes place after TRHS.
• One of the reasons that I enjoyed the book was because of its location/setting – MD Eastern Shore. When living in MD – did research on the early history and slavery of the state and visited the Eastern Shore and other related areas to visit historical sites.
• I thought the author did a great job of putting the reader in the time and place and the voices/characters felt authentic.
• Also enjoyed the major characters all gave their voice to the story – often in an introspective manner so you learned more about the characters – not just how they reacted outwardly by also their inner thoughts
• One of the reasons that I enjoyed the book was because of its location/setting – MD Eastern Shore. When living in MD – did research on the early history and slavery of the state and visited the Eastern Shore and other related areas to visit historical sites.
• I thought the author did a great job of putting the reader in the time and place and the voices/characters felt authentic.
• Also enjoyed the major characters all gave their voice to the story – often in an introspective manner so you learned more about the characters – not just how they reacted outwardly by also their inner thoughts
August 4, 2012
Since I live on the "right-hand shore" -- in Queen Anne's County, Maryland (and even know a Mason family who owns a peach orchard), I expected that I would be prejudiced in favor of, or extremely critical of, this book. The story starts out before the Civil War and ends in 1920, covering three generation of a family, two of them minutely. The story is told in flashback by an employee to a possibly inheritor of the farm. While not really identifying closely with any character, I found my interest in the story growing as the book progressed. This era of history and the depiction of racial relations has been done over and over, and there are better and more realistic representations of that time and place, but by the end I was captivated and sorry that the book ended. Perhaps I am just prejudiced in favor of the book.
August 18, 2012
This is a prequel to the author's earlier publish novel, Mason's Retreat. It's not necessary to have read that.
What I truly enjoy about Tilghman's writing is the ease with which his sentences flow in graceful, descriptive phrases. Some of it is almost poetic. He lives in Charlottesville, VA where he is the director of creative writing at UVA.
This is a multi-layered story that takes place on an estate/plantation on Chesapeake Bay dating back to Emancipation. It easily moves through several generations, but the focus is mostly on two sons and two daughters of owners and slaves as they move through their childhood friendships and navigate the rules of society their ancestors have set in stone.
This is an otherwise gentle read with the exception of one startling page that made my heart jump into my throat. From there on I could not turn the pages fast enough.
What I truly enjoy about Tilghman's writing is the ease with which his sentences flow in graceful, descriptive phrases. Some of it is almost poetic. He lives in Charlottesville, VA where he is the director of creative writing at UVA.
This is a multi-layered story that takes place on an estate/plantation on Chesapeake Bay dating back to Emancipation. It easily moves through several generations, but the focus is mostly on two sons and two daughters of owners and slaves as they move through their childhood friendships and navigate the rules of society their ancestors have set in stone.
This is an otherwise gentle read with the exception of one startling page that made my heart jump into my throat. From there on I could not turn the pages fast enough.
June 13, 2012
Christopher Tilghman has a beautiful, descriptive writing style, and the story of what happened in the lives of the Mason family was interesting. The conflicts of science vs. religious faith, racial prejudice, the country, laid back life on a southern orchard vs. the social life and expectations of living in a big city, and racial and social class differences all contribute to the plot of the novel. The only drawback was that the novel went from the early nineteen hundreds back to the mid eighteen hundreds, and this was not always made clear and easy to follow.
June 20, 2012
The themes of love, pride, and racism could have been more thoroughly explored by a better writer. It took at least 70 pages before I cared. But in the end I still wanted more from the events that unfolded. The author just isn't skilled enough to jump from past to present. It could be an effective way to tell the story but it was confusing in this case. Nor was the author skilled enough to pull off the nuanced ending. overall very disappointed I a book that tried to depict such a rich time in history.
July 21, 2012
It took me a long time to read this because it wasn't smooth flowing from chapter to chapter. Each chapter was usually about a different person on the Retreat. It was wonderfully written though. No wonder Christopher Tilghman is the Director of Creative Writing Program at the University of Virginia. Excellent book if you don't mind the fact that you don't necessarily want to pick it up every time you sit down.
June 10, 2012
Ok, let me say that I started to read this book and thought "oh no, I made a mistake in buying this". That lasted until about page 10. Once there, I could not put this down. Beautifully written with haunting, unforgettable characters in a unique time and a relatively unknown place in American history, this is just an outstanding book. Highly recommended.
April 23, 2012
Disappointing after how much I enjoyed Mason's Retreat
September 20, 2017
Beautiful writing, intriguing tale, but author tells the story rather than letting reader experience it -- and he makes sure to include ALL his research on peach growing and dairy farming.
December 25, 2022
Set in 1920 in confederate Maryland, Edward Mason arrives by riverboat to meet Miss Mary Bayly, the ancient, extremely ill sole survivor of the Mason family estate, "The Retreat."
As the synopsis states:
"Miss Mary is dying. She plans to give the property to the closest direct descendant of the original immigrant owner that she can find." Edward is coming to interview for the position of next owner of the Retreat, thinking that he can accept that property and return to Baltimore to resume his own life, using the Retreat for extra income and prestige. "Instead, over the course of a long day, he hears the stories of family, race, and forbidden love that will forever bind him and his family to the land."
As the synopsis states:
"Miss Mary is dying. She plans to give the property to the closest direct descendant of the original immigrant owner that she can find." Edward is coming to interview for the position of next owner of the Retreat, thinking that he can accept that property and return to Baltimore to resume his own life, using the Retreat for extra income and prestige. "Instead, over the course of a long day, he hears the stories of family, race, and forbidden love that will forever bind him and his family to the land."
October 3, 2020
I wasn’t prepared to be very impressed by this book as I didn’t particularly care for Mason’s Retreat. I found myself, however, totally engrossed in this book. Not just the storyline but also the agricultural detailing of the peach orchards and later, the cutting edge technology in the dairy industry of the day. I was a little put off again by the main characters as I was in Mason’s Retreat. They came off as cold and self centered. The relationship between Thomas and Beal felt far fetched...I can’t quite imagine a man hanging on to a relationship for years without seeing or hearing from the other party. But the book was entertaining and the descriptive writing was good.
December 2, 2017
This is an epic tale of a Maryland family surrounded by tragedy from just before the Civil War through the early days of the 20th Century. Living on Mason’s Retreat, the family property that once saw slaves cruelly sold from its shore, the Mason family’s fortunes, emotional and financial, rise and fall as heartbreak of one kind or another touches everyone. This is a followup to Tilghman’s Mason’s Retreat, a book I have to add to my list: a riveting story, well told.
March 9, 2022
I really enjoyed this novel, even though it is quite different from some of my recently read, more fast-moving stories. It reminded me of a late-19th, early 20th Century read...well-drawn characters, intricately detailed description (I could practically smell the peach orchards!), and slowly evolving plot. If you're interested in the Chesapeake Bay, this is also an effective portrayal of that area. We are going to this area soon, so I especially enjoyed the preview.
July 26, 2020
I believe I have discovered a new favorite author. Character development and a well written story through the lifetime of the main character, Miss Mary.....so rich. I enjoyed finding out how and why everyone’s life turned out. He provided a surprising ending which makes you want to read more about this family and this place. Mason’s Retreat. Next up on my list.
June 1, 2017
More like a 3.5. The sense of place is great, and Mary, Thomas, and Randall are all very strong characters, but Beal and Ophelia are incomplete. Also, at times I got too much about peaches and dairies.
August 3, 2017
A slow starter for me but once it got into the detail of the past stories of The Retreat, it sucked me in. Set on the banks of the Chesapeake across from Baltimore, it was local to this reader which made it even more interesting. A good one for discussion at book group.
August 6, 2023
I really enjoyed the beautiful, thoughtful writing of this historical novel set in Maryland just after the civil war. Rich in detail and full of comprehensive, complex characters, the narrative kept me hooked despite the length of the tome. A gem of a book.
September 1, 2025
I grew up in the Eastern Shore of Maryland and still have family there in Somerset and Dorchester countries. Although the timeline of the book was before I was born, it was very nostalgic for me, describing all the places I knew.
April 9, 2019
At first I had a hard time getting into this book. But as I kept reading and learned more about the characters it turned into a pretty good read.
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April 27, 2020Interesting, local history
December 16, 2021
Excellent
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