A Castle in Italy

by Caroline Harvey

A romantic saga set in Florence at the turn of the century, telling the story of a young English girl growing up, falling in love and trying to escape her fortune-hunting husband. Caroline Harvey is a pseudonyn of Joanna Trollope, author of "A Legacy of Love" and "A Second Legacy".

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Novels

Hardcover

First published November 4, 1993

About the author

Trollope Potter Curteis Tollope (aka Joanna Trollope)

Joanna Trollope was born on 9 December 1943 in her grandfather's rectory in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, England, daughter of Rosemary Hodson and Arthur George Cecil Trollope. She is the eldest of three siblings. She is a fifth-generation niece of the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope and is a cousin of the writer and broadcaster James Trollope. She was educated at Reigate County School for Girls followed by St Hugh's College, Oxford. On 14 May 1966, she married the banker David Roger William Potter, they had two daughters, Antonia and Louise, and on 1983 they divorced. In 1985, she remarried to the television dramatist Ian Curteis, and became the stepmother of two stepsons; they divorced in 2001. Today, she is a grandmother and lives on her own in London.

From 1965 to 1967, she worked at the Foreign Office. From 1967 to 1979, she was employed in a number of teaching posts before she became a writer full-time in 1980. Her novel Parson Harding's Daughter written under the pseudonym Caroline Harvey won in 1980 the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Reviews

[Goldenwattle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, but it was obvious that Isobel was going to have trouble with Giovanni. He was too headstrong and dismissive of common sense. Also, when I read he wanted to buy a farm I thought, what site unseen! Who buys a place without inspecting it? I bet it's rundown and rocky, unproductive. The concept of them and us (Italians and British) was strange.
It all worked out well though in the end and the castle sounded lovely.

[Jvermeersch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Either this novel is more sophisticated than it appears to be at first sight, or I have become the typical middle-aged woman that comes to mind when seeing this cover who enjoys romance novels in a southern setting. (I am writing this on my 36th birthday, in fact). Either way, I truly liked this one.
My husband found it in a street library. I did not have high expectations but started reading it out of courtesy to him.
And at the start, I did not think much of it. But the plot progresses, characters develop, contexts change, and at a certain point I started postponing going to bed to allow myself "just one more chapter".
I liked in particular:
- the characters: the initial conflict with the grandparents, the move to Italy, seeing Isobel grow up, her aunts, mentors, servants, village people interactions, observations of others, …;
- the Italian setting, and the way all sensory details are described: the sights, the sounds, the weather, the flowers, decorations, horrible aesthetic taste exhibited by certain characters, …;
- the time era: seeing everything change gradually by the introduction of electricity, war, political developments, …;
- the renovation and remodelling of multiple buildings;
- the initially ideal partner turning out to be a burden;
- the protagonist gaining and losing so much in life through ups-and-downs, at a certain point having almost no supporters left mostly because of social intricacies rather than personal mistakes;
- the ending promising a lovers' reunion, but was not cheesy as the story ends when the anticipated train appears on the horizon.

[Heather Barrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyable read and could have had a better star rating if it were not for some convenient rushed prettiness of the castle's renovation and the desperately contrived last chapter.

[Glenys · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read many romantic novels. This one was lent to me as a good read, and I must say I found it very enjoyable. The story is engaging if a little predictable. The best part was being transported to sunny pre-war Italy during a wet, dark British winter. Undemanding, relaxing, with (what else?) a happy ending.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

if you like the way Joanna Trollope/Caroline Harvey writes, you will enjoy this book. She has a clever way of developing her characters, not all of whom are likeable, and leading you from beginning to end quite gently (or maybe, with her historical novels, the word should be "genteelly")

[Darlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this historical romance by Joanna Trollope set in Florence, 1905-1921, as transplanted English women are buffeted by love and loss.