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Palladian
Cassandra Dashwood, young and romantic, falls in love with Marion Vanbrugh, the bland widower who has employed her as governess to his daughter, Sophy
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1946
22 people are currently reading
815 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Taylor
70 books524 followersElizabeth Taylor (née Coles) was a popular English novelist and short story writer. Elizabeth Coles was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1912. She was educated at The Abbey School, Reading, and worked as a governess, as a tutor and as a librarian.
In 1936, she married John William Kendall Taylor, a businessman. She lived in Penn, Buckinghamshire, for almost all her married life.
Her first novel, At Mrs. Lippincote's, was published in 1945 and was followed by eleven more. Her short stories were published in various magazines and collected in four volumes. She also wrote a children's book.
Taylor's work is mainly concerned with the nuances of "everyday" life and situations, which she writes about with dexterity. Her shrewd but affectionate portrayals of middle class and upper middle class English life won her an audience of discriminating readers, as well as loyal friends in the world of letters.
She was a friend of the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett and of the novelist and critic Robert Liddell.
Elizabeth Taylor died at age 63 of cancer.
Anne Tyler once compared Taylor to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Bowen -- "soul sisters all," in Tyler's words . In recent years new interest has been kindled by movie makers in her work. French director Francois Ozon, has made "The Real Life of Angel Deverell" which will be released in early 2005. American director Dan Ireland's screen adaptation of Taylor's "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" came out in this country first in 2006 and has made close to $1 million. A British distributor picked it up at Cannes, and the movie was released in England in 2009.
In 1936, she married John William Kendall Taylor, a businessman. She lived in Penn, Buckinghamshire, for almost all her married life.
Her first novel, At Mrs. Lippincote's, was published in 1945 and was followed by eleven more. Her short stories were published in various magazines and collected in four volumes. She also wrote a children's book.
Taylor's work is mainly concerned with the nuances of "everyday" life and situations, which she writes about with dexterity. Her shrewd but affectionate portrayals of middle class and upper middle class English life won her an audience of discriminating readers, as well as loyal friends in the world of letters.
She was a friend of the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett and of the novelist and critic Robert Liddell.
Elizabeth Taylor died at age 63 of cancer.
Anne Tyler once compared Taylor to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Bowen -- "soul sisters all," in Tyler's words . In recent years new interest has been kindled by movie makers in her work. French director Francois Ozon, has made "The Real Life of Angel Deverell" which will be released in early 2005. American director Dan Ireland's screen adaptation of Taylor's "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" came out in this country first in 2006 and has made close to $1 million. A British distributor picked it up at Cannes, and the movie was released in England in 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews
September 7, 2018
3.5/Es como una taza de té, sutil, aromático, pero también añejo, con tintes de humedad y amargura. La historia es bonita y la carácterizacion de sus personajes perfecta, así como el ambiente de la casa describe muy bien a sus moradores, pero me ha faltado algo...
July 31, 2022
This is my first Elizabeth Taylor and quite an oddity it is. Written and set just after the Second World War; it references more classic novels than you can shake a stick at. These comparisons are not subtle and there is a gothic edge to it. The setting is a decaying mansion and like Brideshead Revisited there is an analysis of the decline of the English upper classes. But the main references are to Austen and the Brontes.
The main character is a newly orphaned governess called Cassandra Dashwood; references to Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park. During the book the film version of Pride and Prejudice is showing at the local cinema. Cassandra goes to work for a widower with a daughter. His name is Marion Vanburgh and he is quiet and bookish. We are now in Jane Eyre territory! His late wife Violet was a powerful personality and her portrait is prominent and the staff still talk about her; shades of Rebecca (published in the previous decade). There is also plenty of Bronte type atmosphere at times; particularly with cousin Tom who is an alcoholic and is having an affair with the local pub landlord’s wife. His sister Margaret is pregnant and there is some question whether her husband (entirely absent from the novel) is the father. Tom and Margaret’s mother Tinty is also present and there is also the housekeeper Mrs Adams. Cassandra is there to be governess to Sophy. The final member of the household is Nanny, who is rather elderly and bitter and misses Violet. Taylor seems to throw them all together in what initially seems a fairly formulaic way and the reader does wonder where it’s all going.
Of course the novel does revolve around the relationship between Cassandra and Marion, but they are rather insipid characters and the real spark is provided by the rest of the cast. There is a very shocking event towards the end of the novel which changes everything and is totally unexpected; more Hardy than Austen here.
So what is it all about? One perceptive reviewer has pointed out that Taylor is looking at issues like love and romance and marriage which may appear quite simple are actually in post war times quite complex:
“His head felt as if someone were doing knitting in it. Nothing was simple. He believed that he loved Cassandra tenderly; but marriage is not simple. It brought with it, Nanny had reminded him, so many complications which were beyond his energies. Tinty stood before him, and Tom, Nanny with her talk of refrigerators and change, the thought of beginning a new life in that fast-crumbling house, of leaving a smouldering and rank corner of earth to sons, perhaps, and then engaging servants, spending money, laying down wine, planting and clearing. In the library last night, no one, nothing, had stood between him and Cassandra. Now so much interposed. She was a child merely, to be led into so dark, so lonely, a wilderness as his heart. For her, so much unravelling of people, so much sorting out of possessions would have to be done. He might draw her to him and ease the passion which lay under her silence, lead her into the circle of ice which encompassed him: but the obstacles were still outside, where the world was, and even within him, there was Violet.”
There is a strong sense of the landscape in the novel and in that way it was a little like Woolf’s Between the Acts, which was written a few years earlier.
It might also be argued that Taylor is marking the end of the country house tradition in English literature, it is no longer needed or necessary. In Pride and Prejudice, Darcy maintains Pemberley in magnificence and is benevolent. Contrast here with what Cousin Margaret says to Marion about his estate;
“I always hated and despised the old Squires and their Lady Bountifuls with their meddling and condescension and their giving back in charity a mere hundredth of what they had pillaged. But you are worse. You keep the hundredth part, take no responsibility, show no interest, give nothing to the land even, but let the soil go sour and the grass rank. The people who once lived in this house would not have seen the land lying useless, or one of the villagers starve, or go without coal at Christmas, and if a girl was in trouble by a man, they’d damn well make him marry her.”
It is worth recalling that Taylor was at this time a member of the Communist Party and her views are clear enough. The character of Marion Vanburgh does nothing of any use and has appalling parenting skills; he is rather absurd and disconnected and it is almost as though Taylor is saying that it’s all over for this way of life.
It’s an easy read and it is fun trying to spot how many references to other novels you can spot. There are though some quite sharp and insightful comments, a shocking twist and some well-developed minor characters.
The main character is a newly orphaned governess called Cassandra Dashwood; references to Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park. During the book the film version of Pride and Prejudice is showing at the local cinema. Cassandra goes to work for a widower with a daughter. His name is Marion Vanburgh and he is quiet and bookish. We are now in Jane Eyre territory! His late wife Violet was a powerful personality and her portrait is prominent and the staff still talk about her; shades of Rebecca (published in the previous decade). There is also plenty of Bronte type atmosphere at times; particularly with cousin Tom who is an alcoholic and is having an affair with the local pub landlord’s wife. His sister Margaret is pregnant and there is some question whether her husband (entirely absent from the novel) is the father. Tom and Margaret’s mother Tinty is also present and there is also the housekeeper Mrs Adams. Cassandra is there to be governess to Sophy. The final member of the household is Nanny, who is rather elderly and bitter and misses Violet. Taylor seems to throw them all together in what initially seems a fairly formulaic way and the reader does wonder where it’s all going.
Of course the novel does revolve around the relationship between Cassandra and Marion, but they are rather insipid characters and the real spark is provided by the rest of the cast. There is a very shocking event towards the end of the novel which changes everything and is totally unexpected; more Hardy than Austen here.
So what is it all about? One perceptive reviewer has pointed out that Taylor is looking at issues like love and romance and marriage which may appear quite simple are actually in post war times quite complex:
“His head felt as if someone were doing knitting in it. Nothing was simple. He believed that he loved Cassandra tenderly; but marriage is not simple. It brought with it, Nanny had reminded him, so many complications which were beyond his energies. Tinty stood before him, and Tom, Nanny with her talk of refrigerators and change, the thought of beginning a new life in that fast-crumbling house, of leaving a smouldering and rank corner of earth to sons, perhaps, and then engaging servants, spending money, laying down wine, planting and clearing. In the library last night, no one, nothing, had stood between him and Cassandra. Now so much interposed. She was a child merely, to be led into so dark, so lonely, a wilderness as his heart. For her, so much unravelling of people, so much sorting out of possessions would have to be done. He might draw her to him and ease the passion which lay under her silence, lead her into the circle of ice which encompassed him: but the obstacles were still outside, where the world was, and even within him, there was Violet.”
There is a strong sense of the landscape in the novel and in that way it was a little like Woolf’s Between the Acts, which was written a few years earlier.
It might also be argued that Taylor is marking the end of the country house tradition in English literature, it is no longer needed or necessary. In Pride and Prejudice, Darcy maintains Pemberley in magnificence and is benevolent. Contrast here with what Cousin Margaret says to Marion about his estate;
“I always hated and despised the old Squires and their Lady Bountifuls with their meddling and condescension and their giving back in charity a mere hundredth of what they had pillaged. But you are worse. You keep the hundredth part, take no responsibility, show no interest, give nothing to the land even, but let the soil go sour and the grass rank. The people who once lived in this house would not have seen the land lying useless, or one of the villagers starve, or go without coal at Christmas, and if a girl was in trouble by a man, they’d damn well make him marry her.”
It is worth recalling that Taylor was at this time a member of the Communist Party and her views are clear enough. The character of Marion Vanburgh does nothing of any use and has appalling parenting skills; he is rather absurd and disconnected and it is almost as though Taylor is saying that it’s all over for this way of life.
It’s an easy read and it is fun trying to spot how many references to other novels you can spot. There are though some quite sharp and insightful comments, a shocking twist and some well-developed minor characters.
September 5, 2018
Palladian published in 1946 is Elizabeth Taylor's second novel and tells the story of Cassandra Dashwood, who aged only 17, has recently become an orphan after her father dies.
Her former headmistress Mrs Turner finds her a post to be governess to 11 year old Sophy Vanburgh, daughter of Marion Vanbrugh, who is a widower.
Cassandra who has read many books by the Brontes and Austen is determined she will fall in love and marry the master of the house.
Cropthorne Manor with its palladian front ,is a decaying country manor house which Marion has inherited.Here he shares the house with bullying cousins , Tom and Margaret, Aunt Tinty, and Nanny the venomous housekeeper.
Cassandra soon picks up on the strange atmosphere in the house and wonders what could have caused it.
I really enjoyed this short novel and it reminded me a little of Daphne du Maurier's 'Rebecca', with the ghost of Violet, Marion's dead wife looming around the manor house.
It is a dark tale , but with humour throughout and i enjoyed how the story all came together at the end.
Her former headmistress Mrs Turner finds her a post to be governess to 11 year old Sophy Vanburgh, daughter of Marion Vanbrugh, who is a widower.
Cassandra who has read many books by the Brontes and Austen is determined she will fall in love and marry the master of the house.
Cropthorne Manor with its palladian front ,is a decaying country manor house which Marion has inherited.Here he shares the house with bullying cousins , Tom and Margaret, Aunt Tinty, and Nanny the venomous housekeeper.
Cassandra soon picks up on the strange atmosphere in the house and wonders what could have caused it.
I really enjoyed this short novel and it reminded me a little of Daphne du Maurier's 'Rebecca', with the ghost of Violet, Marion's dead wife looming around the manor house.
It is a dark tale , but with humour throughout and i enjoyed how the story all came together at the end.
May 2, 2020
Cassandra, a recently orphaned English girl in her late teens, goes to serve as a governess at a decaying great house. Having unhealthily indulged in reading novels, which she views as guides for life, she has come to the conclusion that she must fall in love with the master of the house. Once she arrives at the estate, however, she discovers that the gentleman is mostly ensconced in his library, where he is deeply engaged in the study of dead languages—even as the house, with its Palladian front, falls to rack and ruin about him. No, Marion is hardly a catch, and he’s apparently quite effeminate to boot—not a man at all (!) according to some of the characters. Cassandra doesn’t seem to notice, or, if she does, she’s quite unbothered.
Marion’s controlling, anxiety-riddled aunt and his two cousins—a bizarre, cat-like woman doctor (who is always prowling about, toying with, and ready to pounce on Cassandra) and her drunkard brother (who is engaged in a desultory affair with a blowsy pub owner)—also reside in the mouldering manor. As for Cassandra’s charge: everyone but the girl’s father (Marion) agrees that Sophy should be at school so she can be properly socialized (and lifted out of the general familial decay). Rather like du Maurier’s Rebecca, the ghost of Marion’s stunningly beautiful dead wife is omnipresent. She was at the centre of a love triangle that contributed to the ruin of the house and the family. Details do, of course, come out, and there is a dramatic, climactic tragedy, about which the reader can summon very little feeling.
I was expecting quite a bit more from Taylor’s second work—a subversion of the gothic novel, I suppose. I didn’t feel that I got it or much of anything at all from this book. It’s somewhat interesting, but inferior to her first work—though there are hints of themes and preoccupations that will populate future novels.
Marion’s controlling, anxiety-riddled aunt and his two cousins—a bizarre, cat-like woman doctor (who is always prowling about, toying with, and ready to pounce on Cassandra) and her drunkard brother (who is engaged in a desultory affair with a blowsy pub owner)—also reside in the mouldering manor. As for Cassandra’s charge: everyone but the girl’s father (Marion) agrees that Sophy should be at school so she can be properly socialized (and lifted out of the general familial decay). Rather like du Maurier’s Rebecca, the ghost of Marion’s stunningly beautiful dead wife is omnipresent. She was at the centre of a love triangle that contributed to the ruin of the house and the family. Details do, of course, come out, and there is a dramatic, climactic tragedy, about which the reader can summon very little feeling.
I was expecting quite a bit more from Taylor’s second work—a subversion of the gothic novel, I suppose. I didn’t feel that I got it or much of anything at all from this book. It’s somewhat interesting, but inferior to her first work—though there are hints of themes and preoccupations that will populate future novels.
February 7, 2018
"In books, death is just a sad chapter, and then you turn the page and go on with the next. But really it can’t be left behind quite like that. It goes on and on, a sort of nagging parenthesis, coming in brackets at the end of everything that happens …"
Taylor is one of my top favorite novelists. I thought it was funny how my first book was her penultimate novel, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, which I followed up immediately with her first novel, At Mrs Lippincote's, so I could get a feel for the progression of her writing over time. What resonates with me in each book is how well drawn and introspective her characters are. This doesn't always pertain to the main protagonist, but to all those interconnected. It's really genius. She has a wonderful way of getting to the heart of matters, even when those matters are a bit debased, sinister or lonely.
Although this book was slim, I had a hard time getting through it. I didn't look forward to picking it up each night, even though I should have, as it seems to be a nod to Jane Eyre, one of my favorite novels ever. While I appreciated the first half of the book, when Cassandra finally arrives at the dilapidated estate that is to be her home, things took a downward turn. Not because of the dark elements, alcoholism or secrets that lurked, but because it all seemed so disjointed. Reminded me a lot of Jane Bowles. Don't get me wrong, Taylor always makes me laugh, but I just couldn't piece everything together. At times I couldn't even be sure who was speaking! Usually at this point, I would set the book down and attempt it at another time (which usually ends up being years later), but I just couldn't do that this time. I'm determined to go through the rest of her books chronologically, and I can't get to the next until I've crossed this milestone. So as painful as it is to write this review of one of my beloved authors, the only thing I will say is: we can't win them all. She's still a gorgeous writer and still a favorite. Looking forward to the next!
Taylor is one of my top favorite novelists. I thought it was funny how my first book was her penultimate novel, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, which I followed up immediately with her first novel, At Mrs Lippincote's, so I could get a feel for the progression of her writing over time. What resonates with me in each book is how well drawn and introspective her characters are. This doesn't always pertain to the main protagonist, but to all those interconnected. It's really genius. She has a wonderful way of getting to the heart of matters, even when those matters are a bit debased, sinister or lonely.
Although this book was slim, I had a hard time getting through it. I didn't look forward to picking it up each night, even though I should have, as it seems to be a nod to Jane Eyre, one of my favorite novels ever. While I appreciated the first half of the book, when Cassandra finally arrives at the dilapidated estate that is to be her home, things took a downward turn. Not because of the dark elements, alcoholism or secrets that lurked, but because it all seemed so disjointed. Reminded me a lot of Jane Bowles. Don't get me wrong, Taylor always makes me laugh, but I just couldn't piece everything together. At times I couldn't even be sure who was speaking! Usually at this point, I would set the book down and attempt it at another time (which usually ends up being years later), but I just couldn't do that this time. I'm determined to go through the rest of her books chronologically, and I can't get to the next until I've crossed this milestone. So as painful as it is to write this review of one of my beloved authors, the only thing I will say is: we can't win them all. She's still a gorgeous writer and still a favorite. Looking forward to the next!
March 31, 2023
42nd book of 2023.
This is Taylor's second book (I am reading her in order), and I was drawn to this one because I adore Palladian architecture (who doesn't love a column?). In this, Taylor's love of the Brontë sisters dictates. The novel is a riff of Jane Eyre: a governess comes to an old Palladian house and attempts to tutor Sophy, the young daughter of the widowed man, Marion. There are numerous references throughout the book to other writers too, such as Austen, Sterne, Wilde, etc. I was drawn to Taylor, to read all her novels, because I read that one could not find a single 'dud sentence' in her entire oeuvre. I'm a man who loves sentences. So, although I didn't care massively for the plot (though there is a surprising moment), the sentences and Taylor's ability to capture emotion kept the book afloat. I read online someone else say how this novel captures the English world of 'old houses, shabby pubs and neglected gardens', and they're right. It's not a spoiler, per se, but I do want to quote the final lines of the book, just because it illustrates Taylor's gift: 'The hen pecked between the cracks of the terrace paving stones and wandered into the hall. But as the dark shadows of indoors fell coldly across it like a knife, it turned and tottered back into the sunshine.'
Stowe Gardens, Buckinghamshire
This is Taylor's second book (I am reading her in order), and I was drawn to this one because I adore Palladian architecture (who doesn't love a column?). In this, Taylor's love of the Brontë sisters dictates. The novel is a riff of Jane Eyre: a governess comes to an old Palladian house and attempts to tutor Sophy, the young daughter of the widowed man, Marion. There are numerous references throughout the book to other writers too, such as Austen, Sterne, Wilde, etc. I was drawn to Taylor, to read all her novels, because I read that one could not find a single 'dud sentence' in her entire oeuvre. I'm a man who loves sentences. So, although I didn't care massively for the plot (though there is a surprising moment), the sentences and Taylor's ability to capture emotion kept the book afloat. I read online someone else say how this novel captures the English world of 'old houses, shabby pubs and neglected gardens', and they're right. It's not a spoiler, per se, but I do want to quote the final lines of the book, just because it illustrates Taylor's gift: 'The hen pecked between the cracks of the terrace paving stones and wandered into the hall. But as the dark shadows of indoors fell coldly across it like a knife, it turned and tottered back into the sunshine.'
Stowe Gardens, Buckinghamshire
May 30, 2013
I seldom comment on other reviews of the books I read but I did want to say that I received Palladian much differently than some of the reviewers here. I do not find it to be satirical or derivative. I believe Taylor may have been interested in examining the circumstances of the young girl left with the choice of governess in a closed environment working for and experiencing unusual family members. Many significant women's writers were writing about what our options were in mid 20th century or earlier. So to examine the young governess, inexperienced, poor, susceptible...that actually talks about a lot of us living defenseless and limited lives, does it not? And the satire never found its way with me either. As usual, the amazing Elizabeth Taylor opens a window on the very close quarters of lives that are complicated, unfulfilled, lonely, painful, underrated, and writes with sensitivity and respect. With her writing, I am always reminded that I am not reading so much literary drama but instead scenes, lives, and experiences that I may find waiting in real life around the next corner.
Taylor's work has been publiished by Virago Modern Classics and by NYRB and adds so much to the literature of women in the 20th century.
Taylor's work has been publiished by Virago Modern Classics and by NYRB and adds so much to the literature of women in the 20th century.
February 13, 2015
Tiene más de las Brontë que de Austen, y es imposible no ver el homenaje a "Rebeca"
Ha sido una lectura sorprendente y muy distinta a lo que me esperaba. :)
Ha sido una lectura sorprendente y muy distinta a lo que me esperaba. :)
March 13, 2020
The name of this novel means…well it has two meanings. Let’s consult the Oxford English Dictionary now shall we?
Palladian: now rare or obsolete, M16. Of or pertaining to Pallas (Athene), the goddess of wisdom in classical mythology; tranf. – pertaining to wisdom, knowledge, or study.
Palladian E18: Of, pertaining to, or according to the neoclassical style or school of the Italian architect, Palladio (1518-80).
There is an Introduction to the novel by Neel Mukherjee (he wrote the Booker Prize-nominated The Lives of Others) and he says “In keeping with the title, which invokes the shapely beauty of 18th-century neoclassical architecture but also the world of knowledge, wisdom, and books, there is an answering literariness that runs as a dazzling seam throughout the book.” So there…I guess the author incorporated both definitions when titling her book. (In fact in the Virago Modern Classic edition, she on p. 97 makes mention of an old bakery that was part of the house, “upon which the Palladian façade had been imposed”.)
This was Elizabeth Taylor’s second novel (published 1946, 2nd re-issue by Virago Press as a Modern Classic 2011), the first one being “At Mrs. Lippincote’s”. “Palladian” was a good read.
Some principal characters include the governess Cassandra; Sophy, a girl whom she teaches; Marion Vanbrugh who is Sophy’s father and inherited the falling-down mansion (he doesn’t do a damn thing in terms of work….guess he inherited money too); his two cousins Margaret (she doesn’t live there but is pregnant and her husband is away in the Navy) and Thomas (an alcoholic and one who figures prominently in the plot); Nanny (who used to take care of children and not sure what she does now…I guess she came with the house and everybody are pretty much just waiting for her to die); a housekeeper Mrs. Adams who moves dust around from one place to another; Aunty Ninty who is mother to Margaret and Thomas; the barkeeper’s wife, Mrs. Veal (who is having an affair with Thomas); and poor Violet (Marion’s wife). Well I say poor Violet because she is no longer around – she died in childbirth giving birth to Sophy. Maybe that is why Marion is permanently bummed out but may also be in distress because he has neuralgia (a stabbing, burning, and often severe pain due to an irritated or damaged nerve). So, something happens to one of these characters which is not good…but I will leave it at that. And why is Thomas an alcoholic? You will have to read the book because I shan’t tell you! 😊
I think the book is set in the early 20th century because Cassandra was driven to Marion’s crumbling mansion in an automobile, but the mansion did not have a “fridge.”
Elizabeth Taylor hated the limelight. In the Intro, Neel Mukherjee has this interesting comment: “She was painfully shy and shunned all publicity (perhaps contributing to her relative obscurity): she once went through thirty-nine question television interview with Elizabeth Jane Howard in 90 seconds so that it could be over and done with.” Is that even possible?!
Palladian: now rare or obsolete, M16. Of or pertaining to Pallas (Athene), the goddess of wisdom in classical mythology; tranf. – pertaining to wisdom, knowledge, or study.
Palladian E18: Of, pertaining to, or according to the neoclassical style or school of the Italian architect, Palladio (1518-80).
There is an Introduction to the novel by Neel Mukherjee (he wrote the Booker Prize-nominated The Lives of Others) and he says “In keeping with the title, which invokes the shapely beauty of 18th-century neoclassical architecture but also the world of knowledge, wisdom, and books, there is an answering literariness that runs as a dazzling seam throughout the book.” So there…I guess the author incorporated both definitions when titling her book. (In fact in the Virago Modern Classic edition, she on p. 97 makes mention of an old bakery that was part of the house, “upon which the Palladian façade had been imposed”.)
This was Elizabeth Taylor’s second novel (published 1946, 2nd re-issue by Virago Press as a Modern Classic 2011), the first one being “At Mrs. Lippincote’s”. “Palladian” was a good read.
Some principal characters include the governess Cassandra; Sophy, a girl whom she teaches; Marion Vanbrugh who is Sophy’s father and inherited the falling-down mansion (he doesn’t do a damn thing in terms of work….guess he inherited money too); his two cousins Margaret (she doesn’t live there but is pregnant and her husband is away in the Navy) and Thomas (an alcoholic and one who figures prominently in the plot); Nanny (who used to take care of children and not sure what she does now…I guess she came with the house and everybody are pretty much just waiting for her to die); a housekeeper Mrs. Adams who moves dust around from one place to another; Aunty Ninty who is mother to Margaret and Thomas; the barkeeper’s wife, Mrs. Veal (who is having an affair with Thomas); and poor Violet (Marion’s wife). Well I say poor Violet because she is no longer around – she died in childbirth giving birth to Sophy. Maybe that is why Marion is permanently bummed out but may also be in distress because he has neuralgia (a stabbing, burning, and often severe pain due to an irritated or damaged nerve). So, something happens to one of these characters which is not good…but I will leave it at that. And why is Thomas an alcoholic? You will have to read the book because I shan’t tell you! 😊
I think the book is set in the early 20th century because Cassandra was driven to Marion’s crumbling mansion in an automobile, but the mansion did not have a “fridge.”
Elizabeth Taylor hated the limelight. In the Intro, Neel Mukherjee has this interesting comment: “She was painfully shy and shunned all publicity (perhaps contributing to her relative obscurity): she once went through thirty-nine question television interview with Elizabeth Jane Howard in 90 seconds so that it could be over and done with.” Is that even possible?!
August 8, 2016
Aquí su videoreseña: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WXPD...
Entiendo por qué se compara a este libro con "La abadía de Northanger" de Jane Austen, aunque la comparación puede dar a confusión. El libro de Jane Austen es una parodia del género de misterio gótico muy en boga en su época disfrazada de novela costumbrista y Austen perfila sus personajes buscando siempre aquellas excentricidades que los hagan graciosos u objetos de burla. Austen no suele ser benevolente con sus personajes.
En cambio, Elizabeth Taylor humaniza mucho a sus personajes, que en manos de otro podrían ser meras caricaturas, para que entiendas su corazón, sus sentimientos, y así hacerlos cercanos. Esta novela no es tanto una sátira o una parodia de las novelas tipo "Jane Eyre". Sí, tal y como hace "La abadía de Northanger", propone un argumento o un escenario que podría parecerse a una mezcla entre "Jane Eyre" y "Rebeca" y lo contrapone con la realidad, que es mucho más "aburrida" o poco dada a lo dramático. Pero en "La señorita Dashwood" ni la comparación es tan obvia, ni es tan proclive o directa a buscar el chiste o la gracia. De hecho, "La señorita Dashwood" es una novela muy melancólica. Y posiblemente menos fría que cualquiera de Austen, aunque esto creo es más cuestión de gustos. Lo cual no quiere decir que esta novela no tenga momentos graciosos o de ironía típicamente inglesa, los tiene (La Señora Turner podría ser la reencarnación de Jane Austen), pero se preocupa de mostrarte unos personajes que, por muchas rarezas que parezcan tener, no dejan de ser personas a las que puedes entender. Y eso lo logra Elizabeth Gaskell con una prosa no sólo sutil, sino elegante, que a veces puede describirte en un sólo párrafo la esencia misma de un personaje o el sentimiento preciso que está sintiendo.
Sin embargo, a las personas a quienes no les guste Jane Austen (o Stella Gibbons, ya que estamos), posiblemente odien este libro aún más, pues es más lento (aparentemente pasa muy, muy poco), más sutil y a algunas personas puede hacérseles más aburrido que ver la pintura secarse. Pero a mí me ha fascinado, porque dentro de esta historia tan sencilla y en apariencia tan tópica, me he encontrado personajes entrañables que por momentos me han dado lástima y a quienes en todo momento podía comprender, aunque no compartiera su punto de vista.
Entiendo por qué se compara a este libro con "La abadía de Northanger" de Jane Austen, aunque la comparación puede dar a confusión. El libro de Jane Austen es una parodia del género de misterio gótico muy en boga en su época disfrazada de novela costumbrista y Austen perfila sus personajes buscando siempre aquellas excentricidades que los hagan graciosos u objetos de burla. Austen no suele ser benevolente con sus personajes.
En cambio, Elizabeth Taylor humaniza mucho a sus personajes, que en manos de otro podrían ser meras caricaturas, para que entiendas su corazón, sus sentimientos, y así hacerlos cercanos. Esta novela no es tanto una sátira o una parodia de las novelas tipo "Jane Eyre". Sí, tal y como hace "La abadía de Northanger", propone un argumento o un escenario que podría parecerse a una mezcla entre "Jane Eyre" y "Rebeca" y lo contrapone con la realidad, que es mucho más "aburrida" o poco dada a lo dramático. Pero en "La señorita Dashwood" ni la comparación es tan obvia, ni es tan proclive o directa a buscar el chiste o la gracia. De hecho, "La señorita Dashwood" es una novela muy melancólica. Y posiblemente menos fría que cualquiera de Austen, aunque esto creo es más cuestión de gustos. Lo cual no quiere decir que esta novela no tenga momentos graciosos o de ironía típicamente inglesa, los tiene (La Señora Turner podría ser la reencarnación de Jane Austen), pero se preocupa de mostrarte unos personajes que, por muchas rarezas que parezcan tener, no dejan de ser personas a las que puedes entender. Y eso lo logra Elizabeth Gaskell con una prosa no sólo sutil, sino elegante, que a veces puede describirte en un sólo párrafo la esencia misma de un personaje o el sentimiento preciso que está sintiendo.
Sin embargo, a las personas a quienes no les guste Jane Austen (o Stella Gibbons, ya que estamos), posiblemente odien este libro aún más, pues es más lento (aparentemente pasa muy, muy poco), más sutil y a algunas personas puede hacérseles más aburrido que ver la pintura secarse. Pero a mí me ha fascinado, porque dentro de esta historia tan sencilla y en apariencia tan tópica, me he encontrado personajes entrañables que por momentos me han dado lástima y a quienes en todo momento podía comprender, aunque no compartiera su punto de vista.
June 4, 2018
¿Lo que más me ha gustado de La señorita Dashwood? La serie de referencias que, por lo visto, sirvieron de inspiración a Elizabeth Taylor. Por ejemplo: entre la protagonista de este libro (Cassandra) y Jane Eyre, existen similitudes. Y, sin ir más lejos, Dashwood es el apellido de las hermanas protagonistas de Sentido y Sensibilidad, de Jane Austen. Incluso, he llegado a sentir cierta "similitud" en cuanto a tormento/irascibilidad se refiere entre Tom (personaje de La señorita Dashwood) y Heathcliff (protagonista de Cumbres Borrascosas). Por lo que se podría decir que esta novela tiene muchos tintes a las hermanas Brontë.
Personalmente, ¡me ha fascinado! He disfrutado de cada una de sus páginas, de cada uno de sus personajes... ¡Taylor es una reina en el tema -descripciones-! Sin duda alguna, La señorita Dashwood se ha coronado como una de las mejores lecturas del año. Además de convertirse en uno de mis libros favoritos.
Por lo tanto, ¿lo recomiendo? Pues... Sí y no. Si te gusta Jane Austen o las hermanas Brontë... Claramente, sí. En caso contrario... No estaría tan segura ya que pienso que no es un libro para todo el mundo. Principalmente, por el ritmo tan sumamente pausado que tiene. Bajo mi criterio, lo que hace de esta historia algo maravilloso es la pluma de la autora.
Personalmente, ¡me ha fascinado! He disfrutado de cada una de sus páginas, de cada uno de sus personajes... ¡Taylor es una reina en el tema -descripciones-! Sin duda alguna, La señorita Dashwood se ha coronado como una de las mejores lecturas del año. Además de convertirse en uno de mis libros favoritos.
Por lo tanto, ¿lo recomiendo? Pues... Sí y no. Si te gusta Jane Austen o las hermanas Brontë... Claramente, sí. En caso contrario... No estaría tan segura ya que pienso que no es un libro para todo el mundo. Principalmente, por el ritmo tan sumamente pausado que tiene. Bajo mi criterio, lo que hace de esta historia algo maravilloso es la pluma de la autora.
October 25, 2018
Elizabeth Taylor’s second book, published in 1946. The war, which was ever present in At Miss Lippincote’s seems to not touch this book at all, it exists in some literary dimension in which tropes from Jane Eyre exist alongside tributes to Jane Austen in the manor, a place of memories, stories, and studies, while Tom, cousin to the Mr. Rochester-ish master of the house, Marion, spends his time drinking, drowning his boredom and life at the village pub. Into all of this comes the ingenue Cassandra Dashwood to serve as governess to her own version of Sophy(Sophie in JE) and domestic drama slowly spools out in patterns both similar and different from the literary ancestors of this book. The writing is beautiful, the characters, however, all feel at one remove from us, as if there is a glass between us and them. It is difficult to care about their fates, the passion that runs a current beneath Brontë & Austen is missing. Also, Tom’s segments feel as if they came from a different literary heritage entirely, as if two books are uncomfortably occupying the same space. This feels more like a first book than AML did, or, perhaps, more like a literary exercise that grew into a novel.
However, some of the writing shines through.
“Cassandra has once said exactly the same to her father. He had replied: ‘There is nothing more beautiful about a thing than what is true.’ She had not believed him then and did not now and sympathized with Sophy, thinking: ‘Beauty is not all it is cracked up to be, or Truth. There are curious, moving, exciting and fantastic things as well.’ She wished she could have explained this to her father; now it was too late. The dead cannot be answered back, the last word is always theirs.”
It feels a bit to me like the characters are like mannequins onto which she hangs her beautiful words and interesting thoughts, but the words and thoughts have more life than the characters, they are not seamlessly joined. This a book about which I enjoyed thinking, appreciated the descriptions, but did not feel very much. As I am engaged in the process of reading all her works in order with The Elizabeth Taylor Reading Project, I am curious to see what her next book brings to my reading table.
3.5 rounded up to 4. Recommended.
However, some of the writing shines through.
“Cassandra has once said exactly the same to her father. He had replied: ‘There is nothing more beautiful about a thing than what is true.’ She had not believed him then and did not now and sympathized with Sophy, thinking: ‘Beauty is not all it is cracked up to be, or Truth. There are curious, moving, exciting and fantastic things as well.’ She wished she could have explained this to her father; now it was too late. The dead cannot be answered back, the last word is always theirs.”
It feels a bit to me like the characters are like mannequins onto which she hangs her beautiful words and interesting thoughts, but the words and thoughts have more life than the characters, they are not seamlessly joined. This a book about which I enjoyed thinking, appreciated the descriptions, but did not feel very much. As I am engaged in the process of reading all her works in order with The Elizabeth Taylor Reading Project, I am curious to see what her next book brings to my reading table.
3.5 rounded up to 4. Recommended.
July 13, 2016
Palladian, a copy of which I borrowed from the library, was my Elizabeth Taylor choice for our challenge. I am an admirer of her other novels, and rank some of them amongst my absolute favourite books. I was very excited to try out one of her novellas, as opposed to the longer works which I have encountered to date. Palladian is ‘on one level, her rewriting of Jane Eyre‘; one of my favourite novels.
Originally published in 1946, Taylor’s second novel Palladian has found its way, along with much of her other work, onto the marvellous Virago Modern Classics list. The premise of the piece is wonderful; it has so many of the elements which I adore in works of fiction. To borrow from the original blurb, the novel follows “newly orphaned Cassandra Dashwood [who] arrives as governess to little Sophy, [and] the scene seems set for the archetypal romance between young girl and austere widowed employer. Strange secrets abound in the ramshackle house. But conventions are subverted in this atmospheric novel: one of its worlds is suffused with classical scholarship and literary romance, but the other is chaotic, quarrelsome and even farcical. Cassandra is to discover that in real life, tragedy, comedy and acute embarrassment are never far apart.”
Palladian has one of the most enticing opening sentences which I have read for such a long time: ‘Cassandra, with all her novel-reading, could be sure of experiencing the proper emotions, standing in her bedroom for the last time and looking from the bare windows to the unfaded oblong of wall-paper where “The Meeting of Dante and Beatrice” in sepia had hung for thirteen years above the mantelpiece’. In his well written but perhaps over-thoughtful introduction to the volume, Neel Mukherjee writes that, ‘there is an answering literariness that runs as a dazzling seam through the book’.
Despite the premise and strong writing, I actually found Palladian to be rather a disappointing novel. I loved the overriding idea, and the echoes of the Brontes (and, to a lesser extent, Jane Austen), but something about it just didn’t feel right. There was a queer distancing effect to the whole, and I very much struggled to find any sympathetic feelings whatsoever for Cassandra throughout, despite the awful position in which she found herself. I can only be glad that Palladian is not the first of Taylor’s books which I read, as had that been the case, I doubt I would have been so keen to read her entire oeuvre.
Originally published in 1946, Taylor’s second novel Palladian has found its way, along with much of her other work, onto the marvellous Virago Modern Classics list. The premise of the piece is wonderful; it has so many of the elements which I adore in works of fiction. To borrow from the original blurb, the novel follows “newly orphaned Cassandra Dashwood [who] arrives as governess to little Sophy, [and] the scene seems set for the archetypal romance between young girl and austere widowed employer. Strange secrets abound in the ramshackle house. But conventions are subverted in this atmospheric novel: one of its worlds is suffused with classical scholarship and literary romance, but the other is chaotic, quarrelsome and even farcical. Cassandra is to discover that in real life, tragedy, comedy and acute embarrassment are never far apart.”
Palladian has one of the most enticing opening sentences which I have read for such a long time: ‘Cassandra, with all her novel-reading, could be sure of experiencing the proper emotions, standing in her bedroom for the last time and looking from the bare windows to the unfaded oblong of wall-paper where “The Meeting of Dante and Beatrice” in sepia had hung for thirteen years above the mantelpiece’. In his well written but perhaps over-thoughtful introduction to the volume, Neel Mukherjee writes that, ‘there is an answering literariness that runs as a dazzling seam through the book’.
Despite the premise and strong writing, I actually found Palladian to be rather a disappointing novel. I loved the overriding idea, and the echoes of the Brontes (and, to a lesser extent, Jane Austen), but something about it just didn’t feel right. There was a queer distancing effect to the whole, and I very much struggled to find any sympathetic feelings whatsoever for Cassandra throughout, despite the awful position in which she found herself. I can only be glad that Palladian is not the first of Taylor’s books which I read, as had that been the case, I doubt I would have been so keen to read her entire oeuvre.
September 5, 2018
The second book for The Elizabeth Taylor Reading Project.
Elizabeth Taylor writes such marvellous characters. They are deeply flawed and not particularly likeable, but they are so believable.
Elizabeth Taylor writes such marvellous characters. They are deeply flawed and not particularly likeable, but they are so believable.
April 12, 2009
What a weird little book. Partially a traditional English-governess-falls-for-the-head-of-the-house narrative, partially a commentary on class distinctions and cultural divisions as they fell apart and realigned in the 1940s, partially a series of thoughts on relationships and how people can work together even through and after a terrible history. The use of anachronism as a device is really interesting.
September 11, 2018
I was thinking: "This is a very Jane Eyre situation!"... and suddenly Cassandra says to herself: "Jane Eyre had answered up better than that to her Mr Rochester"...
(Even here, as in At Mrs. Lippincote's, the characters are great readers)
(Even here, as in At Mrs. Lippincote's, the characters are great readers)
May 1, 2023
The post-war (Second World War) decline of the English Upper classes and their country estates are explored in what I felt was a retelling of Jane Eyre (minus the first Mrs Rochester, but with added gothic Nanny instead)
A very enjoyable read, my second Taylor novel and I will carry on seeking them out.
A very enjoyable read, my second Taylor novel and I will carry on seeking them out.
April 12, 2024
La señorita Dashwood entra a trabajar en casa de Marion Vanbrugh, viudo y con una hija. ¿Os suena? Influenciada por Charlotte Bronte y Daphne du Maurier, Elizabeth Taylor escribe una novela de posguerra costumbrista, familiar, de ritmo pausado y narración elegante, con un toque irónico en una mansión decadente, muy recomendable.
Mi reseña completa:
https://youtu.be/TnpQvYqp7xc?si=mFmae...
Mi reseña completa:
https://youtu.be/TnpQvYqp7xc?si=mFmae...
November 8, 2022
And we can never be safe unless we believe we are great and that human life is abiding and the sun constant and that we matter. Once broken, that fragile illusion would disclose the secret panic, the vacuity within us. Life then could not be tolerable.
One is sure, I feel bound with E. Taylor. Her sense of the world and the life, her fears and hopes seem so similar to mine that each time (when I read her book) I feel almost overwhelmed. I am almost afraid that someone can feel so alike.
But, I admit, her style of writing, her narration, her storytelling isn't fully to my liking. There are always moments/pages when I fight a bit with myself. But I know that what Elizabeth Taylor wanted to tell me is worth a bit struggle. In 'Palladian' were quite many such moments (for example in 'A View of the Harbour', 'The Sleeping Beauty' and 'In a Summer Season' were much much less.)
Anxiety is the modern affliction, belonging to the long twilights, the uncertain modern weather; neither sun nor snow and neither grief nor joy.
I think, that the book could have been titled: 'The anxiety' or 'Death and anxiety'. You could feel it almost all the time. It was very contagious. Each character was restless for other reason. And it was almost unbearable. I wanted to stop reading just to have some rest from those heavy emotions.
Fantasy can be damaging. Reality can't hold a candle to it, everyday life doesn't stand a chance.
This love story seemed doomed for the beginning. I mean, Cassandra had in mind almost one think a very proper willingness to fall in love, the more despairingly the better, with her employer. Yes, you can tell, it is often in books but seldom so bold said. Nonetheless, I have a deep doubt in their HEA in the long turn (especially when I think of Marion's motivation and personality). Still, I keep my fingers crossed for them.
Sometimes, a small thing, the way words are arranged, or the sun striking the flesh, as it struck his hands now, will set one's blood tingling and one's life on a fresh course.
March 4, 2012
Cassandra Dashwood, at the age of eighteen is quiet, bookish and, dare I say, a little dull. And, after her father’s recent death, she is alone in the world.
Fortunately Mrs. Turner, her former headmistress, takes an interest in Cassandra, and finds her a post: Marion Vanbrugh is a widower with a young daughter, Sophy, and he needs a governess.
It was so, so easy for Cassandra to cast herself and Jane Eyre and Marion as Mr Rochester.
But reality would prove to be a little different.
Marion was as quiet, bookish and dull as Cassandra. And he was weighed down by his family; an elderly aunt, who kept house quite ineffectually; a cousin, pregnant by her lover, not her husband; another cousin, who was charming but quite directionless; and Violet, his wife who had died but still had a presence.
And they all lived together, their lives stagnating in a crumbling mansion.
It was fortunate that Sophy was charming, and that her father took a great interest in his daughter and her governess …
This is a story with echoes of other authors: Jane Austen in the heroine’s name, and in more besides; Charlotte Bronte in the heroine’s position; Ivy Compton-Burnett in some of the dialogue and relationships; Daphne Du Maurier in the presence, and untold story, of Marion’s wife; Molly Keane in the crumbling mansion; Thomas Hardy in some of the darker moments; and maybe even more that have passed me by when I was caught up …
Not a satire, not a pastiche, but something rather different, and rather more interesting. Something I can’t quite explain.
A dark tale, but the darkness is offset by wry humor and dry wit.
Events unfold slowly, but every sentence brings a new insight, or a new development. There are small, subtle changes, and there is one sudden, tragic, utterly real event that will change everything
Everything is driven by the characters; characters I found difficult to like, but they were pinpointed so accurately that I was always fascinated. Because I understood their situations, their inner lives, their motivations, and what made each of them unique.
And there is a nicely drawn love song threaded through. Though there will not be happy endings for all …
Palladian is a strangely intriguing novel – just as good as I had hoped but not at all what I had expected.
Fortunately Mrs. Turner, her former headmistress, takes an interest in Cassandra, and finds her a post: Marion Vanbrugh is a widower with a young daughter, Sophy, and he needs a governess.
It was so, so easy for Cassandra to cast herself and Jane Eyre and Marion as Mr Rochester.
But reality would prove to be a little different.
Marion was as quiet, bookish and dull as Cassandra. And he was weighed down by his family; an elderly aunt, who kept house quite ineffectually; a cousin, pregnant by her lover, not her husband; another cousin, who was charming but quite directionless; and Violet, his wife who had died but still had a presence.
And they all lived together, their lives stagnating in a crumbling mansion.
It was fortunate that Sophy was charming, and that her father took a great interest in his daughter and her governess …
This is a story with echoes of other authors: Jane Austen in the heroine’s name, and in more besides; Charlotte Bronte in the heroine’s position; Ivy Compton-Burnett in some of the dialogue and relationships; Daphne Du Maurier in the presence, and untold story, of Marion’s wife; Molly Keane in the crumbling mansion; Thomas Hardy in some of the darker moments; and maybe even more that have passed me by when I was caught up …
Not a satire, not a pastiche, but something rather different, and rather more interesting. Something I can’t quite explain.
A dark tale, but the darkness is offset by wry humor and dry wit.
Events unfold slowly, but every sentence brings a new insight, or a new development. There are small, subtle changes, and there is one sudden, tragic, utterly real event that will change everything
Everything is driven by the characters; characters I found difficult to like, but they were pinpointed so accurately that I was always fascinated. Because I understood their situations, their inner lives, their motivations, and what made each of them unique.
And there is a nicely drawn love song threaded through. Though there will not be happy endings for all …
Palladian is a strangely intriguing novel – just as good as I had hoped but not at all what I had expected.
June 18, 2019
A ver ...me gusto más la idea que me hice del libro por su reseña y sinopsis que el libro en sí...es la primera novela que leo de esta autora y está claro que tiene una prosa culta y refinada con un toque de mordacidad pero no logro cautivarme más bien me perturbo ligeramente.Hay que reconocer que la novela te adentra a lo cerrado y extraño de esa mansión en el que desfilan los más variados personajes desdibujando a la pareja protagónica.una pena porque Cassandra prometía.
August 10, 2016
1.5* Good writing, lackluster plot. Just not my kind of book, really. Any comparison to Jane Eyre verges on the ludicrous. I don't mean to be harsh - and I would try another of E.T.'s books - it's the subject matter rather than the writing, I think. Not for me.
April 26, 2025
From Palladian: ‘Men and women,’ he thought. ‘In that close and violent contention, how isolated is the soul, how frozen in space, how pitifully solitary, since only the limbs fight, the nerves reply, the blood warms and runs and illuminates, the flesh argues. The soul is afar off, beyond the other’s shoulder, very still, like a star.’
This closeness of proximity and relation, and yet simultaneous chasm that exists between people in families and communities, I see as the main subject of Elizabeth Taylor’s books. It’s the life of the lonely, highly-strung and weary characters of Palladian, too—tied together in constant battle, never getting close to reaching one another, soul to soul.
The story begins with a young woman, whose father has just died, taking on a job as a governess. She moves into a large decaying manor house outside the city, where most of the cast of characters live, and where most of the action will take place. It’s a very bookish novel of gothic atmospherics that recalls Jane Eyre.
As a Taylor fan, I once again enjoyed the singular mixture of her cold-eyed compassion for her characters, and her characters’ edgy personalities and cruelty. She writes nasty people really well—here in the characters of Nanny and Margaret—who feel hard done by, are selfish, and who get small kicks out of their days by unsettling others with insinuating jabs. She also writes asshole men really well too—here in the character of Tom—who treat lonely women who want them remorselessly, and who notice but ignore signs of their desperation. Another big feature of Taylor’s is alcohol, and here it’s Tom who loves the stuff. Taylor is brilliant at people’s dependency and messy relationships with drink.
Writer Neel Mukherjee ‘defies anyone to find a dud sentence in Taylor’s entire oeuvre’, and though Palladian isn’t among my favourites of her fiction, that’s beside the point. It is just as savage, the turns of phrase are just as stunning, and the prose just as slinky and elegant, as any of them.
This closeness of proximity and relation, and yet simultaneous chasm that exists between people in families and communities, I see as the main subject of Elizabeth Taylor’s books. It’s the life of the lonely, highly-strung and weary characters of Palladian, too—tied together in constant battle, never getting close to reaching one another, soul to soul.
The story begins with a young woman, whose father has just died, taking on a job as a governess. She moves into a large decaying manor house outside the city, where most of the cast of characters live, and where most of the action will take place. It’s a very bookish novel of gothic atmospherics that recalls Jane Eyre.
As a Taylor fan, I once again enjoyed the singular mixture of her cold-eyed compassion for her characters, and her characters’ edgy personalities and cruelty. She writes nasty people really well—here in the characters of Nanny and Margaret—who feel hard done by, are selfish, and who get small kicks out of their days by unsettling others with insinuating jabs. She also writes asshole men really well too—here in the character of Tom—who treat lonely women who want them remorselessly, and who notice but ignore signs of their desperation. Another big feature of Taylor’s is alcohol, and here it’s Tom who loves the stuff. Taylor is brilliant at people’s dependency and messy relationships with drink.
Writer Neel Mukherjee ‘defies anyone to find a dud sentence in Taylor’s entire oeuvre’, and though Palladian isn’t among my favourites of her fiction, that’s beside the point. It is just as savage, the turns of phrase are just as stunning, and the prose just as slinky and elegant, as any of them.
September 2, 2018
I liked this second novel of Taylor's better than her first. Her characters are still not especially likable, but I didn't dislike them as much. And I didn't seem to want them to do/be different than she had written them.
The novel opens with Cassandra closing up the house and preparing to go to work as a governess. Her father died just a couple of weeks earlier, and her mother had been dead for a few years. She was left to fend for herself so young, I could help but have sympathy for her. We don't see her pine for what cannot be, but that is probably accounts at least in part for her weakness of character. I said I didn't want her to be different, but I might have liked her a bit better had she had a little starch.
Others have said Taylor has humor. Again, I didn't not find it, except here, in a description of Mrs. Veal who owned the local pub. She had a way of settling her blue fox across her breast and smiling down with pleasure and approval — it might equally have been pleasure at the fur or the bosom, since both were magnificent. In other places Taylor was more philosophical. Her novels seem to be about people who are somewhat inept at making a success of life.
I'm happy to be reading all of her novels over the next several months. It's a project I had not considered even just this past spring. For this one, while better than the previous I read, it is not appreciably enough better to upgrade it, so still 4-stars.
The novel opens with Cassandra closing up the house and preparing to go to work as a governess. Her father died just a couple of weeks earlier, and her mother had been dead for a few years. She was left to fend for herself so young, I could help but have sympathy for her. We don't see her pine for what cannot be, but that is probably accounts at least in part for her weakness of character. I said I didn't want her to be different, but I might have liked her a bit better had she had a little starch.
Others have said Taylor has humor. Again, I didn't not find it, except here, in a description of Mrs. Veal who owned the local pub. She had a way of settling her blue fox across her breast and smiling down with pleasure and approval — it might equally have been pleasure at the fur or the bosom, since both were magnificent. In other places Taylor was more philosophical. Her novels seem to be about people who are somewhat inept at making a success of life.
I'm happy to be reading all of her novels over the next several months. It's a project I had not considered even just this past spring. For this one, while better than the previous I read, it is not appreciably enough better to upgrade it, so still 4-stars.
July 31, 2013
My favourite author, and even in this early work her wonderful insight, gentle with and pathos are all there. Cassandra, recently orphaned, goes to the mansion home of Marion Vanburgh to become governess to his daughter. It references, deliberately, Jane Eyre, Northanger Abbey and perhaps even a little of Rebecca but it is still entirely original and it offers surprises, shocks and sadnesses that make it a book that remains with you after the last page has turned.
August 13, 2018
0,4 estrellas
La señorita Dashwood (Palladian).
Su prosa me recordó más a Daphne du Maurier mezclado con un poco de las hermanas Brontë.
Es muy prolija al definir los personajes. Es detallista y elegante y no deja cabos sueltos como ocurre con las novelas modernas.
Es un verdadero gusto leer a esta autora que hasta hace poco era desconocida para mi.
La señorita Dashwood (Palladian).
Su prosa me recordó más a Daphne du Maurier mezclado con un poco de las hermanas Brontë.
Es muy prolija al definir los personajes. Es detallista y elegante y no deja cabos sueltos como ocurre con las novelas modernas.
Es un verdadero gusto leer a esta autora que hasta hace poco era desconocida para mi.
September 24, 2018
Cassandra Dashwood takes up the post of governess to Sophy Vanbrugh, who lives with her father Marion, a number of his relatives, and their ancient Nanny, in a rambling Manor House. Behind the elegant Palladian facade the house is crumbling, and the death of Marion's wife Violet continues to cast shadows over the lives of all the family.
This is a very clever novel with literary allusions everywhere, from the names of the characters to the actual books that Marion hides away with in his library. The Classical world of the Palladian house is contrasted with the romantic ideas that Cassandra fills her head with, but both are shown to be lacking and moribund in the post-War world that Taylor evokes. Death is everywhere in this book, and this casts a melancholy feel over the story, even when dealing with the topic of romance.
Apart from the malicious Nanny, there is less wit and humour in this book than I expected from Taylor, but there are plenty of interesting and even moving episodes. Taylor raises universal questions about love, life and the future, examining the death of the old order and the way that the characters manage to cling on to hope by avoiding looking too closely at their lives.
I found this book quite fascinating, and am looking forward to reading my next Elizabeth Taylor novel.
This is a very clever novel with literary allusions everywhere, from the names of the characters to the actual books that Marion hides away with in his library. The Classical world of the Palladian house is contrasted with the romantic ideas that Cassandra fills her head with, but both are shown to be lacking and moribund in the post-War world that Taylor evokes. Death is everywhere in this book, and this casts a melancholy feel over the story, even when dealing with the topic of romance.
Apart from the malicious Nanny, there is less wit and humour in this book than I expected from Taylor, but there are plenty of interesting and even moving episodes. Taylor raises universal questions about love, life and the future, examining the death of the old order and the way that the characters manage to cling on to hope by avoiding looking too closely at their lives.
I found this book quite fascinating, and am looking forward to reading my next Elizabeth Taylor novel.
April 29, 2012
I've been trying to figure this book out. At the heart is Cassandra, the young woman heading to her first job as governess, who is determined to fall in love with her employer ("Cassandra, with all her novel-reading, could be sure of experiencing the proper emotions..."). They do fall in love and live happily ever after. Except... The whole "love story" is built on death--the death of Cassandra's parents (which leads to her taking the job), the death of her employer's wife and then, shockingly, the death of Cassandra's young charge. But the book is replete with images of death separate from these central human deaths--cats, mice, insects. The last sentence of the book describes a hen with "the dark shadows of indoors [falling] coldly across it like a knife." Taylor has taken what could have been a mild parody of a girl who has read too much, with its references to Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, and constructed a love story standing on the back of death.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 15, 2012
The writing is marvelous--beautiful prose with a sharp eye for the unexpectedly revealing detail-- but I was disappointed in Palladian overall. There is a strong element of pastiche--Jane Eyre set in Northgranger Abbey--and the unreality of the pastiche situation conflicted with the realistic descriptions and elements. The secondary characters and setting were clearly drawn, while the principals, Cassandra and Marion, were less realized, as though the background of the picture was sharp and the foreground blurred. For me, the book didn’t coalesce.
August 16, 2009
Brilliant and subtle. Should be read alongside Waugh's Brideshead Revisited for any attempt to understand the postwar decline of the British upper class and the rifts in the middle and working classes. It's a Victorian novel that's been squeezed and distorted -- as England has been squeezed and distorted by the conflicts and changes of the 20th century.
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