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Stonecliff
The haunting novel of a strange love... Nina was a creature of moonlight, unforgettably beautiful, strangely unearthly. Michael loved her desperately. Together they wandered through the great and mysterious house. All too soon, Michael learned Nina was taking him with her on a strange journey into another world.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
3 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
About the author
Robert Nathan
97 books60 followersRobert Gruntal Nathan was born into a prominent New York Sephardic family. He was educated in the United States and Switzerland and attended Harvard University for several years beginning in 1912. It was there that he began writing short fiction and poetry. However, he never graduated, choosing instead to drop out and take a job at an advertising firm to support his family (he married while a junior at Harvard). It was while working in 1919 that he wrote his first novel—the semi-autobiographical work Peter Kindred—which was a critical failure. But his luck soon changed during the 1920s, when he wrote seven more novels, including The Bishop's Wife, which was later made into a successful film starring Cary Grant, David Niven, and Loretta Young.
During the 1930s, his success continued with more works, including fictional pieces and poetry. In 1940, he wrote his most successful book, Portrait of Jennie, about a Depression-era artist and the woman he is painting, who is slipping through time. Portrait of Jennie is considered a modern masterpiece of fantasy fiction and was made into a film, starring Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten.
In January 1956 the author wrote, as well as narrated, an episode of the CBS Radio Workshop, called "A Pride of Carrots or Venus Well-Served."
Nathan's seventh wife was the British actress Anna Lee, to whom he was married from 1970 until his death. He came from a talented family — the activist Maud Nathan and author Annie Nathan Meyer were his aunts, and the poet Emma Lazarus and Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo his cousins
During the 1930s, his success continued with more works, including fictional pieces and poetry. In 1940, he wrote his most successful book, Portrait of Jennie, about a Depression-era artist and the woman he is painting, who is slipping through time. Portrait of Jennie is considered a modern masterpiece of fantasy fiction and was made into a film, starring Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten.
In January 1956 the author wrote, as well as narrated, an episode of the CBS Radio Workshop, called "A Pride of Carrots or Venus Well-Served."
Nathan's seventh wife was the British actress Anna Lee, to whom he was married from 1970 until his death. He came from a talented family — the activist Maud Nathan and author Annie Nathan Meyer were his aunts, and the poet Emma Lazarus and Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo his cousins
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November 13, 2022
“If you're a singer, you lose your voice. A baseball player loses his arm. A writer gets more knowledge, and if he's good, the older he gets, the better he writes.” — Mickey Spillane
That insightful quote by Mickey Spillane was never more on display than in this late-career masterpiece of romantic fantasy by Robert Nathan. For decades he had written about love as being everything. His tales were often ethereal, sometimes supernatural, and many, like Portrait of Jennie, were unforgettable. He sprinkled his stories with a tender magic which touched readers’ hearts so deeply his words remained there forever. He never seemed to care about page count; most of his finest works were short stories or novellas. Finally, near the end of his long and illustrious career, this magnificent writer turned inward, and gave us one of his most beautiful pieces of fiction.
In the novella, Nathan seems to be placing a mirror not only in front of himself, but every writer like him, writers who live and breathe their stories of love to the point where their characters become so real, they intrude on reality. Like all of Nathan’s work, Stonecliff has a gentle, otherworldly atmosphere, and is laced with great insight into the human condition. In this brief and terribly beautiful story, Nathan ponders God and the universe, and time and dimensions beyond our understanding in an intimate way, telling a love story for the ages that is both fantasy and science fiction. Or is it?
Michael Robb, an aspiring writer, has come to Stonecliff, overlooking the sea. He is there to interview the aging Edward Granville, whose entire career has been built on beautiful, ethereal stories of love, in which the message is always the same — love is everything. Michael finds Stonecliff enchanting:
“The air was cold and moist, the heavens clear and starry overhead; the sea moved in deeper darkness below us; and again, as from the window of my room, I smelled the over-sweet fragrance of jasmine.”
But Edward is enigmatic, and his wife Virginia is away at the moment. A Mexican woman who runs the house, and a breathtakingly beautiful young woman named Nina are the only two people around as Michael remains to get background from Edward about his life, his work. It doesn’t take long for him to sense that Edward’s characters are more to him than just figments of his imagination:
“I felt the loneliness of the evening, the emptiness of the land...and I thought of all the brave, sad, lonely, merry people of Granville's stories, the loving girls whose ghosts must roam those cliffs and haunt the gardens of oak and cypress in which they had lived their insubstantial lives…”
And it takes him even less time to begin falling in love with the fresh and enchanting Nina. But what is she to Edward, and where is Edward’s wife, Virginia? There seems to be something strange surrounding Edward and Nina’s relationship Michael can’t quite grasp. There is also something strange about the grounds of Stonecliff. Michael hears Edward having a conversation about his book with someone in a treehouse, only to discover no one is there. A fog-shrouded cougar and a snake which is only a rope have Michael wondering — and trying to shake off the unfathomable notion — if in some half-world of illusion, everyone, including himself, might be living in the current story Granville is writing. As Michael and Nina begin falling in love, the tale becomes more mysterious, and fraught with danger:
“It was as if powers were at war beyond the reach of my senses, beyond nature…unreal phantoms, coils of fog, primeval shadows…”
More and more Nina tries not to fall in love with Michael as he has fallen in love with her. Edward Granville’s heart seems to be in just as much turmoil as Nina’s, as he ponders his life’s work, wondering if, as he’s always espoused in his stories, love is all. Before the secret of Stonecliff is finally revealed, Robert Nathan treats the reader to so many lovely moments there isn’t enough space for them here. In essence, this is a writer nearing the end of his literary career, looking inward, showing us love through the eyes of youth, and the aged.
There isn’t much that Robert Nathan wrote which isn’t worth reading, yet in modern times his stories are too seldom mentioned, and even less seldom read. It is sadly ironic that in this beautiful piece of fiction, he has Edward ruminate on a writer’s legacy; how some are remembered and live on, while others sleep unremembered for eternity. Some of Nathan’s stories, such as Portrait of Jennie, are masterpieces. Stonecliff is just as memorable. It might take modern readers a few pages to get into Nathan’s older style of storytelling, but they’ll find the read richly rewarding. Stonecliff is one of those stories which no reader with a romantic heart will ever forget.
That insightful quote by Mickey Spillane was never more on display than in this late-career masterpiece of romantic fantasy by Robert Nathan. For decades he had written about love as being everything. His tales were often ethereal, sometimes supernatural, and many, like Portrait of Jennie, were unforgettable. He sprinkled his stories with a tender magic which touched readers’ hearts so deeply his words remained there forever. He never seemed to care about page count; most of his finest works were short stories or novellas. Finally, near the end of his long and illustrious career, this magnificent writer turned inward, and gave us one of his most beautiful pieces of fiction.
In the novella, Nathan seems to be placing a mirror not only in front of himself, but every writer like him, writers who live and breathe their stories of love to the point where their characters become so real, they intrude on reality. Like all of Nathan’s work, Stonecliff has a gentle, otherworldly atmosphere, and is laced with great insight into the human condition. In this brief and terribly beautiful story, Nathan ponders God and the universe, and time and dimensions beyond our understanding in an intimate way, telling a love story for the ages that is both fantasy and science fiction. Or is it?
Michael Robb, an aspiring writer, has come to Stonecliff, overlooking the sea. He is there to interview the aging Edward Granville, whose entire career has been built on beautiful, ethereal stories of love, in which the message is always the same — love is everything. Michael finds Stonecliff enchanting:
“The air was cold and moist, the heavens clear and starry overhead; the sea moved in deeper darkness below us; and again, as from the window of my room, I smelled the over-sweet fragrance of jasmine.”
But Edward is enigmatic, and his wife Virginia is away at the moment. A Mexican woman who runs the house, and a breathtakingly beautiful young woman named Nina are the only two people around as Michael remains to get background from Edward about his life, his work. It doesn’t take long for him to sense that Edward’s characters are more to him than just figments of his imagination:
“I felt the loneliness of the evening, the emptiness of the land...and I thought of all the brave, sad, lonely, merry people of Granville's stories, the loving girls whose ghosts must roam those cliffs and haunt the gardens of oak and cypress in which they had lived their insubstantial lives…”
And it takes him even less time to begin falling in love with the fresh and enchanting Nina. But what is she to Edward, and where is Edward’s wife, Virginia? There seems to be something strange surrounding Edward and Nina’s relationship Michael can’t quite grasp. There is also something strange about the grounds of Stonecliff. Michael hears Edward having a conversation about his book with someone in a treehouse, only to discover no one is there. A fog-shrouded cougar and a snake which is only a rope have Michael wondering — and trying to shake off the unfathomable notion — if in some half-world of illusion, everyone, including himself, might be living in the current story Granville is writing. As Michael and Nina begin falling in love, the tale becomes more mysterious, and fraught with danger:
“It was as if powers were at war beyond the reach of my senses, beyond nature…unreal phantoms, coils of fog, primeval shadows…”
More and more Nina tries not to fall in love with Michael as he has fallen in love with her. Edward Granville’s heart seems to be in just as much turmoil as Nina’s, as he ponders his life’s work, wondering if, as he’s always espoused in his stories, love is all. Before the secret of Stonecliff is finally revealed, Robert Nathan treats the reader to so many lovely moments there isn’t enough space for them here. In essence, this is a writer nearing the end of his literary career, looking inward, showing us love through the eyes of youth, and the aged.
There isn’t much that Robert Nathan wrote which isn’t worth reading, yet in modern times his stories are too seldom mentioned, and even less seldom read. It is sadly ironic that in this beautiful piece of fiction, he has Edward ruminate on a writer’s legacy; how some are remembered and live on, while others sleep unremembered for eternity. Some of Nathan’s stories, such as Portrait of Jennie, are masterpieces. Stonecliff is just as memorable. It might take modern readers a few pages to get into Nathan’s older style of storytelling, but they’ll find the read richly rewarding. Stonecliff is one of those stories which no reader with a romantic heart will ever forget.
August 10, 2009
Michael is a journalist who wants to write a biography of famous author Edward Granville. Granville invites Michael to spend a few days in his home by the coast near Los Olivos. There Michael meets a young woman named Nina and becomes obsessed with figuring out her relationship with the author, who is elderly and married.
I'm not sure what the "wandering through the mysterious house" business in the goodreads summary is about. The house seems ordinary enough and what takes place there are mostly conversations about love, creativity, and old age. There is some fog and mystery outside on the cliffs, but this is not a traditional "dark and mysterious old house" type Gothic; don't pick it up expecting spookiness and chills.
"We'd like to think that our youth was madder, brighter, happier than it was. It comforts us as we grow older, to believe that once upon a time we danced at dawn in a fountain. Few of us did."
"For the artist to remember is to be in love again."
I'm not sure what the "wandering through the mysterious house" business in the goodreads summary is about. The house seems ordinary enough and what takes place there are mostly conversations about love, creativity, and old age. There is some fog and mystery outside on the cliffs, but this is not a traditional "dark and mysterious old house" type Gothic; don't pick it up expecting spookiness and chills.
"We'd like to think that our youth was madder, brighter, happier than it was. It comforts us as we grow older, to believe that once upon a time we danced at dawn in a fountain. Few of us did."
"For the artist to remember is to be in love again."
July 14, 2015
It’s strange but during this last year I’ve been reading some very different books. A real departure from the literary and historical fiction I generally read. Followers of my reviews will know that I have been enjoying some 1950s crime fiction and now with Stonecliff by Robert Nathan - fantasy fiction.
“A young writer travels to a remote setting to do an expose on a legendary novelist and begins to suspect that the iconic figure has the uncanny ability to bring his fictional characters to life.”
The novella is set in Los Olivos. Robert Nathan mentions that he has moved the town. I suspect further north on the Pacific Coast which in 1967 might have been blissfully rocky and wild but perhaps not so now. Time is suspended though and here is the coast as the first person narrator, Michael Robb, finds it. “It was mid-afternoon the air was fresh, there was a sea-smell in it and another smell of cypress and rocks and sweet-grass in the sun. Perhaps it was the nature of my errand which made me think of this part of the coast as Granville country; at one point, looking up, I thought I caught a glimpse of a young woman silhouetted for a moment against the wind-clear blue of the sky; but when I looked again, she was gone.”
Of course the question is, who is she? And what has happened to Mrs Granville? Her absence at Stonecliff is unsettling. Michael has a number of meetings with Granville to find out how the author works. I love this response:
“One uses everything,” he said. “And everything suffers a sea-change, a magicking.”
Magicking; was there such a word? I doubted it; but I thought - foolishly - that I knew what he meant. “I understand,” I said.
He gave me an odd look. “No, you do not, I think,” he said. “But you will.”
Soon after a young girl named Nina turns up at the house. Her presence is not explained by Granville and Michael is left to ponder on their relationship. He finds himself drawn to Nina but unsure how to proceed. Is she free to have a relationship with him?
Not long afterwards he sees Nina with a mountain lion and nearly runs his car off the road as a result. Later Michael overhears a strange conversation between Granville and an unknown man in a tree house. “Was the half-world of illusion a real world to him, then? In which a rope becomes a man, and a girl walks with a mountain lion?” Mesmerising.
“A young writer travels to a remote setting to do an expose on a legendary novelist and begins to suspect that the iconic figure has the uncanny ability to bring his fictional characters to life.”
The novella is set in Los Olivos. Robert Nathan mentions that he has moved the town. I suspect further north on the Pacific Coast which in 1967 might have been blissfully rocky and wild but perhaps not so now. Time is suspended though and here is the coast as the first person narrator, Michael Robb, finds it. “It was mid-afternoon the air was fresh, there was a sea-smell in it and another smell of cypress and rocks and sweet-grass in the sun. Perhaps it was the nature of my errand which made me think of this part of the coast as Granville country; at one point, looking up, I thought I caught a glimpse of a young woman silhouetted for a moment against the wind-clear blue of the sky; but when I looked again, she was gone.”
Of course the question is, who is she? And what has happened to Mrs Granville? Her absence at Stonecliff is unsettling. Michael has a number of meetings with Granville to find out how the author works. I love this response:
“One uses everything,” he said. “And everything suffers a sea-change, a magicking.”
Magicking; was there such a word? I doubted it; but I thought - foolishly - that I knew what he meant. “I understand,” I said.
He gave me an odd look. “No, you do not, I think,” he said. “But you will.”
Soon after a young girl named Nina turns up at the house. Her presence is not explained by Granville and Michael is left to ponder on their relationship. He finds himself drawn to Nina but unsure how to proceed. Is she free to have a relationship with him?
Not long afterwards he sees Nina with a mountain lion and nearly runs his car off the road as a result. Later Michael overhears a strange conversation between Granville and an unknown man in a tree house. “Was the half-world of illusion a real world to him, then? In which a rope becomes a man, and a girl walks with a mountain lion?” Mesmerising.
September 13, 2016
An incredible author!
I hv loved Robert Nathan for many years. His writing is like poetry and it takes me away to the places he describes. This story is reminiscent of Portrait of Jenny - gentle, tender, spellbinding. It is a love story, of course and the rhythm of it is slow to captures the reader's heart and ensnare you. It requires patience as does love itself. I would recommend this and other books written by Mr. Nathan to those who enjoy poetry, mystery and the magic of the heart.
I hv loved Robert Nathan for many years. His writing is like poetry and it takes me away to the places he describes. This story is reminiscent of Portrait of Jenny - gentle, tender, spellbinding. It is a love story, of course and the rhythm of it is slow to captures the reader's heart and ensnare you. It requires patience as does love itself. I would recommend this and other books written by Mr. Nathan to those who enjoy poetry, mystery and the magic of the heart.
April 27, 2021
3.5 stelline
December 31, 2012
I’m reluctant to read novels about novelists, generally finding them to be both pretentious and lazy in conception. That certainly holds true here, but the Nathan fan will still find much to entertain him: nice turns of phrase, aphorisms, nuggets of philosophy and philosophical romanticism.
The central figure is a novelist-wizard who “does things with the heart,” impossible things--things, unfortunately, that a well-read audience has seen a number of times before in fantastical and magical-realist novels. This wouldn’t have been all bad except that in the half century since the novel was first published, Nathan’s basic idea here has been worked over incessantly in the popular culture. So, those new to the author will do much better to begin with Portrait of Jennie or even the lesser known The Wilderness Stone.
Nathan’s late-career melancholy manifests here in both good and bad ways, and at its best gives an incisive diagnosis of Western culture’s failing powers:
“But when David died, an age died with him--the age of greatness in Israel. Already, in Solomon’s time, the fruit had started to decay of too much sweet. And what my own spirit craves warmth against is not my own, singular dissolution--though I admit, I cannot relish its approach--but the ending of an age, the age of the humanities. It is dying of its own poison--a curious forbearance, almost an inertia, a paralysis of will.”
The central figure is a novelist-wizard who “does things with the heart,” impossible things--things, unfortunately, that a well-read audience has seen a number of times before in fantastical and magical-realist novels. This wouldn’t have been all bad except that in the half century since the novel was first published, Nathan’s basic idea here has been worked over incessantly in the popular culture. So, those new to the author will do much better to begin with Portrait of Jennie or even the lesser known The Wilderness Stone.
Nathan’s late-career melancholy manifests here in both good and bad ways, and at its best gives an incisive diagnosis of Western culture’s failing powers:
“But when David died, an age died with him--the age of greatness in Israel. Already, in Solomon’s time, the fruit had started to decay of too much sweet. And what my own spirit craves warmth against is not my own, singular dissolution--though I admit, I cannot relish its approach--but the ending of an age, the age of the humanities. It is dying of its own poison--a curious forbearance, almost an inertia, a paralysis of will.”
March 9, 2019
Dopo la meraviglia di Ritratto di Jennie, avevo la curiosità di leggere anche Nina. Ho trovato in Nathan un narratore raffinato, che non teme di mischiare fantastico e reale, generando storie particolari ma emozionanti, storie d'amore in senso ampio, in cui i due piani di etereo e fisico si sfiorano, generando meraviglia. Non ho ancora interpretato bene la sensazione rimasta al termine di Nina, se emotivamente mi abbia colpito come il Ritratto, o più o meno, ma non cerco paragoni quanto invece voglio condividere con voi la riscoperta di un autore davvero raffinato, che nella brevità dei suoi romanzi riesce a creare una magia, un intreccio di storie tra scrittore e lettore, che coincidono e convergono, si mischiano e lasciano un sapore dolce e amaro, perché non c'è vittoria o sconfitta quanto, pura e semplice, vita.
February 4, 2017
Stonecliff is a nicely written and harmless fantasy, but that’s just the problem—it lacks teeth. Its characters aren’t especially compelling, and the story—which starts out with an intriguing air of mystery—doesn’t really add up to much in the end or even make a whole lot of sense.
So while this is a quick and somewhat interesting read, if you’re looking for something by Robert Nathan, I would highly recommend reading or even rereading Portrait of Jennie instead, which seems to handle the love/fantasy theme much more successfully.
So while this is a quick and somewhat interesting read, if you’re looking for something by Robert Nathan, I would highly recommend reading or even rereading Portrait of Jennie instead, which seems to handle the love/fantasy theme much more successfully.
February 17, 2014
Great book!
Mysterious and intriguing. Reminds me a little of Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca."
I highly recommend.
Mysterious and intriguing. Reminds me a little of Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca."
I highly recommend.
December 27, 2014
Different story. Choose books by this author because I've watched a couple of his books made into movies. So far his books are very haunting.
January 15, 2016
A blend of gothic romance and psychological sci fi. I really, really liked it. From 1968.
March 17, 2021
The set up was intriguing: a reclusive author is being interviewed for his biography at his home, Stonecliff, by a young reporter. The author’s wife is not in attendance, and a charming much younger woman seems to be acting in her stead. The author talks mysteriously of his characters being real, the delicate ‘magic’ of the human heart, etc. All of the components should have added up to either a gothic infused mystery or a foray into the fantastic. Instead, it was a very dull plodding story; Nathan telegraphed every revelation so clearly, that there was no mystery or hint of suspense. The narrator was obtuse, and exhibited the worst of 1960s ‘being in love’: he was primarily concerned with ‘winning’ the girl from the older man, even after she clearly told him she wasn’t interested multiple times. It all felt vaguely Freudian in a crude and gross way. Not recommended.
January 16, 2023
A little on the pretentious side. Michael, a 30 year old writer has come to Stonecliff to write a biography of the famous novelist Edward Granville, who still writes a novel every year or so, but is falling out of fashion. Michael falls in love with Nina, a young woman who seems to live at this remote house, but it’s not clear who she is. Edward pontificates, Michael quotes from Edward ‘s works, and there seems to be a level of fantasy as it’s not clear how real Nina is or the cougar or the snake or are they all fictional beings brought to life (all this in less than 200 pages!).
September 29, 2019
Stonecliff was an interesting novella about an aging, great writer being interviewed by an upcoming writer. The upcoming writer learns more than he expected from his subject and that a writer's muse can come from an unlikely place. This was published in 1967 and felt like it throughout several points in the novella. However, I found it readable and Nathan does a credible job blurring the lines between fantasy and reality.
August 2, 2024
Very difficult read. Its like a little over 100 pages but it took me 2 months because every time I'd look at it, I'd remember how not interesting it is. Picked up in the end, but then it ended... so yeah.
January 12, 2019
Light Fantasy
Stone cliff is a good story that rolls along like a lovely, strange melody with a strong undercurrent of mystery.
Stone cliff is a good story that rolls along like a lovely, strange melody with a strong undercurrent of mystery.
August 6, 2016
Beautiful writing, and an interesting concept but the substance felt shallow, the denouement a bit obvious, and some of the allegory was insubstantial. I did not feel this story worked well. It could have been better--it needed a rewrite.
January 25, 2017
quick read about writer and creative imagination
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews