What do you think?
Rate this book
Slow Awakening
Vintage paperback
380 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
61 people are currently reading
253 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 19, 2021
Catherine Marchant also writes under the name of Catherine Cookson and as I mentioned in my last review of a Cookson book The Solace of Sin I'm really not too fond of her tendency to subject her heroines to utter degradation.
This particular heroine was subjected to all manners of physical degradation to the point that I couldn't even finish reading it. If you decide to read this one I suggest you don't do so whilst trying to eat.
The cock-eyed heroine (the author's description, not mine) the unfortunte orphan Kirsten MacGregor, is only 13 when she's sold by a baby farmer to the itinerate tinker, Hop Fuller. You will never guess how Hop came by his name so here's a brief description of him:
Hop Fuller was 49 years of age but he looked 60 or more; he was stocky with a small head set deep in his shoulders which gave him the appearance, from the front, of being a hunchback. But he had no hump; what he had, however, was a short leg...He moved forward from his chair and smiled, his twisted smile that showed his black baccy-stained teeth...
Since Kirsten is cock-eyed, Hop buys the young maid at bargain prices. So they set out in his tinker's cart and that evening Kirsten is gently wooed by her new owner in this fashion:
...but she seemed rooted to the spot where she was kneeling by the fire feeding it with sticks. One minute she had taken her eyes from him in order to reach for more fuel and when she looked up again Hop was standing beside her...the big foot and the twisted foot pointing towards her. His hand came down and gripped her shoulder and she lifted up her face to his. As he pulled her to her feet and pushed her backwards toward the fire...flung her onto the earth...her terror escaped in one high wild screech. And then, his hand clasped over her mouth, his own spewing oaths on her; but long before he had finished with her she was quiet
This sort of physical degradation is not bodice ripper material for sure. In fact, all of the above happens in the first 18 pages of the book. I found it so revolting, to the point of being nauseated that I couldn't continue reading this sad tale. Needless to say I won't be reading any more books by this author again.
This particular heroine was subjected to all manners of physical degradation to the point that I couldn't even finish reading it. If you decide to read this one I suggest you don't do so whilst trying to eat.
The cock-eyed heroine (the author's description, not mine) the unfortunte orphan Kirsten MacGregor, is only 13 when she's sold by a baby farmer to the itinerate tinker, Hop Fuller. You will never guess how Hop came by his name so here's a brief description of him:
Hop Fuller was 49 years of age but he looked 60 or more; he was stocky with a small head set deep in his shoulders which gave him the appearance, from the front, of being a hunchback. But he had no hump; what he had, however, was a short leg...He moved forward from his chair and smiled, his twisted smile that showed his black baccy-stained teeth...
Since Kirsten is cock-eyed, Hop buys the young maid at bargain prices. So they set out in his tinker's cart and that evening Kirsten is gently wooed by her new owner in this fashion:
...but she seemed rooted to the spot where she was kneeling by the fire feeding it with sticks. One minute she had taken her eyes from him in order to reach for more fuel and when she looked up again Hop was standing beside her...the big foot and the twisted foot pointing towards her. His hand came down and gripped her shoulder and she lifted up her face to his. As he pulled her to her feet and pushed her backwards toward the fire...flung her onto the earth...her terror escaped in one high wild screech. And then, his hand clasped over her mouth, his own spewing oaths on her; but long before he had finished with her she was quiet
This sort of physical degradation is not bodice ripper material for sure. In fact, all of the above happens in the first 18 pages of the book. I found it so revolting, to the point of being nauseated that I couldn't continue reading this sad tale. Needless to say I won't be reading any more books by this author again.
September 3, 2012
This is another RDC book. I LOVED every book in this RDC. I read and re-read them a hundred times I am sure.
This is a great story and if you can find the book, well worth the read. OH how I wish this RDC book was still around!
**UPDATE** I found this book on ebay for $1.00. I was happy. Not to just get it out of storage to re-read again!!! :-)
This is a great story and if you can find the book, well worth the read. OH how I wish this RDC book was still around!
**UPDATE** I found this book on ebay for $1.00. I was happy. Not to just get it out of storage to re-read again!!! :-)
May 22, 2018
Too much like a trashy reality show for my tastes; despicable characters, constant bickering...all in all, just plain yuck.
November 18, 2021
Always a page turner
Catherine Cookson's books are always a page turner. Filled with stories that wrap around you like a warm quilt and stay with you until the end. I highly recommend all of her books and plan on ordering another to read on Kindle right away.
Catherine Cookson's books are always a page turner. Filled with stories that wrap around you like a warm quilt and stay with you until the end. I highly recommend all of her books and plan on ordering another to read on Kindle right away.
June 19, 2019
Good story
I love Catherine Cookson’s writing. I have read quite a few of her books and intend to get through her entire list. This story just didn’t captivate me the way most of hers do, so I cannot say that this is a favorite.
I love Catherine Cookson’s writing. I have read quite a few of her books and intend to get through her entire list. This story just didn’t captivate me the way most of hers do, so I cannot say that this is a favorite.
November 15, 2018
Beautiful💕
August 21, 2020
I thought the story was interesting so I kept reading. I was disappointed with the ending and with the decisions of many of the characters. I know it's fiction but I still feel betrayed.
August 21, 2021
Good awakening
It was a great novel as usual but I’d have preferred another ending. I don’t continue so as not to spoil.
It was a great novel as usual but I’d have preferred another ending. I don’t continue so as not to spoil.
January 28, 2019
Why is this review so long?? It really doesn't deserve so much attention. This book is flopsy, flimsy, weak, hot and cold, and entirely unsatisfying. Up until the last three pages I was more than ready to re-donate this book. But now I don't know. Those last pages made my heart go all fluttery. (Reminded me of a really cute scene in the movie, 'Goodbye Mr. Chips', the 2002 version. Go watch it!)
If this isn't one of Cookson's first books, I'll eat my hat. (edit: Looked it up, eating my hat). There was just something so pre-Cookson about it. It was as if she was following a blueprint for all those peril romances big in the 1970's (like the ones where the woman is sold into a harem and saved by a pirate or something). But then there would be this sudden pall of character introspection, or character double-sidedness, that would just come out of left field, and I could immediately spot Cookson's own wonderful voice emerging from formulaic mire. It's never explored, but glinting along in passages that hint at deeper depths. Colum Flynn, for example, when he looks at his father and contemplates the occasional feelings of hatred he feels towards him. Who but Cookson (as opposed to pirate authors) would insert familial ambivalence that isn't acted out in any way, but used merely as an observation of discordant love?
What truly sets the cap on this book as being one of Cookson's work, is the last chapter. Kirsten is fully aware that her love for Colum is more for his family than for him. (For the record, I was rooting for Konrad over Colum. He is an overgrown baby). But in subtle ways throughout, Cookson acknowledged that for Kirsten to go with Konrad, they might have passion, but would also be burdened with class dysfunctions, education differences and age-defying facades. Kirsten would be happier, not with Colum, but in a life provided by Colum, rather than a life of passion with Konrad but pity for Bella, of all people. Likewise with Konrad; he loves her more than Bella, but recognized that to be with her meant he could never lose the facade of the "flaxen-headed bull", and all he needed was to rest in his age. The age-old 'needs' versus 'wants'. Bella and Colum provide constructions of a life, and sometimes, especially in the age of class, it means that happiness is about sacrificing passion and taking the tried and true path. Life is restful when maids marry farmers instead of masters, and in the case of Kirsten, she deserves a lifetime of rest.
Minor issues: What is the point of giving Kirsten a mysterious parentage? Does she really need gentry parents? Can't she really just be slum child? Why address it without discovering who the parents really were? Why did Konrad's grandfather slight him at the end, in a truly shitty way? Also - BELLA TRIED TO MURDER KIRSTEN. WHAT THE F. Kirsten, these are dangerous working conditions!! Do you not care?!?! Girl straight up tried to murder you! Konrad! Red alert!
All in all. Not one of her better works.
This is a maybe re-read, to skim.
If this isn't one of Cookson's first books, I'll eat my hat. (edit: Looked it up, eating my hat). There was just something so pre-Cookson about it. It was as if she was following a blueprint for all those peril romances big in the 1970's (like the ones where the woman is sold into a harem and saved by a pirate or something). But then there would be this sudden pall of character introspection, or character double-sidedness, that would just come out of left field, and I could immediately spot Cookson's own wonderful voice emerging from formulaic mire. It's never explored, but glinting along in passages that hint at deeper depths. Colum Flynn, for example, when he looks at his father and contemplates the occasional feelings of hatred he feels towards him. Who but Cookson (as opposed to pirate authors) would insert familial ambivalence that isn't acted out in any way, but used merely as an observation of discordant love?
What truly sets the cap on this book as being one of Cookson's work, is the last chapter. Kirsten is fully aware that her love for Colum is more for his family than for him. (For the record, I was rooting for Konrad over Colum. He is an overgrown baby). But in subtle ways throughout, Cookson acknowledged that for Kirsten to go with Konrad, they might have passion, but would also be burdened with class dysfunctions, education differences and age-defying facades. Kirsten would be happier, not with Colum, but in a life provided by Colum, rather than a life of passion with Konrad but pity for Bella, of all people. Likewise with Konrad; he loves her more than Bella, but recognized that to be with her meant he could never lose the facade of the "flaxen-headed bull", and all he needed was to rest in his age. The age-old 'needs' versus 'wants'. Bella and Colum provide constructions of a life, and sometimes, especially in the age of class, it means that happiness is about sacrificing passion and taking the tried and true path. Life is restful when maids marry farmers instead of masters, and in the case of Kirsten, she deserves a lifetime of rest.
Minor issues: What is the point of giving Kirsten a mysterious parentage? Does she really need gentry parents? Can't she really just be slum child? Why address it without discovering who the parents really were? Why did Konrad's grandfather slight him at the end, in a truly shitty way? Also - BELLA TRIED TO MURDER KIRSTEN. WHAT THE F. Kirsten, these are dangerous working conditions!! Do you not care?!?! Girl straight up tried to murder you! Konrad! Red alert!
All in all. Not one of her better works.
This is a maybe re-read, to skim.
March 18, 2021
Synopsis:
In the mid-1850s, the outlook for an orphan could be very grim, as Kirsten MacGregor discovered when her parents died suddenly on a journey to Northumberland, leaving her penniless and alone in the hands of a cruel baby farmer, Ma Bradley. In times of stress Kirsten's eye flickered to one side and was regarded by the superstitious fisher folk as an evil eye.
Somehow, Kirsten survived her terrible childhood – only to be sold, at the age of fourteen, to a traveling tinker – a vicious man who raped her and held her captive until the fateful day they were separated during a storm. Rescued from the flood by the Flynn family, she gave birth to a child as the waters raged about her. At the same time, Florence, mistress of the great house nearby, was told that her new born son was dead. The two women entered into a secret bargain, an arrangement that was to change Kirsten’s fortune and place her in the middle of a bitter feud between two families.
The Slow Awakening is a powerful novel, originally published under the pseudonym of Catherine Marchant, and reflects vividly the violence and cruelty that a poverty-stricken girl might endure in that period.
Not a cosy Historical Romance by any means. A real human story at times and in a way easily a story of modern times and of the choices circumstances can make one do!
The relationships are a bit complicated at times and it leaves you yearning for a different ending, but it is a realistic one.
In the mid-1850s, the outlook for an orphan could be very grim, as Kirsten MacGregor discovered when her parents died suddenly on a journey to Northumberland, leaving her penniless and alone in the hands of a cruel baby farmer, Ma Bradley. In times of stress Kirsten's eye flickered to one side and was regarded by the superstitious fisher folk as an evil eye.
Somehow, Kirsten survived her terrible childhood – only to be sold, at the age of fourteen, to a traveling tinker – a vicious man who raped her and held her captive until the fateful day they were separated during a storm. Rescued from the flood by the Flynn family, she gave birth to a child as the waters raged about her. At the same time, Florence, mistress of the great house nearby, was told that her new born son was dead. The two women entered into a secret bargain, an arrangement that was to change Kirsten’s fortune and place her in the middle of a bitter feud between two families.
The Slow Awakening is a powerful novel, originally published under the pseudonym of Catherine Marchant, and reflects vividly the violence and cruelty that a poverty-stricken girl might endure in that period.
Not a cosy Historical Romance by any means. A real human story at times and in a way easily a story of modern times and of the choices circumstances can make one do!
The relationships are a bit complicated at times and it leaves you yearning for a different ending, but it is a realistic one.
March 1, 2016
RDC-M V 2 1977, 10/82. The Slow Awakening, Catherine Marchant, aka Catherine Cookson. Kirsten MacGregor, orphaned in the mid-1850's, raised by a cruel farmer, sold to a traveling tinker at age 14, raped and held captive until separated during a storm. Pregnant and rescued by the Flynn family. Her child born live, a neighbor child dead, the two mothers enter into a secret bargain. A powerful novel. Good.
July 26, 2009
Back Cover Blurb:
Aged 14, Kirsten was sold to a tinker who raped her and held her captive until the day they were seperated by a storm. Rescued from the flood, she gave birth just as the mistress of the great house nearby was told that her newborn son was dead. The two met and a secret bargain was struck.
Aged 14, Kirsten was sold to a tinker who raped her and held her captive until the day they were seperated by a storm. Rescued from the flood, she gave birth just as the mistress of the great house nearby was told that her newborn son was dead. The two met and a secret bargain was struck.
May 27, 2014
Years ago, I was in love with Catherine Marchant's books (Catherine Cookson) and read everything I could get my hands on. I came across this one quite by accident, and enjoyed it. Harder to find as they're all quite old. Very British, class struggle, overcoming all odds, and at heart a love story. The kind of book, when done, you say "ah, that was nice".
September 21, 2015
Found at a campground "free library" shelf.
It was a surprisingly good read for such an old book. Not a feel good book, the main character goes through a lot of really rough life stuff. But it kept me turning pages wanting to know how she wound up.
Follow the book's travels on http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1...
It was a surprisingly good read for such an old book. Not a feel good book, the main character goes through a lot of really rough life stuff. But it kept me turning pages wanting to know how she wound up.
Follow the book's travels on http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1...
December 25, 2024
Another good little story. I won't say more on the story but I can never understand the Lady and her followers that almost see the devil in Catherine Cooksons books but keep reading other titles to moan over.
July 28, 2011
Typical Cookson, very good but I dont want to read another for at least a year
August 25, 2011
A young girl falls for her English master.
December 13, 2012
quitting. too much drama...
October 11, 2014
ok read
May 3, 2017
Catherine Marchant or Catherine Cookson, her books are good. I like how she makes her heroines not be aristocratic, but are involved with aristocrats in some way, but don't end up with them necessarily. It was neat how the subjects made their decisions based on the activities that happened in the book, even if it went against their natural characteristics.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews