Falscher Glanz

by Margaret Kennedy

Als Norman Crowne, ein erfolgreicher Schriftsteller, des Mordes angeklagt wird, sind seine Kinder noch zu klein, um die Katastrophe zu Im England des 19. Jahrhunderts ruiniert ihn ein solcher Verdacht. Die Zwillinge Emily und William haben ihre Mutter früh verloren, bald nach seinem Freispruch stirbt auch Crowne vereinsamt in Südamerika, und die Geschwister bleiben als Waisen zurück. Mit gutmütigem Wesen, Schönheit und einem beachtlichen Vermögen gesegnet, wachsen Emily und William unbekümmert bei ihrer Tante und deren Kindern auf. Doch ihrem Namen haftet etwas Skandalöses an, sie stehen im Mittelpunkt des öffentlichen Interesses – wie Seifenblasen, deren Zerplatzen man fasziniert erwartet. Und auch zwischen den Cousinen und Cousins kommt es zu Spannungen und Eifersüchteleien. Die Crownes müssen Der zweifelhafte Ruhm ihres Vaters begleitet sie bis ins Erwachsenenleben – mit verheerenden Folgen.

Genres: Fiction

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Margaret Kennedy was an English novelist and playwright.
She attended Cheltenham Ladies' College, where she began writing, and then went up to Somerville College, Oxford in 1915 to read history. Her first publication was a history book, A Century of Revolution (1922). Margaret Kennedy was married to the barrister David Davies. They had a son and two daughters, one of whom was the novelist Julia Birley. The novelist Serena Mackesy is her grand-daughter.

Reviews

[Cirtnecce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the backdrop of early years of 20th century and ending in post World War 1 England, the novel follows the lives of the two sets of cousins – The Forbishers and The Crownes. Their mother’s were siblings and both had married poet. After Mr. Crowns involvement in a a murder scandal and fleeing from the country, the Crowne twins – William and Emily who had already lost their mother, were brought under the guardianship of their aunt, Catherine Forbisher, now a widow with two children, Trevor and Charlotte. The four children grow up together enjoying the same amusements and under the same care of the concerned, well-meaning albeit strict parent! They played together, fought together and made plans for the future! They had the company of Philip Luttrel, a neighbor and the Rector and their uncle Bobby who had been disowned by Catherine temporarily, on account of his staying with a married woman. he met in India , whom he latter married and who became their aunt Lisa. World War I interrupted their idyllic childhood and the Forbisher’s and Crownes returned for the war, determined to lead their lives in the best way they thought possible. Trevor moved to London in order to became a poet, the twins also took up an establishment in London and William began to work on a play. Soon they developed a glittering social life, but the ties of past cannot be broken and will come back to extract a price on all!

As always, there is a lot to be admired in the this book! Margret Kennedy captures the childhood and the post World War 1 era marvelously. You can so picture the brilliant countryside in spring as well the glittering parties of London, especially the gentle mockery of the London social and theater scene . You can see the grotesque Monk Hall and you can see Emily’s bedroom in London….the word pictures are completely clear and absolutely delightful. There are very human relations that come through in the book – the love among cousins and the natural jealousy that transpires when one does better than the other and yet the feeling of a clanship when an outsider tries to close in. There are some lovely moments of bonding and wonderful evolution of characters, especially Catherine Forbishers. There are some superb characters and I cannot stress enough on the brilliant way the character of Catherine Forsbisher was drawn. There some maginificent, kind and empathetic characters in the ensemble that take your breath away – you cannot help but be touched by the self denying kindness of Mandy Hacbukett and be moved by Bobby’s devotion to Lisa or his insights into human nature. Philip is another vivid character, somewhat of a cross between George Knightly and Colonel Brandon.But as a Margaret Kennedy work, it falls short! Not all characters completely evolve and come together, especially William’s. By page 100, you more or less know that there is tragedy in the air and are now just waiting for the axe to fall and when it does, you are not surprised that it fell, but rather that it manner it was done seemed altogether difficult to understand and extremely abrupt! In fact the book is filled with hurried tie ups of plot lines that should have been given more time to evolve and find a natural closure and as a result, the reading is jerky and at times tries your patience as points are driven in until you are ready to scream and some points are blink and miss! It is however a good read and we ought to read it once, if nothing else for the some of the wonderful characterizations and for an insight into an era long gone!

[Lesley]

Research reading.
A bit weird.
I thought the sinister puppet theatre, and the ms play by murderer father, was going to play more of a part than it did...

[Cilli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unterhaltsam, fesselnd, interessante Charaktere und ein ungeschönter Blick auf ihre Zeit und Gesellschaft, ganz wie ich es von Kennedy gewohnt bin.
Doch werden die verschiedenen Stränge dieses Mal nicht so gut zu einem passendem Ende zusammen geführt, sondern es endet plötzlich mit einem Knall. Von einigen Figuren hätte ich zudem gerne noch mehr erfahren.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the middle of the 1920s ‘The Constant Nymph’, Margaret Kennedy’s second novel, was a huge critical and commercial success. It would become one of the best-selling books of the decade, it would be adapted for the stage and for the cinema. It was against that background, in the face of all the demands that success brought, that the her third novel came into the world.

And that may be why, while I found much to enjoy and admire in ‘Red Sky at Morning’, I couldn’t help thinking that the story didn’t come together quite as well as it might have, and that with a little more time and work it could have been so much more.

The story begins with Catherine Frobisher, who carried the keeper of the flame of one of England’s finest writers and the mother of two children destined to be the leading lights of their generation. She wasn’t: she was the widow of a minor poet and the mother of two wholly unremarkable children. But she was a wonderful character, who loved her family, who wasn’t quite as blind to their failings as she at first seemed, but could never quite see that there were other ways to love; I could quite easily believe that she could have been sent down from heaven by Jane Austen.

Catherine was not best pleased when her brother defied convention and moved his mistress into her family’s ancestral home.

And she wasn’t happy that her sister had also married a poet; a rather better poet than her husband. But she knew that it was her duty to take in their two children when their mother died, when their father was caught up in the most scandalous of criminal trials.

That cast a lovely gothic haze over the story; it would be recognisably Margaret Kennedy, but it would also be a little different.

William and Emily Crowne were the loveliest of children. They were attractive, they were imaginative, and they played so happily together, caught up in their own world and oblivious to the world around them. They didn’t see how jealous the Frobisher children, Trevor and Charlotte, were. They didn’t know that their father’s notoriety would follow them into their adult lives.

The world was watching when William grew up to be a playwright, and he attracted a great following. He had no idea that they weren’t really interested in him or his play, they were watching to see what Norman Crowne’s son would do.

Opening night was a disaster; William’s play was pretentious and overblown. The laughter and derision scared the sensitive Emily and she drew back, into a safe marriage to an older man who adored her. And then, feeling her loss keenly, William married an actress. He didn’t know that for her the marriage was driven by ambition, to use the Crowne fortune, to use the Crowne name.

The satire in the chapters set in London, in the theatre had been glorious, but it was time for the story to move on.

Catherine’s brother, Bobbie, had been able to marry his mistress when her estranged husband died. They were blissfully happy together, but they ran the family estate into the ground. Trevor, seeing an opportunity for himself, persuaded William to buy the property. William agreed, because he thought it would be a wonderful home for all of his family, for his struggling friends from the theatre, for a very nice family who needed somewhere to live …..

Catherine was horrified. Emily was worried. And something broke in the end; it had too.

It was a wonderful ending, but it felt just a little contrived. It should have come naturally from the characters but it didn’t, not quite.

That was a shame, because all of the characters were so wonderfully drawn, the writing had been wonderful, and there was so much potential in mixing together traditional Edwardians and modern Bohemians.

The changing times were caught beautifully, and the things the story has to say about the nature of fame and celebrity still hold true.

There were so many wonderful conversations, so many lovely moments. There was cleverness, there was wit, and there was real human understanding. I loved watching Catherine’s reactions to the changing world. I loved watching the evolution of Emily’s marriage. I loved the warm, natural relationship of Bobbie and Lise. But so much of William’s straggling household seemed like clutter, a distraction from the heart of the story.

The potential was there for a wonderful novel but, though there were moments of greatness, the story doesn’t quite come together.

If this had been a story by an unknown author I would be calling it a wonderful literary curio. But, because it’s a book by Margaret Kennedy, I can’t say that.

I can say that if you have read her books already this is well worth reading, to see her handling themes she would use in other books in a very different way, to see the many good things in this book, to see what she wrote and how she reacted at the height of her fame ….. just don’t set your expectations too high.

If you haven’t read any of her fiction before, I’d say start somewhere else. But come back to this book if you come to love her too.

It was well worth reading, and it would have been worth it for the final sentence alone. It’s loaded, and it confirmed to me what a very fine writer Margaret Kennedy was.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Funny, better than The Ladies of Lyndon. More autism spectrum characters.