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A Shower of Summer Days: A Novel
“May Sarton ranks with the very best of our distinguished novelists. A Shower of Summer Days establishes once and for all her unmistakable authority.” —The New York Times
The Irish estate home Dene’s Court has been empty for years—its icy visage, shuttered windows, and overgrown tennis court are a burden for its caretakers and a curiosity for the nearby townspeople. And so the announcement that Violet Dene Gordon and her husband, Charles, are on their way back from British Burma to settle in the long-dormant estate sends a ripple of excitement through the sleepy village.
For Violet, Dene’s Court stands as a monument to her childhood, but lingering doubts remain about whether she and Charles will be happy there. Adding complexity to the arrangement is the arrival of Violet’s American niece, a college student named Sally who has been sent by her mother in an effort to put an ocean between the impetuous young woman and the object of her affection, an actor.
Anxiety, tempers, and long-buried emotions flare as the estate’s new residents search for a sense of belonging and peace between its hallowed and serene walls.
The Irish estate home Dene’s Court has been empty for years—its icy visage, shuttered windows, and overgrown tennis court are a burden for its caretakers and a curiosity for the nearby townspeople. And so the announcement that Violet Dene Gordon and her husband, Charles, are on their way back from British Burma to settle in the long-dormant estate sends a ripple of excitement through the sleepy village.
For Violet, Dene’s Court stands as a monument to her childhood, but lingering doubts remain about whether she and Charles will be happy there. Adding complexity to the arrangement is the arrival of Violet’s American niece, a college student named Sally who has been sent by her mother in an effort to put an ocean between the impetuous young woman and the object of her affection, an actor.
Anxiety, tempers, and long-buried emotions flare as the estate’s new residents search for a sense of belonging and peace between its hallowed and serene walls.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1952
40 people are currently reading
316 people want to read
About the author
May Sarton
154 books596 followersMay Sarton was born on May 3, 1912, in Wondelgem, Belgium, and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her first volume of poetry, Encounters in April, was published in 1937 and her first novel, The Single Hound, in 1938. An accomplished memoirist, Sarton boldly came out as a lesbian in her 1965 book Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing. Her later memoir, Journal of a Solitude, was an account of her experiences as a female artist. Sarton died in York, Maine, on July 16, 1995.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 23, 2011
This is the story of a house and three people intricately bound to each other, and to the house itself, by a mesh of memories and remembered passion, stretching far back into the past...
I have to say, this was a perfect summer read! It's absorbing, wistfully lovely, not overly dense or complex. And yet, there's real substance to it. Every glance, every breath, every gust of wind in this novel has meaning.
I said in the comment section that I liked yet disliked Sarton's writing...but I couldn't articulate why. Well, I think I've figured it out:
The narrative, though resonant, hovers in a place that's uncomfortable for me...a place between intimacy and solitude. The characters buzz around each other, and Sarton buzzes around her characters. They never settle. Sarton never comes to rest at a central point of view. Dene's Court, itself, is too broad a theme to create a focal point. Rather, it reinforces this constant, buzzing tension, turned in on itself. There's no contentment in this novel, just a "queer, divine dissatisfaction," as Martha Graham would say.
The three main characters are neither representational nor fully complete unto themselves. Again, Sarton hovers between, buzzing back and forth against those formidable stone walls! For me, it was all a bit...suffocating.
In spite of all that, I recommend this book. As I said in the comment section, there's just...something about it...
"Then painfully, as she had fumbled among her real belongings, she began to try to find her way back across all the hours of flight to something she was carrying with her, which seemed her one real possession, and this was her feeling for Ian. As long as she could find this and hang onto it, whatever happened, she knew that she would remain herself. For what had been frightening was the sense, ever since she had fallen on the terrace steps, that herself was slowly being dispersed or flowing away. Ian, she murmured half aloud. But the queer thing was that she couldn't focus on him; she couldn't see him. She realized with panic that his image was blurred."
I have to say, this was a perfect summer read! It's absorbing, wistfully lovely, not overly dense or complex. And yet, there's real substance to it. Every glance, every breath, every gust of wind in this novel has meaning.
I said in the comment section that I liked yet disliked Sarton's writing...but I couldn't articulate why. Well, I think I've figured it out:
The narrative, though resonant, hovers in a place that's uncomfortable for me...a place between intimacy and solitude. The characters buzz around each other, and Sarton buzzes around her characters. They never settle. Sarton never comes to rest at a central point of view. Dene's Court, itself, is too broad a theme to create a focal point. Rather, it reinforces this constant, buzzing tension, turned in on itself. There's no contentment in this novel, just a "queer, divine dissatisfaction," as Martha Graham would say.
The three main characters are neither representational nor fully complete unto themselves. Again, Sarton hovers between, buzzing back and forth against those formidable stone walls! For me, it was all a bit...suffocating.
In spite of all that, I recommend this book. As I said in the comment section, there's just...something about it...
"Then painfully, as she had fumbled among her real belongings, she began to try to find her way back across all the hours of flight to something she was carrying with her, which seemed her one real possession, and this was her feeling for Ian. As long as she could find this and hang onto it, whatever happened, she knew that she would remain herself. For what had been frightening was the sense, ever since she had fallen on the terrace steps, that herself was slowly being dispersed or flowing away. Ian, she murmured half aloud. But the queer thing was that she couldn't focus on him; she couldn't see him. She realized with panic that his image was blurred."
September 21, 2021
(3.5) Although I’m more a fan of Sarton’s autobiographical material, especially her journals, I’ve also enjoyed exploring her fiction. This was my seventh of her novels. It’s set in Ireland at Dene’s Court, the grand house Violet inherited. She and her husband Charles have lived in Burma for two decades, but with the Empire on the wane they decide to settle in Violet’s childhood home. Gardening and dressing for dinner fill their languid days until word comes that Violet’s 20-year-old niece, Sally, is coming to stay.
The summer is meant to cure Sally of her infatuation with an actor named Ian. Violet reluctantly goes along with the plan because she feels so badly about the lasting rivalry with her sister, Barbara. Sally is a “bolt of life” shaking up Violet and Charles’s marriage, and when Ian, too, flies out from America, a curious love triangle is refashioned as a quadrilateral. The house remains the one constant as the characters wrestle with their emotional bonds (“the kaleidoscope of feelings was being rather violently shaken up”) and reflect on the transitory splendour of the season (“a kind of timelessness, the warm sun in the enclosed garden in the morning, the hum of bees, and the long slow twilights”).
This isn’t one of my favourites from Sarton, but it has low-key charm. I saw it as being on a continuum from Virginia Woolf to Tessa Hadley (e.g. The Past) via Elizabeth Bowen.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
The summer is meant to cure Sally of her infatuation with an actor named Ian. Violet reluctantly goes along with the plan because she feels so badly about the lasting rivalry with her sister, Barbara. Sally is a “bolt of life” shaking up Violet and Charles’s marriage, and when Ian, too, flies out from America, a curious love triangle is refashioned as a quadrilateral. The house remains the one constant as the characters wrestle with their emotional bonds (“the kaleidoscope of feelings was being rather violently shaken up”) and reflect on the transitory splendour of the season (“a kind of timelessness, the warm sun in the enclosed garden in the morning, the hum of bees, and the long slow twilights”).
This isn’t one of my favourites from Sarton, but it has low-key charm. I saw it as being on a continuum from Virginia Woolf to Tessa Hadley (e.g. The Past) via Elizabeth Bowen.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
March 28, 2014
A novel about an aging couple who return to their country estate in Ireland, and the American niece who comes to spend the summer with them. 1952.
Full review at Another look book
Sarton is best known for her journals foremost, then for her poetry. Her fiction is a perfect blend of the two: raw, revealing, and introspective, with prose that flows along beautifully. This book doesn't contain much plot (although what it does contain is enjoyable). The point of the book is what the characters are feeling and how their relationships are constantly shifting, as they come to better understand themselves and each other. I loved getting into their heads so deeply. The house itself is a major player in the story; the house gives them a place to belong, a history, a reason to go on. They have to take care of the house so it can take care of the family--past, present, and future. A deep, rewarding read!
Full review at Another look book
Sarton is best known for her journals foremost, then for her poetry. Her fiction is a perfect blend of the two: raw, revealing, and introspective, with prose that flows along beautifully. This book doesn't contain much plot (although what it does contain is enjoyable). The point of the book is what the characters are feeling and how their relationships are constantly shifting, as they come to better understand themselves and each other. I loved getting into their heads so deeply. The house itself is a major player in the story; the house gives them a place to belong, a history, a reason to go on. They have to take care of the house so it can take care of the family--past, present, and future. A deep, rewarding read!
February 3, 2015
A quiet novel, that at first seems to be about the relationships between the protagonists: Violet Dene Gordon and her husband, Charles, who have recently returned to Violet's family home of Dene's Court in Ireland, and Violet's American niece, Sally, who has made a poor attachment to an actor in the States, when in fact the entire novel is truly about emotion, and what happens when emotions become too volatile within a small group of people in an enclosed space. The enclosed space, in this case, is Dene's Court itself, which could almost be considered a character on its own, as its presence in the novel is just as important as the main characters are. There is no plot, per se,as we seem to be just dropped into these people's lives for one summer, but Sarton handles this smoothly and poetically, not needing a lot of back story, just telling the story in its own present. This could be one of my favorites.
December 1, 2009
An old imposing stone home in the countryside in Ireland is as much a character as any of the Dane family that have owned it (or been owned by it) for generations. A middle aged couple return from Burma--Violet, a fading beauty, narcissistic with attendant guilt for the damage her beauty has caused and Charles her philandering husband, taking on the role of country gentleman. Into this mix steps Sally, the young American niece, a Vassar college student, who has formed "an unsuitable attachment" to an actor--a youthful male version of Violet. That is the plot but really the book is about intense and volatile emotions and is beautifully written. I also learned a new word: "diapason" which means the entire range of an activity or emotion. It also has specific musical meanings in relation to the stops of an organ and "a swelling burst of harmony." (Websters) I love learning new words.
December 10, 2011
A middle-aged Anglo-Irish couple return to the wife's childhood summer home. This has some of the elements of a gothic novel, with the house, the weather, and ancestral portraits all playing far too great a role in the story. A young woman, the wife's American niece, arrives on the scene and emotions become overwrought for no apparent reason.
April 1, 2022
A perfectly decent little novel, though not hugely exciting. Forced into early retirement, Charles Gordon comes back to live at Dene's Court, his wife's ancestral estate in Ireland. Violet's idyllic childhood at Dene's Court was only marred by her difficult relationship with her younger sister Barbara, who was madly jealous of her beauty and easy ascendency on people. Determined to make a good go of their new life, Charles and Violet, who have remained unhappily childless, are quite disturbed when Barbara sends over her daughter Sally for an extended visit. Barely 21 and still a college student, Sally has fallen in love with a golden boy intent on a Hollywood career and who doesn't feel like marriage material to Sally's parents. Barbara hopes that a change of scene will do wonders for Sally. Initially Sally behaves like a brat, but soon she falls under the spell of her aunt and has a crush on Charles. Out of the blue, Ian comes for a flying visit, but not, it transpires, in order to ask Sally to marry him. The second half of the novel is devoted to the shifting relationships between the middle-aged couple and the younger people. Eventually Sally accepts that Ian is not the man for her, and settles contentedly to learning all about the estate she will probably inherit one day. A short, light read.
July 15, 2017
"This is the story of a house and of three people intricately bound to each other, and to the house itself, by a mesh of memories and remembered passion, stretching far back into the past.
"Violet Dene Gordon, returning to Dene's Court with her husband, Charles, after an absence of thirty years, intensely loved her childhood home, but had reason to fear the long shadow of her unhappy sister, Barbara. Now Barbara's child, Sally, was coming for a visit, supposedly to make her forget her infatuation with an American actor.
"Much had to be settled in one brief encounter -- a marriage, a love affair, a career, the meaning of four lives. No single influence was more important than that of Dene's Court itself.
"May Sarton has created a novel of shimmering beauty, a story of human relationships written with a poet's artistry."
I agree, this book was written with a poet's eye. Unfortunately, at least from my perspective, a great deal of it was about Sally's teenage angst and first (unfortunate) love. Lots of mental whitering? and whencing?, which I generally find tedious and nonproductive. I also found the character of the American actor difficult to understand, and certainly not a sympathetic one.
Final opinion: well written but not my cuppa tea.
"Violet Dene Gordon, returning to Dene's Court with her husband, Charles, after an absence of thirty years, intensely loved her childhood home, but had reason to fear the long shadow of her unhappy sister, Barbara. Now Barbara's child, Sally, was coming for a visit, supposedly to make her forget her infatuation with an American actor.
"Much had to be settled in one brief encounter -- a marriage, a love affair, a career, the meaning of four lives. No single influence was more important than that of Dene's Court itself.
"May Sarton has created a novel of shimmering beauty, a story of human relationships written with a poet's artistry."
I agree, this book was written with a poet's eye. Unfortunately, at least from my perspective, a great deal of it was about Sally's teenage angst and first (unfortunate) love. Lots of mental whitering? and whencing?, which I generally find tedious and nonproductive. I also found the character of the American actor difficult to understand, and certainly not a sympathetic one.
Final opinion: well written but not my cuppa tea.
June 6, 2021
An Irish estate home unoccupied for years, finds its temporary visitors turning permanent residents, as a middle-aged couple decide to settle in the wife’s ancestral house. A book about people not only bound to each other, but to the house itself – the house being a character in the story, a witness to emotions and conversations, providing a sense of familiarity and serenity as well as alienation and flaring tempers. Kind of a charming counterpart to Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.
May 1, 2018
I went on a May Sarton binge for awhile, and though I really enjoyed a few of them, they began to be repetitive. After I read the biography of her--authorized by herself--I lost most of my respect for her and the picture she painted of herself. This novel did hold my interest, though, and there is no doubt she was a good writer. The Small Room, as far as her novels, was superior to this one, I think.
August 27, 2020
Fascinating in depth exploration of the interiors of four people in a very strong willed house in Ireland. Yes, the house has the power here. Sarton does a good job of looking at all who live and those who work in the house, which does dominate the narrative. As typical of Sarton, beautiful descriptions of the natural world also.
April 18, 2022
The novel takes place during summer in a grand, old house in Ireland. A middle-aged woman and her husband have recently returned to it (it was owned by her family for generations), and an American niece comes to spend the summer. The novel is a bit sleepy at first but builds to a satisfying conclusion, with many insightful observations about life, love, aging, and home. (8)
September 11, 2017
Sarton is one of my favorite authors; I love the raw honesty of her journals and her poetry. Her fiction is often quiet, like this story set in an old family home in Ireland. There isn't a lot of plot but it's a book about self-realization and emotion.
October 11, 2023
I really did not care for the narration that was overly formal, jumped from characters mid-paragraph, and lacked a lot of clarity. The plot was bland and felt like it wanted to be profound but was never coherent enough to be.
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July 29, 2024first fiction of Sarton's I've read. I prefer her journals/autobiographical works. I did like this and it had some beautiful writing, I just don't think the story will stick with me.
September 1, 2024
A strange book that read like a play to me. I love May Sarton’s journals, but this is only the second novel I have read by her and I still don’t quite know what I think!
November 9, 2024
still don't know what I really think about this one, but a good sort of palate cleanser but I do sort of think about it since reading it
January 10, 2009
Just a note to say that I have picked this one up and started reading it. You know how sorbet cleanses the palate after a heavy meal, or mint refreshes the mouth after a sour taste? This book is refreshing me and helping get rid of the nasty after taste from a particularly crummy book I just read. I'm not sure why I persisted with the other book- I was annoyed by content, writing style and liberal alterations of facts. The story wsan't brilliant, or even clever. I must be a true mad woman to have finished it. Blech.
Anyhow, I picked this up today, and was soothed immensely by the opening descriptions of the house and village. Even if nothing more comes from it, I am happy.
Anyhow, I picked this up today, and was soothed immensely by the opening descriptions of the house and village. Even if nothing more comes from it, I am happy.
May 26, 2014
This is one of four May Sarton novels my mother was pruning from her library. They looked interesting, so I decided to read them before relinquishing them to the AAUW's used book sale. This is a thoughtful, yet delightful story which could easily be made into one of those charming English films. I enjoyed the interplay among the three, then four, main characters.
July 16, 2016
It is almost at the end of the book that I realized how Sally felt how important were the ancestors' picture, the similitude she had with one of them and how powerful it is to be recognize as part of a clan. May Sarton knew how to use words to describe emotions and sensations for us readers to feels the continuity from one generation to the others having to live in Dene's Court.
October 15, 2014
Some of the prose in this was very beautiful, but it did not work for me, and I am not certain why. The very strong emotions and the concrete descriptions are usually something I like, and I did like it somewhat, but it never came together in a way that made me feel I was reading something true.
February 3, 2015
If I could I would give this 4.5
March 11, 2015
I couldn't even finish this. The characters just seemed so...odd.
June 7, 2015
Lovely prose; strong sense of place; boring
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews