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The Ladies of Lyndon
Married at eighteen, Agatha soon learns her husband is unfeeling and turns to his brother, James, for friendship
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1923
About the author
Margaret Kennedy
53 books87 followersMargaret 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 19, 2022
Ladies of Lyndon is Margaret Kennedy’s first novel. I began at the beginning quite by accident…I needed a book published in 1923. If this is her debut, I am looking forward with relish to her subsequent works, which will now all be added to the mountain that is my TBR.
Agatha Cocks is a beautiful, elegant young lady of eighteen, who is about to marry an older man, John Clewer, owner of Lyndon and a member of the aristocracy. She had a brief bout of puppy love with her cousin, Gerald Blair, at sixteen, but her mother put a quick stop to that by packing her off to boarding school. Gerald takes himself off to America. Her marriage to John seems quite ideal, and Lyndon affords just the life she is seeking, and then Gerald returns to visit. That sets the stage for a lot of upheaval in Agatha’s life.
We also follow John’s brother, James, a character I completely adored and the other members of the Clewer family, who varied in garnering my disdain. There is also Agatha’s interfering mother, whose neck I would gladly have wrung.
The writing is beautifully done, with only a few flaws in the storytelling, not worth mentioning. I was reminded of Edith Wharton, in that the novel is, at some level, about class distinctions and what people will do to get into or escape the constraints of the upper class of the time. All that glitters is not gold; things are not always what they seem.
This is one of those happy accidents you often wish for and seldom encounter. It was never really on my radar and it exceeded all my expectations.
March 26, 2021
Margaret Kennedy’s Ladies of Lyndon follows the lives and exploits of several ladies who are in some way associated with an English country estate called Lyndon. Agatha Cocks (yes, I know), the bride of the owner of Lyndon, Sir John Clewer, Mrs. Cocks (I know!!), her mother and a long-time belle of society, Lady Clewer, the dowager stepmother of John, John’s two half sisters, the competitive, manipulative Cynthia, and the resentful, smallish one with pretentions to Intellectual opinions, and a housemaid at Lyndon, Dolly. Surrounding them and permeating the lives of these women and their decisions are their men- Sir John Clewer, his “eccentric” artist brother James (who is thought to be “not quite right”).
The book is episodic, and moves forward mostly according to events in Agatha’s life. We are with the group just as John and Agatha become engaged, three years after their marriage, then seven years after their marriage (which skips over the interim of the Great War), then six months after that. This structure was a good choice on Kennedy’s part, as it allowed both the plot to move along in a believable manner, and created the sense of setting up a situation in a documentary, and then dropping in to check on their progress. It allowed the characters time for growth and change, while also allowing us to see how much remained the same, and why. It ensured that we were not bored, and also that we didn’t seem to miss anything.
Kennedy’s plot is a fairly standard security vs. passion, ideals vs. riches, Society’s Approval vs. Inner Conscience sort of story, with a rather mawkish infidelity plot, where characters struck poses and took themselves rather too seriously. The subject matter she dealt with was largely rather expected, and I did think that some of her choices of events and characters’ reactions to them were rather clunky, and/or crude. What is interesting about the plot is how she messes with the ending, showing us a new and insightful viewpoint on the typical triumphant conclusion that you get to these things.
She’s able to make this end so interesting because she’s spent the rest of the book characterizing people so carefully and consistently, that what ultimately happens seems like the only thing that could happen. The trap folds down, and you get that wonderful sense of “of course,” and your breath caught in your throat until you feel claustrophobic, a sense that can only be validly created when someone has carefully, quietly, and consistently brought you to this point, so it feels like the music swells and the credits are playing in front of you and there’s nothing more to be done. She has excellent observational skills, which are essential for this sort of drawing-room and lawn party story. She especially good at handling the undertones of social interaction- the drama of saying the wrong thing when all eyes are at you at a dinner party, the backhanded compliments of dueling mothers, the girl who cannot form an opinion before knowing what her husband thinks of something, the way that men used to be much more free to conceptualize and box up women into a corner, and the reasons behind why women, whose lives were meant to be limited to marriage and children, might seem to have a deep emotional investment in things that aren’t that important. The dialogue seemed mostly natural and appropriate (the only stilted parts were the ones that left social realism and tried to be ‘romantic’- but perhaps that was its own statement), and the descriptions were detailed, but without rambling on about unnecessary problems.
She uses these observational skills quite well in order to depict the thought processes, priorities, passions, and needs of each of the characters. It’s helpful that she goes in and out of the heads of almost all of the major characters depicted, and is able to do it rather seamlessly, still maintaining a voice that links the narrative together rather than getting lost in a morass of individual worlds, a la GRRM. I thought she was particularly good at getting at the different characters’ levels of self-awareness. Indeed, whether each character had enough self-knowledge about what was important to them, and what practical things they needed to get through the day ultimately dictated their happiness. I thought that was an accurate, and important observation to insert into a Romantic story about following your ideals and trying to recapture some Lost, imagined Ideal from your childhood. That ideal may or may not have existed, and even if it did, there is no reason why it should make your adult self happy. After you fall asleep amongst candles and roses, you have to get up and call the heating company when the radiator breaks and do the dishes so you don’t get flooded with ants.
There is a really fantastic comment towards the end of the novel where one of the men remarks how he never noticed how one of the women is so much a part of the scenery that surrounds her. He removes her from it because she seems too good for it, and removes some of her magnificence as well. We fall in love with pictures so often, rather than people. When it comes to being a person, eating dinner, hanging out, so often I think that people just want to do what they selfishly want to do, and you can only hang out with a picture so often before it gets to be a drag, and then you want to go back to living your own life where you don’t feel like you’re on display looking at something else on display. There’s also a great conversation between Agatha and her mother, where the mom awesomely tells her, “Look, you might want to be this way, but I’m sorry to tell you that you are this way instead. You always have been. You don’t know how to do any different. It’s sweet that you think you can change, though. Let’s have tea, shall we?” Romeo and Juliet don’t need any other obstacles other than themselves. That’ll usually be enough.
The passage of time turns out to be a great characterization device as well because we see how people’s characters form and then set, only changing in outward show and through infinitesimal turns of the dial over the years. Being inside peoples’ heads once and then again a few years later shows different costumes, but the same emotions. The same weaknesses, just outing themselves differently. It’s a good choice to drop the same people into different situations and different ages and watch the same play develop, over and over again, with different tools and props. She manages to make things come full circle, and like they’ve gone through this whole journey, when really it seems like they’ve never left home base, either.
There are some things that are less successful. She seemed to be trying to make an underlying point about the power of English country houses, a common theme of the period, and she didn’t spend enough time on it to make it anything more than a distraction. Also, James, the eccentric brother, had such a fascinating storyline that it became frustrating each time she moved away from him to concentrate on others- he should have had a bigger part in this story The introduction says that Kennedy meant for him to be the main character, but later changed her mind- I suspect because the romance plot was more palatable, and the English country house theme was meant to be stronger. But the problem is that that emphasis did not utilize Kennedy’s strengths as fully as they should have been used except at the very beginning and the end of the novel- James’ storyline utilized them in full. Also, I got a sense that she had a Message that she wanted to deliver, and her tone could get occasionally pedantic, and rather repetitive. But nonetheless, her characters remained strong, her observations remained true, and in the end, she delivered a powerful punch. A lot to like, some little to love, which outweighed any problems I might have had with it. It is a small domestic novel, as I stated below, but Kennedy has that extra something that makes it more a good deal of the time. A minor gem, but a worthwhile one, in the end.
The book is episodic, and moves forward mostly according to events in Agatha’s life. We are with the group just as John and Agatha become engaged, three years after their marriage, then seven years after their marriage (which skips over the interim of the Great War), then six months after that. This structure was a good choice on Kennedy’s part, as it allowed both the plot to move along in a believable manner, and created the sense of setting up a situation in a documentary, and then dropping in to check on their progress. It allowed the characters time for growth and change, while also allowing us to see how much remained the same, and why. It ensured that we were not bored, and also that we didn’t seem to miss anything.
Kennedy’s plot is a fairly standard security vs. passion, ideals vs. riches, Society’s Approval vs. Inner Conscience sort of story, with a rather mawkish infidelity plot, where characters struck poses and took themselves rather too seriously. The subject matter she dealt with was largely rather expected, and I did think that some of her choices of events and characters’ reactions to them were rather clunky, and/or crude. What is interesting about the plot is how she messes with the ending, showing us a new and insightful viewpoint on the typical triumphant conclusion that you get to these things.
She’s able to make this end so interesting because she’s spent the rest of the book characterizing people so carefully and consistently, that what ultimately happens seems like the only thing that could happen. The trap folds down, and you get that wonderful sense of “of course,” and your breath caught in your throat until you feel claustrophobic, a sense that can only be validly created when someone has carefully, quietly, and consistently brought you to this point, so it feels like the music swells and the credits are playing in front of you and there’s nothing more to be done. She has excellent observational skills, which are essential for this sort of drawing-room and lawn party story. She especially good at handling the undertones of social interaction- the drama of saying the wrong thing when all eyes are at you at a dinner party, the backhanded compliments of dueling mothers, the girl who cannot form an opinion before knowing what her husband thinks of something, the way that men used to be much more free to conceptualize and box up women into a corner, and the reasons behind why women, whose lives were meant to be limited to marriage and children, might seem to have a deep emotional investment in things that aren’t that important. The dialogue seemed mostly natural and appropriate (the only stilted parts were the ones that left social realism and tried to be ‘romantic’- but perhaps that was its own statement), and the descriptions were detailed, but without rambling on about unnecessary problems.
She uses these observational skills quite well in order to depict the thought processes, priorities, passions, and needs of each of the characters. It’s helpful that she goes in and out of the heads of almost all of the major characters depicted, and is able to do it rather seamlessly, still maintaining a voice that links the narrative together rather than getting lost in a morass of individual worlds, a la GRRM. I thought she was particularly good at getting at the different characters’ levels of self-awareness. Indeed, whether each character had enough self-knowledge about what was important to them, and what practical things they needed to get through the day ultimately dictated their happiness. I thought that was an accurate, and important observation to insert into a Romantic story about following your ideals and trying to recapture some Lost, imagined Ideal from your childhood. That ideal may or may not have existed, and even if it did, there is no reason why it should make your adult self happy. After you fall asleep amongst candles and roses, you have to get up and call the heating company when the radiator breaks and do the dishes so you don’t get flooded with ants.
There is a really fantastic comment towards the end of the novel where one of the men remarks how he never noticed how one of the women is so much a part of the scenery that surrounds her. He removes her from it because she seems too good for it, and removes some of her magnificence as well. We fall in love with pictures so often, rather than people. When it comes to being a person, eating dinner, hanging out, so often I think that people just want to do what they selfishly want to do, and you can only hang out with a picture so often before it gets to be a drag, and then you want to go back to living your own life where you don’t feel like you’re on display looking at something else on display. There’s also a great conversation between Agatha and her mother, where the mom awesomely tells her, “Look, you might want to be this way, but I’m sorry to tell you that you are this way instead. You always have been. You don’t know how to do any different. It’s sweet that you think you can change, though. Let’s have tea, shall we?” Romeo and Juliet don’t need any other obstacles other than themselves. That’ll usually be enough.
The passage of time turns out to be a great characterization device as well because we see how people’s characters form and then set, only changing in outward show and through infinitesimal turns of the dial over the years. Being inside peoples’ heads once and then again a few years later shows different costumes, but the same emotions. The same weaknesses, just outing themselves differently. It’s a good choice to drop the same people into different situations and different ages and watch the same play develop, over and over again, with different tools and props. She manages to make things come full circle, and like they’ve gone through this whole journey, when really it seems like they’ve never left home base, either.
There are some things that are less successful. She seemed to be trying to make an underlying point about the power of English country houses, a common theme of the period, and she didn’t spend enough time on it to make it anything more than a distraction. Also, James, the eccentric brother, had such a fascinating storyline that it became frustrating each time she moved away from him to concentrate on others- he should have had a bigger part in this story The introduction says that Kennedy meant for him to be the main character, but later changed her mind- I suspect because the romance plot was more palatable, and the English country house theme was meant to be stronger. But the problem is that that emphasis did not utilize Kennedy’s strengths as fully as they should have been used except at the very beginning and the end of the novel- James’ storyline utilized them in full. Also, I got a sense that she had a Message that she wanted to deliver, and her tone could get occasionally pedantic, and rather repetitive. But nonetheless, her characters remained strong, her observations remained true, and in the end, she delivered a powerful punch. A lot to like, some little to love, which outweighed any problems I might have had with it. It is a small domestic novel, as I stated below, but Kennedy has that extra something that makes it more a good deal of the time. A minor gem, but a worthwhile one, in the end.
June 11, 2016
I was wary of Margaret Kennedy's first novel for a long time, seeing that it had mixed reviews – both on its original publication and on its later reissues – and wondering that if I had read it first it might have changed my feelings about progressing through her work, if maybe I might not have come to love that work as much as do.
Now that I’ve read the book, I’m sure that it wouldn’t have changed things too much. I would have liked it more than enough to pick up her second book – her huge success and the book I did read first – ‘The Constant Nymph’. And after that I still would have been more that interested enough to order ‘The Fool of the Family’ – the sequel that I enjoyed even more – from the library; then I would have still ordered and fallen in love with ‘Lucy Carmichael’ because I’ve always has a weakness for book titles that include both forename and surname; then I still would have ordered in ‘The Feast’, because it was set in Cornwall, and been so very impressed ….
But I’m glad that I read ‘The Ladies of Lyndon’ after reading many of Margaret Kennedy’s later novels. I recognised her distinctive voice and style, and I realised that neither were quite fully formed, that she still had some growing to do. I saw wit and I saw a clarity of vision that could be almost brutal; qualities that are a little more understated in other books. And, most interestingly, I saw character types, themes and ideas that she would run through her work in the years that were ahead of her.
Lyndon was a wonderful house, and the country home of the Clewer family.
“Lyndon, architectural and complacent, gleamed whitely amid the sombre green of ilex and cedar. Its classical facade stretched in ample wings to east and west. The grounds, originally laid out by the famous ‘Capability Brown’, and improved upon by successive generations of landscape gardeners, were admirably in keeping with the dwelling house they guarded. They maintained a note of assured artificiality: they belonged to an age when gentlemen of property owned the earth and could do what they liked with it – an age which had nor read Wordsworth and which took for granted that nature could be improved on … “
When this story opens, early in the twentieth century the family was large and its relationships were rather complicated. Because a widow and a widower, each with children, had married and produced another child. He – Lord Clewer – had died not long after his second marriage, leaving his title to the elder of his two unmarried sons and leaving the dowager Lady Clewer as chatelaine of the family home.
Mrs Varden Cocks was delighted when Sir John Clewer made a proposal of marriage to her eighteen year-old daughter, Agatha. She believed that girls should marry young, before they had had time to form opinions of their own, she knew that Lyndon was the perfect setting for her lovely daughter, and she was relieved that marriage would put Agatha’s brief romance with her cousin, Gerald, who she believed she might still have feelings for, very firmly in the past.
Her only worry was John’s brother, James. She had been told that he was ugly, that his intelligence was limited, that his behaviour was unpredictable, but the family was managing. Lady Clewer had said that James could stay with her in London while Agatha and James were on their honeymoon, but his longer term future had still to be decided. Agatha was worried; but when she met him she realised that he was clumsy, he was unconventional, he was eccentric, but that when she put her ideas of what was ‘proper behaviour’ to the side there wasn’t too much wrong with James at all.
They became friends, and Agatha supported him when he declared that he was going to go to Paris to study art.
(At this point I thought of Margery Sharp’s Martha books. Martha and James lived in different ages, came from different classes, were of opposite sexes, so their stories were quite different but their talents and their approaches to life were remarkably similar.)
When James proposed marriage to the third housemaid Agatha supported him. The rest of the family was horrified, but she saw that Dolly wasn’t interested in James’ money or his social position. They had played together as children, when his aunt was employed at Lyndon, and Agatha could see that she loved him for what he was and that he loved her.
Agatha had a knack for friendship, and she was the one person who loved and was loved by every member of the family.
Sadly though her marriage was not a success. It was nobody’s fault, it was simply that they had been alone very little before they married, they hadn’t known each other very well at all.
And Eric Blair, Agatha’s old flame, was a regular guest at Lyndon’s house parties …
The plot is quite simple, but it is the characters who make this story sing. They are so very well drawn, and their dialogues and their actions are utterly believable. Margaret Kennedy manages a large cast, and makes use of their different perspectives quite beautifully.
(I was particularly taken with Agatha’s mother, who was a force of nature in the very best of ways.)
She did that better in later books – ‘The Feast’ and ‘The Midas Touch’ – are that titles that come to mind. But she does it well enough here to keep the story rolling along nicely, and the social satire is very well judged.
The changing world is caught too, but not quite so well, and there is a time shift that is handled rather awkwardly in the middle of the book.
This is not Margaret Kennedy’s most accomplished novel, but it is an accomplished first novel and it held my attention from the first page to the last.
The characters, the writing style and the narrative voice made it work.
Nicola Beauman’s introduction to the Virago edition of ‘The Ladies of Lyndon’ suggests that Margaret Kennedy had at first intended that James be at the centre of her story, but I think the position that he occupied – slightly off-centre, suited him much better. I loved him and his story, I loved Dolly even more, and I love that Margaret Kennedy put the ideas she explored here – about a family’s response to someone ‘different’, about how that affected their life, about how they might bend social convention – at the centre of her last novel forty years later.
Agatha was perfectly suited to the position at the centre if the story. I loved and, though her action bothered me at times, I always felt for her.
And the end of the story – a turning point in Agatha’s life – was so perfectly judged.
Now that I’ve read the book, I’m sure that it wouldn’t have changed things too much. I would have liked it more than enough to pick up her second book – her huge success and the book I did read first – ‘The Constant Nymph’. And after that I still would have been more that interested enough to order ‘The Fool of the Family’ – the sequel that I enjoyed even more – from the library; then I would have still ordered and fallen in love with ‘Lucy Carmichael’ because I’ve always has a weakness for book titles that include both forename and surname; then I still would have ordered in ‘The Feast’, because it was set in Cornwall, and been so very impressed ….
But I’m glad that I read ‘The Ladies of Lyndon’ after reading many of Margaret Kennedy’s later novels. I recognised her distinctive voice and style, and I realised that neither were quite fully formed, that she still had some growing to do. I saw wit and I saw a clarity of vision that could be almost brutal; qualities that are a little more understated in other books. And, most interestingly, I saw character types, themes and ideas that she would run through her work in the years that were ahead of her.
Lyndon was a wonderful house, and the country home of the Clewer family.
“Lyndon, architectural and complacent, gleamed whitely amid the sombre green of ilex and cedar. Its classical facade stretched in ample wings to east and west. The grounds, originally laid out by the famous ‘Capability Brown’, and improved upon by successive generations of landscape gardeners, were admirably in keeping with the dwelling house they guarded. They maintained a note of assured artificiality: they belonged to an age when gentlemen of property owned the earth and could do what they liked with it – an age which had nor read Wordsworth and which took for granted that nature could be improved on … “
When this story opens, early in the twentieth century the family was large and its relationships were rather complicated. Because a widow and a widower, each with children, had married and produced another child. He – Lord Clewer – had died not long after his second marriage, leaving his title to the elder of his two unmarried sons and leaving the dowager Lady Clewer as chatelaine of the family home.
Mrs Varden Cocks was delighted when Sir John Clewer made a proposal of marriage to her eighteen year-old daughter, Agatha. She believed that girls should marry young, before they had had time to form opinions of their own, she knew that Lyndon was the perfect setting for her lovely daughter, and she was relieved that marriage would put Agatha’s brief romance with her cousin, Gerald, who she believed she might still have feelings for, very firmly in the past.
Her only worry was John’s brother, James. She had been told that he was ugly, that his intelligence was limited, that his behaviour was unpredictable, but the family was managing. Lady Clewer had said that James could stay with her in London while Agatha and James were on their honeymoon, but his longer term future had still to be decided. Agatha was worried; but when she met him she realised that he was clumsy, he was unconventional, he was eccentric, but that when she put her ideas of what was ‘proper behaviour’ to the side there wasn’t too much wrong with James at all.
They became friends, and Agatha supported him when he declared that he was going to go to Paris to study art.
(At this point I thought of Margery Sharp’s Martha books. Martha and James lived in different ages, came from different classes, were of opposite sexes, so their stories were quite different but their talents and their approaches to life were remarkably similar.)
When James proposed marriage to the third housemaid Agatha supported him. The rest of the family was horrified, but she saw that Dolly wasn’t interested in James’ money or his social position. They had played together as children, when his aunt was employed at Lyndon, and Agatha could see that she loved him for what he was and that he loved her.
Agatha had a knack for friendship, and she was the one person who loved and was loved by every member of the family.
Sadly though her marriage was not a success. It was nobody’s fault, it was simply that they had been alone very little before they married, they hadn’t known each other very well at all.
And Eric Blair, Agatha’s old flame, was a regular guest at Lyndon’s house parties …
The plot is quite simple, but it is the characters who make this story sing. They are so very well drawn, and their dialogues and their actions are utterly believable. Margaret Kennedy manages a large cast, and makes use of their different perspectives quite beautifully.
(I was particularly taken with Agatha’s mother, who was a force of nature in the very best of ways.)
She did that better in later books – ‘The Feast’ and ‘The Midas Touch’ – are that titles that come to mind. But she does it well enough here to keep the story rolling along nicely, and the social satire is very well judged.
The changing world is caught too, but not quite so well, and there is a time shift that is handled rather awkwardly in the middle of the book.
This is not Margaret Kennedy’s most accomplished novel, but it is an accomplished first novel and it held my attention from the first page to the last.
The characters, the writing style and the narrative voice made it work.
Nicola Beauman’s introduction to the Virago edition of ‘The Ladies of Lyndon’ suggests that Margaret Kennedy had at first intended that James be at the centre of her story, but I think the position that he occupied – slightly off-centre, suited him much better. I loved him and his story, I loved Dolly even more, and I love that Margaret Kennedy put the ideas she explored here – about a family’s response to someone ‘different’, about how that affected their life, about how they might bend social convention – at the centre of her last novel forty years later.
Agatha was perfectly suited to the position at the centre if the story. I loved and, though her action bothered me at times, I always felt for her.
And the end of the story – a turning point in Agatha’s life – was so perfectly judged.
June 25, 2013
When Agatha Cocks marries Sir John Clewer, she becomes one of the ladies of Lyndon, the Clewers' country house. She finds her marriage unsatisfying and looks elsewhere for love, with a former lover, and friendship, with her brother-in-law James, an artist regarded by his family as mentally deficient and eccentric, particularly when he forms an unorthodox relationship with a housemaid. Though the writing is elegant and engaging, I thought the infidelity subplot rather predictable; the bits involving James, though, are excellent and make the whole book more than the usual high-society-marriage-goes-bad plot.
March 23, 2023
Second of Margaret Kennedy's novels that I've read, The Constant Nymph being the first. The Ladies of Lyndon was her first novel and as such is a very accomplished piece of fiction. Mainly concerned with the traditional class structure which permeates countless English novels, it's also a nascent feminist tale recounting her various characters attempts to carve out lives both in and out of the marriage space. Marriage of course being the ultimate goal for any well brought up young lady. Once that has been achieved, well needlework beckons.
Main character Agatha chafes against this regime realising after a few years that she has married the wrong man and her first love remains her true love. Kennedy's dialogue sparkles and there's a real intelligence at play here although the novels plot sometimes seems as if it can't quite make up it's mind which set of characters are paramount. Good ending though, she doesn't wrap it up in a neat bow. Sadly her antisemitism rears it's ugly head in a couple of lines and in one paragraph specifically, which of course has no bearing on the novels plot and stands out even more.
Main character Agatha chafes against this regime realising after a few years that she has married the wrong man and her first love remains her true love. Kennedy's dialogue sparkles and there's a real intelligence at play here although the novels plot sometimes seems as if it can't quite make up it's mind which set of characters are paramount. Good ending though, she doesn't wrap it up in a neat bow. Sadly her antisemitism rears it's ugly head in a couple of lines and in one paragraph specifically, which of course has no bearing on the novels plot and stands out even more.
March 10, 2020
This country house social commentary includes one character, James, whose behavior would be characterized today as being on the autistic spectrum. He ignores attempts to make him fit in socially, becomes an artist, and marries his childhood friend, a domestic. This is a fascinatingly early sketch of a non neurotypical individual. I found James to be far more interesting than the female characters because he goes his own way, finds happiness, and sees far more than those around him.
May 28, 2018
I had really high hopes for it because I love Margaret Kennedy’s writing. In this early novel there were elements of her style, but the plot was just lackluster. I didn’t feel drawn toward the characters we spent the most time following. And in light of that, I had a hard time getting invested in their problems. I found myself pushing toward the end just so I could read something else. Then the ending was ambiguous and a let-down.
If someone’s considering this book, please for goodness’ sake try to find Kennedy’s books Lucy Carmichael or The Feast instead. She really was a great author.
If someone’s considering this book, please for goodness’ sake try to find Kennedy’s books Lucy Carmichael or The Feast instead. She really was a great author.
October 16, 2014
The Ladies of Lyndon was Margaret Kennedy’s first novel, coming a year before her best known work The Constant Nymph. In this novel Margaret Kennedy explores themes she would revisit later in The Constant Nymph; unsatisfactorily matched partners within a socially conventional marriage, fidelity and artistic temperaments.
Read full review: http://heavenali.wordpress.com/2014/1...
Read full review: http://heavenali.wordpress.com/2014/1...
June 20, 2016
Actually 3.5 stars.
The Ladies of Lyndon is not without its flaws (bumpy jumps in time for instance), but, at its heart, it is oh so charming and amusing in a Noel Coward kind of way.
It's the kind of very English writing that I love - a type of comedy of manners, full of class consciousness and social conventions.
http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/20...
The Ladies of Lyndon is not without its flaws (bumpy jumps in time for instance), but, at its heart, it is oh so charming and amusing in a Noel Coward kind of way.
It's the kind of very English writing that I love - a type of comedy of manners, full of class consciousness and social conventions.
http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/20...
October 14, 2021
The Ladies of Lyndon, first published in 1923, was Margaret Kennedy's first novel. The protagonist of the piece is Agatha Cocks, who, despite her impending marriage, can think of nothing but her brief love affair with her cousin Gerald. The novel begins as follows: 'In the first decades of the twentieth centry, London contained quite a number of distinguished grey-headed bachelors who owed their celibacy to Mrs Varden Cocks', Agatha's mother.
The Ladies of Lyndon is highly involved with the family dynamic, and thus we find that many characters are introduced in just a few pages. It can consequently be a little difficult to keep up with the relationships forged between everyone. We encounter the Cocks both as individuals and a familial unit, which is an interesting technique. Despite this, they float around; they are largely self-obsessed and do not seem to be tethered to reality. This does render them less realistic as beings, too. The third person narrative perspective which Kennedy has used does mean that whilst due attention has been paid to the novel in terms of its plot and characters, it does have the effect of creating distance between the reader and everything which goes on.
As one might expect, The Ladies of Lyndon is very of its time, and old-fashioned turns of phrase and vocabulary abound throughout. This can cause some of the sentences to feel a little dense when viewed as a whole - 'the fatigued erudition of her husband set off her animation with an especial piquancy', for example. The people whom Agatha meets and converses with are generally 'tolerably well off', and a young girl's wardrobe is 'a perpetual testimony to a mother's taste'. As in Kennedy's most famous novel, The Constant Nymph, the themes of incest and forbidden love are prevalent throughout.
Whilst The Ladies of Lyndon is nicely written on the whole, it does feel rather dated, and it does not seem to have translated to the modern world as well as the work of some of Kennedy's contemporaries - Katherine Mansfield's, for example, or Virginia Woolf's. Whilst the novel is well crafted, of the stories from the 1920s which are currently being reprinted by major publishing house, The Ladies of Lyndon is certainly not amongst the strongest.
The Ladies of Lyndon is highly involved with the family dynamic, and thus we find that many characters are introduced in just a few pages. It can consequently be a little difficult to keep up with the relationships forged between everyone. We encounter the Cocks both as individuals and a familial unit, which is an interesting technique. Despite this, they float around; they are largely self-obsessed and do not seem to be tethered to reality. This does render them less realistic as beings, too. The third person narrative perspective which Kennedy has used does mean that whilst due attention has been paid to the novel in terms of its plot and characters, it does have the effect of creating distance between the reader and everything which goes on.
As one might expect, The Ladies of Lyndon is very of its time, and old-fashioned turns of phrase and vocabulary abound throughout. This can cause some of the sentences to feel a little dense when viewed as a whole - 'the fatigued erudition of her husband set off her animation with an especial piquancy', for example. The people whom Agatha meets and converses with are generally 'tolerably well off', and a young girl's wardrobe is 'a perpetual testimony to a mother's taste'. As in Kennedy's most famous novel, The Constant Nymph, the themes of incest and forbidden love are prevalent throughout.
Whilst The Ladies of Lyndon is nicely written on the whole, it does feel rather dated, and it does not seem to have translated to the modern world as well as the work of some of Kennedy's contemporaries - Katherine Mansfield's, for example, or Virginia Woolf's. Whilst the novel is well crafted, of the stories from the 1920s which are currently being reprinted by major publishing house, The Ladies of Lyndon is certainly not amongst the strongest.
May 25, 2019
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It's set in Edwardian times through the aftermath of the first World War, and is very Downton Abbey in its themes and characters. It's very funny with excellent dialogue, but it expounds on some very important themes like class and identity and marriage. The protagonist Agatha is a paragon of Edwardian virtue and breeding, and the novel follows her as she realizes she's made a mistake in marrying her husband though she married him for all the right reasons according to aristocratic society. One of the secondary characters has been deemed mentally unsound by most of his family; they think he's cognitively damaged in some way. Really, he's just very different from them and unwilling to play the social games they all thrive on; Agatha always sees his value and never believes the family narrative that he's an idiot. Her interactions with him are really interesting. The novel ends ambiguously; Agatha is poised on the brink of a decision, and we aren't quite sure what she'll do which I love.
I think anyone who enjoys Downton Abbey or novels of Victorian high society would like this book.
I think anyone who enjoys Downton Abbey or novels of Victorian high society would like this book.
January 26, 2016
This is a wonderful "country house" book with ladies marrying into wealthy famlies to the satisfaction of their mothers. However it is also full of interesting unusual characters who are potrayed with a great deal of subtetly. Some very amusing situations shine a light on the changing social conventions of the time.
January 11, 2013
Another Virago.
December 22, 2014
Acerbically funny . A feminist PG Wodehouse !
January 20, 2022
I didn’t like it quite as much as The Feast, by the same author, but it was a very enjoyable read. I might have to rethink the chesterfields in the study though! 😉
November 15, 2015
Sturdy green paperback--so recognizably Virago with its period society portrait--reinforced with some clever plastic laminate on cover and extra on the spine, making it a difficult to fully open to read the fuzzy Virago type. Did they simply copy an out of print book instead of resetting the type?
What a mess of a novel, and how worthwhile to push through all the chaos!
In this first novel, Kennedy is trying out her voice. In each chapter, that voice is different, quavering up and down a scale like an adolescent's. I fondly remember my own first novel which did exactly the same, just not as well.
The chapters The Virtuous Stepmother, The Florentine and Kind Companions combine to make a set piece: manners and mores surrounding marriage before the WWI in the English upper-ish class. Agatha marries John because he's suitable, ostensibly. But in fact, this reader wonders if she isn't attracted to the same detachment she met with in her own father. She runs into the same problem with the uncommunicative Gerald. Other characters are equally suitably matched: Lois to the academic Hubert, cold and cynical Cynthia to the old satyr Sir Thomas, James to his childhood playmate, now a housemaid.
The childhood friendship/puppy love of Gerald and Agatha is contrasted to the forthrightness of James' and Dolly's attachment. We know that this can't end well, and it doesn't. Likewise, the relationships of the two half-sisters, Lois and Cynthia, explore further the dynamic of "shared values" which will ultimately trip up Agatha.
This first section is perhaps the most complete and consistent throughout. I love this sort of novel--many of them Virago Classics. The following chapters don't fare so well.
The Braxhall Frescoes devolves into a farce. We see the family try to cover up the scandalous fresco James has painted for his brother-in-law. But the exploration of the family dynamic within its social context is undermined by what I suspect Kennedy thought was a sharp satire instead of the annoying parody it is.
The Fool's Progress features Mrs. Cocks moving from the silliness of her first meddling appearances to become the Wise Woman. She, uncharacteristically, sees through Agatha's limp expression of love for Gerald to the truth of who she is, who her mother made her, and who she will always be: an expensive ornamental wife. Kennedy wasn't a skillful enough writer to figure out how to explore this without giving the mother a brain transplant.
Never mind. Knowing that The Constant Nymph will soon be written, we can see the beginnings of Kennedy's skills here in The Ladies of Lyndon. The introduction by Nicola Beauman suggests that, alas, those skills never get any further. Still, if I find another of her novels in the Ath Stacks, I will certainly give it a read.
What a mess of a novel, and how worthwhile to push through all the chaos!
In this first novel, Kennedy is trying out her voice. In each chapter, that voice is different, quavering up and down a scale like an adolescent's. I fondly remember my own first novel which did exactly the same, just not as well.
The chapters The Virtuous Stepmother, The Florentine and Kind Companions combine to make a set piece: manners and mores surrounding marriage before the WWI in the English upper-ish class. Agatha marries John because he's suitable, ostensibly. But in fact, this reader wonders if she isn't attracted to the same detachment she met with in her own father. She runs into the same problem with the uncommunicative Gerald. Other characters are equally suitably matched: Lois to the academic Hubert, cold and cynical Cynthia to the old satyr Sir Thomas, James to his childhood playmate, now a housemaid.
The childhood friendship/puppy love of Gerald and Agatha is contrasted to the forthrightness of James' and Dolly's attachment. We know that this can't end well, and it doesn't. Likewise, the relationships of the two half-sisters, Lois and Cynthia, explore further the dynamic of "shared values" which will ultimately trip up Agatha.
This first section is perhaps the most complete and consistent throughout. I love this sort of novel--many of them Virago Classics. The following chapters don't fare so well.
The Braxhall Frescoes devolves into a farce. We see the family try to cover up the scandalous fresco James has painted for his brother-in-law. But the exploration of the family dynamic within its social context is undermined by what I suspect Kennedy thought was a sharp satire instead of the annoying parody it is.
The Fool's Progress features Mrs. Cocks moving from the silliness of her first meddling appearances to become the Wise Woman. She, uncharacteristically, sees through Agatha's limp expression of love for Gerald to the truth of who she is, who her mother made her, and who she will always be: an expensive ornamental wife. Kennedy wasn't a skillful enough writer to figure out how to explore this without giving the mother a brain transplant.
Never mind. Knowing that The Constant Nymph will soon be written, we can see the beginnings of Kennedy's skills here in The Ladies of Lyndon. The introduction by Nicola Beauman suggests that, alas, those skills never get any further. Still, if I find another of her novels in the Ath Stacks, I will certainly give it a read.
May 11, 2019
This is the delightful and witty story of a generation of unconventional aristocrats and their home, Lyndon. We first meet the family through Agatha, who marries into the Clewer family at the age of eighteen. Her mother approves of early marriages, before a girl has had time to form independent opinions, but Agatha isn't really cut out to be a typical Edwardian hostess.
Agatha is something of an enigma. She is charming and kind, but by the end of the book the suspicion forms that Agatha is perhaps a little shallow. She does, however, support her brother-in-law James's marriage to the housemaid, Dolly. James is described by his stepmother as queer in the head, and the reader's first impression of him is of a monstrously ugly, inarticulate creature like Frankenstein's monster. However, it transpires that James is merely an artist and doesn't behave as his conventional and narrow-minded stepmother would like.
James's marriage to Dolly is perhaps the only happy marriage in the novel. Agatha's own marriage flounders because she is still in love with her cousin (although he seems to be just as much of a cold fish as her husband, John). She offends propriety (and her mother-in-law) when she runs off with the cousin, but her family protect her and the scandal doesn't become public. Agatha is thus offered a second chance, but we are left wondering if she will take it. The novel ends with a question mark rather than a resolution.
There are some wonderful characters in this novel. The humour is for the most part gentle and well-judged. I liked the book more and more as I became charmed by this family who seem not to have the qualities that normally turn me off aristocrats (in literature and elsewhere). James's stepmother is really the only person who strongly objects to the James/Dolly marriage (and ironically she is not herself of aristocratic stock, and her first husband had been an industrialist). None of the others is much bothered even when Dolly eventually becomes Lady Clewer. They accept her for what she is and do not patronise her, which is rather refreshing.
A fine novel by a writer who deserves to be remembered for more than just The Constant Nymph.
Agatha is something of an enigma. She is charming and kind, but by the end of the book the suspicion forms that Agatha is perhaps a little shallow. She does, however, support her brother-in-law James's marriage to the housemaid, Dolly. James is described by his stepmother as queer in the head, and the reader's first impression of him is of a monstrously ugly, inarticulate creature like Frankenstein's monster. However, it transpires that James is merely an artist and doesn't behave as his conventional and narrow-minded stepmother would like.
James's marriage to Dolly is perhaps the only happy marriage in the novel. Agatha's own marriage flounders because she is still in love with her cousin (although he seems to be just as much of a cold fish as her husband, John). She offends propriety (and her mother-in-law) when she runs off with the cousin, but her family protect her and the scandal doesn't become public. Agatha is thus offered a second chance, but we are left wondering if she will take it. The novel ends with a question mark rather than a resolution.
There are some wonderful characters in this novel. The humour is for the most part gentle and well-judged. I liked the book more and more as I became charmed by this family who seem not to have the qualities that normally turn me off aristocrats (in literature and elsewhere). James's stepmother is really the only person who strongly objects to the James/Dolly marriage (and ironically she is not herself of aristocratic stock, and her first husband had been an industrialist). None of the others is much bothered even when Dolly eventually becomes Lady Clewer. They accept her for what she is and do not patronise her, which is rather refreshing.
A fine novel by a writer who deserves to be remembered for more than just The Constant Nymph.
April 28, 2021
Emotional constipation of the most English sort, with some acknowledgement of the terrible toll of World War One on the sheltered classes but also a surprising bit of nose-thumbing at their snobbery and misogyny. Somewhere between The Last Parade and The Forsythe Saga, if you like that sort of thing, though Agatha has to be one of the least interesting characters of them all. James is a bit more interesting in his ability to confound one and all in his complete disregard of conventions. Much better to focus on Lyndon and how it sucks the marrow of all who live there, however luxurious and desirable it is. The Gorgon-like mothers do seem to be the most alive in their drive to push their daughters forward as cash and class currency, eating them alive in the process.
April 13, 2010
I liked this much better than Kennedy's famous The Constant Nymph, but was rather frustrated by the ending, which felt liked it just trailed off rather than stopping on purpose. I think Kennedy wanted to leave things ambiguous, but it unbalanced the book for me. Still, it is quite a fine first novel, and left me wanting to read the rest of the author's output, which is always pleasing.
February 27, 2017
I think English readers will get much more out of this book - very surprised by many of the reviews on here. It is in no way a "small domestic novel" or simply a country house book but a focused study of the catastrophic effects of the Great War on English society and institutions.
September 1, 2014
Well-written, but the combination of social comedy and romance left a rather bitter taste. Perhaps we were never intended to sympathise with anyone?
December 28, 2021
I'm on a Margaret Kennedy kick. She's very good. A tale of manners and mores among the upper crust of pre- and post WWII.
February 24, 2025
The Ladies of Lyndon is not my favorite of the Margaret Kennedy novels I’ve read so far but still has the usual pleasures of her writing—the humor, the wit, the insights.
February 1, 2025
I enjoyed this comedy of manners, published in 1923. It has a definite feminist sensibility. It’s often funny, pinpointing the contradictory social stances of the entitled British in the early 20th century. At the same time, there are some serious underlying themes, and it doesn’t end with pat solutions to relationship problems. You could even call it anti-romantic.
It begins with the central character, Agatha, making a respectable marriage to Sir John Clewer, and becoming the lady of the large manor house called Lyndon. At the same time, there’s a part of her that still thinks of her first love, Gerald, a brain surgeon with Socialist leanings, especially when their visits coincide at a relative’s country house. And after Agatha’s interfering and omnipresent mother tips her marriage into a crisis, she decides to run away with Gerald.
The family manages to keep this scandal under wraps, by telling everyone that she’s just gone off on an extended holiday in Corsica. But when Agatha returns to England, with Gerald in tow, hoping that her husband will divorce her, something has to be done. This is a time in England when people were just starting to get divorced, but it was still considered more disreputable than the occasional extramarital fling.
All the characters are drawn very skillfully. Margaret Kennedy shows them as they are, and also as the people around them assume they are. One great character is John’s brother, James, who is considered odd, to an almost dangerous extent. He’s a very literal person, who has never really learned the rules of polite interchange, and yet he has great instincts. He’s a talented artist who gains some acclaim by the end of the novel, but his relatives are still trying valiantly to handle him.
Some quotes:
< He had been a distinguished scholar when she married him and was, subsequently, never heard to speak. >
< Wrapped in these gloomy reflections he arrived in Eaton Square, and, as the car drew up, resolved that his boy should marry an orphan. He would do for his son what no one had done for him; he would see to it that the lad never met any young woman encumbered with surviving relatives. >
< He was beginning to feel that this beloved, yet incongruously magnificent creature, whom he had so unexpectedly acquired, was a charge – an obligation. Beholding her at Lyndon, he had raged against the opulence of her setting; but a mere removal had not satisfied him. He now felt that he must himself provide some sort of background for her; she was more inseparable from backgrounds than he had thought. He had already half forgotten that tide of indignant pity which had driven him to snatch her from Braxhall. >
< His hope was that if he crossed a sufficient number of fields, and climbed a few score stiles, he might, permeated by the beauties of the wintry landscape, achieve that mood of philosophic reverie which gives distinction to the poets of Cowper’s age. If fields and hedges failed to produce the right effect he might try a country churchyard. >
It begins with the central character, Agatha, making a respectable marriage to Sir John Clewer, and becoming the lady of the large manor house called Lyndon. At the same time, there’s a part of her that still thinks of her first love, Gerald, a brain surgeon with Socialist leanings, especially when their visits coincide at a relative’s country house. And after Agatha’s interfering and omnipresent mother tips her marriage into a crisis, she decides to run away with Gerald.
The family manages to keep this scandal under wraps, by telling everyone that she’s just gone off on an extended holiday in Corsica. But when Agatha returns to England, with Gerald in tow, hoping that her husband will divorce her, something has to be done. This is a time in England when people were just starting to get divorced, but it was still considered more disreputable than the occasional extramarital fling.
All the characters are drawn very skillfully. Margaret Kennedy shows them as they are, and also as the people around them assume they are. One great character is John’s brother, James, who is considered odd, to an almost dangerous extent. He’s a very literal person, who has never really learned the rules of polite interchange, and yet he has great instincts. He’s a talented artist who gains some acclaim by the end of the novel, but his relatives are still trying valiantly to handle him.
Some quotes:
< He had been a distinguished scholar when she married him and was, subsequently, never heard to speak. >
< Wrapped in these gloomy reflections he arrived in Eaton Square, and, as the car drew up, resolved that his boy should marry an orphan. He would do for his son what no one had done for him; he would see to it that the lad never met any young woman encumbered with surviving relatives. >
< He was beginning to feel that this beloved, yet incongruously magnificent creature, whom he had so unexpectedly acquired, was a charge – an obligation. Beholding her at Lyndon, he had raged against the opulence of her setting; but a mere removal had not satisfied him. He now felt that he must himself provide some sort of background for her; she was more inseparable from backgrounds than he had thought. He had already half forgotten that tide of indignant pity which had driven him to snatch her from Braxhall. >
< His hope was that if he crossed a sufficient number of fields, and climbed a few score stiles, he might, permeated by the beauties of the wintry landscape, achieve that mood of philosophic reverie which gives distinction to the poets of Cowper’s age. If fields and hedges failed to produce the right effect he might try a country churchyard. >
March 15, 2024
A relatively enjoyable read. The person who wrote the Introduction to this Virago Modern Classics reissue, Nicola Beauman, thought this was better than her more often-talked about-and-liked book ‘The Constant Nymph’, which I have yet to read (but will!). I myself so far think her best book was written 26 years after this, The Feast (1949). Five stars from me for that one!
The story takes place several years before, during and after World War One. The characters are the rich gentry who love in country houses in England. The author Margaret Kennedy does not paint them in a flattering light... Some were born into wealth and aren’t very remarkable but for their wealth. They change their clothes several times a day...well the women don’t change their clothes, they have maids assist them in changing their clothes so they can be suitably ready for breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, and then typically evening entertainment. Of course, soon that type of life, living in absurdly huge country houses with the retinue of servants of all different types to make the lives of the rich inhabitants as comfortable as possible would end (beginning after World War One and more definitely after World War II).
Synopsis of book from the back cover of the Virago Modern Classic re-issue:
• At 18 years of age Agatha is the most beautiful and desirable debutante in Edwardian London—a young women reared for one purpose only: to make a triumphant marriage. This she does and becomes the mistress of Lyndon, head of a vast household, reigning over a large and idiosyncratic family. However, Agatha soon discovers her husband, John Clewer, is a passionless and unfeeling man. For friendship she turns to his brother James, an eccentric amateur painter long regarded by the family as somewhat ‘weak in the head’. And for passion, Agathe, the perfect wife and mother, turns elsewhere... An ironic comedy of manners, enchantingly witty and elegant, Margaret Kennedy’s first novel, The Ladies of Lyndon, will introduce this classic British author to a new generation of enthusiastic readers....
One thing that I couldn't do handstands about was the difficulty initially (and then throughout the novel) of trying to remember who was who in the cast of characters...stepdaughter, daughter, cousin, great-aunt..... 🤔 😑😬
Reviews:
• https://rohanmaitzen.com/2011/01/30/m... (this reviewer was ‘meh’ about the book
• https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2... (this reviewer liked it)
• https://vocal.media/geeks/book-review...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2014/...
The story takes place several years before, during and after World War One. The characters are the rich gentry who love in country houses in England. The author Margaret Kennedy does not paint them in a flattering light... Some were born into wealth and aren’t very remarkable but for their wealth. They change their clothes several times a day...well the women don’t change their clothes, they have maids assist them in changing their clothes so they can be suitably ready for breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, and then typically evening entertainment. Of course, soon that type of life, living in absurdly huge country houses with the retinue of servants of all different types to make the lives of the rich inhabitants as comfortable as possible would end (beginning after World War One and more definitely after World War II).
Synopsis of book from the back cover of the Virago Modern Classic re-issue:
• At 18 years of age Agatha is the most beautiful and desirable debutante in Edwardian London—a young women reared for one purpose only: to make a triumphant marriage. This she does and becomes the mistress of Lyndon, head of a vast household, reigning over a large and idiosyncratic family. However, Agatha soon discovers her husband, John Clewer, is a passionless and unfeeling man. For friendship she turns to his brother James, an eccentric amateur painter long regarded by the family as somewhat ‘weak in the head’. And for passion, Agathe, the perfect wife and mother, turns elsewhere... An ironic comedy of manners, enchantingly witty and elegant, Margaret Kennedy’s first novel, The Ladies of Lyndon, will introduce this classic British author to a new generation of enthusiastic readers....
One thing that I couldn't do handstands about was the difficulty initially (and then throughout the novel) of trying to remember who was who in the cast of characters...stepdaughter, daughter, cousin, great-aunt..... 🤔 😑😬
Reviews:
• https://rohanmaitzen.com/2011/01/30/m... (this reviewer was ‘meh’ about the book
• https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2... (this reviewer liked it)
• https://vocal.media/geeks/book-review...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2014/...
November 3, 2023
I will tell anyone who will listen how much I hate The Constant Nymph so I approached this with caution. But I really enjoyed it. It's a very episodic novel - almost like a group of linked stories, centering on Agatha Cocks who marries into the Clewers family who owns Lyndon, a beautiful country house crammed with gorgeous objects and her mother, mother-in-law, and sisters-in-law. The novel follows their lives as WWI comes and goes, with economic and social changes, rendering the kind of Edwardian life before the war somewhat anachronistic.
I didn't think Kennedy said anything new and her passive anti-Semitism did make me uncomfortable but I liked the story alot and some of her characters, the odious Cynthia, engaging Lois and the wise Dolly were sympathetic indeed.
A lovely surprise.
I didn't think Kennedy said anything new and her passive anti-Semitism did make me uncomfortable but I liked the story alot and some of her characters, the odious Cynthia, engaging Lois and the wise Dolly were sympathetic indeed.
A lovely surprise.
June 1, 2025
The title “The Ladies of Lydon” is a bit deceptive since the book is really about the whole Clewer family who lives at Lydon and this includes two sons. In fact, one of the sons, James, is as important to the novel’s development as the main character of Agatha Clewer. This is yet another story of how the lives of the titled and rich in England respond to the seismic changes to their class in the early 20th century. This all could be a bit cliché (i.e. beautiful English houses with drawing rooms full of emotionally repressed upper-class families in crisis)—after all its been covered hundreds of times by writers like Woolf, Sackville-West, Huxley, Isherwood, Waugh, etc., etc.—except Kennedy is a fantastic writer whose characters and dialog transcend the “Downtown Abbey” façade.
January 9, 2023
My very favorite kind of novel. Also, very glad I gave it a second try. Mood reading at it's finest.
May 16, 2024
Took a while to get going. Some interesting character portraits. But oh the ending. So disappointing.
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