Linden Rise

by Richmal Crompton

It is the summer of 1892 and fifteen-year-old Tilly Pound has come to Linden Rise – the holiday cottage of the genteel but dysfunctional Culverton family – to work as a housemaid. She starts as just another member of ‘the help’ but, as the years pass and the 19th century judders its unwieldy way into the 20th, this tough and resourceful young woman becomes an anchor in a fragmenting world.

Mr and Mrs Culverton are trapped in a loveless marriage, rocked by his obvious infidelities and marked by her helplessness and fragility. Their children are raising themselves until Tilly arrives, and it remains to be seen whether her lively good sense can change their lives for the better . . .

A beautifully written, razor-sharp saga that paints a vivid portrait of the fraught and nuanced relationships between parents and their children, Linden Rise is full of the charming child characters that Richmal Crompton always evokes so beautifully.

Genres: Fiction

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Richmal Crompton Lamburn was initially trained as a schoolmistress but later became a popular English writer, best known for her Just William series of books, humorous short stories, and to a lesser extent adult fiction books.

Crompton's fiction centres around family and social life, dwelling on the constraints that they place on individuals while also nurturing them. This is best seen in her depiction of children as puzzled onlookers of society's ways. Nevertheless, the children, particularly William and his Outlaws, almost always emerge triumphant.

Reviews

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of her books for adults that I've read, and it was far removed from William Brown. I look forward to more of her adult novels.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a novel for grown-ups by an author who is better known for her humorous Just William books, about a mischievous school-boy. A period piece, this story opens in the 1890s, and is about a dysfunctional "genteel" family, and their uneducated (of course) but smart as a whip and tough as nails young servant, Tilly. This is definitely one for the Downton Abbey crowd. Apart from the upstairs/downstairs aspect of it, it reminded me of the Downton experience both on account of how avidly I followed the story, and on account of some the reservations I had when I came up for air. Some of the characters here are overdrawn and not quite believable. I was also puzzled by the complete non-appearance of WWI, although the novel spans several decades (Tilly is 15 at the book's opening and an "old woman" at its end). Not quite sure if it's really and truly a four star book -- for me that means I can imagine rereading it -- but it's going on the shelf not the discard pile, so there you have it.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book nearly as much as I have enjoyed all the other adult novels of Richmal Crompton. I am aware of some of her "stock" characters who appear in different guises in most of the books - the beautiful and handsome with selfish traits, the plain who are sensitive and withdrawn, often badly treated by a domineering parent, but who often make more of their lives than the more attractive conventional siblings.

[Louise Culmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1892, 15 year old Tilly is engaged as a maid to work at Linden Rise,a house that has been let for the summer to the culver on family. Tilly will be helping Mrs Horsefield,who has been engaged to cook for the Culvertons. Tilly,a forthright, sensible girl, is very keen to learn to cook, though Mrs Horsefield isn’t particularly keen on parting with her secrets. The Culverton family arrive, Mrs Culverton,who is obsessed with her husband, who is involved with another woman, and their four children. Miss May, a middle aged spinster dominated by her selfish elderly mother (selfish elderly mothers are a recurring theme in Crompton’s books) has been engaged as holiday governess for the girls. During the summer Tilly learns a lot about the Culvertons, and gets on particularly well with charming, easygoing Richard. When the Culvertons go home, Tilly stays on at Linden Rise to work for the house’s owner. We then skip nine years to 1901. The Culvertons return for another summer, the children all grown up now, and Mrs Culverton still in despair about her husband. Mrs Culverton is persuaded to buy Linden Rise and the children have various romantic entanglements. Then about 70% of the way through the book time speeds up and we skip ahead a decade, then another. By the end of the book we have passed about 40 years I think, though it is difficult to say. There is mention of Queen Victoria’s death and the Boer War in 1901, but after that no events are referred to at all, there is no mention of WW1 for instance. A drawback of the book is that none of the Culvertons apart from Richard are very likeable, and Miss May, who is really my favourite character apart from Tilly, disappears in the last quarter of the book. I was glad that the book has a satisfying ending for Tilly, but I am not fond of books that cover a very long period of time, and I would have liked the ending to come about 30 years earlier.