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The Wild Swan
According to a sensational West End play, the Victorian children's writer, Dorothea Harding, was no dowdy maiden aunt, but the passionate participant in a torrid, tragic romance. It is the task of Roy Collins to turn the play into an equally popular film. Dorothea's descendents have only weak objections to the misuse of their relation's private past - they need money more than dignity. But Roy has misgivings, and when a set of revealing letters are discovered, he begins to feel that the truth might be more important than the story.
- GenresFiction20th Century
293 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1957
About the author
Margaret Kennedy
47 books93 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 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 10, 2014
Back in the 1920s Margaret Kennedy’s second novel, ‘The Constant Nymph’, was a huge, huge success. It was one of the bestselling novels of the decade, it became a successful stage play and then Margaret Kennedy was called upon to write a screenplay. That led her to more work in Britain’s film industry, and that experience underpins this novel.
Roy Collins had been smitten with photography and cinema since boyhood, and when he grew up he set about working his way up in the cinema business. He had secured a job working on scripts for BBB – Blech Bernstein British!
Dorothy Harding had been a Victorian novelist. She had never married but she had supported her family, writing moral tales that were popular in their day but would quickly be forgotten. Dorothy would have been forgotten, had her diary and her poems not come to light after her death. They revealed a very different side of the author, and literary critic Alec Mundy published a book suggesting that the ‘G’ Dorothy wrote of with such passion was the man that she had loved and her sister had married. Playwright Adelaide Lassiter had taken that theory and turned it into a grandly romantic film that had become a huge hit and was going to be turned into a film.
And that was where Roy came in!
He had an uneasy feeling about the job. He was disappointed that the Harding family were only interested in the income that that film would bring them, he was interested that the there was such love for the author in the countryside around her home, and he began to wonder if the critic and the playwright had got things wrong.
Roy was right. The story stepped back into the past to tell Dorothy’s story.
The earlier chapters had been wonderful. A lovely introduction, as Roy visited the schoolteacher aunt who had understood him better than his parents ever had and spoken with her about what he was doing, set the story up beautifully. The gentle but knowing satire of the film business was so very well down. And Harding family, living in genteel poverty in a run-down country house, quite oblivious to the fact that the world had changed, were captured beautifully.
The interlude in the past was even finer; I thought that I might have met the loveliest Victorian novelist I had encountered before; I realised that Margaret Kennedy had planned her story so very, very cleverly.
Dorothy’s real story was much deeper, much more moving than the story that the critic and the playwright had spun; and yet it was understandable that they had drawn the conclusions that they did. Dorothy had grown from an imaginative child into an intelligent woman, but her life had been sheltered, she was naïve about so any things, and her family and others had exploited that, and her good nature.
Margaret Kennedy’s work is informed by her love of Jane Austen, but Dorothy’s story suggests that she knew and loved the Brontes too ….
Roy loved his job, but he knew that he had to do the right thing; he had to clear Dorothy’s reputation of the romantic fantasy the poet and playwright had concocted, even if it did cost him his job.
I loved that way that the story played out. The playwright was disappointed that the truth failed to live up to her romantic fantasy, but she decided that she had to represent her heroine honestly. That was lovely. The film company and the leading lady pulled back from the project. That was understandable. And the critic – who surely should have done a little more research and a little less speculating – was determined to suppress the truth and preserve his reputation. That was worrying.
Margaret Kennedy is wonderfully clear-sighted and unsentimental, and not at all judgemental. She just presents that characters and tells the story, and yet I knew that she knew. And I agreed.
I loved Roy, I loved Dorothy, and I loved the way their stories were woven together.
This proved to be a story for the head and the heart.
There is much to reward careful reading; lovely details, allusions, and themes that echo through Margaret Kennedy’s work.
And the story of an woman whose reputation many are ready to tarnish, who accepts what life offers her and finds peace is both moving and memorable.
Roy Collins had been smitten with photography and cinema since boyhood, and when he grew up he set about working his way up in the cinema business. He had secured a job working on scripts for BBB – Blech Bernstein British!
Dorothy Harding had been a Victorian novelist. She had never married but she had supported her family, writing moral tales that were popular in their day but would quickly be forgotten. Dorothy would have been forgotten, had her diary and her poems not come to light after her death. They revealed a very different side of the author, and literary critic Alec Mundy published a book suggesting that the ‘G’ Dorothy wrote of with such passion was the man that she had loved and her sister had married. Playwright Adelaide Lassiter had taken that theory and turned it into a grandly romantic film that had become a huge hit and was going to be turned into a film.
And that was where Roy came in!
He had an uneasy feeling about the job. He was disappointed that the Harding family were only interested in the income that that film would bring them, he was interested that the there was such love for the author in the countryside around her home, and he began to wonder if the critic and the playwright had got things wrong.
Roy was right. The story stepped back into the past to tell Dorothy’s story.
The earlier chapters had been wonderful. A lovely introduction, as Roy visited the schoolteacher aunt who had understood him better than his parents ever had and spoken with her about what he was doing, set the story up beautifully. The gentle but knowing satire of the film business was so very well down. And Harding family, living in genteel poverty in a run-down country house, quite oblivious to the fact that the world had changed, were captured beautifully.
The interlude in the past was even finer; I thought that I might have met the loveliest Victorian novelist I had encountered before; I realised that Margaret Kennedy had planned her story so very, very cleverly.
Dorothy’s real story was much deeper, much more moving than the story that the critic and the playwright had spun; and yet it was understandable that they had drawn the conclusions that they did. Dorothy had grown from an imaginative child into an intelligent woman, but her life had been sheltered, she was naïve about so any things, and her family and others had exploited that, and her good nature.
Margaret Kennedy’s work is informed by her love of Jane Austen, but Dorothy’s story suggests that she knew and loved the Brontes too ….
Roy loved his job, but he knew that he had to do the right thing; he had to clear Dorothy’s reputation of the romantic fantasy the poet and playwright had concocted, even if it did cost him his job.
I loved that way that the story played out. The playwright was disappointed that the truth failed to live up to her romantic fantasy, but she decided that she had to represent her heroine honestly. That was lovely. The film company and the leading lady pulled back from the project. That was understandable. And the critic – who surely should have done a little more research and a little less speculating – was determined to suppress the truth and preserve his reputation. That was worrying.
Margaret Kennedy is wonderfully clear-sighted and unsentimental, and not at all judgemental. She just presents that characters and tells the story, and yet I knew that she knew. And I agreed.
I loved Roy, I loved Dorothy, and I loved the way their stories were woven together.
This proved to be a story for the head and the heart.
There is much to reward careful reading; lovely details, allusions, and themes that echo through Margaret Kennedy’s work.
And the story of an woman whose reputation many are ready to tarnish, who accepts what life offers her and finds peace is both moving and memorable.
October 23, 2024
Not so good as expected since I fund the story a little bit confusing. Since this is my first book by this author, I will probably will choose another title to improve my overall impression.
2* The Wild Swan
TR The Feast
TR A Night in Cold Harbour
TR Red Sky at Morning
2* The Wild Swan
TR The Feast
TR A Night in Cold Harbour
TR Red Sky at Morning
July 17, 2020
4.5 Wow! Really good. Definitely recommend. (Seems to also have been published as "The Wild Swan" which you will have an easier time finding.)
November 19, 2024
This book had me weeping copiously at a fish and chips shop. I will never read it again.
October 15, 2014
I feel bad giving only three stars to a book with so few reviews by a writer I love - and a book with so much going for it. But I vowed to rate purely by how much I like a book and this one left me unsatisfied. I love the setup and the characters. I even like the use of the just-miss romance, which reminds me strongly of the one in "Lucy Carmichael," which I loved. And it was a wonderful "show not tell" of the toll sexism, patriarchy, etc. have taken on female artists - or rather would-have-been female artists and their lost, never-produced works.
But I just didn't enjoy the book as much as I wanted to. I felt we found out too many of the "answers" (about Dorothea's real life) too early and then had to wait a long time for the characters to figure them out. I also found the ending anti-climactic and lacking in interest. I cared passionately what happened to Dorothea when she was alive but that was settled quite early. It was just a matter of seeing how that played out. I couldn't sustain much narrative tension for whether or not the silly movie got made. Her reputation had already been dragged in the dust twice - by Mundy's book and Adelaide's play. I suppose it's nice that her letters will be published but it doesn't help her much at this point! It does - apparently - help our protagonist Roy but I didn't like him as much as I think we are supposed to so I'm not too excited about that either.
There were a couple other small things that interfered with my enjoyment of the book. One was Roy's apparent psychic connection with Dorothea, from the very beginning. It didn't seem to fit the tone of the book and I don't understand the purpose. Another is maybe just my dullness, but I don't understand why Roy destroyed the one letter, or why that detail was included. And I'm not clear what (if anything) she meant to convey by the timing of the Reverend's death.
Still, I'm very glad I read the book and I enthusiastically recommend it, despite my three stars. I will almost certainly re-read it at some point. Perhaps I will like it better then!
But I just didn't enjoy the book as much as I wanted to. I felt we found out too many of the "answers" (about Dorothea's real life) too early and then had to wait a long time for the characters to figure them out. I also found the ending anti-climactic and lacking in interest. I cared passionately what happened to Dorothea when she was alive but that was settled quite early. It was just a matter of seeing how that played out. I couldn't sustain much narrative tension for whether or not the silly movie got made. Her reputation had already been dragged in the dust twice - by Mundy's book and Adelaide's play. I suppose it's nice that her letters will be published but it doesn't help her much at this point! It does - apparently - help our protagonist Roy but I didn't like him as much as I think we are supposed to so I'm not too excited about that either.
There were a couple other small things that interfered with my enjoyment of the book. One was Roy's apparent psychic connection with Dorothea, from the very beginning. It didn't seem to fit the tone of the book and I don't understand the purpose. Another is maybe just my dullness, but I don't understand why Roy destroyed the one letter, or why that detail was included. And I'm not clear what (if anything) she meant to convey by the timing of the Reverend's death.
Still, I'm very glad I read the book and I enthusiastically recommend it, despite my three stars. I will almost certainly re-read it at some point. Perhaps I will like it better then!
September 29, 2026
Another banger from Margaret Kennedy. The more books I read from her the more I fall in love with her wit and general sensibility.
In The Wild Swan we get two timelines - one is a family in “current day” (time the book was written) trying to decide whether or not to sell the rights of their late aunt’s writing / life story and the other timeline is decades before following the life of that aunt in question. Very fun setup for a book. It’s very charming and the characters are fun. My only complaint would’ve been wanting a family tree at the beginning of the book to help keep track of everybody, but just as I started hoping for that I was given one in smack in middle of the book. Thanks Marge!
In The Wild Swan we get two timelines - one is a family in “current day” (time the book was written) trying to decide whether or not to sell the rights of their late aunt’s writing / life story and the other timeline is decades before following the life of that aunt in question. Very fun setup for a book. It’s very charming and the characters are fun. My only complaint would’ve been wanting a family tree at the beginning of the book to help keep track of everybody, but just as I started hoping for that I was given one in smack in middle of the book. Thanks Marge!
February 2, 2026
I enjoyed this clever story within a story at first. It focuses on the making of a film about a Victorian novelist and poet with a seemingly scandalous secret life. As the film script is developed we are taken back in time and learn the truth about her life. However, I found it very hard to keep on top of all the characters in the past and present storylines and the parts about the development of the film began to drag quite a bit, making me lose interest.
March 18, 2026
I really enjoyed this. It moves quite elegantly between 2 time periods and is rather touching both on the lives described and particularly how one unravels the mystery surrounding the other - not to mention the low key way in which the potential love affair in the current period is dealt with ( no spoilers!).
October 13, 2014
The Wild Swan opens with Roy Collins, a 25 year old cynic with immense talent who works for BBB (Blech Bernstein British) as a script writer. He is ambitious and wants to become a director, but knows that the road to that position is not easy and compromises have to be made to reach it. He has developed a style of smooth talking and a sham personality to get along with everyone and get everything done, without any authenticity of character. His current assignment brings him to Bramstock, where he is to assist play right Adelaide Lassiter and critic Alec Mundy put together a script on the life of Dorothea Harding. Dorothea was a Victorian novelist, who wrote prim romantic novels set is historical backdrop which were a great success in her days, but now are complete forgotten! It was believed until about 20 years ago, that she led a completely blameless as well as color less life, until Mundy uncovered some of her poetry and a diary based on which he wrote a book claiming hidden passions and sinful love for Grant, who was Dorothea Harding, sister’s husband. Based on this book, Adelaide Lassiter wrote a play and this play was now basis of the film. Dorothea Harding’s current family, the owners of Bramstock, are not particularly interested in how their relation is portrayed as long they can get the money for allowing filming on the estate. Roy himself is not much interested in the work – he has never read any of Dorothea Harding’s work nor is he really concerned with what gets presented on the celluloid, as long as he can get his job done and get back to BBB headquarters and pursue his ambition. However certain incidents and discovery of some new letters, force Roy to realize that not everything is as it seems, and the truth runs deeper than it initially appeared and this one time, it is imperative to bring the truth forward, regardless of the cost – even if it impacts his ultimate dreams!!
The plot is wonderful, you are plunged write into the truth of Dorothea Harding’s life, but in a distinctive narrative style, it takes a while for the readers to actually put the whole jigsaw puzzle together and the ending, which is so simple, that it becomes extraordinary in a landscape of unreal or fairy tale like climactic endings. The characterizations, which I now realize is Ms. Kennedy’s core strength, blew me away. Dorothea Harding, lovely spirited and free, is woman after my heart. Her hopes and ambitions belie the norms of her society and when her plans are thwarted, still has the moral courage to go on and continue to be good and generous. Roy is absolutely wonderful, a good boy turned jaded soul turned honest man; you feel the triumph of human spirit when he decides to follow the truth, despite all odds! The only character I could not warm up to was Cecilia Harding, but then I think Ms. Kennedy wanted us to feel that way about her and I do understand the frustration of being immensely gifted and not being able to use it because of lack of fund. My favorite character was Adelaide Lassiter – she alone stands for all that is innocent, brave and honest. She may not be the smartest or the wisest, but she knows what is right and never a moment, not even at the very peak of her success, does she lose sight of that! The language as always is wonderful and I could quote lines after lines from the book, but will contend myself with only a few – “Why should I be loaded with luxuries I don’t care for and be denied the one thing for which I crave – my leisure?” “I think she meant that happiness is really a prison and our gaolers are our preferences. We think we like one person or one place better than another. We regret the past, and we fear the future. But to a broken heart, all places are the same, there is the same grief to be encountered everywhere. And time is not important.” Wow!! The book is filled with such che-ching and the coin dropped moments!!
What a joy you are to read Ms. Kennedy!
The plot is wonderful, you are plunged write into the truth of Dorothea Harding’s life, but in a distinctive narrative style, it takes a while for the readers to actually put the whole jigsaw puzzle together and the ending, which is so simple, that it becomes extraordinary in a landscape of unreal or fairy tale like climactic endings. The characterizations, which I now realize is Ms. Kennedy’s core strength, blew me away. Dorothea Harding, lovely spirited and free, is woman after my heart. Her hopes and ambitions belie the norms of her society and when her plans are thwarted, still has the moral courage to go on and continue to be good and generous. Roy is absolutely wonderful, a good boy turned jaded soul turned honest man; you feel the triumph of human spirit when he decides to follow the truth, despite all odds! The only character I could not warm up to was Cecilia Harding, but then I think Ms. Kennedy wanted us to feel that way about her and I do understand the frustration of being immensely gifted and not being able to use it because of lack of fund. My favorite character was Adelaide Lassiter – she alone stands for all that is innocent, brave and honest. She may not be the smartest or the wisest, but she knows what is right and never a moment, not even at the very peak of her success, does she lose sight of that! The language as always is wonderful and I could quote lines after lines from the book, but will contend myself with only a few – “Why should I be loaded with luxuries I don’t care for and be denied the one thing for which I crave – my leisure?” “I think she meant that happiness is really a prison and our gaolers are our preferences. We think we like one person or one place better than another. We regret the past, and we fear the future. But to a broken heart, all places are the same, there is the same grief to be encountered everywhere. And time is not important.” Wow!! The book is filled with such che-ching and the coin dropped moments!!
What a joy you are to read Ms. Kennedy!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews