The Margery Sharp Collection Volume Two: The Martha Novels

by Margery Sharp

This New York Times–bestselling trilogy follows an artistic girl as she grows up to become a painter—from the “highly gifted” author of Cluny Brown (The New Yorker).   A master of the twentieth-century comedy of manners, British author Margery Sharp has been praised as “one of the most gifted writers of comedy” (Chicago Daily News) and “a wonderful entertainer” (The New Yorker). In her New York Times bestseller, The Eye of Love, she introduced nine-year-old artist Martha, a character so fascinating Sharp continued her story into adulthood in two beautifully wrought follow-up novels. “[Martha] offers a completely unique portrait of female genius, in all its single-minded dedication and selfishness” (The New York Times).  The Eye of They met at the Chelsea Arts He came as a brown paper parcel, she as a Spanish dancer. Dolores and Harry have been passionately in love ever since. But ten years later, during the Great Depression, Harry must marry his colleague’s daughter to rescue his nearly bankrupt business. Yet with help from Dolores’s artistically inclined, orphaned nine-year-old niece, Martha, the couple may still find their way to happily ever after, in this New York Times bestseller.   “This postwar novel is one of her best.” —The New York Times   “A double-plotted . . . masterpiece with a great deal of wit and not an ounce of sentimentality.” —The GuardianMartha in Now eighteen, Martha is blessed with the opportunity of a an all-expenses-paid trip to Paris to study painting. Despite her single-minded pursuit of creativity, she attracts an admirer in the City of Light—not a debonair Frenchman, but a homesick British bank clerk. When an unexpected complication arises, Martha deals with the consequences in her usual sensible, independent fashion.   “Chalk up another for Margery Sharp’s collection of offbeat heroines and outrageously funny novels.” —Newark Evening News  Martha, Eric, and In the decade since her time in Paris, Martha has become a successful artist in England. Now, as she returns to Paris to attend an exhibition of her work, she must face some unfinished business—namely her ten-year-old son, George, who’s been raised by his father, Eric, and doting grandmother. In this precocious Parisian boy, she is finally about to meet her match.   “Amusing, enjoyable, Miss Sharp is a born storyteller.” —The Times (London)

Genres: Fiction

517 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 24, 2018

About the author

Margery Sharp was born Clara Margery Melita Sharp in Salisbury. She spent part of her childhood in Malta.

Sharp wrote 26 novels, 14 children's stories, 4 plays, 2 mysteries and many short stories. She is best known for her series of children's books about a little white mouse named Miss Bianca and her companion, Bernard. Two Disney films have been made based on them, called The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under.

In 1938, she married Major Geoffrey Castle, an aeronautical engineer.

Reviews

[Cookie M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margery Sharp takes Martha, a lumping, thoroughly unlikeable, self-centered, and self-contained little girl growing into womanhood, and makes her fascinating. In fact, Martha is delightful. How can you find yourself rooting for an unwed mother who abandons her newborn son in a foreign country not once but twice? Martha does, and the reader says, "Oh, well. What can you expect from Martha?"
It all turns out well in the end, although it takes three novels and several villages to successfully raise Martha and insulate those she bumps up against.

[Monica · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Strange collection of books, linked by one common character, Martha. I was expecting it to be something like Richmal Crompton's "Just William" but it was obviously not. "The Eye of Love" was almost funny, even though the characters were cardboardish, with only a few defining traits.
The other two, "Martha in Paris" and "Martha, Eric and George" were bizarre, or maybe Martha was bizarre or maybe the omniscient narrator's take on Martha was bizarre. These novels were praised as early feminist novels, but they don't strike me as such. Do women really need to give up everything in order to be successful artists? There are plenty of examples of male painters who "had it all", so I don't see these novels as really "feminist".