Singing Waters

by Ann Bridge

Great study for sociologist or economist and still relevant

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

Mid twentieth-century novelist [real name, Mary Anne O'Malley] who began by exploiting the milieu of the British Foreign Office community in Peking, China, where she lived for two years with her diplomat husband. Her novels combine courtship plots with vividly-realised settings and demure social satire.

She went on to write novels which take as the background of their protagonists' emotional lives a serious investigation of modern historical developments (such as the leap by which Turkey progressed from a feudal-style government to become a modern republic in which women enjoyed equality of rights and equality of opportunity).

Ann Bridge also wrote thrillers centred on a female amateur detective, travel books, and family memoirs.

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book by Ann Bridge for two reasons. Firstly because, in general, I have enjoyed her novels, and secondly because it is set in Albania, a country that interests me greatly.

Nils Larssen and the widow Gloire Thurston meet on the Orient Express sometime in the mid-1930s. Nils detects that there is something troubling Gloire and almost flippantly suggests that she should visit the high mountains in northern Albania. Unknown to him, she leaves the train at Zagreb, and makes her way to Albania.There, she meets Susan Glanfield, a writer, who is about to visit the mountains of High Albania for ethnographic reasons. Susan needs little persuading that it would be good for Gloire to join her party. They set off...

What follows is more of a travel book than a novel, but not a wonderful one at that. Chunks of almost text-book like descriptions are interspersed with chunks of sociological comment. Gloire, a sophisticated city dweller, falls in love with the 'simple' life led by the Albanians whilst Susan lies in bed nursing a broken limb under the watchful eye of an elderly American lady doctor. Eventually, Larssen pays a visit to Albania, and makes his way up into the mountains to meet Gloire and Glanfield. Even more sociological discussion follows, and not much else.

This is the most disappointing of books by an authoress, who has written gems such as Peking Picnicand Illyrian Spring to mention but two. If you are interested in the traditional life of the Albanians, reach for HIGH ALBANIA by ME Durham, and if you want a good novel set in Albania reach for novels of Ismail Kadaré.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found it absolutely fascinating that a book written in the 1940's is packed with discussions of many things that are identical to discussions which we frequently have now as "current" events and issues.
I'm not sure whether it's gratifying or absolutely scary, but either way, it's still fascinating.

[Elderberrywine · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I picked this up from a library book sale because it had an old 1940s-ish binding (turns out publishing date is 1946) and I am a sucker for those. There is an embossed scene of a mountainous valley on the cover, but the author is unknown to me. We start off with a man with the Scandinavian name of Nils on a train wandering through the Italian pre-WWII countryside. He ends up being paired in the dining car with an attractive fellow solo passenger, but notices as he follows her up the aisle that she is a mountaineer (!!!). She is British or American (turns out both) and is wealthy and dismissive of everything she sees. We head into mansplaining discussions over whether American materialism is superior to European traditional craft, and it was about there I decided to Google the author. She turns out to be British/American herself, born about the turn the century, and did well with “prestige” novels as she followed her British diplomat husband around the globe. OK. So Nils has one piece of advice for Gloire, who is on her way to Istanbul. Go to Albania. And on the spur of the moment, she does.

Well, from there on, she manages to become befriended by a famous British authoress, who happens to be a mountaineer also (did I mentioned that she was widowed when her husband, a world-famous mountaineer, was injured and abandoned by his comrades?) and tags along with her to a remote mountainous (natch) corner of Albania. Circumstances force them to remain there awhile, and in the end, she is won over by the noble folk of Albania, and settles in to use her extensive funds to establish a medical practice with an elderly British lady doctor, as one does. And guess who shows up, Nils! Who turns out to be British author’s long-lost crush, because they used to go mountaineering together! J am beginning to detect a theme *eye roll*. So it was a lot - rambling and full of thoughty thoughts, but I want to go to that specific Albania, even if mountaineering is not my forte. I’ve always loved the crisp mountain air.

[Boreal Mum · Rating 4 out of 5]

wasn't to into this book .I mainly was reading it because it had been my grandmother's book .honestly I almost ditched it after the first chapter . I am glad I kept treking ! it really does pick up . undertones of that smug British colonizer of course somehow observing others who are not quite as hum,an as them LOL . however mid book wow ! a whole 2 pgs actually , honestly promoting homebirth ! so impressed !

[Mary Lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have the author as Ann Bridge but could, of course, be mistaken.
An unhappy restless rich British widow traveling in Italy meets a Dane who suggests that she visit Lithuania to find our what real value is. To the surprise of both, she goes there, finds values & some degree of purpose & happiness. Glad I found it.

[Francine Apollo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great study for sociologist or economist and still relevant!

[Victoria Grusing · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really a hard book to keep my interest. It is more like a very, very long opinion piece.