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Jonathan
In early nineteenth-century England the fate of four orphans changes markedly when a fourteen-year-old stranger comes into their lives and remains to take care of them.
205 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1972
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 23, 2008
Young adult fiction by a forgotten English author...very moving portrayal of the hardships of life for the poor at the beginning of the industrial revolution. Lovely writing.
January 13, 2021
“No one is always safe.”
I read Lovett's "The Great and Terrible Quest" several years ago and loved it and so expected to love this as well. It is a great immersion into life for children during the industrial revolution and it definitely doesn't pull any punches when it comes to including pain and misery. I think that my expectation of similarity between the books colored my initial reaction to this one.
I loved Lovett's dialogue and when characters were actively interacting and talking the writing was excellent. I noticed that, in most other places, sentences elongated to unprecedented lengths. The opening chapter contains so many extremely long sentences (with vast amounts of words - there was one that had seventy-eight words! Yes, I counted.) and they each had only a few commas with which to organize themselves. It takes a long time to wade through sentences like that and it detracted from my enjoyment of the read (even though I am also guilty of creating monstrously lengthy sentences).
In general, her depiction of industrial revolution-era life is painfully real, the depiction of the children is quite accurate (my opinion is based off of my own moderate experience with children), and the inclusion of Robert Owen and the labor strikes at the end was surprising but welcome for a history nerd like myself. I would have liked more organization and development but I enjoyed it overall.
I read Lovett's "The Great and Terrible Quest" several years ago and loved it and so expected to love this as well. It is a great immersion into life for children during the industrial revolution and it definitely doesn't pull any punches when it comes to including pain and misery. I think that my expectation of similarity between the books colored my initial reaction to this one.
I loved Lovett's dialogue and when characters were actively interacting and talking the writing was excellent. I noticed that, in most other places, sentences elongated to unprecedented lengths. The opening chapter contains so many extremely long sentences (with vast amounts of words - there was one that had seventy-eight words! Yes, I counted.) and they each had only a few commas with which to organize themselves. It takes a long time to wade through sentences like that and it detracted from my enjoyment of the read (even though I am also guilty of creating monstrously lengthy sentences).
In general, her depiction of industrial revolution-era life is painfully real, the depiction of the children is quite accurate (my opinion is based off of my own moderate experience with children), and the inclusion of Robert Owen and the labor strikes at the end was surprising but welcome for a history nerd like myself. I would have liked more organization and development but I enjoyed it overall.
June 9, 2023
My favorite book so far♥️
It totally melt my heart and I can't stop reading it over and over again.
It totally melt my heart and I can't stop reading it over and over again.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews