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Good Old Anna
Mrs. Belloc Lowndes (Adelaide Julie Elizabeth Renée) (1868-1947) who wrote under the pen name Philip Curtin was a British author who wrote The Philosophy of the Marquise (1899), His Most Gracious Majesty King Edward VII (1901), The Prince and Princess of Wales (1902), The Heart of Penelope (1904), Barbara Rebell (1905), The Pulse of A Story of a Passing Life (1908), Studies in Wives (1909), The Uttermost Farthing (1910), When No Man Pursueth (1910), Jane Oglander (1911), Mary Pechell (1912), The Chink in the Armour (1912), The Lodger (1913), Studies in Love and in Terror (1913), The End of Her Honeymoon (1913), Price of Admiralty (1915), Told in Gallant A Child's History of the War (1915), A Part of Her Life (1916), Good Old Anna (1916), The Red Cross Barge (1916), Love and Hatred (1917), Out of the War? (1918), From Out the Vasty Deep (1921), The Lonely House (1920), What Timmy Did (1921), Why They Married (1923), The Terriford Mystery (1924), Some Men and Women (1925), What Really Happened (1926), The Story of Ivy (1927) and Love's Revenge (1929).
- GenresClassics
308 pages, Paperback
Published December 7, 2007
6 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
Marie Belloc Lowndes
232 books69 followersMarie Adelaide Elizabeth Rayner Lowndes, née Belloc (5 August 1868 – 14 November 1947), was a prolific English novelist.
Active from 1898 until her death, she had a literary reputation for combining exciting incident with psychological interest. Two of her works were adapted for the screen.
Born in Marylebone, London and raised in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France, Mrs Belloc Lowndes was the only daughter of French barrister Louis Belloc and English feminist Bessie Parkes. Her younger brother was Hilaire Belloc, whom she wrote of in her last work, The Young Hilaire Belloc (published posthumously in 1956). Her paternal grandfather was the French painter Jean-Hilaire Belloc, and her maternal great-great-grandfather was Joseph Priestley. In 1896, she married Frederick Sawrey A. Lowndes (1868–1940). Her mother died in 1925, 53 years after her father.
She published a biography, H.R.H. The Prince of Wales: An Account of His Career, in 1898. From then on, she published novels, reminiscences, and plays at the rate of one per year until 1946. In the memoir, I, too, Have Lived in Arcadia (1942), she told the story of her mother's life, compiled largely from old family letters and her own memories of her early life in France. A second autobiography Where love and friendship dwelt, appeared posthumously in 1948.
She died 14 November 1947 at the home of her elder daughter, Countess Iddesleigh (wife of the third Earl) in Eversley Cross, Hampshire, and was interred in France, in La Celle-Saint-Cloud near Versailles, where she spent her youth.
(from Wikipedia)
Active from 1898 until her death, she had a literary reputation for combining exciting incident with psychological interest. Two of her works were adapted for the screen.
Born in Marylebone, London and raised in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France, Mrs Belloc Lowndes was the only daughter of French barrister Louis Belloc and English feminist Bessie Parkes. Her younger brother was Hilaire Belloc, whom she wrote of in her last work, The Young Hilaire Belloc (published posthumously in 1956). Her paternal grandfather was the French painter Jean-Hilaire Belloc, and her maternal great-great-grandfather was Joseph Priestley. In 1896, she married Frederick Sawrey A. Lowndes (1868–1940). Her mother died in 1925, 53 years after her father.
She published a biography, H.R.H. The Prince of Wales: An Account of His Career, in 1898. From then on, she published novels, reminiscences, and plays at the rate of one per year until 1946. In the memoir, I, too, Have Lived in Arcadia (1942), she told the story of her mother's life, compiled largely from old family letters and her own memories of her early life in France. A second autobiography Where love and friendship dwelt, appeared posthumously in 1948.
She died 14 November 1947 at the home of her elder daughter, Countess Iddesleigh (wife of the third Earl) in Eversley Cross, Hampshire, and was interred in France, in La Celle-Saint-Cloud near Versailles, where she spent her youth.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 29, 2016
A spy novel and a love story at the same time, this book offers not only a fascinating glimpse into the lives of an English country town at the start of the First World War but is also remarkable for showing different sides to its main characters.
Mrs Otway is the widow of a Dean of an idyllic, rural town in southern England. She has raised her only daughter with the help of a German servant, Anna, who has been housekeeper, cook and nanny all in one and for very small pay, too. This was largely, it seems, because she - also a widow and mother of a daughter - had been somewhat disappointed in her own daughter and came to love Mrs Otway's like her own. These characters come with an interesting number of good and bad traits: Mrs Otway is a gentle and well-meaning lady, but also a bit scatter-brained; Anna is hard-working and loyal, but also has (very understandable) worries about providing for herself when she will have to stop working, which makes her rather in love with money. She also has never lost her German dislike of what she considers English lack of discipline and efficiency.
When WWI breaks out, things start happening in the quiet household.
A long-standing acquaintance of Mrs Otway and one of her daughter, on being called for active duty, discover their love for the heroines; the neighbours start looking askance at the German staying in the household; Anna is torn between well-wishing for her adopted family and patriotic enthusiasm for the virtues of her native country; she is also soon used as a spy and a messenger by the one nasty character in the book, entirely without her knowledge.
Remarkably, the book was written in 1915 - i.e. with no hindsight of the war yet.
I loved how all these different aspects were portrayed without judgement - the characters seemed no less likeable for their weaknesses, which are, after all, very human. The one bad guy, by constrast, is an excellent portrayal of someone outwardly ingratiating and inwardly rotten.
The one thing that rather got on my nerves was the author's attempt of rendering the faulty English of a native German speaker: half the time, Anna talks like Yoda.
The ending is really rather shocking, especially for a novel of that time (although its publication date in the middle of the war might actually account for that, as a kind of warning or wake-up-call).
Mrs Otway is the widow of a Dean of an idyllic, rural town in southern England. She has raised her only daughter with the help of a German servant, Anna, who has been housekeeper, cook and nanny all in one and for very small pay, too. This was largely, it seems, because she - also a widow and mother of a daughter - had been somewhat disappointed in her own daughter and came to love Mrs Otway's like her own. These characters come with an interesting number of good and bad traits: Mrs Otway is a gentle and well-meaning lady, but also a bit scatter-brained; Anna is hard-working and loyal, but also has (very understandable) worries about providing for herself when she will have to stop working, which makes her rather in love with money. She also has never lost her German dislike of what she considers English lack of discipline and efficiency.
When WWI breaks out, things start happening in the quiet household.
A long-standing acquaintance of Mrs Otway and one of her daughter, on being called for active duty, discover their love for the heroines; the neighbours start looking askance at the German staying in the household; Anna is torn between well-wishing for her adopted family and patriotic enthusiasm for the virtues of her native country; she is also soon used as a spy and a messenger by the one nasty character in the book, entirely without her knowledge.
Remarkably, the book was written in 1915 - i.e. with no hindsight of the war yet.
I loved how all these different aspects were portrayed without judgement - the characters seemed no less likeable for their weaknesses, which are, after all, very human. The one bad guy, by constrast, is an excellent portrayal of someone outwardly ingratiating and inwardly rotten.
The one thing that rather got on my nerves was the author's attempt of rendering the faulty English of a native German speaker: half the time, Anna talks like Yoda.
The ending is really rather shocking, especially for a novel of that time (although its publication date in the middle of the war might actually account for that, as a kind of warning or wake-up-call).
Displaying 1 of 1 review