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The Belfry
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
330 pages, Nook
First published November 3, 2004
1 person is currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
May Sinclair
183 books60 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
May Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair, a popular British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League. May Sinclair was also a significant critic, in the area of modernist poetry and prose and she is attributed with first using the term stream of consciousness) in a literary context, when reviewing the first volumes of Dorothy Richardson's novel sequence Pilgrimage (1915–67), in The Egoist, April 1918.
May Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair, a popular British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League. May Sinclair was also a significant critic, in the area of modernist poetry and prose and she is attributed with first using the term stream of consciousness) in a literary context, when reviewing the first volumes of Dorothy Richardson's novel sequence Pilgrimage (1915–67), in The Egoist, April 1918.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 12, 2023
It was good - a strong 3 stars. It is interesting that this book is called ‘The Belfry’ in the US (publisher, Macmillan). but in the UK the same book (text) was issued as ‘Tasker Jevons: The Real Story’ (publisher, Hutchison & Co.). I don’t think that is very common, is it.... was it? Calling a book by two names? 🤨 🧐
This was a story about two men and a woman. Tasker Jevons and his friend, Wally (Walter or Wallace, not sure which is his proper first name) Furnival, both loved Viola, but Viola only had eyes for Tasker and eventually married him. The book was named ‘The Belfry’ after a church tower in Bruges, Belgium. Tasker had travelled there from England and thought it was so beautiful he invited Viola who was pining after him in England to come to Belgium and see it with him. She dropped what she was doing and went. It was very scandalous in those days to do such a thing given she was not married to Tasker. When her family found out that she went they were horrified. Her brother, Reggie, whom she was extremely close to, was extremely horrified and that formed a key part of the novel.
The narrator in the novel was Wally Furnival and the events that transpired were from his viewpoint.
Near the end of the novel, the three are in Belgium in the midst of World War One. Wally is a war correspondent, Tasker is part of a two-man ambulance brigade (the other person is his chauffer from back in England) transporting wounded French and British soldiers to field hospitals, and Viola went to Bruges to be with her husband, Tasker. May Sinclair during the war was part of an ambulance corps. She wrote about her experiences in ‘A Journal of Impressions in Belgium’ (available on Project Gutenberg).
• From Wikipedia: In 1914, she volunteered to join the Munro Ambulance Corps, a charitable organization (which included Lady Dorothie Feilding, Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm) that aided wounded Belgian soldiers on the Western Front in Flanders. She was sent home after only a few weeks at the front; she wrote about the experience in both prose and poetry.
There were several words used in the book that I had no idea what they meant. But I wrote down the words and the sentences in which they were used to figure out later how they were defined. I wonder if you already knew what they meant? 🧐 🙃 They are below:
• ‘funk’ as in: ‘Except that Kendall doesn’t funk it and I do.’ And ‘His cowardice—his distaste for danger—his certainty that if any danger were ever to come near him he would funk.’ Definition of funk (chiefly British): avoid a thing out of fear.
• ‘bounder’ as in: The parents of Viola and her brother Reggie considered Tasker to be a bounder...I knew when I came across the word it had a negative connotation given their feelings towards him at that point in the novel. Definition of bounder (chiefly British): a vulgar man.
• ‘dished’ as in: ‘Don’t you remember how he dished my game at dinner?’ And ‘She had dished me as a war correspondent.’ Definition of dished (chiefly British): utterly destroy, confound, or defeat.
In looking at pictures of the Belfry in Bruges Belgium, it certainly is beautiful. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfry_... for an interesting history and description of the prominent edifice.
• The Belfry of Bruges (Dutch: Belfort van Brugge) is a medieval bell tower in the centre of Bruges, Belgium. One of the city's most prominent symbols,[1] the belfry formerly housed a treasury and the municipal archives, and served as an observation post for spotting fires and other dangers.
• JimZ: It’s ironic that it was used for spotting fires because its spire was destroyed twice from fire (from lightning strikes). In both cases the spires were made out of wood. The belfry was built in 1240....burned to the ground in 1280, and was rebuilt where it stands today. You can climb to the top via is 366 steps! It was and is a bell tower...and the bells were used centuries ago to announce the time, fire alarms, work hours, and a variety of social, political, and religious events.
Note:
• My book was an ex-library book from The David M. Fuller Library in Falls Village, Connecticut. There was a nice bookplate on the inner front cover. I looked up the library and it is still there. It was established in 1891....the pictures of it outside and inside were quite nice.... I would like to read in that library....very cozy. https://www.google.com/search?q=David...
Reviews:
• http://libraryhospital.blogspot.com/2...
• A GoodReads reviewer: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/sho...
This was a story about two men and a woman. Tasker Jevons and his friend, Wally (Walter or Wallace, not sure which is his proper first name) Furnival, both loved Viola, but Viola only had eyes for Tasker and eventually married him. The book was named ‘The Belfry’ after a church tower in Bruges, Belgium. Tasker had travelled there from England and thought it was so beautiful he invited Viola who was pining after him in England to come to Belgium and see it with him. She dropped what she was doing and went. It was very scandalous in those days to do such a thing given she was not married to Tasker. When her family found out that she went they were horrified. Her brother, Reggie, whom she was extremely close to, was extremely horrified and that formed a key part of the novel.
The narrator in the novel was Wally Furnival and the events that transpired were from his viewpoint.
Near the end of the novel, the three are in Belgium in the midst of World War One. Wally is a war correspondent, Tasker is part of a two-man ambulance brigade (the other person is his chauffer from back in England) transporting wounded French and British soldiers to field hospitals, and Viola went to Bruges to be with her husband, Tasker. May Sinclair during the war was part of an ambulance corps. She wrote about her experiences in ‘A Journal of Impressions in Belgium’ (available on Project Gutenberg).
• From Wikipedia: In 1914, she volunteered to join the Munro Ambulance Corps, a charitable organization (which included Lady Dorothie Feilding, Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm) that aided wounded Belgian soldiers on the Western Front in Flanders. She was sent home after only a few weeks at the front; she wrote about the experience in both prose and poetry.
There were several words used in the book that I had no idea what they meant. But I wrote down the words and the sentences in which they were used to figure out later how they were defined. I wonder if you already knew what they meant? 🧐 🙃 They are below:
• ‘funk’ as in: ‘Except that Kendall doesn’t funk it and I do.’ And ‘His cowardice—his distaste for danger—his certainty that if any danger were ever to come near him he would funk.’ Definition of funk (chiefly British): avoid a thing out of fear.
• ‘bounder’ as in: The parents of Viola and her brother Reggie considered Tasker to be a bounder...I knew when I came across the word it had a negative connotation given their feelings towards him at that point in the novel. Definition of bounder (chiefly British): a vulgar man.
• ‘dished’ as in: ‘Don’t you remember how he dished my game at dinner?’ And ‘She had dished me as a war correspondent.’ Definition of dished (chiefly British): utterly destroy, confound, or defeat.
In looking at pictures of the Belfry in Bruges Belgium, it certainly is beautiful. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfry_... for an interesting history and description of the prominent edifice.
• The Belfry of Bruges (Dutch: Belfort van Brugge) is a medieval bell tower in the centre of Bruges, Belgium. One of the city's most prominent symbols,[1] the belfry formerly housed a treasury and the municipal archives, and served as an observation post for spotting fires and other dangers.
• JimZ: It’s ironic that it was used for spotting fires because its spire was destroyed twice from fire (from lightning strikes). In both cases the spires were made out of wood. The belfry was built in 1240....burned to the ground in 1280, and was rebuilt where it stands today. You can climb to the top via is 366 steps! It was and is a bell tower...and the bells were used centuries ago to announce the time, fire alarms, work hours, and a variety of social, political, and religious events.
Note:
• My book was an ex-library book from The David M. Fuller Library in Falls Village, Connecticut. There was a nice bookplate on the inner front cover. I looked up the library and it is still there. It was established in 1891....the pictures of it outside and inside were quite nice.... I would like to read in that library....very cozy. https://www.google.com/search?q=David...
Reviews:
• http://libraryhospital.blogspot.com/2...
• A GoodReads reviewer: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/sho...
July 17, 2022
May Sinclair is an unjustly neglected author - witness that this is currently the first review of The Belfry' on Goodreads. I am guzzling my way through her works available on PG and this one didn't disappoint. If you don't love Jevons then you have no soul.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews