Persephone Books discussion

Has anyone started The Priory yet? I'm not reading it this time around but I finished it last December and just loved it. I'm eager to hear what everyone else thought of it.

I am very close to completing it. My goodness, the struggles of that Priory family. I would love to discuss it when finished. I think I was expecting something else with the book altogether.

I'm almost done, and as usual with Dorothy Whipple, her characters are fascinating! Is anyone tired of cricket yet? Haa!
At the beginning, I thought it was just going to be a nice story, but then things started getting darker...I think that is pretty typical of Whipple.

I have about 120 pages left to go... Not tired of cricket yet :)

Is anyone ready to discuss this one yet? I thought this was a great story, and she really explored the characters in detail. I felt like I really understood each character's motivation, and when the story was focused on them, I felt sympathetic towards them. What did everyone else think about the characters?

Yes, I finished this one. I am still surprised -- not what I was expecting and I think it had some flaws I could not get past. SPOILER!!!!!!I know the Nurse did help Christine's baby recover, however, I still think the whole development of that character and her collusion with Anthea (?) was disturbing? puzzling? and perhaps, for me, just took up too much of the novel. It was a story of many parts (cricketing, the ancient atmosphere of the Priory estate, the "downstairs" wreckage of lives) but I do not think it went together cohesively.

Oh, Deb, we discussed The Shuttle in the past here, and it is a big favorite of mine. Beautiful story -- I do like Burnett's writing style better than Whipple's. However, Persephone's edition is pretty strongly abridged -- I was not at first aware. I can give you the info on my edition which is the novel in it's entirety. For a true lover of this novel, it DOES make a difference.

Sarah - I just removed my comment because I didn't realize I had a "Spoiler" - Yikes! Thank you for alerting me!
I read The Shuttle - Kindle edition - which, I believe, was the whole book. I had heard that Persephone heavily edited (or abridged) their copy.

Oh, Deb, it is totally up to Gina. She may not mind if we include the spoilers, I just didn't know so I went ahead and noted mine in my comment. I haven't discussed extensively in our group here in a while, so I didn't know what the method was. We mark them in a lot of other groups.

As far as spoilers of The Shuttle, if that folder is up, we could go back in there and discuss there, I would love to. The kindle of edition was very likely the whole book of The Shuttle. I is my understanding Persephone heavily edited it because they couldn't afford to pub. the whole thing, which I don't understand. But I objected to the fact that it seemed that simply whole chapters and sections were left out, which really just chops the story. They should have just left it alone -- seems disrespectful to the author. And I don't believe they tell you in the catalog beforehand.

Sorry to stray from topic, Gina. I'll move the comment if you'd like.

No prob, Sarah! I'll comment more later, but it's fine to include spoilers in our discussions. Those who haven't read it yet and want to be surprised should stay away from the discussion thread! :)