La lepre e la tartaruga

Profoundly entertaining and often quite depressing - what seems at first to be a comedy of errors with a large cast of British eccentrics turns slowly into a chamber drama - we know more than the characters, and as the fun leeches out of the novel, it turns into, at moments, something horrifying.

3.5 stars from me. Another good read that is from the Virago Modern Classics series. There was one passage that I did not ‘get” early on in this novel...I knew it was important, so I wrote it down, and sure enough although I did not understand it when I was reading the novel, the person who wrote th Leggi tutto

My girl Hilary Mantel was the means of my discovery of Elizabeth Jenkins. Ah Hilary. She always does me good. Anyway, right there in the middle of Hilary’s shelf space between Wolf Hall (How nice would it be to read that again for the first time!) and Fludd (The scene where the spinster housekeeper Leggi tutto

First published in 1954, this was the sixth, of twelve, novels written by Elizabeth Jenkins. She is somewhat forgotten now, with her books hard to get hold of and, I must admit, that I had not heard of her before. This novel was recommended by my friend, and fellow reviewer, Nigeyb, and I am pleased Leggi tutto

Should I start this review by remarking on the condition of women and how far we have come since a mere 60 years ago? Or should I start this review by remarking on the terrible consequences of love? Or should I start by saying that you know the book is good when you want to enter the story and yell

I heard about The Tortoise and the Hare (1954) by Elizabeth Jenkins via an episode of the always splendid Backlisted Podcast. Carmen Callil , the legendary publisher and writer, who is best known for founding the Virago Press in 1972, was a guest on the podcast as The Tortoise and the Hare is one of Leggi tutto

With prose so impeccable and a situation so initially tranquil that it is not until much too late that it registers that Jenkins has actually enticed the reader into a kind of vice, and all the screws have been cheerfully locked into place and the lever is already being cranked. Anybody who has ever Leggi tutto

This book lived up to the title....the writing gripped me from the beginning, then slowly drip fed me more and more until the very end. I had never heard of this book. I had never heard of the author - though she's also known as a founding member of the Jane Austen Society. I picked the book up from Leggi tutto

The Tortoise and the Hare was Elizabeth Jenkin’s sixth novel, one which was described to me recently as a forgotten masterpiece. I have had a copy for a while so I absolutely had to read it right away. My only other experience of Elizabeth Jenkins was in the novel Harriet – published by Persephone b Leggi tutto

UGH. Another abandoned book. Read 70 pages from the start, found myself rolling my eyes so I skipped to the last 30 pages to see if it really is as predictable as I’m guessing and nope…this is not for me. The writing is stunning but the story and the characters are so cringe-worthy and stereotypical I Leggi tutto