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The House at Riverton: A Novel Paperback – March 3, 2009
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Grace Bradley went to work at Riverton House as a servant when she was just a girl, before the First World War. For years her life was inextricably tied up with the Hartford family, most particularly the two daughters, Hannah and Emmeline.
In the summer of 1924, at a glittering society party held at the house, a young poet shot himself. The only witnesses were Hannah and Emmeline and only they—and Grace—know the truth.
In 1999, when Grace is ninety-eight years old and living out her last days in a nursing home, she is visited by a young director who is making a film about the events of that summer. She takes Grace back to Riverton House and reawakens her memories. Told in flashback, this is the story of Grace's youth during the last days of Edwardian aristocratic privilege shattered by war, of the vibrant twenties and the changes she witnessed as an entire way of life vanished forever.
The novel is full of secrets—some revealed, others hidden forever, reminiscent of the romantic suspense of Daphne du Maurier. It is also a meditation on memory, the devastation of war and a beautifully rendered window into a fascinating time in history.
Kate Morton’s first novel, originally published to critical acclaim in Australia, and quickly becoming a #1 bestseller in England, The House at Riverton is a vivid, page-turning novel of suspense and passion, with characters—and an ending—readers won't soon forget.
- Print length473 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherAtria Books
- Publication dateMarch 3, 2009
- Dimensions5.31 x 1.2 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-101416550534
- ISBN-13978-1416550532
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"An extraordinary debut...written with a lovely turn of phrase. [Morton] knows how to eke out tantalizing secrets and drama." -- The Sunday Telegraph (UK) ― Sunday Telegraph UK
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Product details
- Publisher : Atria Books; Reprint edition (March 3, 2009)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 473 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1416550534
- ISBN-13 : 978-1416550532
- Item Weight : 14.9 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 1.2 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #74,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,508 in Family Saga Fiction
- #2,498 in Women's Domestic Life Fiction
- #5,474 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
KATE MORTON is an award-winning, Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author. Her novels - The House at Riverton, The Forgotten Garden, The Distant Hours, The Secret Keeper, The Lake House, The Clockmaker's Daughter and Homecoming - are published in over 45 countries, in 38 languages, and have all been number one bestsellers around the world.
Kate Morton grew up in the mountains of southeast Queensland and now lives with her family in London and Australia. She has degrees in dramatic art and English literature, and harboured dreams of joining the Royal Shakespeare Company until she realised that it was words she loved more than performing. Kate still feels a pang of longing each time she goes to the theatre and the house lights dim.
"I fell deeply in love with books as a child and believe that reading is freedom; that to read is to live a thousand lives in one; that fiction is a magical conversation between two people - you and me - in which our minds meet across time and space. I love books that conjure a world around me, bringing their characters and settings to life, so that the real world disappears and all that matters, from beginning to end, is turning one more page."
www.katemorton.com
www.facebook.com/KateMortonAuthor
https://instagram.com/katemortonauthor
Keep up-to-date on Kate Morton's books and events by joining her mailing list: www.katemorton.com/mailing-list
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Like all good storytellers, Kate Morton has taken that last scene, cut it up into bits and sprinkled it throughout the novel. What is even more remarkable is that even though we know from the beginning of this novel that a famous poet was shot on that fateful day in 1924, the ending is still a surprise. It takes a lot of talent to pull that off!
Some have complained that Ms. Morton hits the reader over the head with the sledgehammer of foreshadowing, but I really didn’t experience it that way. I thought the foreshadowing was handled masterfully.
What didn’t work so well was the pacing. Kate Morton has a real talent for description and for setting, but too often the pacing was relentlessly slow and the emotional range too small. For example, Grace’s final realization about who her father actually was unfolded too slowly, and made her seem stupid. OTOH I have to salute Ms. Morton for her funny/tragic use of dialog which shows all-too-clearly that Grace is not nearly as interested in Alfred as Alfred is in her. (Grace’s realization comes amidst Alfred’s fumbling attempts to propose marriage to her.) Even so, I think that more variety in the pacing and a greater emotional range would have made this book even more special.
I could find only one loose thread (in itself quite an accomplishment) and it is this ~ How come Grace’s mother was so certain that Mr. Frederick would marry her when he already had a wife, one son, and another child on the way? That seems willfully naïve on the young woman’s part and maybe explains why she was quite so bitter. The fact that Grace is an unwanted child who was nearly deposited in a foundling hospital makes her attachment to the Hartfords even more poignant, and their loss even more devastating. Five stars.
The story's central character is Grace, who we are introduced to when she is in her late 90s and in a nursing home. She is approached by young woman producing a documentary about about mysterious murder that occurred at an old English manor house called "Riverton." Grace had worked at Riverton as maid in her teens and was there during this mysterious murder, and agrees to meet with the young woman in the hopes of providing accurate details of the period. Yet, Grace knows a secret about that event, and remains to be seen whether she will reveal it.
One can tell easily the author was most likely heavily influenced by many novels and/or movies in writing this. It has been stated that Kate Morton is intrigued with Gothic novels, and that is reflected here. But it is also easy to see shades of "Rebecca," "Titanic," and "Upstairs/Downstairs." Some might say the author "stole" these ideas. I'm not so sure. The tales told in these 3 stories are not all that original, and they are stories that are timeless. That the author was influenced is easy to see, and because I enjoyed 2 of the 3 (I've never seen "Upstairs/Downstairs"), I can appreciate the effort.
I do enjoy Kate Morton's writing. I believe she has a way with words and descriptions of places and people. I felt as though I was in the era and in a large English manor house, experiencing the sharp difference between staff and family. Grace is more than a little difficult to define - she is not easily read - and that was frustrating as I read the novel. However, the more I read, the more clear it became as to what and how her personality was defined by her experiences. While I believe most of us want to truly like and relate to the protagonists in the stories we read, sometimes those individuals come with faults. A good author will never make their protagonist a perfect person. Grace was like that to me - she could be endearing and pleasant, but she had a bit of sharpness to her.
I enjoyed this novel very much. The reason I gave it 4 stars was because the author had not figured out the art of foreshadowing and that bothered me. It's okay to give a reader subtle hints to have them attempt to figure something out. It's quite another to figuratively hit them over the head with a sledge hammer to make your point. I also really dislike some of the names she chooses for her characters. I dislike them so much, I find them distracting. It's okay to use a common name such as Ann, Mary,Elizabeth. Character names don't always have to the weird and way out.