City of Children
Dates: 4/9/02,9:42 PM through 4/10/02,12:56 PM (4 postings)
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City of Children
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FROM: Danielle Pilon <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 4/9/02, 9:42 PM
"It's about a group of children who are all related
(brothers, sisters, and cousins) living in a a big
house / houses in a square in London. I think the time
period is late Victorian / Edwardian. It's not
fantastical, but it feels a bit like an E. Nesbit
story (crossed with The Lord of the Flies - the
children are left to their own devices much of the
time, and the story is primarily concerned with the
hierarchies and dynamics they develop.) Although the
main characters are all children, it's an adult book.
The title is something like The Garden of Children and
I think it had two authors. That's really all I
remember about it, except I think I got it from the
new releases section of the library about ten years
ago."
Any/all help appreciated.
=====
Danielle Pilon, MLIS
Assistant Librarian
Selkirk & St. Andrews Regional Library
__________________________________________________
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FROM: "M. Wms." <[removed]@adelphia.net>
REC'D: 4/9/02, 10:04 PM
A Victorian child's private world is revealed in dark, somber
tones--in this densely textured but uneven debut from ex-
psychotherapist, antique dealer, and painter Bayer. A complex
aggregate of scenes conveys the extended family and London childhood
of Emma Forster, a forgotten novelist whose past comes painstakingly
into focus through the incessant labors of two women, one American,
one British, inspired to save Emma's house and legacy from ruin in
the 1920's and 30's. Memoirs, correspondence, excerpts from a novel,
and family papers shape a portrait of a significant two-year period
(1835-36) when Emma's half-Italian cousin Darius arrived to change
forever the private world of Marlborough Gardens, where the many
Forster children gamboled daily amidst its controlled profusion of
nature. Darius quickly dominates his cousins, tutoring them in the
ways of war and eventually prompting a family feud in the form of a
bloody brawl involving 150 children. Emma, made to feel ugly because
of a prominent birthmark, basks in Darius's protective understanding
and falls in love with him, but their paths diverge when he and his
mother tempestuously depart the Forster compound to return to Italy.
Although Marlborough Gardens and the entire Forster clan are
exquisitely detailed, the 20th-century characters lack the same
substance: the difference in depth between the researchers Harriet
and Rachel and their beloved Emma is as sharp as night and day.
Fascinating fragments assembled as a richly Victorian family
history, but unlike A.S. Byatt's Possession (to which the publisher
compares this), its inability to merge past and present into a
dynamic whole weakens it substantially. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus
Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--
Molly Williams, Volunteer, Waterboro Public Library (Maine)
daily library weblog: http://www.waterboro.lib.me.us/blog.htm
FROM: "M. Wms." <[removed]@adelphia.net>
REC'D: 4/9/02, 10:26 PM
City of Childhood.
Bayer, Valerie Townsend. St Martin's Press 1992
Haunting novel of enchanted youth that explores a real city in the
hearts of children, in a fantastic garden, in an imaginary place
called London. Author's first book. First novel of the Marlborough
Gardens quartet. This begins in 1836. By the author of THE
METAPHYSICS OF SEX.
~ Molly Wms.
--
Molly Williams, Volunteer, Waterboro Public Library (Maine)
daily library weblog: http://www.waterboro.lib.me.us/blog.htm
Danielle Pilon wrote:
> Another query for the Fiction-L hivemind - I have a
> patron looking for a book she read long ago. Her
> description follows.
>
> "It's about a group of children who are all related
> (brothers, sisters, and cousins) living in a a big
> house / houses in a square in London. I think the time
> period is late Victorian / Edwardian. It's not
> fantastical, but it feels a bit like an E. Nesbit
> story (crossed with The Lord of the Flies - the
> children are left to their own devices much of the
> time, and the story is primarily concerned with the
> hierarchies and dynamics they develop.) Although the
> main characters are all children, it's an adult book.
> The title is something like The Garden of Children and
> I think it had two authors. That's really all I
> remember about it, except I think I got it from the
> new releases section of the library about ten years
> ago."
>
> Any/all help appreciated.
>
>
>
>
> =====
> Danielle Pilon, MLIS
> Assistant Librarian
> Selkirk & St. Andrews Regional Library
>
FROM: Danielle Pilon <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 4/10/02, 12:56 PM
So thanks!
=====
Danielle Pilon, MLIS
Assistant Librarian
Selkirk & St. Andrews Regional Library
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
http://taxes.yahoo.com/
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