Synopses & Reviews
Praise for Margaret Drabble
“Reading Margaret Drabble’s novels has become something of a rite of passage . . . [They are] sharply observed, exquisitely companionable tales of women of a certain age and class, educated, egocentric, strong, unlucky in love.”—Washington Post
“Gorgeous writing . . . [Drabble’s] flawed and oh-so-human characters appall and enthrall.”—Boston Globe
“As meticulous as Jane Austen, and as deadly as Evelyn Waugh.”—Los Angeles Times
“Margaret Drabble will have done for late-twentieth-century London what Dickens did for Victorian London.”—New York Times
“The intensity, the seriousness, the playfulness—I loved, and still love, these characteristics of Drabble’s work, as I do the sense of a writer continually interrogating the nature of the world, and of our place in it.”—Andrea Barrett
Review
"Drabble's nuanced and revealing jigsaw of vivid memories, little-known facts, and astute observations is both mind-expanding and mood-elevating."
Review
"A charming homage...Readers unafraid of doing some extra work will be richly rewarded."
Review
"...a fascinating journey...Drabble charms...One of the true pleasures of the book is following Drabble's insatiable curiosity, her scholarly zeal for research and love of knowledge for the sake of knowledge to see where she ends up."
Review
"Smooth, reflective prose... Drabble's fans will savor these bite-sized examples of her humane intelligence."-Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws is an original and brilliant work. Margaret Drabble weaves her own story into a history of games, in particular jigsaws, which have offered her and many others relief from melancholy and depression. Alongside curious facts and discoveries about jigsaw puzzlesdid you know that the 1929 stock market crash was followed by a boom in puzzle sales?Drabble introduces us to her beloved Auntie Phyl, and describes childhood visits to the house in Long Bennington on the Great North Road, their first trip to London together, the books they read, and the jigsaws they completed. She offers penetrating sketches of her parents, siblings, and children, and shares her thoughts on the importance of childhood play, on art and writing, and on aging and memory. And she does so with her customary intelligence, energy, and wit. This is a memoir like no other.
Synopsis
A collection of the famed UK novelist Margaret Drabble's complete short stories.
Synopsis
Margaret Drabble’s novels have illuminated the past fifty years, especially the changing lives of women, like no others. Yet her short fiction, never before collected, has its own unique brilliance. Her penetrating evocations of character and place, her wide-ranging curiosity, her sense of irony, all are on display here in stories that explore marriage, female friendships, the English tourist abroad, love affairs with houses, peace demonstrations, gin and tonics, cultural TV programs—stories that are perceptive, sharp, and funny. An introduction by the scholar José Fernández ably places the stories in the context of Drabble’s life and her novels. This collection is a wonderful recapitulation of a masterly career.
Synopsis
A beautifully written and deeply personal book, a mix of memoir, jigsaw history, and the strange delights of puzzling.
About the Author
MARGARET DRABBLE is the author of The Sea Lady, The Seven Sisters, The Peppered Moth, and The Needle's Eye, among other novels. For her contributions to contemporary English literature, she was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2008.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction ix
Note on the Present Edition xxi
Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1
Hassan’s Tower 7
A Voyage to Cythera 23
Faithful Lovers 41
A Pyrrhic Victory 53
Crossing the Alps 63
The Gifts of War 85
A Success Story 103
A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman 115
Homework 141
The Merry Widow 151
The Dower House at Kellynch:
A Somerset Romance 169
The Caves of God 193
Stepping Westward:
A Topographical Tale 207