| The House at Riverton | 
 enlarge | Author: Kate Morton
Publisher: Pan
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £7.98 (100%)
New (24) Used (367) Collectible (1) from £0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  211 reviews
Sales Rank: 48
Media: Paperback
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.5
ISBN: 0330448447
EAN: 9780330448444
ASIN: 0330448447
Publication Date: June 15, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Bolton Literacy Trust is a charity (Charity no. 1092768) raising money to help literacy and numeracy in Bolton, Greater Manchester. Please buy our items to help us help others.
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 206 more reviews...
 Totally compelling - "A secret that can last a lifetime" July 6, 2008
I bought this book on a dreary Sunday afternoon. You know how it is... desperate for a good read but not quite knowing what to buy. As I picked this book from the shelf I imagined it to be sitting months later, half read and abandoned along with countless others that had not quite managed to grab my attention longer than the first chapter. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Riverton Manor. A grand English country house. Home to Hannah and Emmiline Hartford. Theirs a life of privilage, with all its finery and glittering society parties. Mystery and secrets. Love, loss and tragedy.
Here, hidden beneath the layers of time the ghosts of old memories are stirred.
Their story is told by Grace Bradley. One time housemaid at Riverton. As the tale unfolds a secret is about to emerge, something forgotten in the midsts of time but not as it seems by Grace...
There is just something in the way its written. I couldn't put it down and was disappointed once I'd finished it. Realizing there was nothing more to learn about the lives of Hannah, Emm and Grace.
A book which will stay with you long after it has been returned once more to the shelf!
Loved from begin to end. June 26, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I could not put this book down. It was both easy to read and very interesting.
I loved Grace, you understand to her. That you have a serect that can't be find out about for love or money.
This a much read book.
 Too, too long June 24, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Well, I finally managed to finish The House at Riverton. The overall story was OK but it lacked any kind of pace (except dead slow). It was so turgid. I feel the book was written for literary effect and judging by many of the reviews it seems to have worked but it left me feeling impatient and frustrated and really not much caring about how the final denouement.
 wonderful June 23, 2008
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
I loved this book, it was an excellent read & I am now suprised to read that other reviwers compared it to other books.
Felt like I was whisked back in time to the lives of the aristocrats in 1920's
Lots of interesting characters both working class & aristocrats, the story follows their life span, lots of mystery, twists & turns - it certainly had me hooked - I would definitely recommend
A House With Character June 20, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
A secret is defined as something kept from knowledge or view. There are many such hidden truths and subterfuges in this novel as there are characters. Each secret sometimes inhibits the characters from being able to move forward in their lives because of the fall-out from their most hidden thoughts, wishes, desires.
Deception, white lies, hidden agendas are all tucked away in the walls of this great house called 'Riverton' creating distance and mistrust between the characters. The reader enters the world of what life might be like at a 300 year old English manor where misunderstandings and secret agendas have the potential to result in tragedies or intrigue. What a high price this house pays for untruths, deceptions and cunning. Duty, responsibility, commitment, love, family ties, virtue, devotion and respect are values examined whether exhibiting the best in human nature as is often the case or the complete opposite.
Our narrator is Grace Bradley who is 98 years old when the novel opens and it is her narration of the novel that initiates us to a page turning adventure which takes us on a journey throughout almost a century in English history. The reader learns what it was like to be in service to a wealthy family and what it takes to break away and strike out on one's own. Nothing is easy for anyone during the war and the aftermath sends its shockwaves throughout all of the families and countryside. Nobody escaped the war or its impact. All of England was affected. However, Grace only being 14 when she enters service in the Hartford home, has to conquer her own misgivings in order to grow and develop into the caring and accomplished woman that she is to become.
The reader also gets to know the Hartford and the Luxton families and grows to foster feelings of sympathetic understanding or contempt as the novel unfolds. The novel was a page turner. It kept me engrossed, entertained and guessing until the very end.
I would recommend The House of Riverton to anyone who likes historical novels, especially those set in the British Empire. The author Kate Morton also recommends other books where there is 'the haunting of the present by the past' or as Kate puts it 'the insistence of family secrets. A couple of these are THE CHATHAM SCHOOL AFFAIR by Thomas H. Cook and POSSESSION by A.S Byatt.
Bentley/2008
|
|
|
