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A Company of Swans |
Author: Eva Ibbotson
Published: 2007-09-06 |
List price: $8.99
Our price: $8.99
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As of: October 11th, 2008 09:55:06 AM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Wonderful Love Story
As someone who teaches eighth grade language arts, I read a lot of adolescent lit. This one is a new favorite! In a school year full of the Gossip Girls, the Clique series, and vampire love (it's everywhere!), I found this story to be a refreshing and thoughtful alternative without losing any of the intensity of romantic love affair. The Amazon setting is unusual/exciting for adolescent readers, but they'll perhaps find familiarity in the miserable father-daughter relationship and Harriet's desire to leave. This is definitely something I'd recommend to girls who seem ready to take a break from--or even leave behind altogether--the vampires and catty school girls.
 It was wonderful. I am torn that I couldn't give it 5 stars.
There were a few scenes that were wonderfully surprising and delighting. I found myself amazed and laughing out loud when I thought about those scenes later. However, I was disappointed to find the author used one of my pet peeves. The hero and heroine made erroneous assumptions about each other that would have been cleared up if only they had communicated in a normal manner. They loved each other and wanted to marry, but each one thought the other did not. Therefore, they separated. I hate this. I wanted to rate this 5 stars due to creativity and ideas I haven't seen elsewhere, but I'm giving it a 4, due to the reasons for the separation. I was also a bit sad at the end thinking about the evil done to Harriet by her father and aunt.
CAUTION SPOILERS: Following are brief references to two wonderful scenes. Page 203, after seeing Harriet dance, Alvarez decides to do something he previously was not going to do. Page 233, Harriet's unbelievable delight in describing herself as "ruined" after she sleeps with Rom.
Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: none. Setting: 1912 England and Amazon River in Brazil. Copyright: 1985. Genre: historical romance.
intelligent romance
Eva Ibbotson's early romantic books have been out of print for a number of years, so i was delighted to see this new printing of her adult novels. Perhaps due to her popular children's fiction, i have seen this book and her other romance novels listed under adolescent literature, but there are definitely adult themes. Ms. Ibbotson's novels make frequent references to mythology, classic literature, and musical arts, which set them apart from the ordinary romance genre. I have learned a lot about opera, ballet, and the classics just from reading her books.
I first read this novel almost 20 years ago. It is a warm, feel good story which i can escape into over and over again. Highly recommended
A Favorite
This book is one of my favorites. I picked it up not knowing the author at all and became lost in a touching romance. I now try to find her books wherever I can. This is usually in libraries, because most of her adult books at out of print.
Why Do The Best Books Go Out Of Print (OOP)?
This book is not hard to find used or at a public library. Otherwise, I would hate to get anyone's hopes up. There is nothing worse than saying, "I just read a fabulous book and you will never be able to find it yourself." This novel is set in Europe and South America in the early 20th century before WWI, a time period I would like to see used more frequently. The heroine, Harriet, meets a little boy at an English estate who tells her she must somehow travel to South America and find his lost uncle to redeem his faltering estate. Harriet enters a touring ballet company of "Swan Lake" as a dancer in the corps by running away from the stifling home of her father-professor in Cambridge, England. The troupe travels to South America to perform and there she meets the hero, Rom, the lost uncle. There are some amazing coincidences in this book that you might not accept in a lesser work. There are also some big misunderstandings between Harriet and Rom. However, this novel is so well written by its Viennese author that those plot devices cause no annoyance whatsoever. The author's writing style is quite distinct from an American's or a UK writer's style which I found a refreshing change since those two writing groups tend to dominate the market. There are also many humorous moments and characters that will have you LOL as you read. The prima ballerina and the insect professor, to name two, are absolutely hilarious. I am now trying to find this author's other novels, all of which seem to be out of print and I can only hope that I beat you other auction aficionados to the punch! Thanks to EP and LLF for recommending this over on an online message board. You couldn't have been more right about this novel.
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