Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

the, 2013, of, january, my, bamboo, bookcase, saturday, march, 30, tuesday, sunday, reading, about, favorite, free, and, 16, february, 19, 29, 27, thursday, 10, december, 2012, currently, me, blog, archive, posts, some, or, almost, ebooks, subscribe, in, reader, attempt, to, join, violent, society, stack, books, dream, house, female, quixote, also, manatees, miss, mole, dark, fairy, tale, misses, mallett, feeling, missish, heir, redclyffe, emotions,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (316), and (182), that (86), her (74), book (54), but (53), this (48), with (47), she (47), miss (41), books (33), for (31), was (31), about (29), read (29), who (29), are (28), house (27), they (26), have (25), like (24), buncle (24), young (23), one (23), all (22), share (22), #reading (21), from (20), there (19), two (18), what (17), his (17), you (17), which (17), love (17), not (17), because (16), more (15), some (15), really (15), out (15), also (15), has (15), mole (15), had (14), been (14), even (14), old (13), guy (13), them (13), stevenson (13), story (12), when (12), both (12), loved (12), woman (12), though (12), world (12), sintram (11), heir (11), redclyffe (11), misses (11), favorite (11), will (11), life (11), philip (11), how (11), arabella (11), betsy (10), mallett (10), quixote (10), little (10), first (10), can (10), would (10), romance (10), their (10), never (10), society (9), female (9), now (9), elizabeth (9), just (9), character (9), much (9), think (9), things (9), same (9), cliff (9), see (8), violent (8), 2013 (8), too (8), charles (8), kind (8), novels (8), other (8), most (8), were (8), girl (7), did (7), live (7), pinterest (7), facebook (7), blogthis (7), email (7), comments (7), posted (7), time (7), family (7), through (7), makes (7), where (7), edition (7), lives (7), way (7), cover (7), these (7), stories (6), why (6), best (6), make (6), century (6), right (6), man (6), new (6), found (6), could (6), people (6), don (6), married (6), everyone (6), jane (6), austen (6), cinderella (6), beautiful (6), henrietta (6), real (6), club (6), may (5), charlotte (5), yonge (5), into (5), bamboo (5), bookcase (5), then (5), while (5), novel (5), turns (5), past (5), know (5), herself (5), sisters (5), him (5), such (5), being (5), only (5), does (5), characters (5), writing (5), should (5), very (5), caroline (5), rose (5), ever (5), want (5), might (5), romances (5), library (5), get (5), here (5), elfrida (5), money (4), after (4), blue (4), almost (4), january (4), march (4), many (4), kept (4), ending (4), over (4), probably (4), thing (4), always (4), say (4), verena (4), before (4), own (4), scenes (4), mean (4), mother (4), realized (4), between (4), well (4), isn (4), imagine (4), horace (4), says (4), take (4), any (4), exactly (4), published (4), its (4), than (4), called (4), control (4), away (4), village (4), written (4), sense (4), gets (4), witty (4), especially (4), around (4), each (4), relationship (4), fairy (4), good (4), heroines (4), living (4), radstowe (4), great (4), london (4), subscribe (3), sweet (3), nesbit (3), beloved (3), george (3), part (3), tales (3), literary (3), posts (3), 2012 (3), join (3), discovered (3), collection (3), those (3), still (3), couple (3), list (3), heard (3), thought (3), liked (3), couldn (3), stop (3), whole (3), morville (3), sees (3), hat (3), pale (3), death (3), struggling (3), trying (3), strange (3), loves (3), seeing (3), must (3), aubrey (3), georgette (3), heyer (3), quotation (3), wit (3), every (3), jokes (3), look (3), illustration (3), dickens (3), children (3), basically (3), doesn (3), scene (3), latin (3), someone (3), next (3), word (3), hilarious (3), quite (3), going (3), four (3), without (3), seem (3), disturbing (3), ones (3), give (3), ends (3), mrs (3), silverstream (3), set (3), version (3), writes (3), funny (3), later (3), completely (3), art (3), fantastic (3), french (3), days (3), anyone (3), setting (3), relationships (3), comes (3), francis (3), beauty (3), heroine (3), unexpected (3), coming (3), hands (3), bristol (3), river (3), idea (3), work (3), 17th (3), reads (3), ancient (3), worlds (3), beau (3), fun (3), years (3), looks (3), sometimes (3), maud (3), lovelace (3), joe (3), writers (3), messer (3), marco (3), polo (3), president (3), order (3), simple (2), reader (2), limberlost (2), graduate (2), meade (2), vagabond (2), ten (2), ghost (2), sheridan (2), fanu (2), jerome (2), loving (2), fashioned (2), friedrich (2), motte (2), fouque (2), companions (2), nephew (2), montgomery (2), free (2), keep (2), possibly (2), shocking (2), november (2), december (2), february (2), stack (2), dream (2), attempt (2), husband (2), teach (2), earliest (2), youth (2), fondness (2), spent (2), grandmother (2), mary (2), maclane (2), home (2), year (2), long (2), finds (2), mentioned (2), back (2), lisa (2), happen (2), happens (2), sad (2), foolish (2), title (2), prince (2), terrifying (2), figures (2), dressed (2), against (2), sea (2), true (2), amy (2), strong (2), surprised (2), seemed (2), role (2), knew (2), suffer (2), happy (2), eyes (2), kate (2), greenaway (2), terrible (2), villain (2), awful (2), friend (2), cousin (2), tag (2), person (2), else (2), vium (2), aristocratic (2), education (2), sunday (2), sequel (2), certain (2), quirky (2), cozy (2), unsettling (2), write (2), post (2), already (2), power (2), second (2), befriends (2), law (2), end (2), dreams (2), child (2), third (2), able (2), calling (2), group (2), thin (2), forty (2), gift (2), down (2), magical (2), walks (2), actual (2), transforms (2), showing (2), metaliterary (2), satirical (2), neighbors (2), friends (2), twist (2), least (2), blurb (2), didn (2), yes (2), marriage (2), dark (2), sophia (2), ladies (2), acknowledge (2), age (2), dashing (2), wanted (2), tells (2), another (2), seen (2), stepsisters (2), excited (2), used (2), tale (2), elements (2), enchanted (2), ball (2), seems (2), point (2), thoroughly (2), satisfying (2), everything (2), wrote (2), father (2), making (2), falls (2), country (2), problem (2), force (2), daughter (2), housekeeper (2), imagination (2), find (2), mysteries (2), scandalous (2), takes (2), job (2), come (2), full (2), imagining (2), something (2), water (2), tree (2), ships (2), banks (2), places (2), fictionalized (2), gorgeous (2), drinking (2), example (2), cobb (2), celia (2), jenny (2), wren (2), tuesday (2), 18th (2), men (2), win (2), marquis (2), gardens (2), romantic (2), wonderful (2), interrupted (2), believe (2), bring (2), 1752 (2), perfect (2), however (2), your (2), whom (2), moment (2), tend (2), wants (2), hard (2), artamene (2), manatees (2), university (2), got (2), searching (2), mollie (2), panter (2), downes (2), deeply (2), rooted (2), roots (2), mushroom (2), fine (2), inherits (2), tim (2), saturday (2), tacy (2), last (2), begin (2), together (2), delos (2), fascinating (2), 1914 (2), minneapolis (2), authors (2), jack (2), decided (2), minnesota (2), tib (2), wedding (2), rules (2), plump (2), dimpled (2), meetings (2), theme, powered, blogger, gene, stratton, porter, katy, susan, coolidge, treasure, seekers, wet, magic, william, locke, thousand, brewster, millions, barr, mccutcheon, uneasy, wodehouse, antiquary, james, grim, green, tea, carmilla, told, supper, lolly, willowes, huntsman, sylvia, townsend, warner, louisa, alcott, understood, dorothy, canfield, fisher, undine, magician, lewis, castle, ebooks, recovering, illness, failed, learn, awake, demon, monkeys, thrilling, ouida, leftovers, thanksgiving, august, september, october, blog, archive, florida, cat, fit, comfortably, our, classics, hours, attic, mostly, girls, 19th, early, 20th, favorites, parents, website, virtual, busily, filling, semi, attached, emily, eden, currently, atom, older, finishing, meg, eating, apples, crying, waiting, finish, myself, excellent, disappointed, actually, late, blurbs, rarely, sleep, gloomy, fantasy, tragedy, cry, hoping, bedside, table, clever, illustrated, gordon, browne, glad, informs, admits, himself, viking, followed, impish, pointy, sin, bones, identifies, fighting, sinful, nature, peace, recasts, storm, melancholy, christmas, solitary, meditation, separation, main, keeps, referring, talking, saintly, influence, doing, gardening, amabel, underappreciated, taught, silly, secretly, minded, brother, encountered, familiar, actor, inspiration, lanyon, differences, bookish, invalids, disease, hip, joint, cutting, tyrannize, fundamentally, selfish, help, liking, deflates, pompousness, venetia, reasons, engrossing, disliked, drawn, villainous, arrogant, condescending, snobbish, calls, cheap, rubbish, dismisses, grrrr, decent, hero, telling, interrupts, interrupt, caps, line, poem, mispronounces, vowel, freaks, ovium, sheep, instead, horrified, anything, liberties, ridiculously, small, mistake, impressed, students, quote, pronunciation, reveals, hasn, private, school, horrifies, ugh, morte, arthur, 1853, 1882, illustrations, review, women, emotions, week, somehow, mood, type, picturesque, town, unmarried, six, ended, having, start, worry, spoiling, former, navigate, publishing, wield, frightening, avoid, using, artistic, repercussions, suffered, earlier, observing, meddling, pompous, artist, wild, tries, direct, course, girlfriend, plans, leads, decides, wife, off, putting, agree, although, mar, lightest, soon, cherish, wow, put, dying, abbotts, teresa, shelf, 1970s, harlequin, recent, coziest, sleepy, dowdy, inability, express, conversation, observations, publishes, thinly, disguised, sides, personality, reflected, bases, quiet, maid, represented, golden, boy, godlike, changes, villagers, totally, style, supposed, deceptively, language, portraits, funnier, combines, simplicity, satire, difference, innocent, writer, truth, whereas, definitely, benson, mapp, lucia, based, metaliterariness, better, 1930s, 40s, amazed, internet, contains, feeling, missish, thursday, virago, twelve, fourth, 1922, reminiscent, bought, place, wealthy, contemplating, prospect, less, retelling, far, concerned, eldest, refuse, stout, tiny, delight, rouge, debutante, dresses, easily, pathetic, magnificent, hang, leaves, parlor, heart, breaking, wrapped, cotton, wool, nowadays, ought, lived, adorned, court, lively, left, wickedness, deluded, shocked, affairs, mainly, imaginary, eccentricity, adds, fairytale, atmosphere, belong, existed, outrageous, anecdotes, stepsister, remembers, childhood, happier, satins, laces, pendant, fans, glitter, jewels, rustling, words, commendation, evening, parties, tire, kissed, went, looking, princesses, compelling, malletts, complicated, coaches, balls, gowns, forests, lakes, puts, meets, lover, moonlit, lake, rejecting, attend, coronation, shifting, roles, points, wicked, witches, evil, stepmother, godmother, anxious, happily, made, youngest, tangled, calm, secretive, niece, prickly, disowned, bad, raised, poverty, dies, wealth, status, sales, squire, edmund, dulac, 1910, sensibility, recently, bridge, dividing, thirteen, try, genius, characterization, flawed, likable, hannah, plain, farmer, forced, occasionally, self, pitying, deceitful, sharp, tongued, faults, offset, kindness, feet, quirk, author, faces, josephine, tey, villains, secret, misfit, widowed, minister, controlling, high, principles, daughters, expect, wonderfully, complex, possibility, constantly, curmudgeonly, neighbor, leave, fortune, uncle, fall, surprise, forgetting, reality, behind, marvelous, push, demanding, 1920s, souvenir, postcard, walk, hill, overlooking, bright, grey, mist, darken, wings, swooping, gull, flashed, sound, unseen, hooting, booming, turn, huge, amphibians, floundered, sought, hidden, sirens, distant, fresh, voyages, standing, soft, rain, face, marvelled, richness, human, create, beasts, facts, sufficient, themselves, lovely, buildings, mists, fictional, parts, city, passage, ruth, 1930, sorry, absent, blogging, extra, trip, involved, swimming, creatures, grows, estate, regular, becomes, obsessed, accurate, portrayal, learned, hugely, popular, centuries, massive, tomes, madeleine, georges, scudery, took, volumes, longest, highly, greece, egypt, persia, involve, noble, whose, drive, perform, epic, acts, heroism, aren, captured, bandits, sorceresses, delivering, flowery, speeches, spite, capable, original, available, online, mind, alone, amazing, vast, enough, fact, reminded, common, eustacie, marrying, bandit, sentenced, guillotine, vapid, fashion, plate, name, tinsel, heaven, sake, endeavouring, stifle, laugh, yourself, governed, antiquated, maxims, different, sure, replied, virtuous, reason, wiser, deals, virtues, contemporary, 250, collision, goes, bath, confronted, fashionable, bet, easy, glanville, specious, arguments, appear, persuaded, unpardonable, crime, tell, lady, illustrious, antiquity, glory, resemble, admit, discourses, statira, parisatis, clelia, mandana, possesses, air, dignity, grace, draws, intelligence, delusional, eloquent, delusions, attracts, suitors, marry, plot, revolves, choose, truly, won, let, declare, brummel, richard, dighton, 1805, talisman, ring, cyrus, haven, posting, lot, few, weeks, lennox, picked, subject, parody, somewhat, dry, fortunately, wrong, charming, adventures, cute, use, teaching, resources, research, related, short, ago, done, again, okay, amazement, bookstore, haul, heyers, stevensons, 1966, perfection, scheming, steal, changing, visit, several, matches, unlikable, qualities, humor, sort, absorbing, interest, everyday, details, apartment, cliffs, maybe, relocate, somewhere, description, explains, permanence, connect, landscape, bedroom, kitchen, white, china, flower, fruit, trees, farm, pigs, cow, stream, primroses, violets, cook, gardener, wages, ultimate, wish, fulfillment, sitting, top, hundreds, grown, impermanent, soil, ware, actress, overworked, underfed, spoiler, devonshire, solidly, built, lawyers, handling, genres, buys, ideally, community, eccentric, von, arnim, goudge, important, pilgrim, inn, benefactress, hilariously, cheesy, 1978, above, copy, binding, originally, regiment, sapphire, shoulder, sky, war, notes, day, hart, reread, weren, sources, finding, thanks, recommendation, series, recommendations, marries, gives, worth, joining, stephen, leacock, sherwood, anderson, chesterton, leonard, merrick, archy, mehitabel, edgar, lee, masters, spoon, anthology, john, burroughs, bird, bough, irvin, speaking, operations, willa, cather, song, lark, booth, tarkington, penrod, barrie, sentimental, tommy, donn, byrne, apparently, likes, kinds, comic, adventure, depressing, toward, light, hearted, literature, kick, boyfriend, insisting, serious, fiction, theodore, dreiser, bernard, shaw, muller, answered, anti, bewildered, voice, came, hubbub, protest, saw, run, patty, doubt, warned, cheating, nice, brought, firelit, room, notebooks, pencils, clattered, flood, members, hastened, obey, pair, suspicious, ease, nodded, owner, member, boomed, jimmy, regularly, call, parodying, sedate, ladylike, violet, recommend, others, selections, loud, argue, loudly, vehemently, tons, coffee, starts, engaged, vera, neville,

Text of the page (random words):
ly the cover it had originally and here is the hilariously cheesy cover of the 1978 edition the house on the cliff is a perfect example of one of my favorite genres the girl gets a house book you know the kind of story i mean it s about a woman who buys or inherits a house ideally it should be a beautiful old house in a gorgeous setting and there should be a community of eccentric neighbors sometimes there is a villain who wants to force the woman out as in elizabeth von arnim s the benefactress sometimes there are children who come to live in the house as in elizabeth goudge s pilgrim inn the woman almost always falls in love but her most important relationship in the book is the one she has with her house the woman in the house on the cliff is elfrida ware and she is a struggling young actress in london overworked and underfed the house spoiler it s on a cliff is in devonshire and it s not exactly beautiful but it is strong and old and solidly built elfrida inherits it from a grandmother she never knew and here is what one of the lawyers handling the will has to say about it it s a real house it has been there sitting on top of the cliff for hundreds of years it looks as if it had grown there like a mushroom no not like a mushroom they re impermanent it s more like a fine old tree deeply rooted in the soil and that description explains why i love this kind of book i love the idea that a house can give you a sense of permanence that it can connect you to the landscape that it can be so deeply rooted that you get your own roots just by living here elfrida s house is exactly the right kind of house to give her roots it has everything a bedroom that looks out on the sea an ancient kitchen full of blue and white china flower gardens fruit trees a farm with pigs and a cow a stream with banks of primroses and violets oh and it also comes with a cook and gardener who don t even want wages so basically the ultimate wish fulfillment house i live in an apartment in a part of the world that doesn t really have cliffs but maybe i should relocate to somewhere more like this it s not just the perfection of the house that makes the house on the cliff so satisfying the story has all of the right elements there is a character who is scheming to steal the house away from elfrida there is a child who comes for a life changing visit to the house and there are several men who might be romantic matches for elfrida one of whom is thoroughly unlikable this book also has many of the qualities that i loved in the other d e stevenson books i ve read the house on the cliff isn t as witty as the miss buncle books but it has the same sense of humor the same sort of quirky characters and the same absorbing interest in the everyday details of life i think that those are the things that keep me searching for more and more books by d e stevenson posted by elizabeth at 4 08 pm 11 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday february 19 2013 the female quixote also manatees i m sorry that i ve been absent from blogging for a little while there was some extra work and there was also an unexpected trip which involved swimming with these creatures manatees are both cute and terrifying in person i haven t been posting but i have been reading a lot one of the best things i ve read over the past few weeks is charlotte lennox s the female quixote or the adventures of arabella i was surprised by how much fun i had reading this book i picked it up because i d read that it was a favorite of jane austen s but i thought that the subject a parody of don quixote written in 1752 about a young woman who reads too many romances might be somewhat dry fortunately i was wrong the female quixote is hilarious and charming it s about arabella who grows up on her country estate away from regular society and becomes obsessed with the 17th century french romances that she reads she takes these books as an accurate portrayal of the world and she lives her life as if she were a heroine in a romance i didn t know much about this kind of romance before reading the female quixote but i learned that they were hugely popular in the 17th and 18th centuries they were massive tomes artamene or cyrus the great by madeleine and georges de scudery took up ten volumes and might be the longest book ever written all of the romances were set in a highly fictionalized ancient world in places like greece egypt and persia and they all involve noble ladies whose beauty and wit drive men to perform epic acts of heroism to win them when the characters in these romances aren t being captured by bandits or enchanted by sorceresses they are delivering long flowery speeches in spite of all of this i really want to read artamene now but i don t think i m capable of making it through the original french version even though the whole thing is available online so arabella lives in one of these fantastic romance worlds in her mind in real life she is the only daughter of a marquis living alone with her father in an amazing house with gardens and a vast library for me that world is romantic enough in fact one of the things i loved about the female quixote was how much it reminded me of a georgette heyer romance arabella has some things in common with eustacie in the talisman ring the young woman who dreams of marrying a bandit or possibly being sentenced to the guillotine both books also have a character called the beau the one in the female quixote is a vapid fashion plate with the wonderful name of mr tinsel the real beau george beau brummel by richard dighton 1805 i loved arabella from the moment i heard that from her earliest youth she had discovered a fondness for reading arabella is also beautiful well dressed and possesses an air of dignity and grace but what really draws everyone to her is her intelligence yes she is delusional but she s so eloquent and witty that people tend to believe her delusions she even attracts two suitors who want to marry her and most of the plot of the book revolves around her relationship to them how can arabella choose between the man who truly loves her and the man who wants her money it s especially hard because she won t even let anyone declare his love to her however specious your arguments may appear interrupted arabella i am persuaded it is an unpardonable crime to tell a lady you love her i am certain that statira parisatis clelia mandana and all the illustrious heroines of antiquity whom it is a glory to resemble would never admit of such discourses ah for heaven s sake cousin interrupted glanville endeavouring to stifle a laugh do not suffer yourself to be governed by such antiquated maxims the world is quite different to what it was in those days i am sure replied arabella the world is not more virtuous now than it was in their days and there is good reason to believe it is not much wiser the female quixote deals with the virtues of both worlds the world of the romances and the contemporary world of the 18th century and it makes fun of them both and even though i live more than 250 years later than arabella and i ve never read a 17th century romance i found the whole book really funny there are wonderful scenes which bring the two worlds into collision such as the scene where arabella goes to bath and we get to see what an ancient heroine would do when confronted with the fashionable set of 1752 i bet jane austen loved that scene too the female quixote isn t as perfect as a jane austen novel but it s easy to see why it was one of her favorite books i think that anyone who loves jane austen will probably love this book too posted by elizabeth at 6 45 pm 4 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday january 29 2013 miss mole miss mole is my favorite of the e h young books that i ve read which is not that many she wrote thirteen novels and i ve read only four of them miss mole the misses mallett jenny wren and celia but miss mole is the one that i try to force people to read because it s so good i think that e h young was a genius at characterization how did she make her heroines so flawed and so likable at the same time hannah mole seems completely real to me she s a plain woman of about forty a farmer s daughter with a good education and very little money who is forced to make her living as a housekeeper she is occasionally self pitying deceitful and sharp tongued but all of her faults are offset by her imagination her love of beauty and her kindness to everyone around her also like all of e h young s heroines miss mole has beautiful feet isn t it strange when you find that kind of quirk in an author it s like in l m montgomery books where all of the heroines have thin pale faces or in josephine tey mysteries where the villains always have pale blue eyes oh and also miss mole has a scandalous secret in her past i love a misfit heroine with a scandalous past miss mole takes a job as housekeeper to a widowed minister a controlling man with high principles and she befriends his two daughters as i ve come to expect from an e h young novel the family relationships are wonderfully complex but as miss mole sees it every relationship is full of possibility one of the things i like best about this book is the way that miss mole is constantly imagining that something good is just about to happen to her that the curmudgeonly old neighbor will leave her a fortune in his will that the dashing uncle of the family will fall in love with her and take her away to a new life what really happens to her though is completely unexpected i probably should have seen the end of this book coming but i did not and i loved the surprise i love the cover art by ruth cobb in this first edition published in 1930 reading e h young books will make you want to live in radstowe young s fictionalized version of bristol with its lovely old buildings and river mists i have no idea what actual bristol is like but fictional radstowe is gorgeous some of my favorite parts of the book are the scenes where miss mole walks around radstowe drinking in the beauty of the city and imagining things take this passage for example there was her walk on the hill overlooking the water with the bright tree showing through a grey mist which seemed to darken when the wings of a swooping gull flashed through it there was the sound of unseen ships hooting or booming at the turn of the river and at her will she had been able to imagine them as huge amphibians calling to each other as they floundered in the water and sought the hidden banks or she could acknowledge them as the sirens of ships which were coming home from distant places or setting out on fresh voyages and standing up there with the soft rain on her face she had marvelled at the richness of human life in which imagination could create strange beasts though facts were sufficient in themselves this is a 1920s souvenir postcard of bristol and is basically how i imagine radstowe i think that miss mole must be a little like e h young herself young does the same thing that miss mole does she transforms her world into something beautiful without ever forgetting the reality behind it that is a marvelous gift and it s what makes miss mole the book that i push into people s hands demanding that they read it right now read this book right now posted by elizabeth at 8 50 pm 6 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday january 27 2013 the dark fairy tale of the misses mallett the misses mallett the bridge dividing by e h young was the least cozy and most unsettling of all of the miss books that i read recently but i loved it the blurb on the back of my virago edition says of young s twelve witty novels this her fourth first published in 1922 is the most reminiscent of jane austen that blurb is why i bought the book in the first place but i didn t really see much jane austen in the misses mallett yes it s about sisters in a wealthy family who are contemplating the prospect of marriage and it is witty and satirical but it s much less sense and sensibility and much more a kind of dark retelling of cinderella there are four misses mallett the best characters as far as i m concerned are the two eldest sisters caroline and sophia two old ladies who refuse to acknowledge their age caroline is stout and dashing while sophia is tiny and sweet but they both delight in rouge and debutante dresses they could easily have been pathetic figures but e h young makes them seem magnificent i especially wanted to hang out with caroline who leaves french novels around her parlor and tells shocking stories about her heart breaking days we re all wrapped up in cotton wool nowadays she says i ought to have lived in another century i too would have adorned a court and kept it lively there s no wit left in the world and there s no wickedness of the right kind and even though caroline is deluded about her past she never really shocked anyone and her love affairs have been mainly imaginary her eccentricity adds to the fairytale atmosphere of the book she does seem to belong to another century or to a magical time that never existed when caroline tells her outrageous anecdotes her stepsister rose remembers her childhood when like a happier cinderella she had seen her stepsisters in satins and laces with pendant fans and glitter jewels excited rustling with little words of commendation for each other setting out for the evening parties of which they never tire they had always kissed her before they went looking she used to think as beautiful as princesses edmund dulac s illustration of cinderella at the ball 1910 the story of the misses mallett is really about the two youngest misses mallett and their tangled relationships it s about the calm secretive rose and her niece henrietta a prickly young woman with her own cinderella story henrietta s father was disowned by his family for making a bad marriage and henrietta was raised in poverty by her mother after her mother dies she comes to live a life of wealth and status with her aristocratic sisters it s at that point that henrietta falls in love with francis sales the country squire who might be the prince to her cinderella the problem is that rose is also in love with francis and the other problem is that francis is already married to someone else even though this is a romance the most compelling relationships are the ones between the malletts especially the complicated relationship that henrietta has with rose but what i really loved in this book were the fairy tale elements the coaches the balls the gowns the enchanted forests and lakes and the disturbing twist that e h young puts into each of these henrietta meets her lover by a moonlit lake but she ends up rejecting him the sisters attend a fantastic ball but it ends not in a coronation but in a death i loved how all of the characters kept shifting roles each one seems like ...