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Park Lane

door Frances Osborne

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1517179,639 (2.81)9
Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. When eighteen-year-old Grace Campbell arrives in London in 1914, she's unable to fulfill her family's ambitions and find a position as an office secretary. Lying to her parents and her brother, Michael, she takes a job as a housemaid at Number 35, Park Lane, where she is quickly caught up in lives of its inhabitants-in particular, those of its privileged son, Edward, and daughter, Beatrice, who is recovering from a failed relationship that would have taken her away from an increasingly stifling life. Desperate to find a new purpose, Bea joins a group of radical suffragettes and strikes up an intriguing romance with an impassioned young lawyer. Unbeknownst to each of the young women, the choices they make amid the rapidly changing world of World War I will connect their chances at future happiness in dramatic and inevitable ways.… (meer)
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1-5 van 7 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
This book has a promising setting in England in the years of suffragism . . . but it turned out to be pretty depressing.
  ajrenshaw99 | Sep 1, 2023 |
In the spring of 1914 Grace Campbell, a bright, ambitious working class girl has left her home in Carlisle to seek work as a secretary in London. However, her strong regional accent has prevented her from obtaining such a position so she has been forced to take a job as a housemaid in the Park Lane home of the Masters family. Her own family is struggling financially and she is expected to send more money home than she in fact earns. However, she cannot bring herself to admit to them that she has had to go into service – something they would find hard to accept – and she is left feeling desperate.
Bea Masters is fast approaching her 21st birthday and is, to the despair of her mother, still unmarried. She is a restless young woman, disenchanted with the social whirl but unsure about what she wants for her future. Her mother is a committed suffragist, working hard to effect change through peaceful, political means, whereas her Aunt Celeste is a passionate suffragette, an ardent supporter of Emmeline Pankhurst. Bea’s need for excitement and purpose in her life, as well as her need to rebel against her mother’s expectations, draws her into becoming secretly involved with active protest, a decision which will change the course of her life.
This story is told from the alternating “upstairs/downstairs” perspectives of these two young women who, in spite of their differences in social class, both yearn for more freedom and independence – and each struggles with the secret lives they are forced to lead. The advent of the First World War brings about profound changes for both of them.
For several reasons I found this a very uneven story. I thought that there were some aspects of the social and political turmoil of the period which were reasonably well captured but were, nevertheless dealt with in a rather superficial way. Almost two thirds of the story was taken up, rather tediously at times, with the peacetime lead-up to the war but the years from late 1914 to 1923 were raced through with what felt like unsatisfactory haste, not allowing any of the characters, but particularly Grace, to be sufficiently developed. In fact, I thought that there was a lack of any real depth to the author’s characterisations and that, for the most part, she took refuge in some rather lazy stereotyping. It felt almost as though the characters were pegs on which to hang some historical facts!
Had this not been a reading group assignment I would have given up on the story after the first fifty (maximum!) pages because I felt no real investment in any of the characters, apart from Grace – and her story was all but abandoned in the final third of the book! I have to admit that I found myself wondering whether this book would ever have been published had it been written by anyone other than the ex-Chancellor’s wife! ( )
  linda.a. | Jan 2, 2018 |
Upstairs, downstairs. A wealthy young woman and one of her maids deal with disappointment and changing expectations on the cusp of World War I. Grace Campbell has given up her hopes of an office job and is working as a maid for the Masters family. Bea Masters is still unmarried at twenty-five and increasingly disenchanted with her life. Against her mother's wishes she wanders into the world of radical suffrage. Both women live in a world of secrets. Grace cannot tell her family that she has been reduced to domestic service. Bea cannot reveal her new political affiliations or her relationship with a wholly unsuitable man.

This is a book that is meant to turn on the drama of manners and class restrictions, but it did not end up being especially lively. I wasn't particularly interested in either of the main characters, though Grace was slightly more interesting than Bea. The ending was particularly unsatisfactory. The historicity isn't bad, but I had a hard time getting invested in the story. ( )
  lahochstetler | Mar 27, 2013 |
We start out with two very different women in 1914, the privileged Beatrice and the housemaid Grace who both reside at 35 park Lane.
As do most wealthy women of that era who are not occupied with a family of their own they tend to get bored as does Bea & to her credit she does want to make a difference so she takes up the cause of the suffragettes with a little enticing by her wild and mysterious aunt Celeste (whom I really enjoyed & would have loved to read more about!) she becomes very involved much to her family’s chagrin.
Both women move through time each of then taking on the concerns of the era, both falling in love and not realizing just how close they come in their very separate lives.
It seemed Bea’s relationship with the “impoverished lawyer’ was uncomfortable for her as well as me and I could not quite figure out why she seemed so drawn to him or him to her?
I enjoyed the first half of the book but, as I got to the second half ...I became kind of lost, it was confusing, very slow going and seemed to bounce around in time. I think had the author focused on either the suffragettes or the war as opposed to both it might have been more interesting. The ending made me crazy as well, I mean… what the heck Grace? And come on Michael…speak up man! All in all it was an interesting if not slightly irritating read!
3 stars is generous... ( )
  annie.michelle | Mar 4, 2013 |
1-5 van 7 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
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Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. When eighteen-year-old Grace Campbell arrives in London in 1914, she's unable to fulfill her family's ambitions and find a position as an office secretary. Lying to her parents and her brother, Michael, she takes a job as a housemaid at Number 35, Park Lane, where she is quickly caught up in lives of its inhabitants-in particular, those of its privileged son, Edward, and daughter, Beatrice, who is recovering from a failed relationship that would have taken her away from an increasingly stifling life. Desperate to find a new purpose, Bea joins a group of radical suffragettes and strikes up an intriguing romance with an impassioned young lawyer. Unbeknownst to each of the young women, the choices they make amid the rapidly changing world of World War I will connect their chances at future happiness in dramatic and inevitable ways.

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