Download or read book Coromandel Sea Change written by Rumer Godden and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-12-20 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hotel in southern India is home to a host of romantic intrigues and human misadventures in this delightful novel from a New York Times–bestselling author. Over a decade before The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, award-winning author Rumer Godden was delighting readers with the exploits of the residents and staff at a quaint getaway resort in southern India. Wily and winning Anglo-Indian hotel owner Auntie Sanni has entertained all manner of guests during her many years as hostess at Patna Hall, a popular vacation spot on the lush Coromandel coast. Now, with an election coming, business is especially brisk, and her hotel is packed with Indian politicians, British diplomats, journalists, American tourists—even a donkey, an elephant, and a woman of mystery or two. Among the vacationers are Mary and Blaise, a young English couple on their honeymoon. But where Mary is enchanted by the colors, sounds, and vibrant Indian life, prim and priggish Blaise sees only squalor, sordidness, and a Coromandel Sea teeming with sharks. Matters are only made worse when Mary becomes interested in local Indian politics—particularly the handsome, exquisitely spoken candidate Krishnan, whose kindness and wisdom are like a balm for her spirit. As tensions between the newlyweds continue to mount, even resourceful Auntie Sanni may not be able to forestall potential unpleasantness or prevent it from escalating into tragedy. The acclaimed author of Black Narcissus and The River returns readers once again to her beloved India with a novel brimming with heart, wit, unforgettable characters, and “a sense of timelessness reminiscent of E. M. Forster” (The Times, London). This ebook features an illustrated biography of the author including rare images from the Rumer Godden Literary Estate.
Download or read book Miss Happiness and Miss Flower written by Rumer Godden and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-10-22 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A beautifully illustrated cover edition of Rumer Godden's classic story about friendship and family, Miss Happiness and Miss Flower. When little Nona is sent from her sunny home in India to live with her relatives in chilly England, she is miserable. Then a box arrives for her in the post and inside, wrapped up in tissue paper, are two little Japanese dolls. A slip of paper says their names are Miss Happiness and Miss Flower. Nona thinks that they must feel lonely too, so far away from home. Then Nona has an idea – she will build her dolls the perfect house! It will be just like a Japanese home in every way. It will even have a tiny Japanese garden. And as she begins to make Miss Happiness and Miss Flower happy, Nona finds that she is happier too.
Download or read book Rumer Godden written by Lucy Le-Guilcher and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-08 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1929 to 1997, Rumer Godden published more than 60 books, including novels, biographies, children's books, and poetry; this is the first collection devoted to this important transnational writer. Focusing on Godden's writing from the 1930s onward, the contributors uncover the breadth and variety of the literary landscape on display in works such as Black Narcissus, The Lady and the Unicorn, A Fugue in Time, and The River. Often drawing on her own experiences living in India and Britain, Godden establishes a diverse narrative topography that allows her to engage with issues related to her own uncertain position as an author representing such nomadic Others as gypsies, or taking up the displacements brought about by international conflict. Recognizing that studies of the transnational must consider the condition of enforced and elected exile within the changing political and cultural borders of postcolonial nations, the contributors position Godden with respect to different and overlapping fields of inquiry: modern literary history; colonial, postcolonial, and transnational studies; inter-media studies; and children's literature. Taken together, the essays in this volume demonstrate the richness and variety of Godden's writing and render the myriad ways in which Godden is an important critical presence in mid-twentieth-century fiction.
Download or read book The India Novels Volume Two written by Rumer Godden and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2018-06-19 with total page 631 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Four evocative and moving works of fiction set in India from the New York Times–bestselling author of Black Narcissus—including her final novel. Having spent her formative years in colonial India, British novelist Rumer Godden would continue to return to that setting for inspiration throughout her career—from her best known work about five nuns in a Himalayan convent, Black Narcissus, to her final novel, Cromartie vs. the God Shiva. The four novels in this volume each reveal in their own way Godden’s “magical skill in conjuring up with a few suggestive details a veritable panorama of Indian life” (The New York Times). And, like all of Godden’s fiction, they “have one important thing in common: They are beautifully and simply wrought by a woman of depth and sensitivity” (Los Angeles Times). Cromartie vs. the God Shiva: In Godden’s final novel, inspired by a real event, the theft of a precious statuette of the Hindu god Shiva from a hotel in India leads to love, intrigue, death, and legal complications. Even as Sydney Cromartie, the Canadian now in possession of the statue, fights to retain ownership, British barrister Michael Dean is dispatched to Patna Hall on the Coromandel Coast (previously appearing in Godden’s Coromandel Sea Change), where everyone is a suspect, including proprietress Auntie Sanni, to solve the mystery. “A complex tale, fraught with mystery . . . Readers who enjoy far-away cultures will find this tale a treat.” —Library Journal The Lady and the Unicorn: Battling poverty and prejudice, the three “half-caste” daughters of an Englishman and an Indian mother live with their widowed father and “Auntie” in a crumbling mansion in 1930s Calcutta. Tough-minded Belle Lemarchant is determined to improve her lot in life, while her twin, Rosa, looks for escape in romance, and their younger, darker-skinned sibling, Blanche, wanders the halls and grounds, communing with ghosts. A powerful coming-of-age story in a society blinded by caste divisions, Godden’s novel is a heartbreaking human drama. “One of the delights of reading a Rumer Godden novel is the magnetic pull of the exotic settings, affecting readers and characters alike.” —Newsday The Peacock Spring: When Una, fifteen, and her twelve-year-old sister, Halcyon, are summoned from their English boarding school to join their diplomat father in New Delhi, they encounter an exotic new world, racial prejudice, and a calculating Eurasian governess, whose relationship with their father seems troubling in its intimacy. When Una becomes friends with Ravi, a young Indian gardener, their forbidden attraction threatens to end in scandal and disaster. “Ms. Godden . . . has a wonderful way with fictional children, tender and true and never sentimental.” —The New York Times Coromandel Sea Change: With an election coming, business is brisk at Patna Hall, a resort hotel on the lush Coromandel Coast in southern India. Anglo-Indian hotel owner Auntie Sanni has her hands full with Indian politicians, British diplomats, a journalist involved in espionage, a woman of mystery, and an English couple on their honeymoon whose new marriage is strained by their conflicting responses to India. As the nearby Coromandel Sea is teeming with sharks, so is Patna Hall brimming with adultery, blackmail, and intrigue. “[A] sense of timelessness reminiscent of E. M. Forster.” —The Times
Download or read book Colonial Strangers written by Phyllis Lassner and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title aims to revolutionize modern British literary studies by showing how our interpretations of the postcolonial must confront World War II and the Holocaust. Lassner's analysis reveals how writers such as Muriel Spark, Olivia Manning, Rumer Godden, Phyllis Bottome, Elspeth Huxley and Zadie Smith insist that World War II is critical to understanding how and why the British Empire had to end. to the end of fascism. Drawing on memoirs, fiction, reportage and film adaptations, the book explores the critical perspectives of women who are passionately engaged with Britian's struggle to yield the last vestiges of imperial power. British women as agents of imperialism by questioning their own participation in British claims of moral righteousness and British politics of cultural exploitation. The authors discussed take centre stage in debates about connections between the racist ideologies of the Third Reich and the British Empire.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of British Writers 1800 to the Present written by George Stade and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2010-05-12 with total page 593 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains alphabetically arranged entries that provide biographical and critical information on major and lesser-known nineteenth- and twentieth-century British writers, and includes articles on key schools of literature, and genres.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of British Writers written by Christine L. Krueger and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2014-07 with total page 881 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This concise encyclopedic reference profiles more than 800 British poets
Download or read book Little Plum written by Rumer Godden and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-10-22 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Gem moves into The House Next Door, Nona and Belinda think she's stuck up and vow to have nothing to do with her. But the beautiful Japanese doll in her window soon attracts their attention. They name her Little Plum because of the plum blossom decorating her clothes - but unlike Nona's Japanese dolls, Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, Little Plum seems sad, unloved and uncared for. Will the three girls - and the three dolls - ever become friends? A beautiful illustrated cover edition of Little Plum, Rumer Godden's classic story about family and friendship.
Download or read book The Dolls House written by Rumer Godden and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-10-06 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tottie is a loving little wooden doll who lives with her family in a shoebox. The doll family is owned by two sisters, Emily and Charlotte, and they are very happy, except for one thing: they long for a proper home. To their delight, their wish comes true when Emily and Charlotte fix up a Victorian dolls' house - just for them. It's perfect. But then a new arrival starts to wreak havoc in the dolls' house. For Marchpane might be a wonderfully beautiful doll, but she is also terribly cruel. And she always gets her own way . . . First published in 1947, Rumer Godden's classic The Dolls' House has been delighting children for years, and this beautiful edition, illustrated by Jane Ray, will delight future generations for years to come.
Download or read book The India Novels Volume One written by Rumer Godden and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2018-06-19 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three unforgettable novels from a New York Times–bestselling author—including Black Narcissus, which “bears comparison with A Passage to India” (Arthur Koestler). With Black Narcissus, her novel of five nuns in a remote Himalayan convent struggling against nature—both physical and human—Rumer Godden established her impeccable literary reputation. TheNew York Times wrote of her work: “Her craftsmanship is always sure; her understanding of character is compassionate and profound; her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty.” Having spent her formative years in colonial India, she would continue to return to that setting for inspiration in several subsequent novels, each of them “beautifully and simply wrought by a woman of depth and sensitivity” (Los Angeles Times). Black Narcissus: Led by Sister Clodagh, the youngest Mother Superior in the history of their order, the European Sisters of the Servants of Mary take up residence in an abandoned palace in the foothills of the Himalayas, where an Indian general once housed his harem. The sisters hope to establish a school and clinic to combat superstition, ignorance, and disease. But the isolation and mountain altitude, the ghosts and lurid history, and one young nun’s unhealthy obsession with their royal benefactor’s agent, Mr. Dean, threaten to undermine the best intentions of the purest hearts. Black Narcissus was made into an Academy Award–winning film starring Deborah Kerr and directed by Michael Powell. “A very remarkable novel.” —The Observer Breakfast with the Nikolides: As the Nazi juggernaut rolls through occupied France, Louise Poole is forced to flee Paris with her two daughters and return to East Bengal and the husband she left. Despite Louise’s hatred of rural India, eleven-year-old Emily is intrigued by her exotic new home, left free to explore—and enjoy the hospitality of her glamorous neighbors, the Nikolides. But as the cracks in her parents’ marriage become more obvious, an act of thoughtless cruelty ultimately shatters the tenuous bonds of family, violently disrupting the lives of the Pooles and the community. “A fascinating book . . . It is absorbing and as original . . . as Black Narcissus.” —Kirkus Reviews The River: The Second World War seems very far away for eleven-year-old Harriet, the daughter of a British businessman, and her home in Bengal, India, along the Ganges River—until the arrival of a handsome wounded soldier. Harriet is entranced by their new neighbor, Captain John, but unprepared for the rush of unfamiliar emotions he stirs up in her: longing, jealousy, and infatuation. Inspired by the author’s personal experiences growing up in India, The River is an evocative and bittersweet coming of age story. The River was made into a film directed by Jean Renoir. “So intense, so quietly demanding of attention, that at the time there will be nothing in your thoughts but a small girl in India, and the people and places that were her world.” —Saturday Review
Download or read book Reading on Location written by Luisa Moncada and published by Fox Chapel Publishing. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the charming city of Bath, featured in Jane Austen's Persuasion, to the Amazon of Mario Vargas Llosa's La Casa Verde, this unique travel guide brings you to the places you've only read about. Whether you want to learn more about a destination or follow in the footsteps of a favorite character, Reading on Location helps you make the most of your trip.
Download or read book The Greengage Summer written by Rumer Godden and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-12-13 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sixteen-year-old girl captures the dangerous attention of an older man in this New York Times–bestselling novel by the author of Black Narcissus. Soon after the end of the terrible Great War, Mrs. Grey brings her five young children to the French countryside for the summer in hopes of instilling in them a sense of history and humility. But when she is struck down by a sudden illness and hospitalized, the siblings are left to fend for themselves at the lovely, bullet-scarred hotel Les Oeillets, under the suspicious, watchful eyes of its owner, Mademoiselle Zizi. The young ones find a willing guide, companion, and protector in charming Englishman Eliot, a longtime resident at Les Oeillets and Mlle. Zizi’s apparent paramour. But as these warm days of freedom, discovery, and adolescent adventure unfold, Eliot’s interest becomes more and more focused on the eldest of the Grey children, sixteen-year-old daughter Joss. The older man’s obsession with the innocent, alluring, heartbreakingly beautiful woman-child soon threatens to overstep all bounds of propriety. And as Eliot’s fascination increases, so does the jealousy of his disrespected lover, adding fuel to a dangerously smoldering fire that could erupt into unexpected violence at any moment. Told from the point of view of Cecil, Joss’s sharp-eyed younger sister, The Greengage Summer is a beautiful, poignant, darkly tinged coming-of-age story rich in the sights, smells, and sounds of France’s breathtaking Champagne country. It remains one of the crowning literary achievements of Rumer Godden, acclaimed author of beloved classics Black Narcissus, The River, and In This House of Brede. This ebook features an illustrated biography of the author including rare images from the Rumer Godden Literary Estate.
Download or read book Black Narcissus written by Rumer Godden and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-12-13 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five nuns confront nature—physical and human—in a remote Himalayan convent in the bestselling novel that inspired the new FX miniseries. Under the guidance of Sister Clodagh, the youngest Mother Superior in the history of their order, five European Sisters of the Servants of Mary leave their monastery in Darjeeling, India, and make their way to remote Mopu in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. There, in the opulent, abandoned palace where an Indian general housed his harem, the holy sisters hope to establish a school and a health clinic. Their aim is to help combat superstition, ignorance, and disease among the mistrusting natives in the village below, and to silence the doubts of their royal benefactor’s agent, the hard-drinking and somewhat disreputable Mr. Dean. But all too soon, the isolation, the ghosts and lurid history, and the literally breathtaking beauty of this high, lonely place in the Asian mountains begin to take a serious toll on Sister Clodagh and her fellow nuns. And their burdens may prove too heavy to bear, exposing a vulnerable humanity that threatens to undermine the best intentions of the purest hearts. The basis for the Golden Globe and Academy Award–winning motion picture starring Deborah Kerr, as well as the new miniseries on FX starring Gemma Arterton, Black Narcissus has been universally praised for its poignancy, passion, and rich evocation of a time and place. An intensely human story of devotion, faith, and madness, this beloved novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of In This House of Brede stands among the finest fiction written in the twentieth century. “Bears comparison with A Passage to India.” —Arthur Koestler This ebook features an illustrated biography of the author including rare images from the Rumer Godden Literary Estate.
Download or read book The Lady and the Unicorn written by Rumer Godden and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-12-20 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three sisters battle poverty and prejudice in 1930s India in this heart-wrenching tale from a New York Times–bestselling novelist. Life is difficult for the three Lemarchant sisters in the latter years of the British Raj. Born of two cultures and rejected by both—the “half-caste” daughters of an Englishman and an Indian mother—twins Belle and Rosa and their younger sibling, Blanche, live with their widowed father and “Auntie” in an apartment in a crumbling mansion in Calcutta. Having grown to young womanhood in poverty—the result of their father’s indolence and society’s intolerance—tough-minded Belle is determined to improve her lot in life, even if it means compromising her principles and her pride. Her beautiful twin, Rosa, however, dreams of a different, grander escape and foolishly puts her faith in love. For Blanche, the entire world is the decaying estate the Lemarchants share with other Anglo-Indian outcasts. Rejected by her own siblings due to the darkness of her skin, the lonely little girl wanders the halls and grounds, enjoying the fantasy of a phantom pet while communing with ghosts only the purest of souls can see. An extraordinary novel rich in color and heartbreaking human drama, The Lady and the Unicorn is the poignant tale of one family’s struggle to make a future in a society blinded by prejudice and divided by caste. A powerful story of coming-of-age and coming to terms, it is a masterful fiction from one of the preeminent British authors of the twentieth century. This ebook features an illustrated biography of the author including rare images from the Rumer Godden Literary Estate.
Download or read book A Fugue in Time written by Rumer Godden and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-12-20 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ghosts past, present, and future haunt an old London house in this masterful work of fiction from a New York Times–bestselling author. Sir Roland Ironmonger Dane is the last of his family to occupy the house at Number 99 Wiltshire Place in London. Now, in the early days of World War II, the elderly former general has been told that he must vacate the premises when the ninety-nine-year lease is up, leaving the only home he has ever known. But Sir Rolls and his longtime butler, Proutie, are not the only remaining residents. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow share the same space inside the old house, and every occupant from the past hundred years lives there still: Rolls’s ill-fated mother, Griselda; his father, the all-seeing “Eye”; his eight sisters and brothers. Even Rollo, the young boy Sir Rolls once was, continues to reside in Number 99, as does Lark, the adopted orphan whom he loved but let slip away. A century of a family’s history remains alive and vibrant within these walls, the events that defined their lives unfolding over and over again. But that living history is not ending quite yet, for the war is bringing a stranger from America to Number 99 Wiltshire Place to leave her indelible mark on it. A different kind of ghost story, Rumer Godden’s poignant, stylistically brilliant A Fugue in Time is a story rich in wonder, imagination, and heart—a favorite of the many devoted fans of the bestselling author of Black Narcissus and In This House of Brede. This ebook features an illustrated biography of the author including rare images from the Rumer Godden Literary Estate.
Download or read book Cromartie vs the God Shiva written by Rumer Godden and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-12-20 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Love, intrigue, and death ensue when a statue of a Hindu god is stolen from an Indian hotel in this masterwork from a New York Times–bestselling author. Sydney Cromartie is aghast when London officials inform him that his precious statuette of the Hindu god Shiva is in fact an artifact stolen from India, its mother country. But, despite the insistence of the Indian government, the irate Canadian art collector will not give it up without a legal fight. English barrister Michael Dean is thrilled to be assigned to a case that will allow him to return to his native India. Arriving at Patna Hall—the quaint seaside hotel on the Coromandel coast where the theft allegedly took place—he quickly launches into his investigation, casting suspicion on everyone, including the inn’s vivacious Anglo-Indian proprietress, Auntie Sanni. But there are complexities Dean never anticipated—and one very serious distraction: his emerging feelings for a mysterious archaeologist. Still, he must remain resolute, even if the facts he’s at risk of uncovering could lead to disappointment, disillusionment, even tragedy. In her final novel, award-winning author Rumer Godden returns to southern India and the charming beachfront resort that was the site of her popular Coromandel Sea Change. Based on a real late twentieth-century incident—when a Hindu god became, in essence, the plaintiff in a sensational legal case—Cromartie vs. the God Shiva is an unforgettable tale from a writer of “depth and sensitivity” (Los Angeles Times) and “a novelist of many gifts” (TheDaily Telegraph). This ebook features an illustrated biography of the author including rare images from the Rumer Godden Literary Estate.
Download or read book Breakfast with the Nikolides written by Rumer Godden and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-12-20 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A troubled European family struggles to make a life in India during WWII in this “absorbing” novel from a New York Times–bestselling author (Kirkus Reviews). Eight years ago, Louise Pool left her husband, Charles, in India, fleeing a marriage marked by anger, disillusion, and mistrust. Now, with Europe engulfed in the flames of World War II and Germany’s Nazi juggernaut rolling through occupied France, Louise is reluctantly returning to East Bengal, where Charles runs a government farm that hosts an Indian agricultural school. Back to this oppressive land she brings with her their two young daughters, who barely remember their father. For plain, awkward, eleven-year-old Emily, the “homecoming” offers both an exciting change from cosmopolitan Paris and a harsh immersion into the adult world. Intrigued by the sights, sounds, and smells of her exotic new home, she’s left free to explore—and enjoy the hospitality and kindness of their glamorous neighbors, the Nikolides. Emily’s already contentious relationship with her mother is only worsened, however, by Louise’s intense hatred of rural India and its people and her continued unhappiness with the marriage she insists is temporary. The faults and foibles of both parents and the irreparable cracks in their union become all too apparent from a daughter’s close-up perspective. But it is an extreme act of thoughtless cruelty that will ultimately shatter the tenuous bonds of family, violently disrupting the lives of the Pools and the community at large. Fans of the Masterpiece show Indian Summers will enjoy this poignant novel of betrayal, lost innocence, and fragile family ties, which represents the bestselling author of In This House of Brede and Kingfishers Catch Fire at her best. This ebook features an illustrated biography of the author including rare images from the Rumer Godden Literary Estate.