The House at Riverton: A Novel

The House at Riverton: A Novel
by Kate Morton

The House at Riverton: A Novel
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Book Summary Information

Author: Kate Morton
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2009-03-03
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 496
Publisher: Washington Square Press

Book Reviews of The House at Riverton: A Novel

Book Review: Entertaining enough to distract me from a banged-up knee.
Summary: 4 Stars

I'm writing this review with my poor banged up knee in the air instead of skiing as I would like to be doing. This may be making me more forgiving than usual; I really kind of liked this book.

My sister gave this to me as part of her quest to get me to admit that romance novels aren't all awful. Her other two stabs this direction were notably unsuccessful, so I approached the Morton with a grim eye. Not only is this a romance, but a historical romance to boot. Perhaps my expectations were so low that they were bound to be exceeded?

I liked it. Morton seems to have a decent grasp of history, which is usually what makes me hate historical fiction. The prose quality was good, unpretentious, with a minimum of the flowery fuss that generally accompanies the genre. It kept me reading at a point when I really needed distraction, which was definitely a Good Thing.

It isn't perfect by a long shot. I am very tired of historical novels featuring servant girls with Significant Question Marks hanging over their parentage. Morton telegraphed her intentions here so obviously she might as well have put the 'secret' on the back cover. The ending is also not particularly well done-- it seemed the writer was more interested in her character's relationship with each other than she was with their erstwhile lover. Can't blame her for that really, but the last section felt like an incomplete afterthought.

All in all-- a decent read. Good entertainment if you're in the mood. And coming from someone who traditionally dislikes precisely this genre, that's a ringing endorsement.

Summary of The House at Riverton: A Novel

The House at Riverton is a gorgeous debut novel set in England between the wars. It is the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all and kept a secret for decades.

Grace Bradley went to work at Riverton House as a servant when she was just a girl, before the First World War. For years her life was inextricably tied up with the Hartford family, most particularly the two daughters, Hannah and Emmeline.

In the summer of 1924, at a glittering society party held at the house, a young poet shot himself. The only witnesses were Hannah and Emmeline and only they -- and Grace -- know the truth.

In 1999, when Grace is ninety-eight years old and living out her last days in a nursing home, she is visited by a young director who is making a film about the events of that summer. She takes Grace back to Riverton House and reawakens her memories. Told in flashback, this is the story of Grace's youth during the last days of Edwardian aristocratic privilege shattered by war, of the vibrant twenties and the changes she witnessed as an entire way of life vanished forever.

The novel is full of secrets -- some revealed, others hidden forever, reminiscent of the romantic suspense of Daphne du Maurier. It is also a meditation on memory, the devastation of war and a beautifully rendered window into a fascinating time in history.

Originally published to critical acclaim in Australia, already sold in ten countries and a #1 bestseller in England, The House at Riverton is a vivid, page-turning novel of suspense and passion, with characters -- and an ending -- the reader won't soon forget.


Amazon Best of the Month, April 2008: In her cinematic debut novel, Kate Morton immerses readers in the dramas of the Ashbury family at their crumbling English country estate in the years surrounding World War I, an age when Edwardian civility, shaken by war, unravels into the roaring Twenties. Grace came to serve in the house as a girl. She left as a young woman, after the presumed suicide of a famous young poet at the property's lake. Though she has dutifully kept the family's secrets for decades, memories flood back in the twilight of her life when a young filmmaker comes calling with questions about how the poet really died--and why the Ashbury sisters never again spoke to each other afterward. With beautifully crafted prose, Morton methodically reveals how passion and fate transpired that night at the lake, with truly shocking results. Her final revelation at the story's close packs a satisfying (and not overly sentimental) emotional punch. --Mari Malcolm

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