Cousin Rosamund - Softcover

West, Rebecca

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140101306 ISBN 13: 9780140101300

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 1987

Synopsis

Two young women come of age in a novel "unbelievably rich in character, incident, and observation." -- The Boston Globe
 
Their childhood and adolescence were overshadowed by the Great War. Now, in its lonely aftermath, Rose and Mary Aubrey find themselves deprived of the guiding strength of their cousin Rosamund when she marries a man of dubious morals and intolerable vulgarity. Retreating to an inn on the Thames, they find a haven of security with old friends.
 
Into this fragile Eden a new, disruptive force is introduced; Rose discovers the power of love, and, confronting her own sexuality, learns to delight in it. With extraordinary fierceness and candor, Rebecca West has written a portrait of sexual awakening, one that allows her characters an uncanny glimpse of our own age.
 
"Comes as close as we are ever likely to get to a self-portrait of the extraordinary woman who created her." -- Sunday Observer (London)
 
"The author’s searching, stinging, imaginative intelligence encompasses art and love and justice and simple humanness." -- Kirkus Reviews

About this title

About the Author

Rebecca West (1892–1983) was a novelist, biographer, journalist, and critic. She published eight novels in addition to her masterpiece Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, for which she made several trips to the Balkans. Following World War II, West also published two books on the relation of the individual to the state, called The Meaning of Treason and A Train of Powder.

From Library Journal

These previously unpublished chapters complete the trilogy begun in The Fountain Overflows and continued in the posthumous This Real Night ( LJ 3/1/85). Rose Aubrey picks up her tale in the 1920s, after the deaths of her mother and brother. Though still troubled in spirit, Rose and her sister Mary are at last secure financially as established concert pianists. Sought after by society, they prefer clinging to those they have loved since childhood. They are shaken by the loss of their cherished cousin Rosamund, who leaves England after her inexplicable marriage to a rich vulgarian. Rose comes close to breaking down but is restored by unexpected romance and a happy marriage. West's impressive style once again makes up for the overall unfinished quality of the narrative, and readers intrigued by the earlier volumes will not want to miss this one, nor West's synopsis of the entire Aubrey saga, reprinted in the afterword. Starr E. Smith, Georgetown Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0140101306
• ISBN 13: 9780140101300
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304