The Long View

Moving backward in time—from 1950 to 1926—this “beautifully written and richly perceptive” (The Telegraph, London) masterpiece of literary fiction presents an indelible portrait of a marriage.

The Long View takes us deep into the lives of Antonia and Conrad Fleming, offering a raw and compelling portrait of marriage through Antonia’s eyes. As she reflects on her years with Conrad, she untangles the choices she made—both good and bad—and the forces that drove them. Married to a loving and intellectual husband who meticulously orchestrated their lives, Antonia surrendered many decisions to him. Yet, her own fierce personality never faded. When it came to the matters that truly mattered, she always made her own call.

This is no ordinary story of marriage. Antonia and Conrad’s journey is both extraordinary and familiar, heartbreaking and uplifting. Elizabeth Jane Howard masterfully reveals the complexities of love, power, and self-determination, cutting straight to the emotional core of what it means to share your life with another. With unflinching honesty, she exposes the vulnerability and strength that lie beneath the surface of a marriage.

Elizabeth Jane Howard was a highly acclaimed English novelist, as well as an actress, model, and playwright. In 1951 she won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her first novel, The Beautiful Visit. Six books followed before she wrote her best-known work, The Cazalet Chronicles, a five-part bestselling series about a multigenerational family during wartime Britain. All novels—The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, Casting Off, and All Change—have become modern classics and were adapted into a major BBC radio and TV series.