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Carregando... Making Conversation (1931)de Christine Longford
  
Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro.  LyzzyBee | May 31, 2012 |   Martha is a little less socially awkward as I thought she would be; she’s not the type of person who says things at inopportune moments. She’s actually quite eloquent when she does talk. She is supposed to be socially awkward, but I found myself liking her for her strength of character. She is intelligent and at times very funny in her naiveté. The novel chronicles Martha’s growth from childhood up through her time at Oxford and into adulthood. Martha’s coming of age coincides with WWI and the 1920s, but the time period takes a back seat to Martha’s story. The tone of the book tends to be very dry at times, which is why the narrative is sometimes hard to follow. I loved especially Martha’s mother, who runs a boarding house with various lodgers who add a spot of color to the story. Sill, I enjoyed watching Martha’s progression through school, university, and adulthood. This is not my favorite Persephone reprint, but it’s a novel that’s a good addition to the canon. (  )2  Kasthu | Dec 5, 2010 | )2 Heaven-Ali | Jun 19, 2010 | http://leaningtowardthesun.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/reads-making-conversation-ch... (  ) noodlejet22 | Aug 20, 2009 | sem resenhas | adicionar uma resenha
Pertence à série publicadaPersephone (83)
Making Conversation (1931) by Christine Longford (1900-80) was first reprinted in 1970 after the novelist Pamela Hansford Johnson reassessed it in the Times Literary Supplement. She wrote: 'This ought to be regarded as an English comic classic, which I suppose, unlike the ravishing Cold Comfort Farm, it is not. I hope time will redress the neglect.' The heroine, Martha, is plain, with curly hair, small eyes which she tries to enlarge in a soulful manner by stretching them in front of the looking glass, and very little chin. She is extremely clever and totally innocent. Her besetting trouble is that she either talks too much, or too little: she can never get right the balance of conversation. 'The genteel school Martha goes to is run by Miss Spencer and Miss Grossmith. Martha doesn't mind them. Indeed, she doesn't really mind anything; she is a most detached girl, letting even their idiotic sarcasms slide off her back. Now Martha, A said Miss Spencer, what is adultery?A Martha had not the faintest idea. It is a sin, A she said, committed by adults, A putting the accent on the second syllable. That is a parrot's answer.You think you are very clever, Martha, attempting to conceal your ignorance and your lack of thought. The attempt at concealment is not better than a lie. Adultery is self-indulgence. It is the extra lump of sugar in your tea. It is the extra ten minutes in bed in the morning. It is the extra five minutes a girl wastes by dawdling up the High Street and gaping at the shop windows - A Martha accepts this Chadbandery in the same way as she accepts the constant nagging that she should be keen on netball, and the gossip she hears around her concerning her preceptors. 'This witty book, crisp and dry as a fresh biscuit, is a novel of astonishing subtlety and of a subtlety that is not at all worked outA. It is native and assured. It is this subtlety that saves Making Conversation from the imputation of triviality, of being just a funny novelA. It is about a real girl, for whom we ought to be sorry, but for whom, because of her strength of nature, we are not sorry in the least. She would raise her eyebrows at us if we were.' The new Persephone Preface to Making Conversation is by Rachel Billington, who is Christine Longford's niece by marriage.She eloquently describes the menage at Tullynally Castle where the Longfords lived and describes why, despite the wonderful reviews Christine received for the book, she gave up writing. Rachel Billington concludes: 'I laughed out loud more during my third reading of Making Conversation than I have reading any comic novel written over the last thirty year Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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 Google Books — Carregando...GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)823.912Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1901-1945Classificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia: (3.1)
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This is one of those delicious books that doesn’t have a plot as such – OK, our heroine progresses through her youth, but it’s more a collection of exquisitely observed scenes and – yes – conversations than a plot-based narrative. Martha, our heroine, never quite fits in or understands the sub-texts (or, often, texts) she encounters. There is a glorious acceptance of all the different people who one might just about encounter in life – from spinsters and vicars to revolutionaries, Japanese gentlemen and slightly odd boys … all almost equally bewildering. A clear eye and a deadpan voice reminiscent of Elizabeth Taylor or Barbara Pym make this a delight to read. (