The House at Riverton

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Wow..... what a story. This is the first book of this author that I have read. I was hooked from the beginning to the end.

I asked her to open the curtains and she pursed her lips a moment before moving on to another of her favorite subjects: the weather, the likelihood of snow for Christmas, the havoc it would wreak on the arthritic residents. I responded when required, but my mind was on the envelope in my lap, wondering at the scratchy penmanship, the foreign stamps, softened edges that spoke of lengthy travails. Las fotografías nos obligan a contemplar a las personas antes de que su destino las abrume, antes de que conozcan su final. 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. I had lots of hope for this book when I took it for reading. I expected it to be a gothic novel reminiscent of books like The Thirteenth Tale, Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre. Though the setting of the novel is similar, the writing is pathetic and the plot almost absent and the characters totally unlikeable. In every plot that Morton incites, she welcomes the reader to go through it alone; believing that every reader is equipped with enough courage, intellect, & heart to walk the road that will journey them through time, the lives of the unseen, & expose them to the treachery that exists in their communities snuggly between people like you & me. I appreciate this very much. I cannot say enough positive things about an author who works their skill. It is one thing to be insatiably talented, another ordeal entirely to know one’s own talent so well as to recognize how to shape it into a masterpiece. I hope all readers have the chance to come across books written by authors who care so very much about the work they are producing.Die Geschichte spielt sowohl in der Vergangenheit (1914 bis 1924) als auch in der Gegenwart, wobei der überwiegende Teil doch in der Vergangenheit spielt.

Told over two timelines, the years of the first world war and after, and the current time. Grace's life is nearing its end, but when she is approached to offer her opinion on the sets for the period drama being made culminating in Robbie's death, she agrees. The film script, although being far from accurate stirs up memories of what actually happened.I probably would have enjoyed Kate Morton's debut novel The House at Riverton more if I had not already experienced the greater expression of her writing talent in The Forgotten Garden. Riverton shares many of the themes of her later work, but with the narrator at a greater remove from the focus of the story, it tends to make her characterizations a bit flat. The story of the Hartford family, focused on the sisters Hannah and Emmeline is told by Grace, a servant to the family for many years. Her unequal social relationship to the sisters keeps her at a distance and their experiences are relayed through her limited perspective. Me gustó muchísimo este libro. Amo el estilo de escritura de Kate Morton, y en este se lo puede apreciar al máximo. Kate Morton is the eldest of three sisters. Her family moved several times before settling on Tamborine Mountain where she attended a small country school. She enjoyed reading books from an early age, her favourites being those by Enid Blyton. Hannah and Emmeline are playing near the pool and Grace brings some lemonade. Hannah offers Grace some lemonade even if Grace is only the servant, The scene is peaceful and calm and the girls are very happy.

One Christmas, David brings home a school friend, Robbie Hunter, with whom eleven-year-old Emmeline is infatuated but fifteen-year-old Hannah is less impressed. Nearly ten years later, after David has been killed in WWI, Robbie finds Hannah to return a book she had given her brother. Hannah is living in London and unhappily married to an older businessman, and Robbie provides a glimpse of the life she wanted to have. They fall in love and begin an affair. There are also two portrayals of the aftereffects of the First World War. Those weren't done unnecessarily dramatic or over the top, either. They were kept at bay (to a believable point), and I really liked and appreciated that. The House at Riverton is a rich concoction that offers the elements that readers expect from the English country-house genre but manages to keep the narrative engaging by unfolding the story into the present day, allowing us to see the past as something that is still painfully alive for Grace even though for others it becomes merely a source of potential entertainment or amusement.She completed a Licentiate in Speech and in Drama from Trinity College London and then a summer Shakespeare course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Later she earned first-class honours for her English Literature degree at the University of Queensland, during which time she wrote two full-length manuscripts (which are unpublished) before writing the story that would become the 2006 novel The House at Riverton.