This month, as part of the Elizabeth Taylor Centenary Celebrations, we are discussing her seventh novel, “In A Summer Season”. Published in 1960, the book tells the story of a summer in the life of Kate Heron and her family and the changes that take place over these months. I should state now that until joining the LibraryThing Virago group earlier this year, I hadn’t read any of Elizabeth Taylor’s work but it was these celebrations which inspired me to do so – and I’m very glad! I have only read the ones we have discussed so far, so my comments on her work are based on these, and a reading of Nicola Beauman’s biography. My copy of “In A Summer Season” was very kindly provided by Ali not long after I had joined LibraryThing, for which many thanks!
Note – There *will* be spoilers!
– but these might be more from ET’s first six novels than from the one we are discussing – although they may creep into a later week!
I’m going to try to post every Friday and as there are five of these in August at the moment the plan is roughly like this:
Week 1 – Death (and Wreaths!)
Week 2 – Love and Marriage (or the Lack of It)
Week 3 – The Review!
Week 4 – Art Imitating Life (or Vice Versa)
Week 5 – Round up
Bear in mind this is only a plan – as I’ve found during July when trying to plan my reading (and re-reading), things rarely go as we anticipate! As usual, if you review the book, don’t forget to add your link to host Laura’s Mr. Linky page here. Happy reading!
Aug 01, 2012 @ 13:06:20
Aug 01, 2012 @ 13:07:30
Hooray! It’s August! I just updated my post, published this morning, to include a link to this one. I can’t wait to see what you have to say about this book!
Here’s my post.
Aug 01, 2012 @ 14:45:20
Thanks Laura, and thanks for publicising the post. I’ll try and keep the weekly discussions interesting!
Aug 02, 2012 @ 22:54:46
I finished this today, it is the second time I had read it, and I enjoyed it a lot – but I struggled to write my review – it took me hours and I felt I didn’t quite capture the novel, sometimes I find it so hard – but anyway I still enjoyed it. I had once thought In a summer Season would be my favourite ET novel, but that when I hadn’t read many. Now there are just 2 I have never read, and I think A Game of Hide and Seek is now my favourite, still I think In a summer season is excellent. There is a wonderfully summery sexy feel to it, and I love the minor characters.
Aug 03, 2012 @ 09:26:10
I thin you did a wonderful review Ali, but I know what you mean – I sometimes find it hard to get down in words what I feel about a book and think I haven’t done it justice. But I think you did capture the feeling of the novel and I too loved the minor characters – ET is so good at those!