My godmother had been clearing out her children's book shelves and gave me "The Enchanted Castle", a book I have read and re-read several times (in its German translation) and am most likely going to read again later this year, this time in English.
Until some years ago, I only knew Nesbit's children's books, and the first adult novel I read by her wasn't at all what I had hoped for. I was disappointed, as you can read in this review from 2013. Last week, I gave her adult books another try, and "The Incredible Honeymoon" was delightful from start to finish.
There are 10 years between the publication dates of "The Incomplete Amorist" (1906) and "Honeymoon" (1916) - maybe she was still developing her style for adults, or there are other reasons for the one being so much better than the other.
Young man meets young woman - the old formula works well here. The circumstances are as unusual as are the characters, and when the two of them agree on a mock marriage in order to get the woman away from a situation she does not want to bear any longer, they embark on their "incredible honeymoon", travelling (mainly) the south of England.
A stranger soon seems to be of some danger to them, but is he really? And is the call to help her sick aunt the beginning of the end of their wonderful adventure? How will the mock marriage really play out?
You can probably guess at how most of what I have mentioned here plays out, but the story does not lose any of its charm. I liked the characters, I liked the places and travelling described, and I liked Edith Nesbit's trademark style, witty but never vulgar.
If you are interested to learn a bit more about the author, who lived from 1858 to 1924, you can read the last paragraph here.
From your review I am sure I would like this book. Half of the novels I read are set in England and/or written by British authors, so the setting in England and the love story appeal to me. My post today is of another such book.
ReplyDeleteI'll check out your blog in a minute, Terra, thank you!
DeleteI love Edith Nesbit ' s books as a child. The Railway Children was my favorite.
ReplyDeleteI did not read The Railway Children until years later; my first was The Enchanted Castle and then The Enchanted City, both of which I have read more than once and still love.
DeleteShe was very advanced for her time but I don't think she could have got away with the idea of a mock honeymoon in 1906. By 1916 the war had probably liberalised attitudes a lot. I've never heard of this book and I'll certainly read it - I loved her books as a child too.
ReplyDeleteJenny, I found "tons" of her books for free on Amazon's kindle shop, so you can probably get all the ones you haven't read yet there, too.
DeleteI remember that you like her books very much!
ReplyDeleteFunny, I just wrote a short post about children's books! Great minds think alike!
They (and we) do indeed, Kay :-)
DeleteI'll be over at your blog soon!
I wanted to buy this book for my kindle, so I looked it up on amazon. I laughed when I saw that I had purchased it (free) in May 2016 and looked at your blog for that month and saw that you had posted something about Nesbit on the 25th of May.I did not discover her books until I was in my 30s and then the books about the WouldBeGoods were the first ones. I love her books! She had a great talent and lovely sense of humor. I bought this book last May but have not read it yet and now it is at the top of my list. I find it incredible that I have over 1,500 books on my kindle!
ReplyDeleteGoodness!! That's a lot of books - imagine you had them all as physical books, you would need an extra room in your house just for them :-)
DeleteI used to have ca. 80 books on my kindle but often delete the ones I have read, knowing I will never read them a second time. But some I keep, and download new ones every now and then, so that there are currently around 70 books on it.
I have only read some of her children's books so far, and most of them not until I got my Kindle. I think I have a "complete collection" of some kind on there, but I don't remember just now if only her children's books or if it includes her adult novels as well...
ReplyDeleteBefore and outside my kindle, I only have two of her children's books here, although I read some more when I was young.
DeleteI think you'll like some of her adult novels, too.