I Love Historical Family Sagas

I always enjoyed those books that followed several generations of a family like Sidney Sheldon's Master of the Game, the North and South Trilogy by John Jakes, and Princess Daisy by Judith Krantz. You don't see too many of these books nowadays. I was very happy to discover Penny Vincenzi's books several years ago. Vincenzi is a British author and her books have only been available in the United States for a few years now. The story of the Lytton Family begins in No Angel. It is 1904 and Lady Celia Beckenham, the daughter of an English aristocrat is determined to marry Oliver Lytton, the scion of Lyttons Publishing House. He is a commoner and Celia's parents are having none of it. Oliver loves Celia but is too honorable to pursue her against her family's wishes. Celia comes up with a plan to get her way. Soon she is pregnant and her parents reluctantly give her their blessing. Married life isn't as exciting as Celia thought it would be and motherhood soon loses its appeal. Celia is a bright young woman who wants to be more than women of her day were allowed. Her interest in the publishing business is rebuffed and she is encouraged to pursue charity work. Although it is against the rules, Celia befriends a young woman she meets through the charity. They are about the same age but this woman already has more children than she can handle and is expecting another one. Her husband is a drunk and often violent. In her misguided way, Celia wants to help the woman and offers to take in the little girl called Barty. A few years later, Celia's twin daughters are born. By taking Barty from her family, she would cause the girl to be in a kind of limbo. Because of Celia, Barty got to live in a big house, have nice clothes, good food and an education equal to any upper class girl but was never allowed to forget that she didn't really belong in that world. She would also face the resentment of her siblings who wondered why Barty got to be the lucky one. This conflict and its consequences will be fully explored in Something Dangerous.

World War I gives women like Celia a rare opportunity. The men were away at war and someone had to take over the jobs they left. Celia hires other talented women and together they keep the publishing house afloat. She is doomed to disappointment when the war is over and Oliver returns a changed man. He has been injured and is dismayed to see how much better Celia is at business than he had been. As soon as he is able, he takes his rightful place and fires all the women Celia had hired and worked with for years to make places for all the men returning from the war. In time, Celia is allowed back into the business, but their relationship has changed for the worst.

Celia woos a famous children's author to Lyttons and works closely with him. They soon begin an affair. Celia is stuck in a loveless marriage but knows that leaving Oliver is not an option. She finds herself pregnant with her lover's child and is advised by her mother of all people to make her husband think it is his. Oliver has long since been cowed by Celia and if he suspects anything, he doesn't let on. She ends the affair and makes the best of things with Oliver. The book ends with the birth of her son Kitt.

Something Dangerous is the story of Celia's twin girls and Barty through World War II and Into Temptation is the story of the family in the aftermath of Celia's death and also Barty's daughter Jenna.

My Summer Ambition: Read a Classic

Each summer I try to read a classic novel. Of course, opinions vary on what constitutes a classic novel. You can go online and find list after list, but I go by the criterion of whether or not this is something I should have read in high school or college. You know what I mean...those books that are assigned year after year that you were either lucky enough not to be assigned or you just read something else. I also like to reread books that I read when I was much younger. Maybe it is just the fact that I have more life experience and perspective now than I did as a teenager, but they read like a brand new story.

When I was fourteen, I read Steinbeck's East of Eden. It is a kind of retelling of the Cain and Abel story from the Bible. Adam Trask favors one of his sons over the other with unfortunate results. The story is set in California's Salinas Valley around the turn of the last century. I read it again a few years ago when Oprah chose it to be the first book in her new book club featuring classics. Whatever happened to that, by the way? It seemed that the characters I liked when I was younger didn't stand out as much to me while others came to the forefront. The story had so many more layers and richness than I realized all those years ago. I had a similar experience with F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby which was a book report assignment in high school that I grudgingly read and didn't really like. I picked it up again years later determined to find out why people still recommend it. It is now one of my favorite books. If you have also read and liked it, I would highly recommend Chris Bohjalian's The Double Bind.

Another favorite of mine is D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. I think a lot of people know about this because it was banned for many years for being sexually explicit. While there are some sex scenes in the book, it is almost tame when compared to some contemporary writing. While it was published in 1928, it reads like something written more recently. It is a powerful story about the breakdown of the class system in England after World War I and how people had to find new ways to live in a world turned upside down with a little hanky panky thrown in for good measure. I find myself drawn to books about that time period. W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge is the story of an American who served in the Great War and it changed the trajectory of his life. He was no longer able to go back to Chicago and pick up where he left off. He couldn't marry his sweetheart and live the life he had planned prior to the war. Instead he travels the world and lives in the moment and studies Eastern philosophy trying to find some meaning in the fact that he lived when so many others did not.

Of course, there have been some books I have attempted and just could not get through. I've tried The Brothers Karamazov, An American Tragedy, Anna Karenina and The Sun Also Rises, but they didn't do anything for me. I don't let it discourage me from trying these kinds of books. Life is too short to force yourself to read something you don't like. There is always another good book waiting. This summer I am thinking of trying either The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and maybe Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut.