A DUBIOUS LEGACY by Mary Wesley
On the threshold of their new life together, Margaret gave Henry a black eye and went straight to bed where she more or less remained for the rest of her life. Two young couples become regular, if uneasy, houseguests over the years, listening and speculating until finally, piecing together the rumours and the mystery, they find themselves tangled in the web of Henry's life. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly There is more than one legacy in British author Wesley's ( A Sensible Life ) darkly comic, wise and irresistible new novel of manners. Henry Tillotson's legacy from his dying father is an injunction to help an English divorcee in WW II Egypt. Henry does more than that: he impulsively marries Margaret, to his lifelong regret. For when he returns with her to his country home, she takes to her bed out of pure spite and tries her best to make his life miserable. In an effort to achieve some conviviality, Henry invites two friends, James and Matthew, for a weekend party; each man brings a companion and each proposes marriage. Both women accept, motivated by pragmatism and a need for security. What happens to their marriages, and that of Henry and Margaret, makes up the remainder of the plot. Two couples have children and grandchildren; these are the second legacy, and part of a delicious secret. As usual, Wesley's picture of the British upper middle class is breezy and irreverent; the dialogue is witty and often astonishingly impertinent (one thinks that the English can be shockingly tactless); the plot is laced with irony; the characters--major and minor--are depicted with a master's deft hand. But it is in Margaret, whose monstrously selfish, malicious, eccentric behavior exceeds all rational bounds, that Wesley has created her most memorable character. Readers will root for her comeuppance, and will cheer when it arrives. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From AudioFile The story, intertwining the lives of three couples, begins on a summer day in 1954 and ends in 1990. The lives of all are changed by that first day, and the story unfolds in an order that tantalizes our senses and heightens our enjoyment. This is not a romance novel (although the blurb and jacket might entice those readers); it is a novel of morals and morality set in an English country home. The narrator, Anna Massey, is a wonderful reader with a lovely voice and accent. Her voice is a pleasure to listen to although her differentiation of male voices is weak. As usual, Chivers does an excellent job with production values. E.F. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review Mary Wesley takes you by the hand and you follow wherever she takes you -- Kate Kellaway * Observer * Mary Wesley does it again, only more so... She marches straight into her tale, intriguing from the beginning, keeping up a pace that rarely slackens * Literary Review * Wesley breezes along with customary grace and nonchalance, sniping maliciously at her characters while giving them a more or less good time * Financial Times * Lively and entertaining * The Times * Wesley's books are a delight...a beautifully crafted tale, very sexy, very funny, I just didn't want it to end * Sunday Times (Perth) * --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author Jennifer Bassett is Series Editor of the Oxford Bookworms Collection, for which she has written original stories One-Way Ticket and The President's Murderer. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Library Journal Wesley's world is one of speculation about relationships, gossip, and innuendo. She explores forces that unite and divide friends and lovers. In 1944, Henry Tillotson brings his bride Margaret to his country house, where she takes to her bed and remains in self-indulgent isolation. Ten years later, two younger friends of Henry bring their girlfriends for the weekend. In the years that follow, the two couples marry and return regularly, their mundane lives punctuated by Margaret's eccentric boudoir conversations or scandalous ventures into their company. Henry dies in 1990, attended by his friends' (or his?) daughters, and the reader's visits to Wesley's well-realized world draw to an end with his departure. For readers who appreciate nuances of language and emotion and the incongruities of life, Wesley's book will be a treat. - Kathy Piehl, Mankato State Univ., Minn. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Publication Details
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Binding: Paperback
Published by: Black Swan: , 1992
Edition:
ISBN: 9780552994958 | 0552994952
389 pages.
Book Condition: Very Good
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