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Indlæser... Scandalous Risks (original 1990; udgave 2009)af Susan Howatch
Work InformationScandalous Risks af Susan Howatch (1990)
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Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. Oh, Susan Howatch, how devilishly entertaining you are. I don't know why I find the Church of England novels so oddly comforting, and indeed sometimes I'm nearly ashamed of how delightful it is to read about members of the clergy screwing up their lives. At any rate, while this wasn't my favorite Howatch novel, it was certainly among the more enjoyable fiction I'd read in awhile. ( ) Fourth in the Starbridge series about ministers in the Church of England in the 20th century. This book takes place in the 1960s, and is told from the perspective of Venetia, a young woman who falls in love with an older priest. The background of the book is theological debate and argument over the book 'Honest to God' and the ideals of platonic love. Cleverly intertwined subplots involving characters from previous books, now rather older. Gripping and believable, but rather sordid and depressing in places, too. Read first in 2000, and loved the series so much I re-read them in 2001. Now slowly working through them again, interspersed with other books... this is probably my least favourite of the series though it's still extremely well-written. 1963 young girl 20's falls in love with married clergyman - "Honest to God" book at that time Howatch quotes P. 150 - Parents Inquisitive Pg. 343 sex most powerful drive known to man Pg. 359 - like + respect romantic love later In 1963, when traditional values are coming under attack, a young woman in her twenties, Venetia Flaxton, becomes disastrously involved with her best friend's father, the powerful, dynamic but ultimately mysterious Dean of Starbridge Cathedral. Yet, as a married man and a senior Churchman, Aysgarth has nothing to offer her but an admiration which spirals out of control into an obsessive love. As Aysgarth begins to take scandalous risks to further their friendship, pressures rise and the dangers multiply. Venetia finds herself trapped in a desperate web of love and lies from which it seems impossible to escape. I usually like anything from the Starbridge series (Jane Austen meets George MacDonald); however Scandalous Risks felt a little too formulaic and quite dry. If you've read the others, then you know how this one goes. If you haven't, it's the only one in the series told from a non clergy and female perspective. Bishop John A. T. Robinson's book "Honest to God" was published in 1963 while I was in college. I wasn't entirely aware of what all the commotion was about after the book's publication, but I was certainly aware of the commotion. And that was on this side of the Atlantic. In England it was more of an uproar. In her 1990 novel "Scandalous Risks," British author Susan Howatch blames "Honest to God," with its attempt to restate Christianity for the modern age, for the collapse of the Church of England to cultural insignificance. Her book attempts to demonstrate what can happen when situational ethics as advocated by Robinson are adopted even by those within the church. "Scandalous Risks" is the fourth of six novels Howatch wrote about the Church of England in the 20th century. Each novel covers a different period and explores a different person's spiritual crisis. For the first time in "Scandalous Risks," the narrator is a woman and a lay person — Venetia Flaxton, the daughter of a member of the House of Lords and an intelligent young woman with no clear direction in her life and little interest in spiritual matters. However, she does admire Neville Aysgarth (the narrator of "Ultimate Prizes," the third novel in the series), the dean of a nearby cathedral and a friend of her father's she has known since childhood. Now in her mid-20s, she begins an affair with Aysgarth, who is now in his early 60s and married to a frustrating woman. If they truly love another, can this relationship be wrong? So they ask, echoing Robinson, whose words are quoted throughout the novel. The story takes place soon after "Honest to God's" publication. Venetia and Aysgarth take "scandalous risks," a phrase repeated throughout the novel with tiresome regularity, and exposure follows, as we all know it will. But after that, redemption. "Scandalous Risks" is not your typical Christian novel. There's all the sex, for one thing. It may not be very explicit, but there is still more sex than you would find in a novel by Beverly Lewis or Karen Kingsbury. And if you deleted all references to smoking and drinking in the novel, you would have a significantly shorter book. For some devout readers, reading Susan Howatch's novel might seem like a scandalous risk, but it is a risk that will pay off handsomely.
An affirmation of the printed word, this thumping great, richly nuanced novel of ideas, morality and deep compassion offers itself as a counter to Venetia's observation that ``faith had been wrecked, trust destroyed, love annihilated.'' Belongs to SeriesStarbridge (4)
The Washington Post Book World has proclaimed that "Susan Howatch may well become the Anthony Trollope of the twentieth century." Now, in Scandalous Risks, Howatch returns us to the English town of Starbridge, home to a great medieval cathedral and the religious, political, and sexual intrigues that whirl around it. It is into this charged atmosphere--in the already overheated 1960s--that a young woman searching for meaning in her life, and an older man prominent in the Church, begin moving inexorably toward emotional collision. As Venetia Flaxton edges closer to the threshold of a love affair with Neville Aysgarth, who is Dean of the Cathedral and old enough to be her father, his hidden emotional past and her moral conflict in the present lead them deeper and deeper into the mysteries of the human heart and soul. Here is a powerful and moving novel of good and evil, resolve and temptation, hope and despair. Praise for Scandalous Risks "Wonderful."--The Cleveland Plain Dealer "Howatch is at her best when dealing with conflict, bringing a passion and tension to her portarit of people facing moral dilemmas."--The Washington Post "Keep[s] one turning the pages."--The New York Times Book Review "Passionate."--Entertainment Weekly No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
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