Before the War

January 23, 2017
“Vivien is single, large, ungainly, five foot eleven inches tall and twenty years old.” An intelligent, ambitious illustrator and the only child of Sir Jeremy Ripple, head of a publishing house in 1920s London, Vivien flaunts convention—and conventional notions of beauty—and relies on her mind to fulfill her life and goals. Sherwyn Sexton, a short and egotistical editor at her father’s publishing company, accepts her proposal of marriage with visions of vast sums of money and a mistress or two, but little does he know that a scheme to rise the corporate ladder by marrying the boss’s homely daughter will be more complicated than it seems. After a chance encounter in a stable with what Vivien claims to be the Angel Gabriel, layers of façade and family courtesy fall by the wayside. Featuring a cast of oddball characters and astute observations about courtship, family, and what it means to be human, Weldon’s (Mischief) novel crackles with erudite writing evocative of the time period. This is a complex character study filled with wit and wisdom about family, society, and the restrictions both can place on women.

January 1, 2017
Adela Ripple, last seen in Weldon's Long Live the King (2013), manipulates her daughter and anyone else she can get her hands on in order to preserve her own wealth and status.Weldon (Mischief, 2015, etc.) begins in 1922 with the image of Adela's daughter, Vivvie, "single, large, ungainly" and, "moreover, mildly Asperger's," waiting for a train to London. Vivvie "means to propose to Sherwyn Sexton," an aspiring novelist working for her father, Sir Jeremy Ripple, a socialist publisher and Old Etonian. She very practically suggests that Sherwyn will be wealthy and free to write if he marries her and that he will also be free to have affairs. Sherwyn is presented at first as a selfish, vain man, but as the book unfolds, he becomes more sympathetic, rising to the example of Rafe Delgano, fictional hero of a series of thrillers he goes on to write. He also comes to see with clear eyes that Vivvie is a victim of her self-absorbed father and her selfish, vain mother. Weldon deploys her usual opinionated narrator, who occasionally steps outside the story to offer asides about the characters; Adela, for instance, "turned out not to be a good person at all." Interjections of authorial opinion and wit entertain, the occasional appearance of real historical characters (such as Somerset Maugham) lends an air of reality, and the rotten mother is a literary car crash, impossible to go past without staring.

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March 1, 2017
Weldon follows up her Dilberne Court trilogy, set during the costume drama of Edwardian times, with a book situated chiefly in the less glittering period between WWI and WWII. Adela, who appeared in the trilogy as a teen, is now living at Dilberne Court, married to successful publisher Sir Jeremy Ripple. Their ungainly daughter, Vivvie, has her own inheritance and, anxious to be free of parentalmostly maternalcontrol, she proposes a marriage of convenience to Sherwyn Sexton, an ambitious but impecunious young man who works in the editorial department at her father's firm. This marks the start of Sherwin's career as an author of best-selling thrillers. Unbeknownst to him, Vivvie is already pregnant when she walks down the aisle, causing Adela to concoct an elaborate scheme to avoid scandal. When Vivvie dies shortly after giving birth to twin daughters, Adela commandeers the girls and raises them as her own. Fans will relish Weldon's latest concoction, part domestic comedy, part social commentary, and part bedroom farce, enlivened by her characteristic sly humor and arch tone.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2016

Vivien is tall, plain, and unfashionably smart, distinct disadvantages for a young woman in 1922 London. But she is rich, so she bribes a gentleman publisher to marry her. A portrait of Jazz Age--jingling, postwar-shell-shocked London from a Booker short-listed Commander of the British Empire.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2017

At the beginning of this latest novel from Weldon, who wrote the pilot episode of Upstairs Downstairs as well as numerous novels (The Heart of the Country; Wicked Women), a socially awkward but wealthy spinster prepares to propose marriage to a dashing employee at her father's publishing house just after World War I. Readers' hopes for the young woman's happiness are quickly dashed by an omniscient and rather snarky author-as-narrator, who then relates the continuing misadventures of young Vivien and her associates over the next few decades with a consistently irreverent tone. Weldon's witty descriptions of human foibles and humorously self-referential style may be attractive to Downton Abbey fans ready for a break with something a bit lighter than most of the usually billed read-alikes. Weldon determinedly keeps a satirist's requisite emotional distance from her characters throughout, and none of the privileged protagonists are sympathetic figures (or even much fun to root for or against). VERDICT Though a quick read, this novel is likely best suited for only Weldon's most dedicated fans. [See Prepub Alert, 10/3/16.]--Mara Bandy, Champaign P.L., IL

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.