Post by tintin on Jun 13, 2011 17:30:04 GMT 1
Another trip down memory lane.
Something a bit more adult from a time when I was a little older than when I read “Son of Black Beauty”.
Should we judge a book by its cover? Perhaps, perhaps not – but we do.
Every day I used to go into WH Smith to get my paper (I was about 18/19 at the time) and one day this book grabbed my attention. A beautiful blonde on a handsome grey horse in a very striking and unusual dove grey riding habit. I was a bit smitten. Each day as I went into Smiths my curiosity got stronger until one day I picked it up to see what it was about (it is pretty embarrassing for a bloke to be seen looking at Barbara Cartland books, terminally embarrassing for a youth at that age). Finding it was a romance set in the Victorian days I had to read it, so I had to buy it (no face saving internet in those days!).
Well I read it at a sitting and still have it today. Every so often if I need cheering up I read it. It is my guilty soppy secret.
Now down to the review. Firstly a stylistic comment. Barbara Cartland writes with terrific pace – it is almost breathless. She also has a very odd way of writing dialogue, sort of staccato, which takes a little getting used to. It is a short book, but a hell of a lot happens.
“The Race for Love” is a great story. Alita, the main character is a brave, beautiful, kind, down trodden and very, very horsey heroine. She has a very gifted grey horse called Flamingo who is her best pal. The hero, Clint, is, perhaps, too good to be true.
THE STORY IN OUTLINE (warning – obviously there are “spoilers” here)
Alita, a young lady of good breeding, has lost her father and mother and has no money so she has gone to live with her uncle (a Duke) and aunt and their daughter. Unfortunately her late father cheated at cards (for altruistic reasons) and was ostracised from polite society. Alita is therefore kept out of the public eye lest the Duke and his family bear the taint of associating with the family of a card sharp.
The Duke is asset rich and cash poor and has grave difficulties maintaining his estate. Alita helps out by managing the stables and running a horse breeding programme which generates some valuable hard cash. Alita just gets bed and board in return and has very few of the finer things in life you might expect from living in a stately home with a Duke for an uncle.
An American millionaire, Mr Clint Wilbur, purchases the run down next door estate which he intends to re-furbish. Mr Wilbur wishes to establish a stable. The Duke needs some money (he also sees Mr Wilbur as a highly suitable marriage for his daughter). Unfortunately in order to secure the best price for his horses he must entrust the sale to Alita who is the only one in the household who is sufficiently knowledgeable to get a decent price. He does not want anyone to know of his disgraceful niece, so he has her make out she is an employee.
Clint falls for Alita and insists as a condition of sale that she must supervise the re-construction of his stables. Alita has the time of her life doing this and meeting her neighbour for early morning rides and is placed in an impossible position when she is offered the job on a permanent basis. The Duke forbids her to see him anymore.
While her family are at Windsor Castle visiting Queen Victoria, Alita sneaks off with Flamingo for one last visit to stage a demonstration of haute ecole at Mr Wilbur’s newly built indoor school. The next day they run off together and get married after a, trifle melodramatic, scene where she must admit her dreadful secret of having a father who cheated at cards. The Wilburs, however, made their money out of a Texan Railroad so cheating at cards hardly registers on his moral radar (this was the age of the great railroad barons – men like Morgan, Vanderbilt, Hill, Gould and Flagler so you can well believe it).
Criticism – It could have been more horsey! But perhaps I am being churlish, it is principally a romantic novel. It is a lovely story. It is true to the time in which it was set with a real sense of period. I would have liked a series! Clint, who is more of a plot device so Alita can escape than much of a character, promises to take her to all sorts of places and I would have enjoyed reading about a Victorian equestrienne world tour.
Unfortunately I have never become a multi-millionaire so I would n’t be much use if I found an impoverished side saddle lady who wanted to escape her down trodden lot. Still the book cheers me up no end, and there is always the lottery…
Something a bit more adult from a time when I was a little older than when I read “Son of Black Beauty”.
Should we judge a book by its cover? Perhaps, perhaps not – but we do.
Every day I used to go into WH Smith to get my paper (I was about 18/19 at the time) and one day this book grabbed my attention. A beautiful blonde on a handsome grey horse in a very striking and unusual dove grey riding habit. I was a bit smitten. Each day as I went into Smiths my curiosity got stronger until one day I picked it up to see what it was about (it is pretty embarrassing for a bloke to be seen looking at Barbara Cartland books, terminally embarrassing for a youth at that age). Finding it was a romance set in the Victorian days I had to read it, so I had to buy it (no face saving internet in those days!).
Well I read it at a sitting and still have it today. Every so often if I need cheering up I read it. It is my guilty soppy secret.
Now down to the review. Firstly a stylistic comment. Barbara Cartland writes with terrific pace – it is almost breathless. She also has a very odd way of writing dialogue, sort of staccato, which takes a little getting used to. It is a short book, but a hell of a lot happens.
“The Race for Love” is a great story. Alita, the main character is a brave, beautiful, kind, down trodden and very, very horsey heroine. She has a very gifted grey horse called Flamingo who is her best pal. The hero, Clint, is, perhaps, too good to be true.
THE STORY IN OUTLINE (warning – obviously there are “spoilers” here)
Alita, a young lady of good breeding, has lost her father and mother and has no money so she has gone to live with her uncle (a Duke) and aunt and their daughter. Unfortunately her late father cheated at cards (for altruistic reasons) and was ostracised from polite society. Alita is therefore kept out of the public eye lest the Duke and his family bear the taint of associating with the family of a card sharp.
The Duke is asset rich and cash poor and has grave difficulties maintaining his estate. Alita helps out by managing the stables and running a horse breeding programme which generates some valuable hard cash. Alita just gets bed and board in return and has very few of the finer things in life you might expect from living in a stately home with a Duke for an uncle.
An American millionaire, Mr Clint Wilbur, purchases the run down next door estate which he intends to re-furbish. Mr Wilbur wishes to establish a stable. The Duke needs some money (he also sees Mr Wilbur as a highly suitable marriage for his daughter). Unfortunately in order to secure the best price for his horses he must entrust the sale to Alita who is the only one in the household who is sufficiently knowledgeable to get a decent price. He does not want anyone to know of his disgraceful niece, so he has her make out she is an employee.
Clint falls for Alita and insists as a condition of sale that she must supervise the re-construction of his stables. Alita has the time of her life doing this and meeting her neighbour for early morning rides and is placed in an impossible position when she is offered the job on a permanent basis. The Duke forbids her to see him anymore.
While her family are at Windsor Castle visiting Queen Victoria, Alita sneaks off with Flamingo for one last visit to stage a demonstration of haute ecole at Mr Wilbur’s newly built indoor school. The next day they run off together and get married after a, trifle melodramatic, scene where she must admit her dreadful secret of having a father who cheated at cards. The Wilburs, however, made their money out of a Texan Railroad so cheating at cards hardly registers on his moral radar (this was the age of the great railroad barons – men like Morgan, Vanderbilt, Hill, Gould and Flagler so you can well believe it).
Criticism – It could have been more horsey! But perhaps I am being churlish, it is principally a romantic novel. It is a lovely story. It is true to the time in which it was set with a real sense of period. I would have liked a series! Clint, who is more of a plot device so Alita can escape than much of a character, promises to take her to all sorts of places and I would have enjoyed reading about a Victorian equestrienne world tour.
Unfortunately I have never become a multi-millionaire so I would n’t be much use if I found an impoverished side saddle lady who wanted to escape her down trodden lot. Still the book cheers me up no end, and there is always the lottery…