Rhine Journey
On a Victorian pleasure cruise, a chance encounter opens the floodgates to regret, desire, and possibility in this 'little period gem of feeling and clarity' (The Guardian). It is 1851, only three years since Europe was convulsed by workers' revolutions, but already English tourists are returning to the Continent, taking the waters at Baden Baden, then traveling by paddle steamer down the Rhine valley, celebrated for its romantic vistas. Among the sightseers are the pious Reverend Charles Morrison, his wife and daughter, and his maiden sister, Charlotte, a seemingly meek middle-aged woman who's spent her life attending to the needs of others. Like the river upon which they're traveling, however, Charlotte contains hidden depths. A chance encounter with a fellow passenger in Coblenz sparks a Damascene moment, unleashing in her a sudden and violent awakening of memory, fear, and sexual desire. As the travelers are swept onward to Cologne, Charlotte wrestles with what Lauren Groff in her
Rhine Journey
It is the summer of 1851 and Charlotte Morrison is on holiday in Germany with her brother and his wife. On the surface, Charlotte is an unmarried aunt with a sparse, unfulfilled life. But beneath that quiet respectability lie unsuspected depths hidden murmurings. On a day trip boating down the Rhine, Charlotte sights a fellow traveller, Edward Newman, who releases the hissing floodwaters of her subconscious. Dark and dangerous, they sweep Charlotte towards the watershed of her life, stretching her imagination to its limit; almost to breaking point.Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1981, Ann Schlees evocative, heady novel creates an aura of tension that is as compelling as it is mysterious, forcing her characters to confront each other as well as themselves over one hot summer abroad.
The Statues at Rousham Park
The Statues at Rousham Park
