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Product Description
Product Description
Two sisters: beautiful, sophisticated Louise and attractive, witty and intelligent Sarah who has always felt left behind. Then Louise marries the wealthy but unappealing novelist Stephen Halifax, and Sarah, recently graduated from Oxford, is thrown back into family affairs. As Louise enters a high-profile world of glamour, parties and gossip columns, Sarah, drifting in London with her degree and new-found freedom, is only allowed glimpses into this new alien life. However, as the cracks begin to show in Louise's marriage and rumours of infidelity spread, Sarah discovers that, beneath her cool exterior, her sister is not quite the person she thought she was....
About the Author
Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and educated at Cambridge. She was awarded a CBE in 1980. Her many novels include The Radiant Way, (1987), A Natural Curiosity, (1989), The Gates of Ivory (1991), The Peppered Moth (2000), The Seven Sisters (2002), The Red Queen (2004) and The Sea Lady (2006), all of which are published by Penguin. Margaret Drabble is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd and lives in London.
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First Sentence
I had to come home for my sister's wedding. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I had to come home for my sister's wedding. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Bright, attractive Sarah has recently graduated from Oxford and is flat-sharing in London, wondering what to do next. She has always felt inferior to her stunning, enigmatic sister Louise, who has just married a wealthy, unlikeable writer. But her fascination and dislike for Louise changes shape as she finds out what lies under the exquisite surface. This is Margaret Drabble's gorgeous first novel, a witty, spirited read - lots of fast, intellectual conversation & interesting social observation. I found myself stopping every few pages, literally breathless with admiration. Buy it!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The more things change, the more they stay the same. This novel came out in 1963, back in the Stone Age. But women still face the same dilemmas.
Sarah has just graduated, and is very pretty. She's also rather crude, insensitive and self-centred. Well, that all makes for a good "unreliable narrator". We see everything through her eyes, we don't have to take it for gospel truth. Also her snobbery means that her observations of people and the world are funny and perceptive.
Sarah feels she is just drifting through life. She has got a first at Oxford - that's got to be the best you can win in life, surely? But she leaves Oxford, gets a tedious job in a low level of the BBC, and shares a flat with an old friend. She's depressed by the domestic details of life, washing up, opening tins. Her boyfriend is in America and she's not sure their relationship will survive. She doesn't feel any guilt about brief affairs with other men. She sometimes thinks that she will marry the boyfriend and this will solve everything.
She feels very lonely, and hates going to parties on her own. This isn't what modern women are supposed to feel, but she does. All her education seems to have brought her hard work at a meaningless job, and just enough to live on. She has no other plans for the future. Surely things would be different for her now?
In 1963, society had provided higher education for women (a far smaller proportion than now), but hadn't really thought what to do with them afterwards. Sarah hadn't thought about it either. She was good at having intense conversations about films and books, but had no idea of what kind of career she wanted. And of course back then there were fewer opportunities for women. She seems vaguely affronted that she has to work at all. She's shocked that her sister has married for money - "I don't know anyone who marries for money!". She thinks having babies is "awful".
She's never taken the long view. She's not alone. Are things any better now?
Sarah has just graduated, and is very pretty. She's also rather crude, insensitive and self-centred. Well, that all makes for a good "unreliable narrator". We see everything through her eyes, we don't have to take it for gospel truth. Also her snobbery means that her observations of people and the world are funny and perceptive.
Sarah feels she is just drifting through life. She has got a first at Oxford - that's got to be the best you can win in life, surely? But she leaves Oxford, gets a tedious job in a low level of the BBC, and shares a flat with an old friend. She's depressed by the domestic details of life, washing up, opening tins. Her boyfriend is in America and she's not sure their relationship will survive. She doesn't feel any guilt about brief affairs with other men. She sometimes thinks that she will marry the boyfriend and this will solve everything.
She feels very lonely, and hates going to parties on her own. This isn't what modern women are supposed to feel, but she does. All her education seems to have brought her hard work at a meaningless job, and just enough to live on. She has no other plans for the future. Surely things would be different for her now?
In 1963, society had provided higher education for women (a far smaller proportion than now), but hadn't really thought what to do with them afterwards. Sarah hadn't thought about it either. She was good at having intense conversations about films and books, but had no idea of what kind of career she wanted. And of course back then there were fewer opportunities for women. She seems vaguely affronted that she has to work at all. She's shocked that her sister has married for money - "I don't know anyone who marries for money!". She thinks having babies is "awful".
She's never taken the long view. She's not alone. Are things any better now?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A Summer Bird-cage
This is the story of two sisters, how they feel about each other, how their lives intertwine at times and at other times are quite separate.
Louise is beautiful. She marries a rich novelist, but does not seem happy.
Sarah's boyfriend, who she feels she will probably settle down with one day, has gone to Harvard for a year. She has just come down from Oxford with a good degree, and is the brighter of the two sisters.
Sibling rivalries are explored, with old childhood issues being revealed. Louise has always relied on her beauty to get what she wants, and is somewhat spoiled. Sarah has always had to work harder for approval and acceptance, and feels lesser than her sister.
There are some interesting characters in addition to the sisters. The rich novelist seems quite unpleasant, and it is a while before we have an understanding of him. There is an unappealing cousin, the unappealing cousin's delightful brother, a very attractive actor, a newly separated couple each with their own issues as well as various people encountered briefly at swinging parties.
Definitely worth a read
This is the story of two sisters, how they feel about each other, how their lives intertwine at times and at other times are quite separate.
Louise is beautiful. She marries a rich novelist, but does not seem happy.
Sarah's boyfriend, who she feels she will probably settle down with one day, has gone to Harvard for a year. She has just come down from Oxford with a good degree, and is the brighter of the two sisters.
Sibling rivalries are explored, with old childhood issues being revealed. Louise has always relied on her beauty to get what she wants, and is somewhat spoiled. Sarah has always had to work harder for approval and acceptance, and feels lesser than her sister.
There are some interesting characters in addition to the sisters. The rich novelist seems quite unpleasant, and it is a while before we have an understanding of him. There is an unappealing cousin, the unappealing cousin's delightful brother, a very attractive actor, a newly separated couple each with their own issues as well as various people encountered briefly at swinging parties.
Definitely worth a read
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A glorious first novel that foreshadowed what was to come
Sarah, just graduated, is embarking on the world, and not knowing what to make of her life. In 1963, when this book was published, a common choice for a young woman was marriage,... Read more
Published 1 month ago by David Franks
"My sister is an absolute knock-out beauty"
First published in 1963, `A Summer Birdcage' is Margaret Drabble's debut novel and, for a first novel, it is very good indeed. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Susie B
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