- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; New Ed edition (19 April 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006550800
- ISBN-13: 978-0006550808
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13.2 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,356,150 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Confinement
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Product Description
Review
‘Convincing, dramatic and authentic.’
The Times
‘A superbly crafted novel about duty, compromise and inspiration… satisfyingly seeded with small ironies and interconnections.’
Sunday Times
Product Description
The plight of a nineteenth century schoolteacher, trapped by her duty to her job, is mirrored by a modern day woman’s fight to escape the shackles of a broken marriage.
Bess Hardemon, a tough and canny young teacher living in the mid-nineteenth century, is determined to make a difference at her new school, Priors Heath. Under the austere gaze of the Reverend Carnegie and his deputy, Miss Simms, the young girls remain underfed and unstimulated – until the arrival of the bright, motivated young Bess.
At the cost of her own chance of finding love, Bess remains trapped by her duty, a confinement echoed a century later by Sarah, a teacher at the modern-day Priors Heath who must make her own choice between her duty to her pupils and her efforts to save a broken marriage.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a lovely novel, and I really enjoyed it. It is fascinating to read about the attempts to make an education more widely available to girls in the mid nineteenth century,and to improve the dire conditions and low standards in Priors Heath school, which is what Bess Hardemon strives to do, first as a teacher, then as headmistress for many years. She devotes herself to this cause, thereby putting herself and her own opportunities for love into second place.
In the more recent past there is Sarah, who attends the school as a girl and then returns one day as a teacher. The lives of both Bess and Sarah are tied connected throughout to the people they meet at the school and the special places within it which come to mean something to them, such as the Rose Garden.
The novel deals with love, passion, duty and the various 'confinements' that women can experience in their lives, and the challenges of breaking free of these and doing something different. If you like these sorts of stories, with an interweaving of a part set in the past and one in the present/a different era, this is a clever example, with lots of links between the two.
In the more recent past there is Sarah, who attends the school as a girl and then returns one day as a teacher. The lives of both Bess and Sarah are tied connected throughout to the people they meet at the school and the special places within it which come to mean something to them, such as the Rose Garden.
The novel deals with love, passion, duty and the various 'confinements' that women can experience in their lives, and the challenges of breaking free of these and doing something different. If you like these sorts of stories, with an interweaving of a part set in the past and one in the present/a different era, this is a clever example, with lots of links between the two.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I read this book after 'The Rose of Sebastopol' which I thought was pretty good, so I wanted to explore the author's earlier works. This book is like an unpolished gem, I feel. The characters of the two teachers, Bess and Sarah, are cleverly juxtaposed in the narrative, and you are continually torn from one to learn about the other. However, there are weaknesses. There are many plot lines introduced which are not fully followed up, there are some undeveloped characters, and there is a degree of uncertainty around several episodes which leaves the reader a bit unsatisfied. Personally, I had hoped for a liaison between Carnegie and Bess, which is hinted at but never brought to fruition. The character of Laurence is somewhat sketchy, as is that of Imogen herself. Sarah - does she have a happy ending or not, the reader is left to choose. As with Sebastopol, I feel there is a vein of true gold running here, but perhaps the editing is lax, somehow we don't end up with the polished product we should have, given the clear talent of the author for capturing the intimate detail of daily life in each era.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Confinement is split between two loosely intertwined stories taking place at the same school, roughly 150 years apart. As other reviewers have suggested, the effect of alternating back and forth between the two can be jarring, but both tales are at least somewhat compelling nonetheless.
Bess Hardemon, the heroine of the 19th century portion of the story, is truly a five-star achievement of character development. Like many pioneering real-life women of her era, she sounds positively anti-feminist by today's standards, but that belies the real progress she made for the girls of her generation and those since then. She and most of her family and colleagues ring absolutely true to anyone who has studied the history of the era, and I found myself rooting for her to win all her reforms. The tale does occasionally take the easy way out, but that is forgiveable in such a well-developed and readable story.
In the modern half of the story, Sarah Beckett and her friends are both a bit less developed and a bit less likeable. Some of the more dramatic twists in her story, while vividly written, are a bit hard to accept. For example, her reaction to being dumped by her first boyfriend, while plausible for many teenage girls, seems a bit extreme for one as mature and well-adjusted as Sarah is portrayed as being early in the story. Her continued obsession with the man in question later in life may also strain your ability to be sympathetic after a while. Sarah's friend Imogen is a bit more convincing as a character, but her career path as an adult is wildly implausible given her early history. Some of the subplots are also rather underdeveloped as well, notably that of the link between the Bess Hardemon era and the current one. It's a good start, but a lot more could have been done with that particular tangent.
Still, it's definitely an enjoyable read for anyone who likes historical fiction or coming of age stories. Confinement is both for the price of one!
Bess Hardemon, the heroine of the 19th century portion of the story, is truly a five-star achievement of character development. Like many pioneering real-life women of her era, she sounds positively anti-feminist by today's standards, but that belies the real progress she made for the girls of her generation and those since then. She and most of her family and colleagues ring absolutely true to anyone who has studied the history of the era, and I found myself rooting for her to win all her reforms. The tale does occasionally take the easy way out, but that is forgiveable in such a well-developed and readable story.
In the modern half of the story, Sarah Beckett and her friends are both a bit less developed and a bit less likeable. Some of the more dramatic twists in her story, while vividly written, are a bit hard to accept. For example, her reaction to being dumped by her first boyfriend, while plausible for many teenage girls, seems a bit extreme for one as mature and well-adjusted as Sarah is portrayed as being early in the story. Her continued obsession with the man in question later in life may also strain your ability to be sympathetic after a while. Sarah's friend Imogen is a bit more convincing as a character, but her career path as an adult is wildly implausible given her early history. Some of the subplots are also rather underdeveloped as well, notably that of the link between the Bess Hardemon era and the current one. It's a good start, but a lot more could have been done with that particular tangent.
Still, it's definitely an enjoyable read for anyone who likes historical fiction or coming of age stories. Confinement is both for the price of one!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Lure of the Institution
A very interesting if sometimes frustrating novel about working in a school in two very different eras. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Kate Hopkins
An enjoyable read
I really enjoyed this book, probably more so because I work in a school. This is the fourth novel I have read by Katharine McMahon and this is probably one of my favourites. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Tilly Tompkins
Disappointing
Confinement is the second of Katharine McMahon's books that I've read. The Rose of Sebastopol wasn't a particular favorite, but I decided to give the author another try with this... Read more
Published on 19 Sep 2009 by K. Huff
Bess is a fine Heroine!
I enjoyed this read very much although I did find the modern day school teacher incredibly annoying, she was a very flaky character who seemed to blame everyone else for the way... Read more
Published on 12 Aug 2009 by Lincs Reader
Imagination and originality
This amazing book combines two different lives in two different eras, intertwined cleverly to create a stunning and intriguing plot. Read more
Published on 14 Jun 2002
McMahon is in the same league as JKRowling!
The book at first appeared to be twisted and confusing but within a couple of page it became compulsive. It was as though you were living with both Bess and Sarah at the same time. Read more
Published on 20 Dec 2000
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