| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy (Loyola Classics) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Paperback
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Ms Godden writes movingly and with sensitive clarity of a woman entering convent life in her middle age.
Dextrously exploring the character's previous life as a madam, she seamlessly contrasts a gritty depiction of a Parisian brothel with the day to day life of a French convent in mid-twentieth century France.
Yet the contrast between the two is not as abrupt as it might seem. Ms Godden handles both settings with exquisite sensitivity and without heavy-handed cliche. The storyline segues effortlessly between the two, the characters although evolving remain constant and aligned with reality - no sudden seeing of the light is in evidence, rather their motivations change in harmony with the book itself.
Details of both convent life and elsewhere are accurate and convincing, also beautifully handled in a way that makes the reader familiar with the depiction as opposed to alienated. The main character, although a convicted murderer, is highly sympathetic and evokes both respect and understanding. The depiction of the young girl who is adopted by the brothel and taken under the wing of "La Balafree" is like cut glass in its clarity and vision - truly outstanding.
Incredibly moving and memorable, I highly recommend this book as one of the author's best. On a separate note it is also a fascinating insight into pre-Vatican 2 convent life.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy book describes how a "nice" English girl called Elizabeth Fanshawe is drawn into prostitution in a high-class Parisian bordel by the charming but unscrupulous and abusive Patrice, how and why she then commits a violent crime for which she is sent to prison for a long period, and how she ultimately finds redemption as Soeur Lise of the "Sisters of Bethany" (an order of nuns which really exists).
The book is much darker than most of Ms Godden's works, though the descriptions of life in the convent are written with her typical delicacy and insight, and are no doubt what motivated her to write the book in the first place. The book gives a convincing portrayal of the religious life, and should give those who dismiss religion as valueless pause for thought (or indeed religious people who dismiss Roman Catholicism.)
The narrative structure is quite complex: the story covers more than thirty years of Lise's life (from 1944 to about 1976, so that some of the changes in convent life brought about after Vatican II are mentioned). The story constantly shifts period, sometimes even within one paragraph, and there is a secondary narrative in the first person told from the point of view of Vivi, whose actions provoke the crime that changes Elizabeth's destiny.
Given the subject matter, a sensational plot was perhaps inevitable, but in this reviewer's view the plot is sometimes too sensational to be plausible, and this detracts from the quieter and deeper messages of the book. I found it hard to believe that Elizabeth would fall so easily into prostitution, and that she would be so entirely forgotten by anyone who knew her before. Vivi is almost a pantomime villain, and although we learn of her terrible history, it is impossible to feel much sympathy with her, and it is surprising that the other characters in the book do not really see her for what she is. (By contrast, Patrice, the other "villain" is very well drawn). There are perhaps too many characters, some introduced quite late on, for the book to be as satisfying as most of her well-known novels.
The Loyola press edition has some Americanised spelling, which I found disconcerting, but is printed on good quality paper. There is also a selection of questions at the end intended for group discussions.
The book is much darker than most of Ms Godden's works, though the descriptions of life in the convent are written with her typical delicacy and insight, and are no doubt what motivated her to write the book in the first place. The book gives a convincing portrayal of the religious life, and should give those who dismiss religion as valueless pause for thought (or indeed religious people who dismiss Roman Catholicism.)
The narrative structure is quite complex: the story covers more than thirty years of Lise's life (from 1944 to about 1976, so that some of the changes in convent life brought about after Vatican II are mentioned). The story constantly shifts period, sometimes even within one paragraph, and there is a secondary narrative in the first person told from the point of view of Vivi, whose actions provoke the crime that changes Elizabeth's destiny.
Given the subject matter, a sensational plot was perhaps inevitable, but in this reviewer's view the plot is sometimes too sensational to be plausible, and this detracts from the quieter and deeper messages of the book. I found it hard to believe that Elizabeth would fall so easily into prostitution, and that she would be so entirely forgotten by anyone who knew her before. Vivi is almost a pantomime villain, and although we learn of her terrible history, it is impossible to feel much sympathy with her, and it is surprising that the other characters in the book do not really see her for what she is. (By contrast, Patrice, the other "villain" is very well drawn). There are perhaps too many characters, some introduced quite late on, for the book to be as satisfying as most of her well-known novels.
The Loyola press edition has some Americanised spelling, which I found disconcerting, but is printed on good quality paper. There is also a selection of questions at the end intended for group discussions.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The book arrived very quickly, exactly as described by the seller, and I'm delighted with it. Would definitely use this seller again.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
