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Florence and Giles [Paperback]

John Harding
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
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Book Description

3 Mar 2011

A sinister Gothic tale in the tradition of The Woman in Black and The Fall of the House of Usher

1891. In a remote and crumbling New England mansion, 12-year-old orphan Florence is neglected by her guardian uncle and banned from reading. Left to her own devices she devours books in secret and talks to herself - and narrates this, her story - in a unique language of her own invention. By night, she sleepwalks the corridors like one of the old house's many ghosts and is troubled by a recurrent dream in which a mysterious woman appears to threaten her younger brother Giles. Sometimes Florence doesn't sleepwalk at all, but simply pretends to so she can roam at will and search the house for clues to her own baffling past.

After the sudden violent death of the children's first governess, a second teacher, Miss Taylor, arrives, and immediately strange phenomena begin to occur. Florence becomes convinced that the new governess is a vengeful and malevolent spirit who means to do Giles harm. Against this powerful supernatural enemy, and without any adult to whom she can turn for help, Florence must use all her intelligence and ingenuity to both protect her little brother and preserve her private world.

Inspired by and in the tradition of Henry James' s The Turn of the Screw, Florence & Giles is a gripping gothic page-turner told in a startlingly different and wonderfully captivating narrative voice.


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Product details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Blue Door (3 Mar 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 000731504X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007315048
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 7,924 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

‘Real atmosphere is increasingly rare in novels and here it is in spades…A darkly glamorous tour de force.’
Wendy Holden, DAILY MAIL

'Harding rings enough ingenious changes on James's study of perversity to produce his own full-blown Gothic horror tale. The climax of their struggle… is genuinely exciting and shocking.' THE INDEPENDENT

‘Florence and Giles is an elegant literary exercise worked out with the strictness of a fugue: imagine Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw reworked by Edgar Allan Poe…Nothing prepares you for the chillingly ruthless but inevitable finale.’ THE TIMES

'A tight gothic thriller… The climax becomes unbearably tense. Florence feels the horror of her situation "cheese-grating" her soul, which is just how Harding leaves the reader feeling at the end of this creepily suggestive story.' FINANACIAL TIMES

‘Harding’s creepy, ingenious tale slyly wrongfoots the reader, and its deliciously sinister conclusion is the stuff of troubled nights.’ THE LADY

‘Brilliantly creepy’ DAILY MIRROR

‘An intriguing read’ GRAZIA

‘A good, clever, modern take on old-style American gothic; a creepy haunted house tale in which the living are just as eerie as any real or imagined ghouls.’ NEW ZEALAND HERALD

‘a scarily good story, in an arrestingly unusual narrative voice.’ THE OXFORD TIMES

About the Author

John Harding was born near Ely. He is the author of the bestselling What We Did On Our Holiday, made into an ITV drama starring Shane Ritchie and Roger Lloyd Pack. He is a book reviewer for the Daily Mail and lives in London.


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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a wonderful piece of Gothic writing, and I was totally gripped by this narrative, as told through the unique voice of 12 year old auto-didact Florence, whose idiosyncratic usage of the English language, culled from her extensive (but forbidden) reading in the old library of the spooky New England home that she shares with her younger brother Giles and the servants, is one of the joys of this book. Florence's colourful expressions are entrancing; thus, for example, she speaks of 'a sneezery of dust', of a visitor 'Gargerying his hat' (assume a Great Expectations ref.!), she describes herself as 'fairytaled and Rapunzelled in my tower', and, most delicious of all, (the phrase that really made me smile) when, speaking of her plans to thwart her sinister governess, she says " I would wasp her picnic".

Inspired by The Turn of the Screw, this story offers not one governess, but two, (or are there two?) and with her second governess, Florence plays a game of cat and mouse, convinced that the unpleasant Miss Taylor, who seems to have supernatural powers, is planning to harm her little brother Giles.
The question could be, who is the cat and who is the mouse? Can we believe Florence? For much of the book, I rooted for her and even at the very end, after every disturbing twist and turn, she had my respect.
I don't want to say too much about the plot, (avoiding spoilers!). The main thing is the book is full of tension and suprises and the ending is satisfyingly chilling. If you like ghosts, gothic and a sense of growing unease, try 'Florence and Giles' for yourself.
I read a lot of Gothic fiction, and this certainly didn't disappoint. A real gem!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Stylish, chilling page turner 12 May 2010
Format:Hardcover
This is a well-written novel which is also a wonderfully Gothic thriller, complete with shadowy corridors, spooky mirrors and vulnerable, isolated children. The narrator is Florence, a young girl who is immensely likeable and engaging. One of the hallmarks of this novel is the peculiar, idiosyncratic language she has developed for herself and which pervades the book. One of the central questions too is how reliable she is as a narrator - is she right to be terrified of her "evil" new Governness with supernatural powers - or is she misreading the whole situation? It takes us the course of the novel to decide. Well-crafted and well-written as well as a fast paced ride.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An imaginatively written, spooky tale 5 April 2012
By Jimmbob
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I recently finished Florence and Giles and thought it was superb. The use of language made it a pleasure to read. Florence's peculiar vernacular is easily understood and at times more descriptive. Whether she's talking of a "Dustery of disregard", or explaining her current "Rapunzeled" state.

Some reviews have mentioned the ambiguity of the ending. I found having a, shall we say, perhaps not altogether reliable narrator in Florence gave it just the right amount. I feel that the clues to people's motives are there, and the book does tie most loose ends, while leaving you with enough space to draw your own conclusions. It's definitely one to read more than once, even if just to enjoy the playful use of language.

The story is deliciously gothic, at times very funny, and other times quite a sad tale. Anyone who has an interest in the classics will find this a fresh accompaniment.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars It's a hoot - in the gothic tradition. 4 Feb 2012
Format:Paperback
The persuasive, yet seemingly not quite reliable young narrator, Florence, a fetchingly odd twelve year old whose days revolve around smuggling books from the library as she has been forbidden to learn to read, lives with her brother Giles at Blithe House -

"...a house uncomfortabled and shabbied by prudence, a neglect of a place, tightly pursed (my absent uncle having lost interest in it), leaked and rotted and mothed and rusted, coldly draughted, dim lit and crawled with dark corners..."

- the home of the uncle they have never met, with a few servants and the occasional governess. But the previous governess perished in an accident on the lake, and the latest - Miss Taylor - has aroused suspicion in Florence of sinister motives upon her arrival, being far too interested in Giles for Florence's peace of mind.

I loved this book for the fun that Florence has with language, for the sinister atmosphere aroused, the creepiness first peeking through Florence's observations and then asserting itself much more authoritatively, and for the unfolding of the mystery - John Harding doesn't over-clue the reader, but gradually allows us to intuit the motives and actions in Florence's narration - and, of course, for poor gallant, clumsy Theo, the gangly boy who steals kisses in exchange for poetry.

I haven't read 'The Turn of the Screw' by Henry James yet, it's one of my overlooked-for-no-good-reason classics. So, since other reviewers have pointed out strong ties (homage, retelling, reworking or revisiting, I didn't want to spoil either book for myself, so didn't dig too deep) there is at least one layer of story here that I've missed; hopefully I can still enjoy that aspect in retrospect.
... Read more ›
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I've read 25 Nov 2011
By Dominic
Format:Kindle Edition
This is one of the best books I have ever read. Original, funny in places and very, very scary. Utterly brilliant. Totally recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Quirky
An intriguing and engaging story. What happens when a child is raised without outside contact or education? Read and find out!
Published 4 days ago by vagabond
4.0 out of 5 stars Witbattlingly good
In late 19th century upstate New York eleven year old Florence and her younger half-brother Giles are orphans immured in the gothic pile that is Blithe House, looked after by a... Read more
Published 5 days ago by Bibliodysseus
5.0 out of 5 stars Although this was a cheap Kindle book I truly liked it!
Very quick and easy read. Psychological. Scary with twist and turns. I could easily read this book again but think I will look for others under his name.
Published 16 days ago by Melissa
5.0 out of 5 stars Better than The Turn of the Screw!
I read this last year and it was my book of the year. The narrator's hugely original voice can be a little off-putting at first, but stick with it, this is a stunningly... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Sarah W
5.0 out of 5 stars Spine chillingly thrilling
I loved this. Of course there are the similarities to 'Turn of the Screw' but even so, this story is very much its own. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lisa-W
3.0 out of 5 stars Not that great
Unfortunately I didn't think this book was good; I liked how it was written and the author's way with words but I didn't find it captivating enough and I had to re-read some pages... Read more
Published 3 months ago by book_thief
4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping
This book was atmospheric, gripping and all too plausible in most parts. I felt very sorry for Florence and Giles and wanted to book to continue so I could know if their life took... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Dee J Kirkby
5.0 out of 5 stars Scary tale which takes place in an earlier century,
A gripping story and I would recommend it to everyone.

Would love to get other books by the same author.
Published 3 months ago by Janet Martin
4.0 out of 5 stars Another Fantastic Female Narrator
I've recently come across a whole bunch of fantastic stories told by young female narrators in the 1st person. This is one of them. Read more
Published 4 months ago by CaSundara
5.0 out of 5 stars Great old-fashioned ghost story
A fantastic Victorian/Gothic style ghost story. It's beautifully written, almost in the style of traditional Victorian story, which just adds to the book. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Lorna
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