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Frost In May (VMC) [Paperback]

Antonia White (Author)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 3 Aug 2006 | ISBN-10: 1844083780 | ISBN-13: 978-1844083787 | Edition: New Ed

Nanda Gray, the daughter of a Catholic convert, is nine when she is sent to the Convent of Five Wounds. Quick-witted, resilient and eager to please, she accepts this closed world where, with all the enthusiasm of the outsider, her desires and passions become only those the school permits. Her only deviation from total obedience is the passionate friendships she makes.

Convent life is perfectly captured - the smell of beeswax and incense; the petty cruelties of the nuns; the eccentricities of Nanda's school friends.

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Convent life is perfectly captured - the smell of beeswax and incense; the petty cruelties of the nuns; the eccentricities of Nanda's school friends.

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Product details

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Virago; New Ed edition (3 Aug 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1844083780
ISBN-13: 978-1844083787
Product Dimensions: 1.5 x 12.5 x 19.5 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 71,688 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

'Evelyn Waugh called [her] one of the very best novelists of the day - a title she still deserves' CAROL SHIELDS * 'Intense, troubling, semi-miraculous ... a work of art' Elizabeth Bowen *'Frost in May is the unsurpassed novel of convent school life. This story of a clash between a determined young girl and an authoritarian regime is both perceptive and painfully emotional, convincing in every detail' Hermione Lee, Observer *'A masterpiece. Beautifully written, it is a calm and factual record of the slow death of the soul' Selina Hastings

Book Description

*'Frost in May is the unsurpassed novel of convent school life' Hermione Lee, Observer

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First Sentence
NANDA was on her way to the Convent of the Five Wounds. Read the first page

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars i went to "lippington" 9 May 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Having been educated at the school on which Lippington is based (Antonia White went to Convent of the Sacred Heart, Roehampton which is now based at Woldingham in Surrey) I think that "Frost in May" in a brilliant evocation of convent school life as it was at the turn of the century. Many of the features of the school that White mentions (eg the "exemption" cards are still on display today (although they are obviously no longer used!) and the painting of Mary dressed in pink still hangs in the main library. However, the school has moved with the times and for this reason it was fascinating to read about what it was like ninety years ago. White's characterisation of the nuns is excellent and she prefectly captures the air of mystery that still, to an extent, surrounds them. She also conveys some of the rituals that are unique to a convent school.
The tragic ending to the novel is deeply disturbing in that it is inevitable almost from the moment that Nanda arrives in the school. I really enjoyed "Frost in May" but I think this may have been partially due to the fact that it satisifed my curiosity about what my school used to be like. I think that it could come across as slighly dull to many readers as a result of the long descriptive passages about convent school rituals. It is a very well-written account of a human tragedy but I do think that it could be considered extremely inaccessible to anyone who does not have some background knowledge of catholicism.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written with a sad ending 6 July 2006

By Reptile

Format:Paperback

The claims that this book is a modern classic are fully justifiable. The book is well written and lively. The convent school is convincingly described, and the change of atmosphere when the girls are talking in the break is also well rendered. The characterisation is good throughout. However, the ending is extremely sad in an unexpected way.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Frost in May 4 Aug 2011

By S Riaz HALL OF FAME TOP 10 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I first read this book many years ago and it was interesting to re-read it. This is based on Antonia White's own experiences of life in a convent school. When we first meet Nanda (Fernanda)Grey, she is nine years old and on her way to the Convent of the Five Wounds at Lippington. Her beloved father is a convert of only a year and so Nanda is greeted at the school with a kind of amused wariness and acceptance that she isn't quite one of them and excuses must be made for her mistakes. The novel looks at Nanda's experiences and al the strange rituals and requirements of Convent life, along with that of an education always dominated by religion.

Nanda is always trying her best to conform, while naturally testing her boundaries as any child does and slightly resentful of the denial of 'special friends' and rules about everything from reading matter to how the girls are to bathe. Despite the fact that friendships are frownded upon and fought against, of course Nanda makes them. It is the beautiful Leonie De Wesseldorf, half French and half German, from an old Catholic family of wealth and privilege, who, without meaning to, brings about her downfall.

In essence, this is a school story - about a young girls growing up in a closed community. However, the ambiguous feelings of religion hang over everything Nanda does. She both embraces her religion fervently and yet fights against it, even without meaning to. As all children do, she understands far more than the adults think she does. "If they were vague about heaven, they were very definite indeed about hell. Nanda felt a great deal more positive about the conditions of life in hell than in, say, the West of Scotland or Minneapolis," states the author with, one feels, only too much truth.... Read more ›

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The devil makes a third 14 Sep 2009

By Eileen Shaw TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

Frost In May is a violent book - not in terms of any action, but in its emotional intensity. It is a school story, of all things, published in 1933, and it describes the life of young Nanda, a newly enrolled child in a Catholic boarding school run by nuns. The nuns are not physically violent, it is the damage they do to young, impressionable minds and emotions that resonate. The novel is full of Catholic dogma - the instruction of Jesuits and the daily profundities of the nuns. Nanda laps this up like a kitten with a saucer of milk, takes it to heart and prospers. But the nuns have their own systems. Nanda must be taught humility above all. Her mind is a naturally questioning thing, but that is not allowed.

I was alternately impressed and repelled. Impressed by how natural it seemed that a child's mind can be turned and cowed, even twisted on its axis, to satisfy the brutalities of religion. Yet how can a child rebel whole-heartedly when cant and ritual rules her daily life? I was reminded of scenes from a children's school in Pakistan that I saw on TV - the Koran being recited endlessly, endlessly, chanted with loud, unfeeling voices.

I was ultimately horribly repelled by the sheer ugliness of Catholicism. It's emphasis on death, on hell, on a fear of the devil that sees him in any small transgression (the children are not allowed to associate in twos, since the devil makes a third). Still, I am not altogether sure that this novel is anti-Catholic, for all the bold repulsiveness of the picture it draws. I wonder if, rather, Catholicism is so luridly insistent that it welcomes a challenge, to all the more tightly draw its adherents in. It is partly this element of the novel that repels me so strongly. Becoming a Catholic is like joining a secret, holy society.... Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and evocative account of convent-school life

Based on the author's own experiences in the early 20th-century (but written in the third person) this is the story of a nine-year-old girl who is sent to a convent boarding-school... Read more

Published on 4 Aug 2010 by Phil O'Sofa

5.0 out of 5 stars A forgotten classic

Like Elizabeth Taylor (the author, not the actress), Antonia White is an early 20th century writer whose books should have become modern classics, but instead remain largely... Read more

Published on 28 July 2009 by Ruth

4.0 out of 5 stars A touching story

This touching story of a little Catholic girl who tries to please her father is very sad in places. It is enlightening about the ways of life in a Catholic School run by nuns and... Read more

Published on 17 April 2002

2.0 out of 5 stars This book starts well, but simply fades away.

This is a book about a protestant girl recently converted to catholic who is sent to a catholic bording school. Read more

Published on 20 Mar 2001

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