- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd; New edition edition (4 Jun 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099226014
- ISBN-13: 978-0099226017
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 250,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Madensky Square (Bello)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Susanna Weber is the elegant proprietress of a dressmaking shop in Manensky Square in the glittering Vienna of 1911. It is a world of romance, music and gossip, where charming men pay outrageous compliments at the opera, and ancient noblewomen pay for silk petticoats with antique candlesticks.
Book Description
Eva Ibbotson’s magical novel set in that most poignant of all times and places - Vienna before the First World War. Susanna’s dress shop stands in the delightful Madensky Square and is the very hub and heart of life. Susanna sympathizes with her neighbours, watches over Signi, the wretched, orphaned child prodigy, and with her infallible eye for dress, turns an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. Of all the colourful characters in Madensky Square, only her dear friend Alice has the slightest inkling that Susanna hides more than one secret. This hidden life, full of passion and anguish, gradually unfolds in a city of romance, music and gossip. ‘Sunshine and shadows, laughter and tears . . . the grace and gaiety of a Viennese waltz’ Sunday Telegraph
--This text refers to an alternate
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio Cassette
Unfortunately this book does not seem to have been re-printed unlike Ibbotson's other books for adults but it is by far the best in my opinion. I enjoy all her books, they are well written and the characters are alive but often some of the plots and some of the characters seem a little 'recycled'.
There is also more realism in this story, the protagonist, Susanna, is a dressmaker who hears all her patrons' secrets and her neighbours' lives whilst privately mourning her illegitimate daughter taken away at birth and her love for her lover who can never leave his wife. Unusually for Ibbotson although there is a climax there is not the same happy ever after ending (at least for her) and it is this sweet realism that I most appreciate in this story.
As usual there is a full cast of well rounded supporting characters; my particular favourite being the anarchist assistant Nina who falls in love with a rich banker much to her horror. Susanna does her best to find happy ending for those around her and then she contents herself with what she has. I don't want to give the impression in any way that this is gritty or sad; its mostly very heart warming, it is just that in contrast to some of Ibbotson's other books that are more fairytale like it has a bit more realism and it is all the better for that.
There is also more realism in this story, the protagonist, Susanna, is a dressmaker who hears all her patrons' secrets and her neighbours' lives whilst privately mourning her illegitimate daughter taken away at birth and her love for her lover who can never leave his wife. Unusually for Ibbotson although there is a climax there is not the same happy ever after ending (at least for her) and it is this sweet realism that I most appreciate in this story.
As usual there is a full cast of well rounded supporting characters; my particular favourite being the anarchist assistant Nina who falls in love with a rich banker much to her horror. Susanna does her best to find happy ending for those around her and then she contents herself with what she has. I don't want to give the impression in any way that this is gritty or sad; its mostly very heart warming, it is just that in contrast to some of Ibbotson's other books that are more fairytale like it has a bit more realism and it is all the better for that.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a lovely book, and as soon as I got it I managed to finish it with a day or two, despite having my sisters wedding, a part time nannying job, and a friend from Australia staying. It's charmingly written. It isn't however quite like her other books, the heroine is "more mature" and so I suppose the book loses that youthful feel. It also has a more deconstructed plot, the type that follows the course of the year, rather than sticking to events on pertinant to the main plot. But I think as long as your not expectinng something exactly similer to her other adult fiction, then you won't be at all disappointed. It still has the appeal of the Romantic setting, and beautifully drawn chatacters, and a heroine, that does capture the heart, so I would highly recomend this.
16 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have read all of Ibbotson's work, and Madensky Square is by far my favorite! It brings together political turmoil as well as the colorful citizens of Vienna, a must read
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