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Product Description
Product Description
'A drawing of the world when I was young.'
So Gwen Raverat, the grand-daughter of Charles Darwin, described Period Piece, her classic memoir of a Cambridge childhood, which since its initial publication in 1952 has never been out of print. Vividly evoking a bygone era, it is a shrewd, touching and comic portrait of her eccentric relations, and of Cambridge society in a time when it was restricted enough to be treated as an extension of the family. As a child she thought it impossible that she would ever succeed as an artist, and yet the observations of the small incidents in her life, recorded here both in word and drawing, reveal an artist's careful eye.
From the Inside Flap
I have never read a more enjoyable book of childhood memoirs. (Raymond Mortimer in the Sunday Times)
Commandingly evokes a vanished past with its morals and its manners … Intensely individual and yet strangely impersonal. (The Times)
I want to say with what pleasure and admiration I have read your book and also what enormous pleasure it would have given Virginia. (Leonard Woolf)
Period Piece is an altogether delightful book, a kind of insouciant wit, too appreciative to be called cynical, too unillusioned to be called pious. Mrs Raverat is not a Darwin for nothing. Her book comes out of a highly civilized background – the English professional and intellectual middle-classes, which, if not the backbone of England, may be held to be, on the whole, its mainstream of culture, and of sophisticated intelligence and wit. (Rose Macaulay in The Times Literary Supplement) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Charles Darwin's grand-daughter tells of her eccentric upbringing and her large, talented and idiosyncratic family. A good window onto the life of the upper-class Victorian intelligentsia, her account is consistently affectionate, humorous and light of touch. Whimsical, sane and very funny. Deserves to be better-known.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This remarkable memoir holds a secure place in my heart. I first read it when I was doing research in Cambridge, but have returned to it many times since. There is no other book that I know of in English quite like it. If only more people knew of it. The depth of Gwen Ravert's memory, and the ease with which she moves among her individual memories. Everything about the world she inhabits is made delightful, especially the family of Charles Darwin. It seems to have been an idyllic age. For the middle classes at least, childhood in late Victorian England seems to have been enviable Ñ especially when we think of modern children, their loss of innocence, and the dangers they are exposed to. Raverat brings to life a lost world through wit and intelligence, with animated and sometimes preposterous characters. This is better than Dickens, Michel Faber, Jerome K Jerome, and all the rest. it has a real claim to be the most amiable, amusing, and perceptive memoir in the English language. Buy it, read it, and keep it with you for the rest of your life.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Gwen Raverat's memories of a childhood and adolescence in Cambridge at the turn of the last century is written by theme, rather than chronologically. So, we are delighted and entertained by chapters covering everything from "Propriety" to "Ghosts and Horrors".
Along with recounting episodes and incidents from the time, Gwen Raverat then peppers these with her own insight and commentary into the situation, which is by turns highly amusing and deeply poignant.
Together with the line illustrations, we are presented with a picture of time and place that we can almost experience for ourselves. This is a masterpiece.
Along with recounting episodes and incidents from the time, Gwen Raverat then peppers these with her own insight and commentary into the situation, which is by turns highly amusing and deeply poignant.
Together with the line illustrations, we are presented with a picture of time and place that we can almost experience for ourselves. This is a masterpiece.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
have read it till it fell apart
I have loved this book for years - first reading it when I was about 14 or so, and re-reading so aften that my copy has now fallen apart some 30 years later. Read more
Published 11 months ago by J. Gibson
A delightful book
This book is very well written by Darwin's grand-daughter and makes you feel 'part of the family'! For complete enjoyment I would recommend the hard-back version if you can get... Read more
Published 17 months ago by gyzmo
Perfect piece
There are some books that you keep for ever and can go back to over and over again and NEVER tire of them - this is one. If you have a copy yourself give one to a friend.
Published 24 months ago by P. A. Barge
I keep my partner awake laughing...
I have to confess I'm only about halfway through this book, but had to come and see what others thought of it and was delighted to find a consensus on 5 stars. Read more
Published on 14 Oct 2009 by Ms. K. E. Glaisher
Witty & droll
This is one of the funniest, best written books I have ever read. Every time I re-read it I admire her prose - which is very witty and dry - more and more. Read more
Published on 16 Dec 2003
Excellent memoir
I had doubts about how interesting this memoir would be at first glance, I need not have. It was extremely well written, witty, informative and engaging. Read more
Published on 13 Oct 2003 by "emleslie"
The best memoir I have ever read.
If I ever had to choose a single book to take to a desert island, this might very well be it. I have read it many times, and it never fails to delight and amuse me. Read more
Published on 23 Dec 2000
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