The Shooting Party (Penguin Modern Classics)
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"'Threads of romance, social comment, country lore and intrigue both above and below stairs are cunningly worked together to create a brilliant tapestry... I have seldom enjoyed a book so much' - Sunday Telegraph"
--This text refers to the
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It is 1913 - just prior to England's entry into World War I - and Edwardian England is about to vanish into history. A group of men and women gather at Sir Randolph Nettleby's estate for a shooting party. Opulent, adulterous, moving assuredly through the rituals of eating and slaughter, they are a dazzlingly obtuse and brilliantly decorative finale of an era.
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It caused a mild scandal at the time, but in most people's memories it was quite outshone by what succeeded it. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
It caused a mild scandal at the time, but in most people's memories it was quite outshone by what succeeded it. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Shooting Party is the story of a day's shooting at the estate of Sir Randolph Nettleby in 1913. On the surface it is a world of politeness and gentility, but below this veneer, individuality, competitiveness and adulterous lust seethe and eventually lead to the tragic conclusion of the novel.
Colegate expertly fillets the weaknesses of the society she represents, the loveless marriages for economic or social benefit, the adherence to meaningless ritual, the dishonest valuing of amateurism over professionalism. The book however is very much a social rather than an economic or political criticism. Colegate dissects the society she portrays but does not challenge its structure or the inequality on which it is based. In fact through Sir Randolph she is gently supportive of a paternalistic feudal society.
The book can also be read as a precursor of what was to come, both at the time of its setting and of its writing. The mass and indiscrimnate slaughter of the birds clearly anticipates the impending first world war, but also the conflict between paternalism and individuality is suggestive of the beginnings of Thatcherism at the time of writing.
The book is beautifully, precisely written, including a breathtakingly good opening paragraph and in writing characters with whom she is familiar, colegate provides depth and subtlety. She is less successful in her depiction of the non-aristocratic characters, with the animal rights supporting socialist, Cardew, being a particularly ridiculous, 2 dimensional creation.
I cannot finish this review without a word on the introduction by Julian Fellowes. While Colegate adopts a position sympathetic to, if critical of, the aristocracy and then writes honestly, and without polemic, Fellowes is just ridiculous. He starts his introduction by identifying Look Back in Anger as the cause of the decline of the English aristocracy and continues to rant in the style of a Daily Mail editorial. This is a shame because in the detail of his introduction he makes some very perceptive observations on the text.
So overall this book is definitely recommended, it is a beautifully written depiction of a particular way of life at a particular time which also anticipates the horrors which are to engulf this genteel world. The reader may not agree with the author's position but can respect it. The introduction is worth it for its comic value.
Colegate expertly fillets the weaknesses of the society she represents, the loveless marriages for economic or social benefit, the adherence to meaningless ritual, the dishonest valuing of amateurism over professionalism. The book however is very much a social rather than an economic or political criticism. Colegate dissects the society she portrays but does not challenge its structure or the inequality on which it is based. In fact through Sir Randolph she is gently supportive of a paternalistic feudal society.
The book can also be read as a precursor of what was to come, both at the time of its setting and of its writing. The mass and indiscrimnate slaughter of the birds clearly anticipates the impending first world war, but also the conflict between paternalism and individuality is suggestive of the beginnings of Thatcherism at the time of writing.
The book is beautifully, precisely written, including a breathtakingly good opening paragraph and in writing characters with whom she is familiar, colegate provides depth and subtlety. She is less successful in her depiction of the non-aristocratic characters, with the animal rights supporting socialist, Cardew, being a particularly ridiculous, 2 dimensional creation.
I cannot finish this review without a word on the introduction by Julian Fellowes. While Colegate adopts a position sympathetic to, if critical of, the aristocracy and then writes honestly, and without polemic, Fellowes is just ridiculous. He starts his introduction by identifying Look Back in Anger as the cause of the decline of the English aristocracy and continues to rant in the style of a Daily Mail editorial. This is a shame because in the detail of his introduction he makes some very perceptive observations on the text.
So overall this book is definitely recommended, it is a beautifully written depiction of a particular way of life at a particular time which also anticipates the horrors which are to engulf this genteel world. The reader may not agree with the author's position but can respect it. The introduction is worth it for its comic value.
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This novel will thrill readers who admire careful, precise writing. Like a jeweler, Colegate has polished her prose till it sparkles, avoiding pretension, excess verbiage, and empty lyricism, choosing, instead, words full of inference and irony, feeling and attitude. Broad themes, historical perspective, and a plot which contains a large cast of individualized characters from all levels of society come alive here in a mere two hundred pages.
Setting the novel in the autumn of 1913, before the outbreak of World War I, Colegate establishes her themes in the first paragraph, asking the reader to imagine an Edwardian drawing room of a country estate, with gas lamps, a log fire, and people from a long time ago, sitting and standing in groups. In the room beyond, a "fierce electric light" shines forth, overpowering the quiet, lamplit room, making it seem shadowy and the people like "beings from a much remoter past." The gentry in this snapshot are not naïve. Even they recognize that "an age, perhaps a civilization, is coming to an end," as industrialization and urbanization are changing the centers of power, and a war looms.
A lively cast of characters is invited to Sir Randolph Nettleby's 1000-acre park for a weekend shoot, and as they converse and interact, they quickly become individualized, the reader learning of their attitudes and prejudices, their understanding of the code of behavior, and the details of their very "civilized" lives. When the shoot begins and the beaters send the birds into the air, the symbolic parallels between the world as it has been, the world as it will be during the coming war, and the world as it may be after the war become obvious to the reader, and the death of one of the characters is not a surprise.
Colegate is never polemical, imbuing her story with a great deal of personal interaction, warmth, and feeling, and as the action unfolds, the reader feels simultaneously wistful about the loss of cultural identity which is about to occur and gratified that the stultifying "predictable-ness" of that life will change. This is a book to savor, written by a remarkable stylist whose prose clearly illustrates that less is more. Mary Whipple
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Appropriately enough, this Penguin Modern Classics edition comes with an introduction by Julian Fellowes - Colegate's Shooting Party was an inspiration for both Gosford Park and Downton Abbey. There are many things to say about Colegate's book but one is often overlooked - how absolutely precise is her depiction of the Edwardian rural upper class. She is sympathetic but not uncritical, which is absolutely the right critical distance. To the dismay of radicals, kindly paternalism (as embodied by Sir Richard Nettleby, surely a model for the Earl of Grantham in Downton)was a distinct vein in Edwardian society. Like so much else, it was done away with by the First World War. I don't wish to suggest that the Shooting Party is a sociological tract - it is a work of fine literature- but as a portrait of the long lost world of Edwardian England it has few rivals
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Shooting Party
This is a book which evokes certain aspects of aristocratic and rural society in the last year before the outbreak of the First World War. A way of life is certain to change. Read more
Published 2 months ago by A. P. Thomas
Didactic
A novel I was long ago recommended by a friend who loved it. But, I'm afraid, I found it tedious. The author seemed to spend so much effort teaching the reader about the world the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. E. S. Leake
the shooting party
very disappointing I expected more from Julian Fellows did not realise he only wrote the preface. I found the rest of the book tedious.
Published 5 months ago by gloria
The Shooting Party
Set in 1913, this wonderful novel takes part during 24 hours in a shooting party at Nettleby Park, home of Sir Randolph Nettleby, a Baronet and country gentlemen. Read more
Published 6 months ago by S Riaz
A rich and satisfying novel
In Colegate's 1980 novel a shooting party is being held at Sir Randolph Nettleby's Oxfordshire estate in the autumn before the First World War. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Eleanor
books
Its good to get a product at a fair price and not be ripped off like some companies. great value, good price, good service.
Published 8 months ago by The hawk
A masterpiece of precision.
Readers who admire careful, precise writing will thrill at Colegate's prose, which is so polished it sparkles here, avoiding pretension, excess verbiage, and empty lyricism. Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2008 by Mary Whipple
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