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'Miss Hazzard's mind is a revolving light that picks a scene, holds it in utmost clarity for a moment against the surrounding darkness and moves on' NEW YORK TIMES
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The scene is Naples, against whose ancient and fantastic background the modern action takes place. Among the protagonists is Jenny, young and pretty, who has come to Naples in flight from a sombre drama, unaware that a larger drama waits her there. She has an introduction to a Neapolitan woman, and one day she idly follows it up. This is her leap through the looking glass.
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First Sentence
A military plane crashed that winter on Mount Vesuvius. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
A military plane crashed that winter on Mount Vesuvius. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Bay of Noon is a slender work of fiction, put is a perfectly realised gem. The Naples it is set in is that of the early '60s and is seductively drawn in spare and simple prose. I love this book and come back to it every couple of years. Each time I re-read it I am astonished by its elegant story telling and the unassuming tension Hazzard builds. There are a few 20th Century writers of Hazzards calibre who are unjustly little-known, but deserving of high status - Hazzard is one, Sybille Bedford is another. They write of complex lives and deep emotions beneath often frozen exteriors.
In the Bay of Noon, the plot is simple, barely there - a friendship of circumstance, an obscure romance, hints of betrayal - but the plot is a vehicle for precise and insightful consideration of what lies within. Shirley Hazzard knocks spots off the Anita Brookners of this world. Read this and enjoy - may it never go out of print.
Format:Paperback
Another Shirley Hazzard novel that seems only a step away from greatness (she got there in 'The Great Fire'!) Jenny, a young Englishwoman who has spent part of her childhood in Africa as an evacuee, comes to work in Naples after World War II, partly to free herself from a strange obsessive love for her own brother. In Naples she befriends the aristocratic Gioconda and Gioconda's tempestuous married lover Gianni, and enters into an 'almost-romance' with Jock, a dour Scots scientist with a heart of gold, with whom she takes on the role of jolly Englishwoman. Hazzard describes Naples and Gioconda's home absolutely beautifully, and is witty in her depiction of Gianni, who is both highly attractive and rather self-involved - though towards the end of the book he proves to be a very decent man. The friendship between Jenny - generally a very solitary type - and Gioconda is also well conveyed. There's a great deal to enjoy, not least Hazzard's stunning use of the English language. But I didn't feel Hazzard had quite worked out her characters' emotional lives. Jenny, for example, seems a rather distant young woman, slightly drifting in her life and never quite sure what she wants - it would have also been good to know more about what happened to her when she returned to England. And I didn't believe in the volte face towards the end of the novel, when Jock made a sudden and unexpected decision. I was also slightly puzzled by the ending - was Jenny going to renew her friendship with Gioconda or not? Would things still be good between them? Hazzard was frustratingly vague. A beautiful read in many ways, but one that doesn't seem to quite deliver all it promised.
Format:Paperback
I found this novel full of atmosphere and I was thus transported to Naples, a place I have never been. I loved the descriptions although I eventually became fed up with reading that something was 'as if' or 'like' something else. The plot was slim and so had to be panned out, I suppose, but I found the characters quite intriguing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
High praise for an unknown writer
I can well understand why Virago chose to reprint this book which I had never heard of before. The feisty heroine is ahead of her time, the 1950's, & would fit more easily into... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Fran
Awful
Dreadful read I'm afraid. I was looking forward to this read so much. It has disappointed me on every level. The writing is awful, slow and lazy. Definitely not recommended. Read more
Published on 16 Nov 2009 by JKB
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