Treasures of Time (Penguin Decades)
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Product Description
Product Description
Penguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling.
Penelope Lively's Treasures of Time was published in 1979, and is an acutely observed study of marriage and manipulation. When the BBC want to make a documentary about acclaimed archaeologist Hugh Paxton, his widow Laura, daughter Kate and her fiancé Tom are a little nervous: digging up the past can also disturb the present...
About the Author
Penelope Lively was born in Cairo in 1933. Her childhood there is the subject of her memoir Oleander Jacaranda. At the age of 12 she was sent to boarding school in England, and subsequently read history at Oxford. She married the academic Jack Lively, who became Professor of Politics at the University of Warwick. She first began writing highly praised children's fiction, then published her first adult novel in 1977. Moon Tiger won the Booker Prize in 1987. She lives in north London.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this 1979 novel, Penelope Lively deals with memory and time and history -how the past influences the present - and whether it is possible to excavate truth. A BBC producer is making a documentary about a deceased archaeologist, Hugh Paxton. Others involved include Laura, his widow, who is monstrously snobbish and self-centred; Laura's invalid sister who thinks she would have made him a better wife; Laura and Hugh's prickly daughter Kate and her fiance Tom, a PhD student from a northern working-class background.
Penelope Lively's writing is clever, elegant, often drily witty ... and yet strangely unengaging. The Zandra Rhodes jacket - on the new Penguin Decades edition - is far more appealing than the novel inside.
Penelope Lively's writing is clever, elegant, often drily witty ... and yet strangely unengaging. The Zandra Rhodes jacket - on the new Penguin Decades edition - is far more appealing than the novel inside.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Nice understated novel, about a marriage's secrets
28 Jun 2006
Format:Paperback
This book, from 1979, concerns the ramifications of the production of a TV program (okay, television programme) about Hugh Paxton, a 5 years dead archaeologist who had made a major discovery about ancient England. Hugh's daughter, Kate, and her fiance, Tom (who is an historian studying for his thesis a 17th century antiquarian/archaeologist) come down to Hugh's old home to visit Hugh's widow, Laura, and her crippled sister, Nellie. Laura turns out to be a truly awful woman, portrayed with catty gusto in a way which seems unique to women writers. (If a man wrote of Laura the way Lively does he would be called a raging misogynist.) Anyway, Laura is terrible to both Kate and Nellie, very controlling but also incredibly stupid, and a raging bore to boot. Kate is emotionally stunted, presumably partly due to Laura, while Tom is a bit vague and unfocussed. Nellie, it turns out, was another archaeologist, and in love with Hugh, and on the evidence Hugh probably (but we can't be quite sure) carried on an affair with her after his marriage to Laura soured.
Over several months, the television programme production progresses, Tom works toward his degree, his relationship with Kate hits some rocks, while secrets about Hugh and Nellie and his discoveries seem ready to burst dangerously into the open. The resolution is emotionally sensible, though a bit understated -- it seemed to me that some guns shown on the mantel were left unfired. But it's a very nice book, and all the main characters come through very strongly, though I did think at times the portrait of Laura seemed almost of necessity a caricature. Certainly I will be reading more Lively.
Over several months, the television programme production progresses, Tom works toward his degree, his relationship with Kate hits some rocks, while secrets about Hugh and Nellie and his discoveries seem ready to burst dangerously into the open. The resolution is emotionally sensible, though a bit understated -- it seemed to me that some guns shown on the mantel were left unfired. But it's a very nice book, and all the main characters come through very strongly, though I did think at times the portrait of Laura seemed almost of necessity a caricature. Certainly I will be reading more Lively.
beautifully written
20 May 2008
Format:Paperback
While one of Lively's earlier novels, "Treasures of Time" is beautifully written. Lively brings wit and intelligence to comments on culture and character, and is also equally adept at descriptions of nature and settings. The comments are made by her characters, and are consistent with who they are. Lively's characters are apt to switch their thoughts from the present to the past and back without notice, but also without awkwardness or confusion.
What stood out in this novel was how major decisions may be built up by the slow accretion of experience and reflection. I am thinking primarily of Tom's decision to leave Kate, but also of his career change.
What stood out in this novel was how major decisions may be built up by the slow accretion of experience and reflection. I am thinking primarily of Tom's decision to leave Kate, but also of his career change.
4 of 10 people found the following review helpful
A work of wonder
21 Oct 1997
Format:Paperback
A truely great work of understated beauty by a writer of grace and style.
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