- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (2 July 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140264256
- ISBN-13: 978-0140264258
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 627,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"A superb storyteller in her prime."
-"The Globe and Mail
"Anita Brookner works a spell on the reader; being under it is both an education and a delight."
-"The Washington Post Book World
"Brookner is a writer of great skill and precision. Passages of brilliant writing abound, hard-won insights that startle us with Brookner's clarity and succinct intelligence."
-"Los Angeles Times Book Review
-"The Globe and Mail
"Anita Brookner works a spell on the reader; being under it is both an education and a delight."
-"The Washington Post Book World
"Brookner is a writer of great skill and precision. Passages of brilliant writing abound, hard-won insights that startle us with Brookner's clarity and succinct intelligence."
-"Los Angeles Times Book Review
"From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
Dorothea May's tranquility is shattered by Kitty Levinson's announcement of her granddaughter's forthcoming marriage. As the wedding approaches, the scene is set for a highly charged conflict of generations, in which the claims of the young are in stark and selfish contrast to the disabling propriety of the old. VISITORS is a vivid exploration of familial responsibilities and the expectations that perpetually threaten to overwhelm them.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Dorothea May is a 70-year old widow living in an Edwardian mansion block in London. She enjoys living alone and her social life is limited to her former husband's cousins Kitty and Molly. She enjoys silence because she knows that the end of her life is approaching. She is shy of affectionate gestures and enjoys fiction and radio more than the company of people because no response is called for.
She often recalls how she met her husband Henry and she doesn't seek joy anymore, settling instead for reasonable satisfaction. Her girlhood was innocent of sexual involvement, like that of a Victorian maiden.
One day Kitty announces that her granddaughter Ann is to come to London to marry David. They're both coming with a friend, Steve Best, and it is Kitty's whish that Mrs May puts Steve up in her flat for a week. At first Mrs May refuses but then. The ensuing few days she spends with her lodger will change Mr May's life considerably.
In this remarkable novel, the author shows that if the gregarious fear loneliness, to the solitary the gregarious pose a much greater threat. She also shows that a young man's objections to the old are likely to be predominantly physical as well as moral.
She often recalls how she met her husband Henry and she doesn't seek joy anymore, settling instead for reasonable satisfaction. Her girlhood was innocent of sexual involvement, like that of a Victorian maiden.
One day Kitty announces that her granddaughter Ann is to come to London to marry David. They're both coming with a friend, Steve Best, and it is Kitty's whish that Mrs May puts Steve up in her flat for a week. At first Mrs May refuses but then. The ensuing few days she spends with her lodger will change Mr May's life considerably.
In this remarkable novel, the author shows that if the gregarious fear loneliness, to the solitary the gregarious pose a much greater threat. She also shows that a young man's objections to the old are likely to be predominantly physical as well as moral.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A thought provoking story and one that is probably more appreciated by those in similar circumstances to those of the heroine! Not that Mrs May is a heroine in the conventional sense of the word but she certainly fights her own battles and ultimately she is triumphant. This is a good book to accompany you on holiday, as it does not tax the reader but I have yet to meet a male who would enjoy it. It is possible to learn many lessons from this story and the biggest one really could change the way you live your life. It is perfectly possible however just to enjoy the book and luxuriate in Ms Brookners' wonderful mastery of the English language.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An excellent novel about the relationship between the young and the old, the introvert and the extrovert. Mrs May's solitary, unremarkable life is upset when she houses a young man to help out her sister-in-law, whose daughter has come back to England to marry.
Mrs May is happy to be old and alone, others think she can't be. The story revolves around Mrs May and her thoughts, the outward appearance of her, apparantly, solitary and empty life, and her experiences with the young people who come to stay.
Essentially the younger people are cardboard, cliched characters who haven't lived or experienced and have no real direction, while the older characters vary between waiting for a life to end and constant yearning for social occasions with which to fill their remaining years.
Anita Brookner has written a thoughtful, funny book on the old and the young, the internal and the external, and her command of the english language is exemplary. A definite recommendation.
Mrs May is happy to be old and alone, others think she can't be. The story revolves around Mrs May and her thoughts, the outward appearance of her, apparantly, solitary and empty life, and her experiences with the young people who come to stay.
Essentially the younger people are cardboard, cliched characters who haven't lived or experienced and have no real direction, while the older characters vary between waiting for a life to end and constant yearning for social occasions with which to fill their remaining years.
Anita Brookner has written a thoughtful, funny book on the old and the young, the internal and the external, and her command of the english language is exemplary. A definite recommendation.
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