Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow... This is one of the best books I've ever read!, 3 Jun 2002
By A Customer
When I first picked this book from my school library I didn't expect very much, although by the time I'd started reading, I just couldn't put it down. I wondered why I'd never heard of it before, and why it wasn't at the top of the bestseller lists every week!The story of the four sisters, especially Sarah in the first book, and their neighbours the McKenzies, is compelling and interesting; quite unlike any book I'd ever read before. Ruth Elwin Harris is one of the most charismatic narrators I've read anything of, after a few chapters you know exactly what each of the sisters are like, and I felt that I knew each of them perfectly. It describes the war in a very vivid, realistic sense, which makes it one of the best war stories that I've read. You fully understand the terror of those once having fought in the war, and I feel that I could easily re-read this amazing book. It's happy at times, and sad. It's difficult to describe exactly what the book's about, although it is really just about the lives, journeys and romances of the sisters. I felt the feeling of them growing up and developing strongly, and I highly recommend this book to anyone over the age of nine. Good for anyone who enjoys a great story!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The first of a family saga which deserves wider recognition., 19 Jan 2001
This first book in the Quantocks Quartet is Sarah's story, and sets the scene for the rest of the series. It is, I think, the strongest book of the four, setting the scene and describing fully the two day walk over the Quantock Hills which is the perfect summer idyll, constantly referred to and remembered by the characters throughout the series. Sarah is the youngest Purcell sister, and the book describes her growing up, accepting that she is not artistically talented like her sisters, and beginning to tread her own path as a scholar and a writer. Ruth Elwin Harris makes use of many stock situations and characters: orphaned children, devoted servant, and charmingly unconventional family . However, she also touches however lightly, on domestic politics and social conditions, as well as the enormous impact of the Great War. The quartet was recommended to me by a friend, and in return I'm now pressing them on everyone I know. One of the things I enjoy is the realistic depiction of family relationships. REW writes in one of the other books of the series "they had always been close, the four sisters....but closeness did not mean that they shared their secrets." These sisters aggravate each other at least as much as they love and cherish. Whether or not they do turn out to be a "Little Women" for our times, they are a series I have already read twice, and will have a permanent place on my book shelves.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
best book i've read for ages, 27 Mar 2000
By A Customer
I only read this book because my sister really liked it, and I didn't really get in to it at first. By the end I was really gripped. The characters are all really good, by the end, it's like you know them. It's such a good book, people might think it's for girls only, but it isn't a girly book which is what is nice about. It is a little bit like Little Women, but that's a good thing.
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