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Mrs. Miniver (Virago modern classics)
 
 
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Mrs. Miniver (Virago modern classics) (Paperback)

by Jan Struther (Author), Valerie Grove (Introduction)
4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 164 pages
  • Publisher: Virago Press Ltd; New edition edition (24 Aug 1989)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1853810908
  • ISBN-13: 978-1853810909
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 47,754 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
'Mrs Miniver, you feel, could rule the world' VALERIE GROVE

The sort of book about which you can legitimately go "quietly mad" and on your enthusiasm sell many copies. Mrs. Miniver's acute perception, her amusing examination of external things, her happy pursuit of a stray thought, her unexpected turn of phrase, make this a subtler joy than With Malice Toward Some. This is the rapier thrust rather than the bludgeon, the lifted eyebrow rather than the mugging, the quiet friendliness rather than the over-hearty slap on the back. Not fiction in the literal sense, for there's no plot, merely a chronological succession of sketches during two years of her life. There are interludes such as the return to London after the holidays, the new car, Christmas, the countryside, Scotland, gas masks, at the dentist's, a trip abroad, - each one effortless, appealing, and delightful for the personal note in the mental ramblings. One enjoys the quality, the characters, the observant freshness brought to bear on trivia. No need to introduce Mrs. Miniver as another Provincial Lady. She'll soon stand on her own right, as a genial, keen Englishwoman, and will make her own staunch friends. You may gather that we liked it! (Kirkus Reviews)

Product Description
Shortly before the Second World War, a column by 'Mrs Miniver' appeared in THE TIMES, the first of many recounting the everyday events of a middle-class Chelsea family: Mrs Miniver's thrill at the sight of October chrysanthemums; her sense of doom when the faithful but rackety car is replaced; the escapades of Vin, Toby and Judy, her unpredictable young children; visits to the Kent cottage and, as war becomes a reality, the strange experience of acquiring gas masks and the cameraderie of those unsettling early days. Mrs Miniver enchanted the public with her sympathy and affectionate humour, capturing ordinary lives and values now darkened by war. First published in book form in 1939 and later an enormously successful film, MRS MINIVER became a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic -- with Churchill exclaiming that it had done more for the Allied cause than a flotilla of battleships.

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Mrs. Miniver (Virago modern classics)
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Mrs. Miniver (Virago modern classics) 4.7 out of 5 stars (3)
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars 'Mrs Miniver' - forget the film and read the book, 30 Nov 2001
I knew that 'Mrs Miniver' was a Hollywood film (made during World War 2 and starring Greer Garson, I believe) but not until very recently did I discover that it was based on a book. An utterly delightful book, written in 1939 by an English woman called Jan Struther. It is less of a novel and more a series of snap-shots - each of two or three pages - about Mrs. Miniver's life and her thoughts on it.

I think that Mrs Miniver's life was as near as can be to Jan Struther's own - both English, middle-class, married with three children, living in London during the outbreak of war in a comfortable home with servants. But do not be put off by thinking that this is very predicable stuff and not worth bothering with. Mrs Miniver has a very particular way of looking at life - perceptive, funny, generous and wise. Never snobbish, quite the opposite in fact. Both Mrs. M and her author shared a zest for life - "an accidental gift, impossible to acquire and almost impossible, thank heaven, to lose."

An enthusiast for life, she describes the everyday, ordinary things - walking through Westminster on the first day of Spring, hop-picking in Kent, Guy Fawkes night,pruning an apple tree, driving to Scotland, buying gas-masks, observing her fellow guests at a dinner-party, Christmas shopping, buying a new diary - but all seen through the eyes of a very perceptive person. Never mundane, Mrs Miniver's world is shared with us in delightful detail.

Mrs. Miniver in the dentists' chair:
"...the refinement of civilised cruelty, this spick, span and ingenious affair of shining leather and gleaming steel, which hoisted you and tilted you and fitted reassuringly into the small of your back and cupped your head tenderly between padded cushions. It ensured for you a more complete muscular relaxation than any armchair you could buy for your own home; but it left your tormented nerves without even the solace of a counter-irritant. In the old days, the victim's attention had at least been distracted by an ache in the back, a crick in the neck, pins and needles in the legs.......But now, too efficiently suspended between heaven and earth, you were at liberty to concentrate on hell."

If you're old enough to remember this era, the book will bring memories flooding back.If you're not, you will enjoy Mrs Miniver not only as social history but also as something which will, hopefully, make you think about life in not quite the same way ever again.

Buy this book, as I have, for your dearest friends - the ones with whom you can talk about "such trifles as love and courage and kindness and integrity and the quite astonishing resilience of the human spirit."

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An Unexpected Treasure, 23 April 2009
By Graceann Macleod "Books Fuel My Life" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Having loved the classic Greer Garson film of the same name, I was very much looking forward to reading the book upon which it was based. Imagine my surprise when I opened the first page to discover that the book is a series of articles based on Mrs. Miniver's largely peacetime life. I hasten to add that this isn't a criticism. What is found in this slim volume is a deeply-layered exploration of Mrs. Miniver's personal beliefs, quiet integrity and dry sense of humour.

Language is something to be treasured and savoured here. Struther plays with words in a way that is, for lack of a better term, delicious. I found myself reading and re-reading segments because of the beautiful way in which they were phrased. The life that the Minivers lead consists of trips to their country home in Kent, dinners with friends, and holiday celebrations, all archly and candidly observed by Mrs. Miniver. The War, while looming on the horizon, does not take over until the very end of the book.

I got this book with the expectation that I'd read about the things I'd seen in the film. What I ended up with was something much different. It takes nothing away from my love of Greer Garson to say that I loved Jan Struther's original stories just as much as the movie that grew out of them.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Witty and well written - but very different from the film, 28 Dec 2008
By John Hopper (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
A witty and well written novel about middle class family life on the eve of war. However, it is very unlike the film. The latter is mostly set after the outbreak of war, whereas in the book (published just after the outbreak of hostilities) it is hovering in the near future, e.g. buying gasmarks, accepting evacuated children in the country home. The oldest son, Vin, is here only 15 years old, not getting married and becoming a fighter pilot. No tragic death of a daughter-in-law or prize-winning flower contest. Film and book are both very good, but in different ways.
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