Wickford Point John P Marquand 9781179688589 Books
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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
Wickford Point John P Marquand 9781179688589 Books
This novel offers a moving evocation of an eccentric, fraying New England aristocratic family (including an amusing send-up of an Ivy League professor). The characters are poignantly drawn and quite memorable. Apparently, the author drew on his childhood for depictions of place and person--you can sense his deep affection (and ambivalence) for his subjects. Marquand's writing is generously paced and alluringly detailed. I was sorry to see it end and I'm looking forward to reading more of this once celebrated, now apparently neglected artist.Product details
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Wickford Point John P Marquand 9781179688589 Books Reviews
It is just a given in our culture that books about privileged white men, no matter how fine and well-written, will be forgotten and neglected in favor of much lesser writing about politically correct subjects race, gender, and sexual orientation.
No matter, the writing is still as skilled and important. The story lines are still fresh and compelling. This writer has left a body of work that transcends modern preoccupations. Give it a try, and while you are at it, give yourself the pleasure of other writers like Louis Auchincloss whose elegant, thoughtful writing and character development deserve a much larger readership and recognition in this current lamentable period when any pathetic hack can publish a book.
Wickford Point is the somewhat dilapidated but stately home of the Boston Brahmin Brill family. The story, such as it is, is told by Jim a distant relative who grew up at Wickford Point after his parents died. It is based on, I am supposing, Marquand’s life and you can still find the estate where he grew up on the Merrimack River near Newburyport.
The Brills are Brahmin but not very wealthy any longer. Their life at Wickford Point is languid. No one works although the men have all been to Harvard and were members of the elite clubs (from which Jim was excluded). “The family had always gone to Harvard.” The novel follows Jim from childhood in the early 1900s to just before WW II. Actually for me the most interesting parts, although brief, were about Jim’s service in WW I.
There is no plot, nothing happens, it’s all social and family interaction at a low emotional level. It’s all pretty vague and I never did quite understand how Jim was related to the other members of the family—I guess some sort of cousin—nor them to each other. I like novels about British and American “upper class” families, Austen, Trollope, Wharton, Auchincloss, etc. But this one is very weak tea. It does not belong on the shelf with those other authors just mentioned nor is it as strong as some of Marquand’s other novels.
I like the trope of a novel centered on a stately house and nostalgia for more prosperous times. But I found the Brills more distasteful than most decadent characters. They regard life’s responsibilities as mere annoyances which could be dismissed with the right blend of reticence and charm. They did not pay their bills or their servants. They were always on the brink of disaster. But somehow they could afford to travel. No one paid any attention to finances—it was all handled by some distant factor in Boston. Their main claim was that they had great “contacts” and “connections” in the cultured worlds of New York and Boston. Like just about everything else in the novel the ending is vague, unclear, and unsatisfying.
I imagine it’s all satirical and yet a realistic if somewhat jaundiced view of a certain sort of (socially) upper class life in the early to mid-1900s. That’s fine, but not paying the little people for their goods and services is despicable—not amusing.
This is a novel for lonely winter nights when you are having trouble sleeping and are looking for a way to pass the tedious hours til dawn.
New England life of the Forties/Fifties with a family in financial decline from a artistic background. Good read
Characters who you become so interesting that you will miss them when the book ends.
Hard to believe this marvelous writer is so little read nowadays.. Here, he skewers an in-bred New England family getting by on the faded glory of long-past literary accomplishments. Problem Marquand accomplishes his goal so brilliantly that the book is often unpleasant to read. You will detest the people at Wickford Point to the "point" of throwing the whole thing across the room.
This novel offers a moving evocation of an eccentric, fraying New England aristocratic family (including an amusing send-up of an Ivy League professor). The characters are poignantly drawn and quite memorable. Apparently, the author drew on his childhood for depictions of place and person--you can sense his deep affection (and ambivalence) for his subjects. Marquand's writing is generously paced and alluringly detailed. I was sorry to see it end and I'm looking forward to reading more of this once celebrated, now apparently neglected artist.
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