Charlotte Gray |
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Sebastian Faulks
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Pages: 512 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0099394316
Pub: Vintage
Pub date: 1999-07-01
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 45047
Editorial Review:
Sebastian Faulks established his authority as a storyteller with his best-selling Birdsong. His next book, Charlotte Gray, a haunting story of love and war set in London and occupied France in 1942-3, is loosely a sequel. Charlotte is a highly educated young Scottish woman who falls passionately in love with an airman, Peter Gregory, emotionally scarred by his many close brushes with death. When he disappears on a mission to France, she follows him as a British secret courier, sent over to help support the Resistance. Having failed to find Gregory, she decides to stay on to do what she can for the France she has loved since childhood. She and the reader are drawn ever deeper into the lives of assimilated French Jews-- the children Andre and Jacob whose parents have already been sent to the death camps, and the Levades, father and son. Though ultimately powerless to help, Charlotte nevertheless learns a far deeper understanding of herself and her own family through them.
This is a book full of insight into the way civilisation can slip into barbarism. Its haunting themes of memory and passion stay with you long after you have finished reading. --Lisa Jardine
Reader Reviews:
Never Forget! (0/0 people found this helpful)
This, again, was a second reading and well worth it. Had I not read it directly after revisiting 'Birdsong', I would probably have rated it 5 stars. Birdsong, however, is one of the best novels I've ever read, and although CG is very good, it does pale a little by comparison. Charlotte Gray is the daughter of Colonel Gray, Stephen Wraysford's superior officer in Birdsong and this is the main connection between the two novels. Other reviewers here have already given very worthy comment on this novel, but I would like to add that the overwhelming feeling it left me with was that we must never forget what man did to fellow man - the fact that human beings are capable of such evil. I would thoroughly recommend this book - it's a harrowing, but gripping tale of wartime France and serves as a very real reminder.
A so-so tale of life, love and hardships in the second world war (0/0 people found this helpful)
Charlotte Gray, the eponymous heroine of Sebastian Faulks's novel about the second world war, is a young, beautiful and slightly naive Scottish girl, who travels to London to do her bit for the war effort. The opening chapters of the book see her meet two men who change the course of her life - Dick Cannerley, who finds her a job carrying out secret missions for the government, and Peter Gregory, an RAF airman with whom Charlotte falls in love. When Gregory goes missing after a routine flight to France, Charlotte feels she has no choice but to follow him. Falling in with members of the resistence in the small town of Lavaurette, Charlotte's life comes into sharp contact with the dark realities of life in occupied France.
I found Charlotte Gray an oddly disjointed novel in many ways. Scenes of action and adventure are intersposed with long, somewhat tedious descriptive passages. References to Proust sit uneasily alongside tales of wartime derring-do. An implausible, frankly irritating sub-plot about a childhood encounter with her father bubbles along in the background before reaching an all to easy resolution in the closing pages of the book. Overall, I found the novel to be unbalanced, skimming my way through endless paragraphs of tiresome text before slowing down to enjoy some rather fine story telling. The characterisation was patchy too. Some - Charlotte, Monsieur Levade, the little Duguay boys - were painted with great care and attention, taking vivid and realistic form as the story progressed. Others were sketched as mere outlines, fading to a dim memory almost before their part in the story had even passed. The final chapters, after Charlotte returns to England, tie up all the loose ends with surprising ease, refusing the reader the satisfaction that comes from a hard earned happy ending.
I gave this three stars because, to misquote the old adage, when it was good, it was very very good. But when it was bad it was - mediocre.
A good read, but... (2/3 people found this helpful)
You can only go so wrong with Sebastian Faulks, as his books are always beautifully written, touching, intense and melancholy.
However, this one was just a little too epic for me i.e. it could have done with being a little bit shorter and a little less convoluted.
Maybe to some extent it was the setting (World War 2, Occupied France) that didn't do it for me, but I didn't really lose myself in, or find it impossible to tear myself away from, this novel as I had with some of Faulks' other work.
If you've read his other work, by all means do read this too, but if you're looking for an introduction to Faulks, I'd go with `Birdsong' or `On Green Dolphin Street' first.
so realistic (2/2 people found this helpful)
I loved this book so much, I was completely hooked. Although the love story got in the way a bit the reality of the war was shocking. especially with Andre and Jacob...when I found out what happened to them I cried because they were young children. Reading this book makes you realise how real this really was and how awful it was. I didn't like birdsong but I really enjoyed this book.
Definite recommendation
the film was better (2/4 people found this helpful)
After watching and loving the film, i decided to give the book a try. I'm afraid that the book just didnt grip my attention and that the characters were unconvincing. I agree that the book is stretched out and 250 pages would have been max instead of 500. The film made Charlotte more understandable, whereas in the book Charlotte Gray's plot to save Peter Gregory becomes boring and irritating, unusual for me this book took a long time to read, however there are some very gripping scenes within it focusing on the Jewish camps which are realistic and heart-wrenching descriptions of the terror that went on.
If, like me you want to read the book because of the film, be prepared for major changes, the film changed everything including the ending which is why I think that I was shocked and slightly disappointed with the book.
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Categories
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Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Paperback