"The American Heiress" Book Review by J. R.

The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin

Book Club Meeting on June 27, 2012

The basic story is of an immensely wealthy American young lady who marries an English duke, and the trials of fitting in with the British aristocracy. The 18-year-old Cora Cash is the wealthiest heiress in the U.S., and her social climbing mother wants to parlay that wealth into a title for her only child.

Cora is secretly infatuated with a childhood friend, Teddy, who is from old money. His mother considers Cora Cash unsuitable for her family, but Cora pleads with Teddy to run away with her. Teddy lets his fear rule the moment, and he declines. So off goes Cora to England, where her mother has paid for them to be introduced into British high society.

Quite by accident, Cora meets Ivo Maltravers, an eligible duke. Within a week the duke proposes for her vast fortune, which he needs to prop up his crumbling and bankrupt estate. Cora finds that her status as a duchess does not automatically translate into social acceptance from her husband's circle.

Ivo's former lover Charlotte feigns friendship, only to set a trap for Cora.  We felt that Ivo should have understood the risk, yet he didn't stop his new wife or protect her from Charlotte's plotting. Throughout the book, we are never sure whether their affair is over or not.

Cora's maid Bertha is a sub story of a biracial servant who finds she is accepted much more in Britain than she ever was in America. But this story line fizzled out and never really drew us in to Bertha's mind and her world. We found some scenes with the maid to be unbelievable, particularly the idea that Cora would ask her for a kissing lesson.

Other characters and story lines appear and then are dropped, for example, when Cora's mother is badly burned. This would seem to be a major event, but it doesn't affect Mrs. Cash in the least, other than she orders hats with a side veil to hide the burned area. In general, we all agreed that we didn't find the characters compelling and felt we didn't get to know any of them well.

After a year of marriage, and while entertaining the Prince of Wales, Charlotte's husband makes a scene by loudly accusing Charlotte and Ivo of having an affair. The next morning, all the houseguests behave as if nothing happened, and continue on with their planned bicycle outing and picnic. But Cora decides to leave Ivo and run off with Teddy, who just happens to be visiting.

When Ivo is tipped off, he rushes to stop Cora, and takes her to a cliff overlooking the sea to deny the affair and make a heartfelt confession of his love for her. The author has stated that she was of two minds while writing this chapter. Should Cora leave with Teddy, or stay and make a life with Ivo?

Our group found the duke's explanations to be self serving and probably untrue. We devised our own alternate ending for Cora: that Ivo should lose his balance and fall off the cliff to his death (perhaps by accident or perhaps with a gentle shove from Cora.) This would leave Cora as duchess with a huge estate, social status, all her money, and the freedom to marry Teddy.

"American Heiress" - discussion questions

 1. Is the described world of Newport RI, authentic to you?

 

2. What is your initial impression of Cora Cash? How does she develop as a person in the course of the novel?

 

3.  In America, Cora is clearly at the top of society, while Bertha is very near the bottom. In what ways do their circumstances change when they move to England?

 

4.  What role do the mothers in the story --- Mrs. Cash, Mrs. Van Der Leyden, and the Double Duchess --- play in the central characters’ lives?

 

5. . Cora is always aware that “no one was unaffected by the money.” How does the money affect Cora herself? What are the pleasures and perils of great wealth?

 

6. Compare the relationship between Cora and Teddy (her hometown boyfriend/friend) with her relationship with Ivo (the duke).  

 

7. What is your opinion about Charlotte? Is she a big player in Cora’s life?

 

8. What do you think about Cora’s decision at the end of the book? Would you have made the same choice? (The author has said she was of two minds up until the last chapter.)

 

9. What are the differences between the Old World and the New in the novel? Do both worlds seem remote in the 21st century, or do you see parallels to contemporary society.

“Night and Day” book review by Dorota Ponikiewska

“Night and Day” is the longest novel by Virginia Wolf.  It is dedicated to her sister, Vanessa Bell.  Some historical sources are pointing out that the main character of this book, Katharine Hillbery, is created based on Vanessa and her family home at Hyde Park Gate.

Katharine is the daughter of upper-middle-class in London.  She is introduced to us as a 28 year old unmarried lady who is assisting her mother in writing a biography of her grandfather who was a recognized poet.  But she does not enjoy poetry or imaginary creativity and  in her future she would rather see mathematical computation or astronomy. 

"When she was rid of the pretense of paper and pen, phrase-making and biography, she turned her attention in a more legitimate direction, though, strangely enough, she would rather have confessed her wildest dreams of hurricane and prairie than the fact that, upstairs, alone in her room, she rose early in the morning or sat up late at night to…work at mathematics."

Not a very womanly prospect for a young lady at that era.  Fortunately, from the society point of view, she is engaged to William Rodney, a poet-to-be, with a good job at the Board of Education.  He is very traditional, but ridiculous and sometimes full of himself. And he seems to be very insecure. Katharine doesn't love him, and there are moments that she is being intolerable and unkind towards him.

Consequently, into this blend comes Katharine's cousin Cassandra, whose sweet talk and plain personality attract Rodney.  So they become engaged after Katharine and William acknowledge their mismatch.

And there is another man, Ralph Denham, a middle class legal clerk who is trying to make something of himself and who is taking care of his large family.  Ralph falls in love with Katharine and after their first meeting he begins to day dream about her, creates illusion of her and practically stalks her.  When he proposes to Katharine, she accepts it, but dose she wants to get married?  She is willing to live with him without the wedding bells, just because she didn't think it should be necessary for women to be wedded.

There is another female character in this book, Mary Datchet - a hard working woman who lives on her own. And she loves her close friend Ralph Denham, but almost in one moment she realizes that Ralph does not love her.  Even after he proposed, Mary knows that he did it because he thinks she would like for him to do so.

“Night and Day” is a very attractive edwardian romance, where reality and cynicism mix with great, but long, character descriptions.  I would say, that the first 16 chapter are demanding and sometimes, boring.  But the rest – is great.

In this book the reader will find numerous delightfully moments and emotions described as only Virginia Woolf could do it.

I recommend it very much