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Loading... The Flight of Gemma Hardy: A Novel (P.S.) (original 2012; edition 2012)by Margot Livesey
Work detailsThe Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey (2012)
None. I enjoyed reading this book, which was a homage to Jane Eyre, set in 1950s Scotland and Iceland. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon, and the Icelandic parts were interesting because I know so little about that country. (  ) mhanderson | Jun 16, 2013 |  I was so excited to read this book because it is a somewhat modern (set in the 1960s) retelling of Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre is my favorite romance and one of my favorite books. The Flight of Gemma Hardy is well-written and enjoyable. I read it straight through. However, the dark Gothic elements that I so love about Jane Eyre, the intense, barely restrained love affair between Jane and Mr. Rochester, and the frightening events surrounding the mad-woman in the tower are either not present in this novel or are diminished in favor of its modern retelling in 1960s Scotland. I also did not love Gemma the way that I loved Jane. Gemma, although very strong-willed like Jane, is less forgiving and humble. Her will sometimes comes across as selfish rather than self-preserving. On the other hand, the childhood of Gemma was well-created, the settings of Scotland and Iceland were fitting and carefully, lovingly drawn, and the story was, if taken on its own merit, well-told. The problem I had was that I absolutely love Jane Eyre and expected to enjoy this retelling nearly as much. I liked it, but I did not love it. If anything, it made me long to go back and read Jane Eyre again. Favorite words: sporran martinet punnets chivvy Favorite quote: “Defiance was appealing, but it did not warm my cold room, it did not clothe me, it did not fill the long hours after school and chores” (p. 27). Favorite character description: (Mr. Milne)”…with his large head of grey hair and his round belly, he resembled nothing so much as a garden gnome” (p. 50). Latin phrase: modus vivendi: way of life or way of living (  ) TheLoopyLibrarian | Jun 5, 2013 | I loved this book! First of all the setting was either in Scotland or Iceland. Secondly, it was very well-written, and a nice twisting of details of Jane Eyre to make it thoroughly interesting. I would read this book again, and I rarely read books twice. (  ) espref | Apr 16, 2013 | Growing up an orphan in Scotland in the 1960s, Gemma Hardy is sent by her aunt to a rotten school, where this bright orphan holds her own until she gets a job as a governess for a young charge. If you think that sounds awfully like Jane Eyre, you would be right - the author makes no bones about her literary debt, but modernizes and explores the tale in an interesting way. Even better, The Flight of Gemma Hardy stands well on its own as a good story, even if a reader is unfamiliar with the original classic. Gemma is determined and smart and holds her own, so I generally rooted for her even when I did not like her or some of her decisions. She's also self-absorbed and hypocritical, you see, expecting a lot more from others than she expects from herself. And because we're getting her first-person account of her life, we're seeing everyone else's actions through her biases. Though I don't like Gemma Hardy as much as its literary parent, there is enough meat to the story - themes of friendship and connection, for example, and the symbolism of islands and birds - to make readers have plenty to think and talk about after the last page is turned. ( )1  bell7 | Apr 16, 2013 | A true testament to the strength of the human spirit, Gemma survives multiple disastrous events in her life. A bit of a modern day Jane Eyre overtone. ( ) lindap69 | Apr 5, 2013 |
 But like a production of “Twelfth Night” where all the characters are played as cowboys or Prohibition-era gangsters, “Gemma Hardy” left me wondering why “Jane Eyre” needs to be resettled in the late 1950s. Livesey makes little of the contrast between the two tales or even the contrast between the two eras. Indeed, Gemma’s life in these small, remote towns seems so much closer to the early 19th century than the mid-20th that I was always startled when an automobile intruded on the scene. ....When an author dons the mantle of a classic, it’s not unreasonable to expect her to reanimate it in some significant way. There’s nothing jarring or silly about this homage (for that, see Sherri Browning Erwin’s “Jane Slayre” with a werewolf bride in the attic), but for all of Livesey’s intelligent and graceful storytelling, she keeps Gemma Hardy’s flight too close to the ground.  "This original slant on a classic story line captures the reader's interest and sustains it to the end. Fans of modern interpretations of the classics will particularly enjoy." . “The Flight of Gemma Hardy,” Livesey’s appealing new novel, is, as she has explained, a kind of continued conversation, a “recasting” of both “Jane Eyre” and Livesey’s own childhood. Set mostly in Scotland in the late 1950s and ’60s, the narrative follows the fortunes of a young girl, Gemma Hardy, who is beset by bad luck. ...Livesey is a lovely, fluid writer. There’s much pleasure to be had in her descriptions of neolithic sites in Orkney and, most of all, her abiding affinity for the natural world: “the limpet’s frill of muscle” found while the young Gemma pulls shells off the rocks in a windswept cove, the “gleaming scar” on a beech tree that has lost the branch where a rope swing once hung, the experience of “retrieving two warm eggs from a drowsy red hen.” It isn’t, however, until the final third of the novel, when Gemma, risking her own life, is forced to leave what she loves and act independently, that “The Flight of Gemma Hardy” becomes its most satisfying self.  How do you recast a classic? Follow Margot Livesey's lead in The Flight of Gemma Hardy, a riveting retelling of Jane Eyre that puts the familiar feminist heroine in the pre-feminist world of early 1960s Scotland. The result is distinct and even daring — and far from derivative. It's a tricky prospect, paying (nearly) modern homage to a piece of literature that was done so right the first time, but from the first few pages, Flight soars on its own writerly wings. Was inspired by
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0062064223, Hardcover)When her widower father drowns at sea, Gemma Hardy is taken from her native Iceland to Scotland to live with her kind uncle and his family. But the death of her doting guardian leaves Gemma under the care of her resentful aunt, and it soon becomes clear that she is nothing more than an unwelcome guest at Yew House. When she receives a scholarship to a private school, ten-year-old Gemma believes she's found the perfect solution and eagerly sets out again to a new home. However, at Claypoole she finds herself treated as an unpaid servant. To Gemma's delight, the school goes bankrupt, and she takes a job as an au pair on the Orkney Islands. The remote Blackbird Hall belongs to Mr. Sinclair, a London businessman; his eight-year-old niece is Gemma's charge. Even before their first meeting, Gemma is, like everyone on the island, intrigued by Mr. Sinclair. Rich (by Gemma's standards), single, flying in from London when he pleases, Hugh Sinclair fills the house with life. An unlikely couple, the two are drawn to each other, but Gemma's biggest trial is about to begin: a journey of passion and betrayal, redemption and discovery, that will lead her to a life of which she's never dreamed. Set in Scotland and Iceland in the 1950s and '60s, The Flight of Gemma Hardy—a captivating homage to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre—is a sweeping saga that resurrects the timeless themes of the original but is destined to become a classic all its own. (retrieved from Amazon Thu, 03 Jan 2013 21:58:45 -0500) Scotland, early 1960s. A young Scottish orphan sets out on a journey to escape her oppressive upbringing, and finds independence--and love--on her own terms. Inspired by the story Jane Eyre. (summary from another edition) |
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