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Cousin Rosamund (1985)

by Rebecca West

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Cousin Rosamund Trilogy (3)

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2528104,925 (3.61)59
In the final installment of Rebecca West's Saga of the Century trilogy, family, marriage, and love alter the sisterly bonds that have seen them through poverty, war, and scandal   In the years after the war, Mary and Rose Aubrey have found success as accomplished pianists. In spite of their travels and material rewards, they remain apart from society. When their cherished cousin Rosamund surprises them by marrying a man they feel is beneath her, the sisters must reconsider what love means to them and how they can find a sense of spiritual wellbeing on their own, without the guidance of their family.   Filled with thoughtful observations on romantic and filial love, West's final chronicle of the Aubreys deftly draws readers into her endearing characters' most intimate story yet.… (more)
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Showing 5 of 5
Cousin Rosamund’ is the final, incomplete book of a series that was to tell the story of a century through the story of the lives of the Aubrey family and their circle.

The first book, The Fountain Overflows was published in 1956; the second book, This Real Night, was published in 1984, a year after the author’s death; and then this book was published, with notes suggesting what might have followed.

This book, reckoned to be two-thirds complete by Victoria Glendinning, who wrote the afterword, is less polished than the books came before, and it doesn’t stand up well as a book on its own, but I was drawn in by a wonderfully familiar narrative voice and I was intrigued by the way that the story evolved.

It has moved into a new milieu and a new age, and the covers of the Virago Modern Classics editions of these books reflect the way that this story of a century has developed and changed rather well.

Twin sisters Rose – who tells the story – and Mary have successful careers as concert pianists, but they are struggling to come to terms with the loss of their mother and of their much loved younger brother, Richard Quin.

They have the support of family friends.

Mr Morpugo, who had employed their father and had always been happier with their family than with his own, had helped them to let the family home and found them a lovely new home in St John’s Wood. They recognised that it was the right thing to do, but they vowed to make it as much like south London as they could. Bringing Kate, their much loved family retainer with them, helped a great deal.

Their much-loved cousin Rosamund had achieved her long-held ambition to become a nurse and is sharing a flat with her mother a few miles away. Rose and Mary were sorry not to have Rosamund with them, but they understood that she had to live close to her work, and they appreciated that she wanted to support her mother, who had not had the easiest life.

The Dog and Duck, on the banks of the river Thames, run by old family friends, continued to be a refuge. It showed them a world utterly different from the artistic and domestic worlds they knew, and they had always loved it.

They weren’t just coping with grief; they were coping with their careers not being what they hoped they would be. They loved the playing, they loved the luxuries that success brought them, but they hated the vulgar, social world that they had to move through and they were bitterly disappointed that so few of the people that they met had a real love and understanding of music

The love of their oldest friends sustained Rose and Mary, but they seemed unable to move forward from that, and to form new, adult relationships.

This book follows their painful journey towards emotional and artistic maturity.

They lose their cousin Rosamund, who makes an inexplicable marriage to a man they consider quite beyond the pale, and abandons her career and her mother to travel abroad with him.

They are to some degree reconciled with their elder sister Cordelia, who, after being forced to face the fact that she lacked the emotional understanding of music needed to make it a career, had found happiness as the wife of a successful man.

Many of the things that Rebecca West did so well in the books that came before this one are present again. Her prose is rich and vivid, full of sentences and expressions to treasure. She presents extended scenes and long conversations so very well. Her understanding of her characters emotions and situations is so very good, and I couldn’t doubt for a moment that she was writing about a world and about people that were utterly real and alive for her.

There are weaknesses though. Rosamund’s marriage was as inexplicable to me as it was to Rose and Mary. The return of Miss Beaver, Cordelia’s old music teacher, seemed driven by a wish for all of the past cast to make a reappearance rather than because the story needed her. Though there seemed to be no concern for Rosamund’s mother after her daughter’s departure.

And – though I’m not sure if this is a weakness or just a difference – Claire – the girls’ mother – and Richard Quin brought a warmth that I missed in this book. Of course this book had to be different, it explores bereavement and grief, but it is not as easy to love as the books that came before.

In the end – after a crisis – Rose choses to move forward and allows herself to love, while Mary choses to retreat from the world. That made wonderful sense after the time I have spent with them, and thinking about how they were alike and how they were different

Rose’s story was so beautifully executed, and I wished I could have followed it for a little longer.

‘He came towards me and I became rigid with disgust, it seemed certain that I must die when he touched me, but instead, of course, I lived.’

Mary’s story was much less complete, but it was easy to see where it was going.

The book as a whole needs editing, but just for a little more clarity; the quality of the writing is still there and it is only when it ends that the story feels incomplete.

The afterword includes the author’s notes about the previous volumes, and I loved the insight into the authors themes, ideas and plans that they gave me. It also contains note for a fourth volume that she would never write. Her plan was ambitious, I’m not convinced that she would have pulled them off, but I do wish that she had written that book.

There have been diminishing returns with this series of books, but the staring point was high and the downward slope has been gentle.

I have loved following the story of the Aubrey family, and I will miss them now I have reached the end. ( )
  BeyondEdenRock | Aug 23, 2017 |
The inter-war years
By sally tarbox TOP 500 REVIEWER on 11 Oct. 2012
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Third in West's 'Cousin Rosamund' series, for me this novel didn't quite reach the heights of the previous two. It was published posthumously and is unfinished. Nonetheless it takes us to a satisfactory closing point in the life of narrator Rose.
With the absence of the pivotal characters of the previous two works, the book echoes the emptiness of Rose's life. She and Mary are now world renowned concert pianists, attending parties, mixing with millionaires and bright young things, yet their magical childhood seems to hold them back from making any new friends:
'I hate all people except Mary who is more or less me, and the people here...I am so lonely! I am only happy here.'
It is in the world of the 'Dog and Duck' public house with Uncle Len and family that Rose finds calm. The beautiful writing brings these scenes vividly to life:
'The grass was furred with moonlight and on it each object drew a picture of itself in soft and sooty shadow, but the ground was hard as steel under our feet, and the air was minerally hard with intense cold.'
West retains her occasional flashes of humour such as in Nancy's earnest young husband Oswald, a scientist:
' "All that", she said, "just for asking how the world began".
"For mercy's sake, Lil", exclaimed Uncle Len, "Is that what started him off? You ought to have a better headpiece on you. That's not a question that would bring a short answer out of Os."..."Has he finished?"
"No Milly took over listening when I left."
You definitely have to read this if you've read the two prequels. The afterword in this novel gives an outline of West's planned 'plotline' for a fourth in the series which was sadly never undertaken. ( )
  starbox | Jul 9, 2016 |
Not really about Cousin Rosamund so much as her absence (we never do learn why she marries an apparently horrible little man.) This unfinished novel takes Rose and Mary's lives further, and it's lovely to meet old friends like Mr Morpurgo and Aunt Lily, and visit the Dog and Duck again. The farcical goings-on at Barbados Hall are both awful and funny. One of the best things about this trilogy (The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night) is the period detail, from one who was there. How else could we know that in Victorian and Edwardian days women's sleeves were made in long strips to fit and flatter the individual arm, but 1920s clothes, far from giving the modern freedom we imagine, were "the most hideous uniform they have ever worn", uncomfortable to wear, with unflattering necklines and sagging hems.
  PollyMoore3 | May 9, 2015 |
not quite as good as the other 2. the title is a peculiar one as she's not in it much and is missed. i missed the mother and brother too. ( )
  mahallett | Apr 4, 2015 |
When Rebecca West wrote The Fountain Overflows, she indicated that it was the first part of a family saga, intended to be told in four parts. The first novel was the only one to be completed and published. She did, however, write more material, and revised a good portion of it, almost enough to fill the projected next two novels in the series. This book is the third, with roughly two thirds of the material revised and the last third still in an unfinished stage (although not sloppy, apparently West revised as she wrote, but always went through a final polishing before considering it revised). The story also stops short before its projected conclusion, but fortunately the ending, as is, feels appropriate.

That is a rather complicated introduction, but the history of the books is unusual, and a review that doesn't take into consideration the nature of its composition is doing the author a disservice.

The reason I was drawn to keep reading this fascinating story was that the characters are amazing and the writing is lyrical and engrossing. We start with the Aubrey family when Rose, the narrator, is just a child, and they are still going through the alternately wonderful and harrowing turbulence of life with their father. In this book, Rose is an adult, just entering middle age. She has become the famous pianist that she always knew she would be - but with that child's naive optimism which made me wonder, in the first book, if her success was as assured as she thought - and she is trying to live her adult life in cherishing those relationships she made in childhood but not forming any new ones. She feels that they are the only people she can really love. While I missed the child's perspective from the first novel, I still like Rose and her commentaries are fresh and feel real. I enjoyed reading about so many of the secondary characters that we met in the first novel and who reappear in these pages, and was saddened by the few characters who had died and were no longer present. As I wrote earlier, the characters in this series are what draw me in to the lovingly crafted world that West presents, and they are complex and fascinating, whether they people mundane spheres or more exotic ones.

Our primary character, though, is still Rose, who has tried to maintain in her life a perpetual childhood, not believing that anything can compare to the magical days of her youth. In this book, two events shake her world so drastically that she is forced to move into the world of adulthood once and for all. The first is the tragic mismatch marriage of her best friend, Rosamund. This event leaves Rose and her sister in a tailspin of confusion and despair, and it isn't until she falls in love with Oscar that she is able to come to terms with the absolute mystery surrounding Rosamund's choice. Oscar, of course, is the other significant event to change her life. He is the first person she has loved since childhood, and the first person that she loves in a romantic, sexual way. The change that this causes in her life is so dramatic that she almost capsizes emotionally; however, she is able to accept her new feelings and move into a new stage of maturation. I was happy that Rose could find a new source of happiness, after the light that Rosamund brought to her life was extinguished.

The writing continues to be vivid, detailed, and poetic. West crafts the historic place and time of Rose's England with grace and verisimilitude, and reading her writing is a treat. The themes of the first book continue on: good and evil vying against each other, the power of art, and also its limitations. I'm sorry that West never finished her imagined series, because I have enjoyed every bit that I've read. At least we have a synopsis of the final volume in the afterword that comes with this book. I am definitely interested in checking out other novels she has published, based on this Aubrey family saga. ( )
1 vote nmhale | Oct 20, 2010 |
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Rebecca Westprimary authorall editionscalculated
Glendinning, VictoriaAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Nothing was ever so interesting again after Mamma and Richard Quin died.
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In the final installment of Rebecca West's Saga of the Century trilogy, family, marriage, and love alter the sisterly bonds that have seen them through poverty, war, and scandal   In the years after the war, Mary and Rose Aubrey have found success as accomplished pianists. In spite of their travels and material rewards, they remain apart from society. When their cherished cousin Rosamund surprises them by marrying a man they feel is beneath her, the sisters must reconsider what love means to them and how they can find a sense of spiritual wellbeing on their own, without the guidance of their family.   Filled with thoughtful observations on romantic and filial love, West's final chronicle of the Aubreys deftly draws readers into her endearing characters' most intimate story yet.

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Their childhood and adolescence were overshadowed by the Great War. Now, in its lonely aftermath, Rose and Mary Aubrey find themselves deprived of the guiding strength of their cousin Rosamund when she marries a man of dubious morals and intolerable vulgarity. Retreating to an inn on the Thames, they find a haven of security with old friends.

Into this fragile Eden a new, disruptive force is introduced: Rose discovers the power of love, and, confronting her own sexuality, learns to delight in it. With extraordinary fierceness and candor, Rebecca West has written a portrait of sexual awakening, one that allows her characters an uncanny glimpse of our own age.
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