A Company of Swans

Harriet Morton, raised by a strict father and parsimonious aunt, has only one joy left: her weekly dancing lessons. When a friend of her ballet instructor offers her a place in a touring troupe, Harriet longs to accept, but of course, her family absolutely forbids it. When Harriet runs away, she is transported into the world of dance, set against the lush backdrop of South America. While performing at the Manaus Opera House, she meets Rom Verney, an English expatriate and patron of the arts, and is drawn to him immediately. The two are overwhelmed with love for each other, but Harriet always knows that it will end -- after all, that's what happens to ballet dancers with wealthy lovers...

This is an old comfort read for me. I really enjoy show more the characters Ibbotson writes, and the scenarios she puts them in (there's a certain cake scene that's not to be missed). This book does make use of the "if they would only talk to each other" trope, but it does it in a self-deprecating way, with the characters acknowledging that it's a thing. This isn't my favorite of Ibbotson's romances, but it's still a highly enjoyable read. show less

This may be one of the most awesomely insane things I've ever read: A beautifully threaded complex plot, pretty much all the tropes stirred in liberally and craftily bent to new purposes. Believable characters, from major to minor, fabulously crafted detail, and the best upending of upper class academic puritanism I've seen in ages.

Seriously: Ibbotson has no truck with shaming people for happiness, and it's utterly enthralling throughout.

This book follows the usual Ibbotson formula for Cinderella-style romances but this time much of it takes place in Manaus on the Amazon, rather than in Britain or Vienna. Manaus, Brazil and its famed opera house will be familiar to readers of The State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, but Ibbotson’s Amazon is a paradise rather than a dark and threatening milieu as in Patchett.

It is 1912 and Harriet Morton, 18, whose mother died when she was two, lives in Cambridge, England with her much older, narrow-minded, and unloving father, as well as his sister, her Aunt Louisa, who resents Harriet and treats her poorly. Her only joy is taking ballet at the Sonia Lavarre Academy of Dance. One day one of Madame’s old friends arrives, a Monsieur show more Dubrov, looking for outstanding pupils to join his corps de ballet soon traveling to Manaus to perform. He is intrigued by Harriet, and invites her, but Harriet knows she will not be allowed to go. By chance, however, she befriends a little boy, Henry, who is obsessed with the Amazon, and desperately wants Harriet to go there and help find his uncle, rumored to be there. Harriet, like any Ibbotson heroine, could never deny the requests of a little child.

Harriet claims to be going to stay with a school chum, and joins the Dubrov Ballet Company. The opening night in Manaus, she catches the eye of Rom Verney, the chairman of the Opera House trustees, and coincidentally the very man she promised Henry she would find. Rom is rich and charming, but isn’t he rumored to be in love with someone else?

Discussion: The scaffolding of every adult book by Eva Ibbotson is the same:

1. a lovely fresh and innocent young girl instantly beloved by all who meet her
2. encounters an older, wealthy, unmarried man (with inner pain but good at heart) who becomes convinced she is what he needs
3. but there is at least one terrible misunderstanding that pulls them apart
4. until the very end when suddenly the clouds of misunderstanding break and love conquers all

On top of this underlying and pretty much unerring plan, the distinctive elements of each book change and tend to reflect the author’s passions: opera, ballet, classical literature, and so on.

Does that mean the books are too predictable to read more than one? Absolutely not. That is, absolutely they are predictable but each one of them is still a joy.

In this book, I loved the exotic setting of Manaus with its riotous color and picturesque foreign landscape, and the details of the rigors of ballet training that are so lovingly depicted. And as is very much the usual case with Ibbotson, the side characters are memorably and delightfully drawn, from young Henry, whom Harriet befriends, to the imperious but so understandable Simonova, the aging star of the ballet company. And the romance in this book is more fully explored than in the others by Ibbotson, and so enchantingly!

Though set in 1912, there isn’t much to the historical fiction aspects of this book, unlike Ibbotson’s others. But again, no complaints – the story is pleasurable regardless.

Evaluation: This book follows the usual Ibbotson formula for romance, which means it is a bit of a Cinderella story. But I hope no one holds predictability against it. Like Ibbotson’s other books, it is engaging and endearing, and the character portrayals, especially those of the minor characters, are especially well-done. show less

This is a historical romance by Austrian-born, English author Eva Ibbotson, set in England and Brazil in the 1910s.

Harriet Morton is the daughter of a rather stuffy Cambridge professor, promised in marriage to an even more stuffy academic Edward Finch-Dutton who specialises in the study of fleas. Harriet takes up an opportunity to escape her father’s restrictive plans for her and joins a ballet company performing in Brazil in 1912. Here she meets the handsome and wealthy colonialist Rom and has a series of adventures, including reluctantly agreeing to dance her way out of a cake.

I found this a light-hearted adventure with a fairy-tale feel to it and a gentle humour. Unfortunately, I only realised after finishing that I had listened show more to the abridged audio-version, so I don’t feel entirely able to discuss plot flaws that others have raised. Sadly, nor do I feel inclined to go back and read the full version. It seemed a pleasant enough tale to me. show less

I completely adore this book. It is one of my comfort books. If I've had a bad week, or I'm sick, I'll pull out my worn copy of A Company of Swans and just nestle into it. I love all of the characters, even when they are at their most infuriating. I love to just enjoy this book, with all of its twists and turns, its interweaving themes and plots, and its obviously happy ending. I'm a sucker for a happy ending and Eva Ibbotson is a goddess of happy endings. It is almost like a fairy tale, which I am much contented with.

A Comapany of Swans tells the story of Harriet Morton, an eighteen-
year-old girl living with her Academic father Professor Morton and overly-frugal Aunt Louisa in a cold, dark house in 1912. Her only escape from this dreary life is her ballet class. One day, the Russian director of a ballet company comes looking for dancers to join the corps. She is refused permission to join the company on a tour to Manaus by her father, but after a visit to Stavely, a stately home in Suffolk, she decides to run away and join the company. Once in the Amazon, she meets a charming Englishman, Rom Verney, whom she discovers ran away from Stavely after his finacee left him for his elder brother. She falls in love with him, and, after many set-backs, they show more eventually find happiness together.

I realy enjoyed this book; Mrs. Ibbotson's writing style is witty and intelligent. Her main characters are always likeable, without being annoyingly 'good', and this is no exception. The way Rom and Harriet are re-united is brilliant (and rather unexpected).
I definitely recommend this one, and all Eva Ibbotsons books! show less

This was the first Eva Ibbotson book I read, a fact that contributed to its five-star rating (she did tend to use similar structures in her romance stories, which means that subsequent books could seem a bit formulaic). I found it delightful and charming and fairytale-like; I also believe it was an insightful evocation of a bygone era. I also loved the exotic setting: not just the Amazon; but also the world of ballet and of Cambridge; and also the surprising quirky elements in the story (how many romances feature a manatee? and I loved how Harriet communicated with the Amazonian natives in Latin - nerdy and weirdly believable).