The House at Riverton
by Kate Morton
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Description
Grace Bradley went to work at Riverton House as a servant when she was just a girl, before the First World War. For years her life was inextricably tied up with the Hartford family, most particularly the two daughters, Hannah and Emmeline. In the summer of 1924, at a glittering society party held at the house, a young poet shot himself. The only witnesses were Hannah and Emmeline and only they--and Grace--know the truth. In 1999, when Grace is ninety-eight years old and living out her last show more days in a nursing home, she is visited by a young director who is making a film about the events of that summer. She takes Grace back to Riverton House and reawakens her memories--From publisher description. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
kitzyl There is a passage in The Shifting Fog which describes the relationship between Hannah and Emmeline as a "string that bends, it will eventually snap and the points will separate; if elastic, they will continue to part, further and further, until the strain reaches its limits and they are pulled back with such speed that they cannot help but collide with devastating force." In The Dark-Adapted Eye, the sisters are Vera and Eden whose inexplicably interdependent-but-destructive relationship embody the aforementioned elastic string. The story is told from the perspective of their niece who accompanies the reader on the events leading up to the devastation.
Member Reviews
Belle déception pour ma part. Je pense que tout simplement les romans de Kate Morton ne sont pas pour moi. Je n'adhère pas au rythme qui se veut lent et indolent où l'on mêle l'alternance des époques sans que cela n'apporte quelque chose au récit.
Les personnages me sont apparus sans relief ni grande structure et j'ai eu beaucoup de mal à trouver une quelconque empathie à leur histoire.
Le mystère principal s'étire jusqu'à la dernière ligne et m'a laissé un sentiment de "tout ça pour ça".
C'est bien dommage que les thèmes qui auraient pu être abordés : la rivalité entre soeurs, le féminisme, l'époque révolue de ces domestiques prêts à se vouer corps et âmes à leurs maîtres n'ont pas été plus exploités.
Je show more n'ai pas retrouvé l'atmosphère brumeuse de ce manoir anglais, ni pris part aux mystères qu'il promettait et je suis passée à côté du destin des différents personnages.
J'ai ressenti beaucoup de froideur dans la plume, de distance avec les personnages et l'univers et je suis ressortie frustrée de ne pas avoir plus aimé ce récit qui pourtant sur le papier avait tout pour me plaire. show less
Les personnages me sont apparus sans relief ni grande structure et j'ai eu beaucoup de mal à trouver une quelconque empathie à leur histoire.
Le mystère principal s'étire jusqu'à la dernière ligne et m'a laissé un sentiment de "tout ça pour ça".
C'est bien dommage que les thèmes qui auraient pu être abordés : la rivalité entre soeurs, le féminisme, l'époque révolue de ces domestiques prêts à se vouer corps et âmes à leurs maîtres n'ont pas été plus exploités.
Je show more n'ai pas retrouvé l'atmosphère brumeuse de ce manoir anglais, ni pris part aux mystères qu'il promettait et je suis passée à côté du destin des différents personnages.
J'ai ressenti beaucoup de froideur dans la plume, de distance avec les personnages et l'univers et je suis ressortie frustrée de ne pas avoir plus aimé ce récit qui pourtant sur le papier avait tout pour me plaire. show less
This is a perfect, engaging summer read. The plot could be said to be predictable, and derivative of greater works like Rebecca or The Blind Assassin (acknowledged by Morton in her afterword), and you can guess one of the secrets very early on (long before Grace does!). But Morton cleverly interleaves the story with Grace at the age of 99, recounting her memories into a dictaphone for her grandson, and she doesn't always relate events in sequence, so although you know "what happens" early on, you don't know exactly why or how until the end.
Some people seem to find it slow and the minor characters stereotyped, but I didn't find this a problem. I enjoyed losing myself in the book, and the cliches about country house life in the early 20th show more century (butler ironing the Times etc.) were a bit of fun. And if they are cliches, maybe it's because they are true?)
The early chapters also have a purpose though, letting us get to know the characters who, as in all good tragedies, carry the seeds of their own destruction. For example Hannah's love of secrets and games is ultimately her undoing and provides at least some explanation for otherwise implausible behaviour. I also liked the way an apparently minor detail early on turns out to be of vital importance at the end.
I'm sure Morton, from her Australian perspective, gets some period detail and dialogue wrong, but her excellent story-telling skills and likeable characters make up for it, and I was sorry to reach the end. show less
Some people seem to find it slow and the minor characters stereotyped, but I didn't find this a problem. I enjoyed losing myself in the book, and the cliches about country house life in the early 20th show more century (butler ironing the Times etc.) were a bit of fun. And if they are cliches, maybe it's because they are true?)
The early chapters also have a purpose though, letting us get to know the characters who, as in all good tragedies, carry the seeds of their own destruction. For example Hannah's love of secrets and games is ultimately her undoing and provides at least some explanation for otherwise implausible behaviour. I also liked the way an apparently minor detail early on turns out to be of vital importance at the end.
I'm sure Morton, from her Australian perspective, gets some period detail and dialogue wrong, but her excellent story-telling skills and likeable characters make up for it, and I was sorry to reach the end. show less
This is Kate Morton's first book. While I enjoyed it, the quality of her writing has improved...this one dragged a bit, and it was easy to figure out one of the big secrets.
This story shows how the past can haunt you if you have kept secrets or left unresolved issues. It shows the limited choices women had in Edwardian times. It showed the concepts of "service" and "duty" in a class-based society. Not my favourite book, but worth reading.
This story shows how the past can haunt you if you have kept secrets or left unresolved issues. It shows the limited choices women had in Edwardian times. It showed the concepts of "service" and "duty" in a class-based society. Not my favourite book, but worth reading.
Morton’s novels are always fun reads for me and this one didn’t disappoint. With shades of du Maurier’s Rebecca and the BBC’s Downton Abbey, the book was a wonderful mystery.
We meet Grace at the end of her life. She is living out her days at a retirement home when she finds out a movie is being made about a dramatic event that happened in her youth. As a teenager Grace worked as a house maid at a large manor, Riverton, in the English countryside. A young poet committed suicide at the home one night and the mystery surrounding the evening has always left people wanting to know more. Grace decides it might be time to finally reveal the truth of what happened.
Like all of Morton’s novels, this one has themes of mother/daughter show more relationships, long-kept secrets and the English countryside. Grace’s mother used to work at Riverton and we slowly learn bits of her history as well.
After a few years at Riverton Grace becomes a lady’s maid for the Hartford sisters, Hannah and Emmeline. Their close relationship allows Grace to give us a wide-view of the happenings in the house. As the years pass and relationships become more complicated the story reminds us that one man’s happiness is another man’s prison.
I thought the relationship between Hannah and Emmeline was one of the most fascinating elements of the story. The relationship between sisters is like no other. It tends to be fraught with both love and jealousy, creating a strange and precarious balance. Morton captured this perfectly, allowing us to understand and sympathize with both sisters throughout the novel.
BOTTOM LINE: I really enjoyed it. The Forgotten Garden is my favorite of her’s so far, but I have a theory that your first Morton is always your favorite. This one was the perfect book to give me a Downton Abbey fix until I can watch the third season.
“Reading is one of life’s great pleasures; talking about books keeps their worlds alive for longer.”
“‘No. Not a mystery. Just a nice safe history.’ Ah my darling. But there is no such thing.”
“…for home is a magnet that lures back even its most abstracted children.”
“It is an uncanny feeling, that rare occasion when one catches a glimpse of oneself in repose. An unguarded moment, stripped of artifice, when one forgets to fool even oneself.” show less
We meet Grace at the end of her life. She is living out her days at a retirement home when she finds out a movie is being made about a dramatic event that happened in her youth. As a teenager Grace worked as a house maid at a large manor, Riverton, in the English countryside. A young poet committed suicide at the home one night and the mystery surrounding the evening has always left people wanting to know more. Grace decides it might be time to finally reveal the truth of what happened.
Like all of Morton’s novels, this one has themes of mother/daughter show more relationships, long-kept secrets and the English countryside. Grace’s mother used to work at Riverton and we slowly learn bits of her history as well.
After a few years at Riverton Grace becomes a lady’s maid for the Hartford sisters, Hannah and Emmeline. Their close relationship allows Grace to give us a wide-view of the happenings in the house. As the years pass and relationships become more complicated the story reminds us that one man’s happiness is another man’s prison.
I thought the relationship between Hannah and Emmeline was one of the most fascinating elements of the story. The relationship between sisters is like no other. It tends to be fraught with both love and jealousy, creating a strange and precarious balance. Morton captured this perfectly, allowing us to understand and sympathize with both sisters throughout the novel.
BOTTOM LINE: I really enjoyed it. The Forgotten Garden is my favorite of her’s so far, but I have a theory that your first Morton is always your favorite. This one was the perfect book to give me a Downton Abbey fix until I can watch the third season.
“Reading is one of life’s great pleasures; talking about books keeps their worlds alive for longer.”
“‘No. Not a mystery. Just a nice safe history.’ Ah my darling. But there is no such thing.”
“…for home is a magnet that lures back even its most abstracted children.”
“It is an uncanny feeling, that rare occasion when one catches a glimpse of oneself in repose. An unguarded moment, stripped of artifice, when one forgets to fool even oneself.” show less
98 year old Grace Bradley looks back at her life as a maid at The House at Riverton. From the start we know that there was a tragedy during a house party in 1924 but we go further back to the day when Grace first went into service in 1914. Her relationship with the household, mainly with the eldest daughter Hannah Hartford, is at the core of the story from the past. At the same time we see Grace in 1999 as a film is being made of those events in 1924 and learn more about her life.
I liked Grace and her story. Kate Morton gives a good picture of life in a large house as the changes brought on by the First World War lead to a different attitude both for those in service and family. The central tragedy is built up to slowly and the events show more seem to flow naturally from what went before. I would like to know more about Grace's life in the intervening years, the pieces we learn during this story mean that she is a character I would like to see again. show less
I liked Grace and her story. Kate Morton gives a good picture of life in a large house as the changes brought on by the First World War lead to a different attitude both for those in service and family. The central tragedy is built up to slowly and the events show more seem to flow naturally from what went before. I would like to know more about Grace's life in the intervening years, the pieces we learn during this story mean that she is a character I would like to see again. show less
Normally, shifts in time in a book will drive me crazy, however, Kate Morton manages to always make this process work for me.
The reader is introduced to Dr. Grace Bradley, an archaeologist, spending the remainder of her years in a nursing home. She has been contacted by movie producers who want her opinion of their sets for a movie they are making set at Riverton, a manor house where Grace had worked as a housemaid when she was very young. The sets bring memories flooding back to Grace telling the story of the Hampton sisters and the tragedies that befell the residents of Riverton.
As the story progresses we see Grace battling with her memories as well as trying to find a way to reveal the secrets of her life before her end.
One of my show more favorite authors with a great story. show less
The reader is introduced to Dr. Grace Bradley, an archaeologist, spending the remainder of her years in a nursing home. She has been contacted by movie producers who want her opinion of their sets for a movie they are making set at Riverton, a manor house where Grace had worked as a housemaid when she was very young. The sets bring memories flooding back to Grace telling the story of the Hampton sisters and the tragedies that befell the residents of Riverton.
As the story progresses we see Grace battling with her memories as well as trying to find a way to reveal the secrets of her life before her end.
One of my show more favorite authors with a great story. show less
If I had to select an author that I hope to emulate it is Kate Morton. Her writing style is naturalistic, her plots are complex without being confusing and her characters are the perfect blend of strengths and weaknesses. In fact, the only complaint I have about Kate Morton’s writing is that she doesn’t do it fast enough! Though, I try to be happy with her one book a year pace.
The House at Riverton was originally published in Morton’s native Australia under the title The Shifting Fog, which is the title of a poem written by the doomed character in the novel. I discovered the re-named The House at Riverton through Library Thing or Book Browse and received an ARC to read and review. I fell in love immediately with the time, place show more and characters. Everyone I have recommended this book, as well as Morton’s other two books, to has loved them (well, besides one friend who isn’t much of a reader).
What appeals to me about Morton’s novels, including The Forgotten Garden and The Distant Hours, both of which I will re-read and review, is how she blends the past and present. As a history lover, it fascinates me how we are shaped by our experiences as well as the experiences of our ancestors, including people that we might not know exist. As inundated as we are with information and take for granted the ease of getting information, there are millions of events, ideas and decisions our ancestors made that affected our life and we will never, ever know about. As a writer, that idea has been a fount of inspiration and I have to thank Grace Bradley’s innocent lie to Hannah in The House at Riverton as my ‘a-ha!’ moment.
For those of you that are fans of Downton Abbey, The House at Riverton would be an excellent summer reading choice. Honestly, though you could not go wrong with reading any of them. Go ahead and buy all three because trust me, you will want to read them all. show less
The House at Riverton was originally published in Morton’s native Australia under the title The Shifting Fog, which is the title of a poem written by the doomed character in the novel. I discovered the re-named The House at Riverton through Library Thing or Book Browse and received an ARC to read and review. I fell in love immediately with the time, place show more and characters. Everyone I have recommended this book, as well as Morton’s other two books, to has loved them (well, besides one friend who isn’t much of a reader).
What appeals to me about Morton’s novels, including The Forgotten Garden and The Distant Hours, both of which I will re-read and review, is how she blends the past and present. As a history lover, it fascinates me how we are shaped by our experiences as well as the experiences of our ancestors, including people that we might not know exist. As inundated as we are with information and take for granted the ease of getting information, there are millions of events, ideas and decisions our ancestors made that affected our life and we will never, ever know about. As a writer, that idea has been a fount of inspiration and I have to thank Grace Bradley’s innocent lie to Hannah in The House at Riverton as my ‘a-ha!’ moment.
For those of you that are fans of Downton Abbey, The House at Riverton would be an excellent summer reading choice. Honestly, though you could not go wrong with reading any of them. Go ahead and buy all three because trust me, you will want to read them all. show less
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Author Information
19+ Works 31,189 Members
Kate Morton was born in South Australia in 1976. She earned a degree in speech and drama from Trinity College London, an English literature degree from the University of Queensland, and a master's degree focusing on tragedy in Victorian literature from the University of Queensland. She also completed a summer Shakespeare course at the Royal show more Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program researching contemporary novels that marry elements of gothic and mystery fiction. She won the Australian Book Industry Award for General Fiction Book of the Year in 2007 for her debut novel, The Shifting Fog, also known as The House at Riverton. Her other books include The Distant Hours, and The Forgotten Garden, which won the Australian Book Industry Award for General Fiction Book of the Year in 2009. Her books The Secret Keeper and The Lake House were New York Times bestsellers. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Awards
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Diana (29031)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The House at Riverton
- Original title
- The Shifting Fog
- Alternate titles*
- The House at Riverton
- Original publication date
- 2006
- People/Characters
- Grace Reeves Bradley; Emmeline Hartford; Hannah Hartford; Robert "Robbie" Hunter; David Hartford; Ruth Bradley McCourt (show all 23); Sylvia; Ursula Ryan; Marcus McCourt; Nancy; Lady Clementine de Welton; Fanny Dawkins; Jonathan Hartford; Jemima Hartford; Keira Parker; John Bradley; Lucy Starling; Estella Luxton; Theodore "Teddy" Luxton; Simion Luxton; Deborah Luxton; Frederick Hartford; Alfred Steeple
- Important places
- Riverton; London, England, UK
- Important events
- World War I
- Epigraph*
- Een onvergetelijk verhaal over liefde, verlies en geheimen.
'In heel Europa worden de lampen gedoofd. Onze generatie zal ze niet meer zien branden.'
Lord Grey, minister van Buitenlandse Zaken van Groot-Brittannië
3 augutus 1914 - Dedication
- For Davin, who holds my hand on the roller-coaster
- First words
- Last November I had a nightmare.
- Quotations
- I agreed, touched by the way little untruths told to the very young are believed so implicitly.
I am interested—intrigued even—by the way time erases real lives, leaving only vague imprints. Blood and spirit fade away so that only names and dates remain.
But of course, those who live in memories are never really dead.
It is our habit, after church, to walk the short distance to the High Street for morning tea at Maggie's. We always go to Maggie's, though Maggie herself left town with a suitcase and her best friend's husband many years ago.
I understand well the peculiar guilt of tragedy's survivors.
The young, I have learned, are embarrassed by tales of long ago. This morning he smiled over his glasses and told me how well I was looking. When I was younger, still in my eighties, vanity would have had me believe him. Now ... (show all)I recognize such comments as kindly expressions of surprise I'm still alive.
He will return one day, of that I've little doubt, for home is a magnet that lures even its most abstracted children. But whether tomorrow or years from now, I cannot guess. And I haven't time to wait. I find myself in time's... (show all) cold waiting room, shivering as ancient ghosts and echoing voices recede.
Reluctance to begin is quick to befriend procrastination, and the view of the room below was tremendous. It is a universal truth that no matter how well one knows a scene, to observe it from above is something of a revelation... (show all).
Alone in the room, his dark eyes grave beneath a line of dark brows, he gave the impression of sorrow past, deeply felt and poorly mended.
Regardless how peripheral one's connection to calamity, it would appear that to live long enough is to be rendered an object of interest.
Wars make history seem deceptively simple. They provide clear turning points, easy distinctions: before and after, winner and loser, right and wrong. True history, the past, is not like that. It isn't flat or linear. It has n... (show all)o outline. It is slippery, like liquid; infinite and unknowable, like space. And it is changeable: just when you think you see a pattern, perspective shifts, an alternative version is proffered, a long-forgotten memory resurfaces.
In real life turning points are sneaky. They pass by unlabeled and unheeded. Opportunities are missed, catastrophes unwittingly celebrated. Turning points are only uncovered later, by historians who seek to bring order to a l... (show all)ifetime of tangled moments.
The light is bright. I feel like a bird in an oven. Hot, plucked, and watched. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I know how good you are with secrets.
- Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- Originally published in Australia as "The Shifting Fog." Name changed to "The House at Riverton" for publication in the UK and US.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Historical Fiction, General Fiction, Romance, Mystery
- DDC/MDS
- 823.92 — Literature & rhetoric English & Old English literatures English fiction 1900- 2000-
- LCC
- PR9619.4 .M74 .S55 — Language and Literature English English Literature English literature: Provincial, local, etc.
- BISAC
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