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In the tradition of Evelyn Waugh and E. M. Forster, the first book in this critically acclaimed multigenerational saga about an upper-middle-class family in Britain before, during, and after World War II recreates a vanished world. As war clouds gather on the distant horizon, Hugh, Edward, and Rupert Cazalet, along with their wives, children, and loyal servants, prepare to leave London for their annual pilgrimage to the family's Sussex estate. There, they will join their parents, William and show more Kitty, and sister, Rachel, at Home Place, the sprawling retreat where the three brothers hope to spend an idyllic summer of years gone by. But the First World War has left indelible scars. Hugh, the eldest of his siblings, was wounded in France and is haunted both by recurring nightmares of battle and the prospect of another war. Edward adores his wife, Villy, a former dancer searching for meaning in life, yet he's incapable of remaining faithful to her. Rupert desires only to fulfill his potential as a painter, but finds that love and art cannot coexist. And devoted daughter Rachel discovers the joys-and limitations-of intimacy with another woman. A candid portrait of British life in the late 1930s and a sweeping depiction of a world on the brink of war, The Light Years is a must-read for fans of Downton Abbey. Three generations of the Cazalet family come to unforgettable dramatic life in this saga about England during the last century-and the long-held values and cherished traditions that would soon disappear forever. show lessTags
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The first installment in Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles, The Light Years introduces us to an upper-middle-class English family in the late 1930s. The Cazalets—parents, three sons and their wives, a bevy of grandchildren—and their servants gather in their country house in Sussex. Over the course of two long, hot summers—by turns idyllic and stifling—the Cazalets face both familial issues and the looming shadow of war.
Howard's clear-eyed view of the opportunities for women in this time and place provides some bite to what in other hands might have been a fairly conventional family saga, and stops it from being too soap-y BBC period drama. It's a very large cast of characters, and I did find the frequent POV changes a show more bit irritating—I would have preferred to spend longer in one POV rather than constantly headhopping. I also found myself having to turn to the family tree quite a bit to keep track of the numerous grandchildren, although I will grant that Howard managed the rare feat of writing children who sound like children. Will definitely be continuing on with the series. show less
Howard's clear-eyed view of the opportunities for women in this time and place provides some bite to what in other hands might have been a fairly conventional family saga, and stops it from being too soap-y BBC period drama. It's a very large cast of characters, and I did find the frequent POV changes a show more bit irritating—I would have preferred to spend longer in one POV rather than constantly headhopping. I also found myself having to turn to the family tree quite a bit to keep track of the numerous grandchildren, although I will grant that Howard managed the rare feat of writing children who sound like children. Will definitely be continuing on with the series. show less
The Cazalets–patriarch, matriarch, three adult sons, their wives and children–traditionally spend their summers at their country house in Sussex. The Light Years opens in 1937, with the first part of the novel developing each of the characters as they enjoy an idyllic summer together: eldest son Hugh his devoted wife Sybil and their three children; second son Edward, his strong-willed wife Viola aka Villy, and their three children; and youngest son Rupert, his much younger wife Zoe, and their children from Rupert’s previous marriage. Hugh and Edward make occasional trips to London for the family timber business, while Sybil and Villy capably manage household affairs while gossiping about Zoe. The cousins band together with those show more closest to their own age, with occasional drama and shifting loyalties. Most of this sounds too good to be true, and sure enough the second part of the novel, set in late 1938, exposes chinks in the family armor and some closely guarded secrets. The threat of war is palpable: Hitler is already laying groundwork for what we know is to come. The family engages both in denial, and preparations for living at their country house for the foreseeable future.
I love a good family saga, and this most certainly is one. Elizabeth Jane Howard puts her female characters at the center, often the source of real power in the family. At the same time, she shows the ways women are disadvantaged in society, through limited education (which continues with the female Cazalet children), to dependence on male wage earners and a complete lack of reproductive freedom. Also, the children are multi-dimensional, setting them up to play more significant roles in the ten years that play out in the remaining Cazalet Chronicles novels. I am really looking forward to continuing this series. show less
I love a good family saga, and this most certainly is one. Elizabeth Jane Howard puts her female characters at the center, often the source of real power in the family. At the same time, she shows the ways women are disadvantaged in society, through limited education (which continues with the female Cazalet children), to dependence on male wage earners and a complete lack of reproductive freedom. Also, the children are multi-dimensional, setting them up to play more significant roles in the ten years that play out in the remaining Cazalet Chronicles novels. I am really looking forward to continuing this series. show less
The first volume in a quintet about a well-to-do family in England pre-, during, and post-World War II, The Light Years introduces a wide cast of characters, from the family matriarch and patriarch, their children, their grandchildren, and their servants. It's not an upstairs-downstairs novel, as the focus is squarely on the Cazalet family, but the servants provide an alternative view of the family and the goings-on. Howard has a wonderful way of individualizing her characters with brief sketches, a necessary talent when there are so many to get a handle on. I loved the interactions among the cousins and siblings, as they combine and separate and re-combine their alliances and enmities. I am planning to read the rest of the cycle this show more year, one every other month was the original plan, but I might need to return to the Cazalets sooner.
4 stars show less
4 stars show less
In 1937, there are fears in England of a war with Germany to come, although most dismiss it as unthinkable after the widespread suffering from the first World War. In The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard, the first of a four book series, the extended Cazalet family meets at their Sussex estate presided over by pater familias the Brig, and the Duchy, Kitty, his wife. We quickly come to know the three married sons, handsome and philandering Edward, who nonetheless loves his wife, the dissatisfied former dancer Villy; Hugh, honest to the bone and badly wounded in the Great War, married to pregnant Sybil, who is dedicated to making him happy; Rupert, infatuated with his young and self-centered bride Zoe; and their sister, Rachel, show more unmarried and attracted to her best gal pal. In addition, there are many well-drawn children who apparently move more to center stage in the later books, including the bonded-together cousins Louise, Polly and Clary. There also are a multitude of servants with significant roles. Luckily a character tree of "The Cazalets and their Households" is provided at the beginning of the book. I found myself turning back to it many times before I comfortably remembered each without it.
The writing is smooth and engaging throughout. The reader quickly gets enticed into the setting and into caring about the family.
"Most of Rupert's and Zoe's day was very good. They drove to Rye, quite slowly . . . They drove past fields of wheat with poppies and fields of hops that were nearly ripe, through woods of oak and Spanish chestnut and lanes whose high banks, thick with wild strawberries and stitchwort and ferns, and hedges decorated by the last of the dog-roses bleached nearly white by the sun, through villages with white clinker-built cottages with their gardens blazing with hollyhocks and phlox and roses and small gray churches with yew and lichen-covered tombstones and sometimes a pond with white ducks, past fields of early hay, steaming manure and brown and white chickens finding things to eat. Sometimes they stopped, because Rupert wanted to look properly at things, and Zoe, although she didn't really know why he wanted to, sat contentedly watching him. She loved his throat with the large Adam's apple, and the way his dark blue eyes narrowed when he was staring at things and the small half apologetic smile he gave her when he had looked long enough, let in the clutch and resumed driving."
Rupert has talent as a painter, but can't spend much time on it because of the need to support Zoe. Zoe was one of my favorite characters, as she starts out very young, pretty and self-indulgent, but learns enough from her mistakes that she begins to change and mature by the end of the novel. Each of the characters is skillfully given full individuality, and that, and the absorbing details of place and time, are the strengths of the novel. The reader comes to understand the various family members and their effect on each other and the local populace. Always hovering in the background is the impending war that most fervently hope will never become reality. One character remembers his four years in France during the last war, when "he had always been wet and nearly always frightened, when he had seen things done to men that he wouldn't stand seeing done to an animal, when the land had been nothing but rats and lice and mud and blood . . ."
They pin their hopes on Neville Chamberlain, and we all know how that turns out. Hugh's young daughter Polly is rightly terrified of what is to come, and he talks to her honestly about contingency plans being made, while reassuring her they are only that. Afterwards, he thinks, "Good God, what a conversation to have with your thirteen year old daughter." The honest portrayal of the multi-faceted Cazalet family in pre-war England makes for a topnotch read. I'll be continuing on to the remaining three. show less
The writing is smooth and engaging throughout. The reader quickly gets enticed into the setting and into caring about the family.
"Most of Rupert's and Zoe's day was very good. They drove to Rye, quite slowly . . . They drove past fields of wheat with poppies and fields of hops that were nearly ripe, through woods of oak and Spanish chestnut and lanes whose high banks, thick with wild strawberries and stitchwort and ferns, and hedges decorated by the last of the dog-roses bleached nearly white by the sun, through villages with white clinker-built cottages with their gardens blazing with hollyhocks and phlox and roses and small gray churches with yew and lichen-covered tombstones and sometimes a pond with white ducks, past fields of early hay, steaming manure and brown and white chickens finding things to eat. Sometimes they stopped, because Rupert wanted to look properly at things, and Zoe, although she didn't really know why he wanted to, sat contentedly watching him. She loved his throat with the large Adam's apple, and the way his dark blue eyes narrowed when he was staring at things and the small half apologetic smile he gave her when he had looked long enough, let in the clutch and resumed driving."
Rupert has talent as a painter, but can't spend much time on it because of the need to support Zoe. Zoe was one of my favorite characters, as she starts out very young, pretty and self-indulgent, but learns enough from her mistakes that she begins to change and mature by the end of the novel. Each of the characters is skillfully given full individuality, and that, and the absorbing details of place and time, are the strengths of the novel. The reader comes to understand the various family members and their effect on each other and the local populace. Always hovering in the background is the impending war that most fervently hope will never become reality. One character remembers his four years in France during the last war, when "he had always been wet and nearly always frightened, when he had seen things done to men that he wouldn't stand seeing done to an animal, when the land had been nothing but rats and lice and mud and blood . . ."
They pin their hopes on Neville Chamberlain, and we all know how that turns out. Hugh's young daughter Polly is rightly terrified of what is to come, and he talks to her honestly about contingency plans being made, while reassuring her they are only that. Afterwards, he thinks, "Good God, what a conversation to have with your thirteen year old daughter." The honest portrayal of the multi-faceted Cazalet family in pre-war England makes for a topnotch read. I'll be continuing on to the remaining three. show less
The dust jacket of The Light Years, the first in the Cazalet series, compares the book to the Upstairs, Downstairs television series from the BBC. And there is a certain resemblance, of course, as there would be with any upper-class English family of the early 20th century. However, Elizabeth Jane Howard's book is more like Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited or Jane Austen's Emma -- a leisurely stroll of a novel where the character development is much more important than any plot line. You'll find you really care how each of the major characters changes and grows -- whether adults or children.
The Light Years also made me realize for the first time how constrained women's lives were, even as late as 1937.
This is a book that will sneak show more up on you. If it were a movie, it would be disparaged as a "chick flick." However, you won't realize how much you like it until you've finished the last page and feel cheated that it's ended. I immediately ordered the next book, Marking Time. show less
The Light Years also made me realize for the first time how constrained women's lives were, even as late as 1937.
This is a book that will sneak show more up on you. If it were a movie, it would be disparaged as a "chick flick." However, you won't realize how much you like it until you've finished the last page and feel cheated that it's ended. I immediately ordered the next book, Marking Time. show less
(53) Oh, I loved this -- like reading 'Downton Abbey' which I dearly loved. I am just one of those anglophiles when it comes to history, literature, TV series set in Great Britain and this was no exception. The Cazalet's are an early 20th century upper class family with servants post WW1 - it is a large family and we get to know them all ~ 10ish grandkids between the 3 families, and unmarried daughter, and The Brig and the Duchy, the patriarch and matriarch. This is the lead up until WW2 when the elder Cazalet sons who have gone to the War are busy raising their families and trying to put WW1 behind them. It is hard to really suss out plot - it is just life as the narrative breezily jumps from character to character without missing a show more beat. Most of the scene is during the summer holidays at the Cazalet ancestral home in the country - days at the beach, family squabbles, marital discord, pregnancy & childbirth, fierce parental love, crushes, petty jealousies, etc. . .
It is a delightful narrative full of poignant character sketches and finely drawn scenes that come alive in one's mind's eye - but certainly very easy to read with simple, straightforward yet effective prose and traditional story-telling. I love Polly and her cat, I love Hugh, and enjoyed the charter of Ms Milliment as well, and the funeral for Bexford the jellyfish had me laughing out loud. . I would only take a star off because it seems a bit derivative of other things that have been written (or perhaps other things are derived from it - not quite sure when it was written) but it seems a bit unoriginal and it will likely blend into my mind with things like 'Downtown Abbey' and other multigenerational family sagas for instance 'The Forsyte Saga' jumps to mind.
But overall - Bravo! I very very rarely dive right into the next of a series. But this is just the type of novel I need at the moment - not really chick lit, but a nice period piece for an Anglophile with lots of human drama and fine characterization. I can't wait to see what happens to all the Cazalets next. show less
It is a delightful narrative full of poignant character sketches and finely drawn scenes that come alive in one's mind's eye - but certainly very easy to read with simple, straightforward yet effective prose and traditional story-telling. I love Polly and her cat, I love Hugh, and enjoyed the charter of Ms Milliment as well, and the funeral for Bexford the jellyfish had me laughing out loud. . I would only take a star off because it seems a bit derivative of other things that have been written (or perhaps other things are derived from it - not quite sure when it was written) but it seems a bit unoriginal and it will likely blend into my mind with things like 'Downtown Abbey' and other multigenerational family sagas for instance 'The Forsyte Saga' jumps to mind.
But overall - Bravo! I very very rarely dive right into the next of a series. But this is just the type of novel I need at the moment - not really chick lit, but a nice period piece for an Anglophile with lots of human drama and fine characterization. I can't wait to see what happens to all the Cazalets next. show less
The Light Years is Volume One of Elizabeth Jane Howard's The Cazalet Chronicles, recommended to me by no less a literary luminary than Hilary Mantel. One of Mantel's essays in A Memoir of My Former Self, a Life in Writing (see my review) was devoted entirely to a lengthy homage to the Howard's fiction. Writing in 2016, two years after Howard's death aged 90, Mantel began like this...
I romped through The Light Years in two days, utterly absorbed. I like novels that explore societies in transition and because Howard renders so perfectly that fateful period just before the start of WW2, I was astonished to find that The Light Years was published as late as 1990, making it historical fiction. But I think it reads like a contemporary account because her depiction of teenage apprehensions about the war are so vivid. Born in 1923, Howard was a contemporary of my parents — she was sixteen when the war began; my father was fourteen. They were the generation who saw the effects of The Great War at first hand: too young to be deluded by the Roaring Twenties, they knew and saw the maimed all around them; they witnessed their parents' bereavement; they knew the widowed and the women never married because the fiancé had not come back from the war; they saw the gaps in the family tree where an uncle was missing and they heard the stories of the lost, forever frozen in time. And while some were excited at the prospect of war, there were others who were terrified because they knew, as Polly does in the story, that the coming war would not be fought on foreign soil in trenches, but over their own skies, with bombs. And they were old enough to know and understand the preparations for invasion too.
So while the novel is framed around the lives of the three Cazalet brothers and their extended family, it is the characters caught between childhood and adulthood who give it immediacy. Uncle Edward came back a handsome decorated hero, unscathed and insouciant. (He's a womaniser too, — and worse — had Howard not balked at greater infamy.) But Polly's father Hugh lost a hand and suffers daily from shrapnel in his head and body and they have a very special bond. There is an honesty between these two not shared by Hugh's wife Sybil whose loving compassion is matched by Hugh's generous concern for her. There are tender scenes where each pretends to the other that they want to do what the other wants, meaning that the truth remains elusive. This is one of the aspects of Howard's fiction that Mantel admires:
One of the signs that this upper-middle-class family is in for a rude awakening in the rest of the series is in the casting of the servants.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/10/01/the-light-years-1990-the-cazalet-chronicles-... show less
In recent years Elizabeth Jane Howard, who was always known as Jane, has become famous for a quartet of novels known as the Cazalet Chronicles, which draw on her own family story and were adapted for radio and television. Tracing the fortunes of an upper-middle-class family, the quartet begins in 1937 and covers a decade; a fifth novel, All Change, skipsshow more
ahead to 1956. The novels are panoramic, expansive, intriguing as social history and generous in their storytelling. They are the product of a lifetime's experience, and come from a writer who knew her aim and had the stamina and technical skill to achieve it. It would be rewarding if the readers who enjoyed the series were drawn to the author's earlier work, when her talent seemed so effervescent, so unstoppable, that there was no predicting where it might take her. (Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self, a Life in Writing, edited by Nicholas Pearson, Thomas Murray (Hodder & Stoughton), 2023, p.321)
I romped through The Light Years in two days, utterly absorbed. I like novels that explore societies in transition and because Howard renders so perfectly that fateful period just before the start of WW2, I was astonished to find that The Light Years was published as late as 1990, making it historical fiction. But I think it reads like a contemporary account because her depiction of teenage apprehensions about the war are so vivid. Born in 1923, Howard was a contemporary of my parents — she was sixteen when the war began; my father was fourteen. They were the generation who saw the effects of The Great War at first hand: too young to be deluded by the Roaring Twenties, they knew and saw the maimed all around them; they witnessed their parents' bereavement; they knew the widowed and the women never married because the fiancé had not come back from the war; they saw the gaps in the family tree where an uncle was missing and they heard the stories of the lost, forever frozen in time. And while some were excited at the prospect of war, there were others who were terrified because they knew, as Polly does in the story, that the coming war would not be fought on foreign soil in trenches, but over their own skies, with bombs. And they were old enough to know and understand the preparations for invasion too.
So while the novel is framed around the lives of the three Cazalet brothers and their extended family, it is the characters caught between childhood and adulthood who give it immediacy. Uncle Edward came back a handsome decorated hero, unscathed and insouciant. (He's a womaniser too, — and worse — had Howard not balked at greater infamy.) But Polly's father Hugh lost a hand and suffers daily from shrapnel in his head and body and they have a very special bond. There is an honesty between these two not shared by Hugh's wife Sybil whose loving compassion is matched by Hugh's generous concern for her. There are tender scenes where each pretends to the other that they want to do what the other wants, meaning that the truth remains elusive. This is one of the aspects of Howard's fiction that Mantel admires:
In her novels Howard described delusion and self-delusion. She totted up the price of lies and the price of truth. She saw damage inflicted, damage reflected or absorbed. (Mental, ibid, p.323)
One of the signs that this upper-middle-class family is in for a rude awakening in the rest of the series is in the casting of the servants.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/10/01/the-light-years-1990-the-cazalet-chronicles-... show less
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Wat een geluk dat het eerste deel – Lichte Jaren – van deze prachtige, autobiografische serie over de Cazalets, geschreven door Elizabeth Jane Howard (1923 – 2014) dit jaar in het Nederlands is vertaald! Elizabeth Jane Howard is absoluut een getalenteerd schrijfster, die door middel van met name prachtige, uitgebreide beschrijvingen een hele familie in het post-Victoriaanse Engeland tot show more leven brengt. Opnieuw tot leven brengt, misschien wel, want de boekenserie is autobiografisch, gebaseerd op Howards eigen, welgestelde familie. Ze begon in 1982 aan dit uitgebreide werk. Het vijfde deel schreef ze op haar 90ste, een jaar voor haar dood in 2014. Het verhaal verscheen ook als dramaserie bij de BBC…lees verder > show less
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Author Information
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Elizabeth Jane Howard was born in London, England on March 26, 1923. She was educated by governesses at home. Her first novel, The Beautiful Visit, was published in 1950 and won the John Llewellyn Rhys prize. Her other works include the series the Cazalet Chronicles, Falling, and the autobiography Slipstream. The first two novels of the Cazalet show more Chronicles, The Light Years and Marking Time, became the BBC TV series The Cazalets in 2001. The other books in the series are Confusion, Casting Off, and All Change. She also edited several anthologies and wrote short stories, articles, television plays, film scripts and a book on food with Fay Maschler. She was made a CBE in 2000. She died on January 2, 2014 at the age of 90. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Le strade [Fazi] (264)
Gallimard, Folio (6992)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Light Years
- Original title
- The Light Years
- Original publication date
- 1990
- People/Characters
- William Cazalet 'the Brig'; Kitty Cazalet 'the Duchy'; Hugh Cazalet; Sybil Cazalet; Edward Cazalet; Villy Cazalet (show all 11); Rupert Cazalet; Zoe Cazalet; Rachel Cazalet; Miss Milliment; Sid
- Important places
- Sussex, England, UK; London, England, UK
- Related movies
- The Cazalets (2001 | IMDb)
- Dedication
- For Jenner Roth
- First words
- The day began at five to seven when the alarm clock (given to Phyllis by her mother when she started service) went off and on and on and on until she quenched it.
- Quotations
- Mr York hadn't written a letter since his mother died so, of course, when he got out his writing things, his pen nib was rusty and the ink in the bottle had dried to nothing. He'd had to lend some ink from Enid who was always... (show all) writing - wrote one letter a week.... Enid's ink turned out to be women's ink - violet-coloured - so he made the letter as businesslike as he could to make up for it.
Edward was signing the letters in his bold, rather careless manner with his fountain pen. It seemed to be failing; he shook it twice, and then turned to his secretary. "Oh, Miss Seafang, it's done the dirty on me again!" Smil... (show all)ing slightly, she produced another pen from her cardigan pocket.
A great deal of the linen was thread-bare, very fine linen, marked in Indian ink that registered its date of birth, so to speak. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)That was all.
- Blurbers*
- Rosamunde Pilcher
- Original language
- Inglés
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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