I recently finished reading the book Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther. I thought I might have an inkling about the book since I had seen the movie version, and loved it. But I was in for a surprise. The book has almost nothing in common with the movie, except the characters, the setting (England, just before and during the start of World War II) and the fact that I enjoyed them both!
Mrs. Miniver is a quiet, reflective sort of book. It is the sort of book in which almost nothing really happens, but we watch a slice of someone's life, and are enriched as we do so. I will leave you with a few quotes to give you a flavor of its gentleness and humor. And if you need a little escape to a quiet time, Gentle Reader, you will enjoy Mrs. Miniver. It would be lovely to read over the summer, under an apple tree or on a beach somewhere.
Clem (Mr. Miniver) caught her eye across the table. It seemed to her the most important thing about marriage was not a home or children or a remedy against sin, but simply there being always an eye to catch.
~p.32
"It was a Wedgewoood day, with white clouds delicately modelled in relief against a sky of pale pure blue. The best of England, thught Mrs. Miniver, as opposed to countries with reasonable climates, is that it is not only once a year that you can say, "This is the first day of spring." She had already said it twice since January--
~p.75
"Looking up casually in the middle of writing a letter, Mrs. Miniver saw, through the back window of the drawing room, something that she had never consciously seen before: the last leaf being blown from a tree. One moment it was there, on the highest bough of all, waging wildly in the wind and rain. The next moment it was whirling away across the roof tops, a forlorn ragged speck. The line of its flight was the arabesque at the end of a chapter, the final scroll under the death-warrant of summer. Once more the lime tree stood bone-naked.
~p.171
No comments:
Post a Comment