Immagine dell'autore.

Dorothy Eden (1912–1982)

Autore di An Afternoon Walk

69+ opere 2,268 membri 21 recensioni 1 preferito

Sull'Autore

Dorothy Eden was born in Canterbury Plains, New Zealand on April 3, 1912. She worked as a legal secretary before moving to London, England in 1954 to become a full-time writer. She is best known for her writings in the historical, suspense, and Gothic genres. Her first novel, The Singing Shadows, mostra altro was published in 1940. During her lifetime, she wrote more than 40 novels including Let Us Prey, The Vines of Yarrabee, Melbury Square, The Shadow Wife, An Afternoon Walk, The Salamanca Drum, and An Important Family. She also contributed to several magazines including Redbook and Good Housekeeping. She died of cancer on March 4, 1982 at the age of 69. (Bowker Author Biography) mostra meno

Comprende il nome: Dorothy Eden

Fonte dell'immagine: The Herald & Weekly Times Limited

Opere di Dorothy Eden

An Afternoon Walk (1971) 137 copie
The Vines of Yarrabee (1600) 129 copie
Winterwood (1967) 118 copie
The Millionaire's Daughter (1974) 115 copie
Waiting for Willa (1970) 105 copie
The Time of the Dragon (1975) 104 copie
Speak to Me of Love (1972) 96 copie
The American Heiress (1980) 95 copie
Melbury Square (1970) 84 copie
An Important Family (1982) 78 copie
The Salamanca Drum (1977) 78 copie
Darkwater (1963) 77 copie
The Shadow Wife (1967) 73 copie
The Storrington Papers (1825) 69 copie
Ravenscroft (1964) 69 copie
Sleep in the Woods (1960) 56 copie
Ravenscroft and Darkwater (1964) 54 copie
Never Call It Loving (1967) 47 copie
Lady of Mallow (1960) 45 copie
Whistle for the Crows (1976) 38 copie
The Voice of the Dolls (1950) 36 copie
The Sleeping Bride (1959) 34 copie
The Brooding Lake (1953) 33 copie
The Deadly Travellers (1959) 33 copie
Listen to Danger (1715) 32 copie
Darling Clementine (1899) 30 copie
Bridge of Fear (1961) 27 copie
Crow Hollow (1950) 27 copie
Cat's Prey (1952) 26 copie
Siege in the Sun (1967) 25 copie
The Pretty Ones (1761) 23 copie
The Laughing Ghost (1943) 23 copie
The Marriage Chest (1965) 21 copie
Bride by Candlelight (1781) 21 copie
Death Is a Red Rose (1956) 19 copie
Face of an Angel (1961) 19 copie
Shadow of a Witch (1962) 12 copie
Imaginary Insects (1997) 3 copie
Ravenscraft 1 copia
Las viñas de Yarrabee (1973) 1 copia
LA DAMINA INFRANTA 1966 (1966) 1 copia
Summer Sunday (1946) 1 copia
We are for the Dark (1944) 1 copia
Singing Shadows (1940) 1 copia

Opere correlate

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Nome canonico
Eden, Dorothy
Nome legale
Eden, Dorothy Enid
Altri nomi
Paradise, Mary
Data di nascita
1912-04-03
Data di morte
1982-03-04
Sesso
female
Nazionalità
New Zealand
UK
Luogo di nascita
Canterbury Plains, New Zealand
Luogo di morte
London, England, UK
Causa della morte
cancer
Luogo di residenza
Canterbury Plains, New Zealand
London, England, UK
Attività lavorative
novelist
short story writer
legal secretary
Agente
Dorothy Olding
Breve biografia
Dorothy Eden was born in a farming community near Christchurch, New Zealand, where she attended school. She worked as a legal secretary and published her first novel, The Singing Shadows, in 1940. She took a trip around the world before moving to England in 1954 to further her writing career. She was best known for her many historical, suspense, and Gothic novels. She also contributed short stories to magazines, including Redbook and Good Housekeeping. An Important Family (1982), her 43rd book, was published in the year of her death.

Utenti

Recensioni

This hilariously bad book gets two stars only because I was too curious about the ending to DNF it. Written in 1967, it is terribly dated in its gender roles and sexual attitudes. It takes the form of a woman’s recollection of terrible events that befell her a few years earlier when she met a rich, handsome, romantic stranger and was so desperate to avoid being a pathetic old maid at the age of 26 that she demanded he marry her rather than just engaging in a love affair. After all, she was already damaged goods from an earlier love affair where (gasp) her lover had refused to marry her after stringing her along. From all her dark hints, I expected that she’d been imprisoned and tortured in the dungeons. It turned out, however, that he’d pretended to marry her in a sham wedding, then acted like she had hallucinated it all when she miscarried in an accident. Then, to make sure you understand what a villain he really is, it turns out that he was a Nazi collaborator during the war, which really has nothing whatever to do with the plot. But not to worry, she finds hope of happiness in the end, when Otto commits suicide, but she realizes that she really has the hots for his brother, who is actually the marrying sort.

This book serves as a good moral lesson on the dangers of impulsive commitments, not because of the heroine’s sufferings, but because I picked it up on impulse from my library’s donation gimmie shelves. And oh boy, did I pay for it.

I read this book for Task the Second: The Silent Nights (Read a book set in one of the Nordic countries, where winter nights are long!) in the Twelve Tasks of the Festive Season challenge. Although it takes place across several countries, the bulk of the action is in Denmark, and in Otto’s home manor house castle on the island of Samsø, and is in the spring, where apparently, the days are very long instead of the long winter nights.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
Doodlebug34 | 1 altra recensione | Jan 1, 2024 |
 
Segnalato
LisaBergin | Apr 12, 2023 |
The Vines of Yarrabee by Dorothy Eden is a 2013 Open Road Media publication. (Originally published in 1968)

Well, that was depressing.

Eugenia leaves her home in England, traveling to the wilderness of Australia to marry Gilbert, the owner of a vineyard plantation. It becomes immediately clear that Eugenia is second fiddle to her husband’s vineyard. Matters only get worse, when Gilbert brings in a widowed and pregnant convict to be a maid at their newly built home, appropriately named Yarrabee.

Eugenia struggles to find her role in the home, and in her marriage. Gilbert treats her like an ornament, a refined, delicate creature, smothering her nearly to death. Meanwhile, the maid secures a permanent role in the household, rolling up her sleeves and becoming more help to Gilbert than he would ever allow Eugenia to be.

As the years pass, children are born, the vines prosper and struggle, there are passions and heartbreaks and tragedies, while each person is trapped in a defined role, they are helpless to break free from, without ever truly knowing or understanding the people they are the most familiar with.

Those familiar with Dorothy Eden may associate her with the Gothic style romantic suspense genre that was so popular in the sixties and seventies.

This book doesn’t not fall into that category, but is, instead, a family saga, and pure historical fiction. There is no mystery, or supernatural element, and while Yarabee is a large house, it’s newly built, is not haunted, or crumbling, or set on the cliffs of Cornwall.

The story gets off to a slow start, but eventually, I found myself absorbed in Eugenia’s sad battle with homesickness, and the tragic way her life unfolds. While Gilbert’s dominance and his obsession with his vines makes it hard to like him, Eugenia could also try one’s patience. Of the two, though, I did sympathize with Eugenia, who was trapped in the proverbial ivory tower, but longed for more out her marriage and her life.

As I continued to read, I was buoyed by a few possibilities, but was disappointed over and over again, by the way the things turned out.

I could see a type of personal triumph, I suppose, with the way things turned out in the end. Unfortunately, it was not the way I would have liked the book to end. These events should have transpired much earlier in the book. As such, the conclusion left me feeling dispirited and unsatisfied, with some question as to how things might have proceeded from there for our Eugenia.

While I have read several of Eden’s novels over the years, there are still many I have yet to read, but to date, this one is my least favorite.

2.5 stars
… (altro)
½
 
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gpangel | 1 altra recensione | May 20, 2021 |
The book I have is actually a combination of The Voice of the Dolls (published 1950) and Listen to Danger (published 1957). I inherited it in my mother's library and just now have gotten around to reading it. Both of these stories are gothic novels with a touch of the cozy mystery vibe in them. Dorothy Eden was very good at creating lively, likeable characters that carry off her plots of murder and mayhem without a lot of gory, graphic details. The Voice of the Dolls is set in London, where a young woman named Sarah Stacey is hired as governess to look after Jennie Foster, a troubled eight-year-old who lives with her severely dysfunctional family. Sarah quickly finds something is terribly off with her new employer, Oliver Foster. After a suicide and a suspicious accident, Sarah doesn't know who to trust and turns to a mysterious uncle for help. Will Tim be her savior, or is he the one behind all the mayhem? In Listen to Danger, a young widow, Harriet Lacey, is left to support herself and raise her two children, but when the children are kidnapped, she turns to the unlikeliest of heroes, her neighbor Flynn, a blind man who may or may not have been the cause of her late husband's demise. I liked this story the most. I found the plot intricate but believable, and the characters endearing.… (altro)
 
Segnalato
PaulaGalvan | Apr 27, 2021 |

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Statistiche

Opere
69
Opere correlate
6
Utenti
2,268
Popolarità
#11,317
Voto
½ 3.3
Recensioni
21
ISBN
396
Lingue
10
Preferito da
1

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