The Bride's Farewell: A Novel [Kindle Edition]

Meg Rosoff (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pell Ridley is the adventurous heroine in this serviceably told tale, the fourth novel for London-based Rosoff, who has written successfully for the YA market. On her wedding day, Pell leaves town on her faithful horse, Jack, grudgingly bringing along her mute younger brother, Bean. Pell shirks expectations and jilts her childhood beau, Birdie, with an oddly modern defiance of 1850s England convention. No matter that Birdie seems a nice enough man, unlike her abusive preacher father—Pell is stubborn in her desire to flee the domestic life in Nomansland that mires her mother in a sea of children and overwork. Pell arrives at the Salisbury horse fair and her adventures begin. She is separated from Bean and her horse but meets a poacher she dubs Dogman (he travels with a pack of dogs) and together they wander the countryside living on bread crusts and flickering hope. Pell's love and knowledge of horses factors largely in her fight for survival, but it's human love—romantic and familial—that drives plucky Pell and leads us to this simple but satisfying story's happy if unsurprising conclusion. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—In rural 1850s England, a horse-mad young woman flees home on her wedding day. Fearful that her fiancé's promise of "a house full of children" will translate into a future of drudgery, Pell plans to visit the Salisbury Horse Fair. Her mute little brother insists on accompanying her, but when he and her horse disappear at the fair—along with the man for whom she's spent the day working and who still owes her money—Pell's vision of her future is drastically altered. The twists and turns along her new path bring her into contact with a wide variety of people, from the Gypsy family that helps her on her way to Dogman, to a taciturn poacher who becomes her savior. Rosoff's simple yet descriptive language paints a clear picture of a world both bleak and beautiful. Like the setting, the characters are many faceted. Nobody, including Pell, is entirely good or evil. Readers will appreciate her journey, both the external search for her brother and a place in the world for herself, and the internal pursuit of balance between familial responsibilities and personal satisfaction. Teens will relate to Pell's internal conflict and refusal to settle onto the path life seems intent to force upon her. Rosoff's first adult title is as finally crafted as her Printz Award-winning How I Live Now (Random, 2004).—Karen E. Brooks-Reese, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 262 KB
• Publisher: Plume (August 6, 2009)
• Sold by: Penguin Publishing
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002HE1KCY
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #281,613 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Meg Rosoff was born in Boston, educated at Harvard and St Martin's College of Art, and worked in New York City for ten years before moving to London permanently in 1989. She worked in publishing, politics, PR and advertising until 2004, when she wrote her first novel, How I Live Now, which won the Guardian Children's fiction prize (UK), Michael L Printz prize (US), the Die Zeit children's book of the year (Germany) and was shortlisted for the Orange first novel award. Her second novel, Just in Case, won the 2007 Carnegie Medal. Meg's latest book is The Bride's Farewell. She lives in London with her husband, daughter and two very hairy dogs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique and wonderful literary treat, not to be missed!, August 5, 2009

By 

Lorraine A. (San Antonio, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bride's Farewell (Hardcover)

As someone who reads to escape, to learn about my world and myself, and to find solitude without being alone, I've been hooked on Meg Rosoff's books since the apocalyptic "How I Live Now" was published in 2004. Whatever form of narrative voice she employs, Rosoff seems consistently able to convey a sense of intimacy with the reader. A disturbed teen discovering her own strength and capacity to love during crisis draws me close to her because of how she speaks: alternately with humor, vulnerability and passion. The Yeats-referencing centenarian who channels his 16-year old self in narrating Rosoff's 2007 novel, "What I Was," appears, against odds, clued in to the workings of my own psyche as he tells his story and dispenses his wisdom. While Rosoff is above all a gorgeous writer, funny, tender and surprising, her books have this added power because she is so emotionally honest. Rosoff is drawn to the outcast, those who are displaced in society or family, and her stories should resonate with any sensitive reader. Her characters play out their internal struggles against stark exterior landscapes that hint of the sublime - "great rolling swards of chalk grassland...skies dotted with hobby and merlin." ("The Bride's Farewell")

"The Bride's Farewell" offers up another non-conforming protagonist and my favorite yet, Pell Ridley, in an epoch-defying romance that happens to be set in 19th century England. Pell jilts her fiancé on the eve of their wedding, leaving home with just her horse and a mute younger brother who refuses to stay behind. Heading for a horse fair in Salisbury, "less a plan than a starting point," she meets a series of strangers who help determine the course of her journey. The story weaves back and forth between Pell's dismal upbringing and her flight from home, ever mindful of the interplay between fate and free will, a repeated theme of the author explored fancifully in her 2006 novel, "Just in Case." Animals are always significant in Rosoff's books, and when Pell first discovers the velocity of her beloved horse while training him it's a horse-as-metaphor clue that she has the requisite courage to strike out for an unknown destiny: "For those poor souls who can only think of the terrible fear and danger of a runaway horse, think of this: a speed like water flowing over stone, a skimming sensation that hovers and dips while the world spins round and the wind drags your skin taut across your bones. You can close your eyes and lose yourself in the rhythm, because nothing you do or shout or wish for will happen until the running makes up its mind to stop."

In a single, understated passage, "The Bride's Farewell" contains one of the most romantic moments in a novel that I've read in years. But ultimately it's a book about family - the one Pell leaves, the one she finds, and the one she finds again.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pell mell, August 5, 2009

By 

Cindy G. (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bride's Farewell (Hardcover)

In an enchanting tale of a hard won and unique "happily ever after", Meg Rosoff creates Pell, a young woman so determined not to follow the path most taken and dreamed of by girls her age, that she does the unthinkable, on what should be the happiest day of her life. But her dream to return to the freedom she knew as a girl riding swiftly on her beloved horse is immediately derailed by the reality of life as a young woman traveling alone in a desperate world. Complete with deception by friend and foe alike, desperation, and determination beyond possibility, Pell's story sweeps you along...rooting for her, aching with her, and, ultimately, admiring her as she lets go of much of what she knows and loves, and forges a future different from what she envisioned, but welcoming in its own right. Pell's story is a beautiful tale to be enjoyed not only for its richness of language but for its embrace of the possible. My daughter and I enjoyed it immensely!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This One Suprised Me!, July 16, 2009

By 

girlswithbooks "girlswithbooks" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Bride's Farewell (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

When I received The Brides Farewell by Meg Rossoff, I was quite doubtful. I am a huge lover of historical fiction and there is nothing more enticing to me than a big fat historical novel. This book is not big in stature, but it's big in story! I loved it!

Pell Ridley is teen girl living in 1850's England. On the day of her marriage to her long time friend, she runs off, leaving him at the alter. She becomes a teenage runaway bride. She does not want to a burdened wife, with too many children and an unfaithful husband. Can Pell make it work on her own? Can she find her independence in a time when women are not allowed to do so? Can she resist the temptation of returning to her childhood home and succumb to the life she has always feared?

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves historical fiction and romance.