Calpurnia [Hardcover]

Anne Scott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 12, 2003

An elegant debut novel about a once grand Philadelphia mansion called Calpurnia; its owner, a painter and pa-
trician matriarch who has recently died under mysterious circumstances; and the woman over-seeing the disposal of the estate, who unravels the secrets and intrigues hidden away in the hundred-year-old house.

Elizabeth Oliver arrives at Calpurnia to manage the sale but soon finds herself piecing together the mysterious life of Maribel Archibald Davies and her heirs: the prodigal, tennis-playing heir apparent; the fashionable niece,
designated as the estate’s executor; the loyal neighbor and keeper of the Maribel Davies flame; Davies’s heartbroken longtime lover; and the famous portraitist with whom Davies had an affair-become-scandal. Each of them makes one last visit to Calpurnia, and with each arrival, Elizabeth is drawn further into the family’s intrigues and mysteries, and closer to a revelation of its secrets.

Combining a contemporary sensibility with a rich, timeless gift for storytelling, Anne Scott has given us a classic, uniquely imagined tale of suspense.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Scott's debut novel unravels the tangled family secrets surrounding an ancestral Philadelphia manse and its deceased owner, Maribel Archibald Davies, the well-born painter and family matriarch who led a quasi-bohemian life (complete with free love and scandals, but minus the poverty). Elizabeth Oliver, the manager of the estate sale, arrives at the mansion, Calpurnia, to discover a morass of resentments and scheming among Maribel's relatives and ex-hangers-on. The mysterious circumstances of Maribel's death (murder? suicide?) foster an atmosphere of suspense. Maribel's prodigal son, Coby, has astounded his relatives and even himself with a series of spectacular failures, which lead to much suspicion about his role in his mother's death. Nina English, Maribel's beloved niece, harbors her own furtive intentions, which she covers by graciously yet pointedly accusing others. Neighbor Peg, reverent and protective of the deceased, keeps an eye on all from behind the safety of her window curtain. With her own jumbled secrets to hide, Elizabeth feels a growing connection to the enigmatic Maribel as she observes the complex, sometimes absurd efforts of the grande dame's family to act as if they are still living in the gracious era of Maribel's heyday. Each new character adds elements of intrigue and extra twists, but the overwhelming number of faces-close to 30 names are tossed about-also serve to confuse the reader and defuse some of the suspense. The intriguing, old-fashioned plot and memorable details draw the reader in, but this promising yet uneven novel never quite gathers force.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Elizabeth Oliver is overseeing the sale of an estate called Calpurnia, a large Philadelphia mansion once owned by Maribel Archibald Davies, painter and self-appointed bohemian. As Elizabeth gathers, organizes, and catalogs the items of the estate, she finds herself drawn into the family's intimate relationships as well as the mysterious circumstances surrounding Maribel's death. A set of risque prints entrenches Elizabeth further into Maribel's life than she ever anticipated or wanted. Everyone Elizabeth meets has a story to tell about Maribel as well as something to hide: Maribel's drug-addicted, tennis-playing son; her beautiful and controlling niece; her grieving longtime lover; the nosy next-door neighbor; and a long-ago lover who once painted her portrait. There isn't much of a plot, but the characters are quirky, strange, and full of contradictions. This is a strong character study and a thorough look at how one life can affect so many lives, for better or worse. Carolyn Kubisz
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (August 12, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375413804
• ISBN-13: 978-0375413803
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,945,847 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Calpurnia is a dud (mostly), December 20, 2003

By 

J. Carroll (Whittier, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Calpurnia (Hardcover)

The novel starts out well enough. An old matriarch with a scandalous past has died. The central character (Elizabeth)is set to manage the disposal of what is left of her estate. She meets various members of her family and some of her old friends and begins to unravel her past...
Except it's not much of a past. The matriarch and everyone else is pretty boring. One relative likes to watch tennis on T.V. and ruminate on the state of the game in the mid 1980s. Haven't heard people talk about Ivan Lendl for a while...
None of the two dozen characters is really very interesting and there isn't much of a climax.
The writing is pretty good and there is some atomosphere...
Best thing about "Calpurnia"? The cover photo!

2.0 out of 5 stars Fizzles out, September 21, 2010

By 

Kristin (Western WA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Calpurnia (Hardcover)

Calpurnia starts off with a promising setting and characters who look like they could be interesting and believable, but the plot never thickens. In fact far from thickening, it sort of melts about a third of the way through, and trickles away in a real anticlimax.

Anne Scott's writing style is dreamy and contemplative, not well suited for a thriller or whodunit, but that's okay -- I was expecting a gently unfolding and introspective sort of story, not a John Grisham novel. Any interesting leads Scott creates, though, seem to trail off in isolation from other plot elements, never connecting or impacting each other.

Calpurnia is less a story than a collection of idle, non-urgent questions and answers about a family's life, and it never coheres into a whole that works.

5.0 out of 5 stars Calpurnia is a Pleasurable Read, March 9, 2004

By 

Thomas Griffith (East Hampton, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Calpurnia (Hardcover)

Readers who enjoy characters with a little depth and prose that doesn't read as if it were computer generated in a marketing department somewhere will be well rewarded by investing a little time between the pages of Ms. Scott's Calpurnia.
Calpurnia is not a suspense story and it certainly is not a tennis story. -Ms. Scott will never do color commentary at Wimbleton. However, it is a good yarn that uses a house as a metaphor for changing times and people. Think Howard's End on the Main Line.

As the story ended, I was not completely ready to close the doors of Calpurnia; I wanted to linger a bit in the atomosphere and speculate on what happens next for estate agent Elizabeth, ne'er-do-well Coby and Peg the concerned friend and neighbor.