Customer Reviews

The Camomile Lawn

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Vividly paints a picture of wartime life in London and rural England, from the point of view of some unorthodox characters. It is one of my all-time favourite books - not because it is particularly 'literary' or a great classic, but because it is such an absorbing and touching read. All Mary Wesley's books are good, but this one is by far the best

I found this to be a delightful story ,set firstly in just pre-war England,about a group of cousins and how they interact with each other as the war begins. I wonder if the sexual licenses taken were really a reflection of how young people felt at that time--live for all your worth today for tomorrow we'll probably be dead-- or would it have happened an any case.You really come to grips with these characters as the book is written by a woman in her 70's who HAS lived and obviously knows what she's writing about. Great read and I'll be looking for more by Mary Wesley--a woman after ny own heart.

The book opens on the very eve of the Second World War, with five cousins on holiday at the Cornish home of their Aunt Helena and Uncle Richard (all upper middle class). Four of them (two young women, two young men) are aged 19 or 20, the fifth is Sophy who is just ten. There are also the twin sons of the local rector, who has also taken in a Jewish refugee couple, Max and Monika, from Austria. The novel traces the lives principally of these eleven characters during the war, much of it set in London. Under the intensity of life in war-time, the young people lose any conventional inhibitions they might possibly have had under other circumstances. (I say `possibly', because uninhibited behaviour had been the mark of certain young socialites in the 1920s). One can hardly keep track of the sexual permutations and combinations between them. Even middle-aged Uncle Richard and Aunt Helena have unorthodox liaisons. It is all rather rackety, and in the first half of the novel one feels the characters are driven more by sensuality than by anything deeper, with emotions only superficially engaged. But in the end they do become more deeply involved emotionally; some psychological complexities then emerge (especially for Helena and Calypso) and the reader's sympathies slowly become engaged with them. Most of the story is told as a war-time narrative; but at the end of some chapters we move on forty years or so, when those who are then still alive are converging for Max's funeral and look back on those years; so we learn something about what has happened to them since.

Some of the characters come more alive than others in the book. Especially successful, I think, is the portrait of Uncle Richard, for the most part just avoiding caricature. Calypso, the eldest of the cousins, and Sophy, the youngest, have some personality, as do Max and Monika; several other characters are not rounded out at all. All of them talk in short laconic sentences (the greater part of the book consists of dialogue), and only Richard, Max and Monika have a way of speaking which is in any way distinctive.

There is humour in this book and pathos; it shows that the intensity of war-time life brought its pleasures as well as its sorrows. It is a good read, but I think it lacks the subtlety of a great novel.

..and I loved it. I particularly like English settings during World War II, and this wasn't a disappointment! The adventures and misadventures of a group of cousins during the war, the sexual tension and attraction between two of them, and the general soap opera atmosphere is told in flashbacks by the cousins' elderly aunt as she is on her way to a funeral, the funeral of her own wartime lover. The book itself reminded me of "The Cazalet Chronicles" series by Elizabeth Jane Howard, which I also highly recommend, though with racier language. This is the first of Mary Wesley's novels that I have read, but it certainly won't be the last.

In August 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, five cousins come to spend the summer holidays with their uncle and aunt in Cornwall. (The title refers to the lawn in front of the house, which later becomes a symbol of their carefree pre-war youth). The novel then follows the changing fortunes of these five, of their Uncle Richard and Aunt Helena, of Max and Monika, an Austrian Jewish refugee couple, of the local Rector and his wife and of their twin sons, through the war. Intercut with the wartime scenes are scenes set in the 1980s, at Max's funeral, when his surviving friends and acquaintances meet to reveal what has happened to them during the intervening years.

The above synopsis might suggest that this is a lengthy novel; in fact, it is quite a short one (in my edition only 330 pages), and in my view it is the shortness of the novel which is its major problem. Miss Wesley has set herself the task of telling the stories of a large group of people, but has not allowed herself adequate space in which to perform that task. As a result, the complex story is told in insufficient detail, which means that the characters fail to come alive.

The major theme of the novel is the challenge posed to conventional ideas of morality by the changed conditions of wartime. (Most of the characters either form adulterous liaisons or indulge in casual promiscuity). This theme could have been an interesting one, but unfortunately the characters are under-developed and lack any sense of an inner life. It is therefore difficult to understand their motivation or the reasons for their behaviour, and the oportunity to develop this major theme is lost. Most of the main characters, in fact, simply come across as self-centred and lacking in feeling. Even those described as being in love are frequently unfaithful to each other. This would not matter if Miss Wesley's aim had been to create a portrait of a cold, selfish group of people, but I was left with the strong impression that she wanted to make many of them sympathetic or attractively unconventional and failed to do so. This is not a book I could recommend.

I noticed a few factual errors in the book. I will not go through them all, but I must say that, contrary to what Miss Wesley states, the conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler was not "very pro-Hitler".

Five cousins gather at their Aunt Helena's and Uncle Richard's home on the Cornish coast as they have almost every summer in their relatively short, innocent lives. It is August, 1939, and while war looms, they are very much aware they may never meet again like this, all together, on their aunt's sweet-smelling camomile lawn.

Author Mary Wesley uses the device of two intertwining narratives to tell her tale. The last summer days before WWII merge into life in war torn London and Cornwall, and the plot reflects the changes that take place in all the characters as the conflict and violence impact their lives. This storyline is intertwined with another, set in the mid-1980's, over a period of two days as the surviving members of the group gather for a funeral. The reminiscences of those gathered fill in the interval between the beginning of the war and the present.

"The Camomile Lawn" is a well written, intricate soap opera, of sorts, which illustrates how the uncertainty of war and the heightened sense of one's mortality allow for unconventional behavior and impact the social mores of the times...sort of a "live each day as if it were the last" philosophy. I enjoyed the novel, especially the well drawn characters and highly recommend it.
JANA

My very first Mary Wesley and I enjoyed it very much. The characters are somewhat unorthodox but I feel that it adds to the flavour of the book. It was a fun read and I certainly plan to read more of Mary Wesley. Highly recommended.

My grand aunt recommended Mary Wesley's books to me and I have generally found them to be engaging reads. In "The Camomile Lawn", the story begins just before the onset of WW II in 1939 England. A middle-aged couple, Helena and Richard are making preparations for their nieces and nephews' arrival at their country estate in Cornwall, the scene of family reunions since summers past. Five cousins gather here - Calypso, Polly, Oliver, Walter, and young Sophie. Oliver, fresh from the Spanish Civil War, finds himself haunted by his experiences, whilst lusting after his cousin Calypso. Calypso declares from the very beginning that she will only marry for money. Polly and Walter are siblings, but very different in character - Walter is unassuming whereas Polly is bold and knows exactly what she wants. She also develops a close relationship with a pair of twin brothers who happen to be next door neighbors.

When war breaks out, the older cousins take off to London - Walter enlists in the Navy, Polly works for the State Department, Oliver enlists in the army, and Calypso finds herself a rich and much older husband. Young Sophie finds herself confused and aimless, and has a number of troubling experiences that affects her emotionally. There are many themes here - adultery, pedophilia, grief, women's lib, and many more that are credibly dealt with. There is also another timeline set in the mid 80s which centers on a funeral, where the surviving members of this family get together and reflect upon the past, filling in the gaps between the two time periods.

This should appeal to those interested in stories focusing on human drama, relationships, and how war affected the way people behaved and wrought significant changes in social mores.

I simply cannot finish reading this patronising, overwrought, smarmy (yes, smarmy) bit of prose by a writer I wanted so much to like and admire. I kept going back to it, giving it a fifteenth or sixteenth chance, only to abandon it quickly, in favor of truly brilliant Penelope Lively or even merely skilled Rosamunde Pilcher (other mature, contemporary British female novelists).

The dialogue in the Camomile Lawn is nearly always unrealistic, the characters cartoonish, and the atmosphere / setting overly fussed over. In prewar Britain, the embarassingly good, upper class protagonists go on and on about their simpathy with the Jews (so politically correct now, simply not such an important part of upper crust 1930's Anglo Saxon sensibility), the sexy lovers dish out measured amounts of sauce and swear words... it's just an embarassing mess of an attempt to be raw and real.

I never got past the first hundred pages, and I will not seek out Wesley's other works. I really wasted my time, rolling around in a little bit more than just camomile blossoms.