Consequences: A Novel [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Penelope Lively (Author), Josephine Bailey (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 20, 2007

Consequences is a love-story-times-three that opens on the eve of the Second World War, with a chance meeting in St. James's Park, London. Wholly in love, Lorna and Matt leave the city for a cottage in a rural Somerset village. Their intimate life together is shattered when the war begins and by Matt's tragic death in action.Twenty years later, their daughter, Molly, happens upon a forgotten newspaper-a seemingly small moment that leads to her first job and, eventually, a pregnancy by a wealthy man who wants to marry her but whom she does not love. But it is her own daughter, Ruth, who begins the journey that will take her back to 1941-and a redefinition of herself and of love.Told in Lively's incomparable prose, Consequences is a powerful story of growth, death, and rebirth and a study of the previous century-its major and minor events, its shaping of public consciousness, and its changing of lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Booker and Whitbread prize–winner Lively begins her 14th novel, a multigenerational love story, in a London park in 1935, ends it nearly 70 years later after covering several lifetimes of love and heartbreak. The story starts when Lorna Bradley and Matt Faraday meet in St. James Park; they are instantly drawn to one another despite her upper-crust upbringing and Matt's "tradesman" profession. After their marriage, they settle in the country where Matt works as an engraver and Lorna fulfills her domestic role as a wife and mother to their daughter, Molly. It is an idyllic situation until Matt is drafted and sent to Egypt, where he is killed in action. Lorna and young Molly relocate to London, and Lorna works with Matt's friend Lucas at his small printing press. Predictably, Lucas and Lorna marry, but she dies giving birth to Simon. The narrative diverges as grown-up Molly finds employment as a library assistant and has an affair with a wealthy man who fathers her child, Ruth. Grown and with children of her own, Ruth's curiosity about her ancestors sends her on a journey that brings the novel full circle. Lively (A Stitch in Time; Moon Tiger) has crafted a fine novel: intricate, heartbreaking and redemptive. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine

In spare, elegant prose, Booker Prize-winner Penelope Lively (Moon Tiger, 1987) examines the nature of happiness and romantic love against the fast-moving zeitgeist of 20th-century England. Lively's characters are engaging and likable-so much so, in fact, that it can be difficult to let one generation go as the next takes center stage. A few critics lamented the swift pace and brevity of Lively's 14th novel-a whirlwind of 70 years in 258 pages-but her painstaking plotting eases the reader through the different eras she so accurately describes. The magical, passionate story of Lorna and Matt may be the most captivating, but readers will no doubt be moved by the tales of all three generations.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged edition (August 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400105021
• ISBN-13: 978-1400105021
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,491,270 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, July 30, 2007

By 

Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Consequences (Hardcover)

Normally, I never read other reviews before writing my own, for fear they will inadvertently change what I am going to say. This time, for some reason, I read the "Editorial Reviews," and I am horrified.

"Consquences" is not meant to be a "sweeping saga of several generations of women." Instead, it is the measured, thoughtful look at people, men and women, whose entire lives are changed by chance--a rest on a park bench, a chance meeting at a job, a problem at a poetry reading. And in each case, the protagonists themselves, and yes, particularly the women, realize that if not for this tiny happenstance, their lives would have been that of somebody else. For instance, if you make a mistake in sleeping with a man you do not really love, but that relationship results in a beloved daughter that you cherish forever, was the initial situation truly a mistake?

If a bored young woman hadn't run out of the house in tears after a fight with her mother, would she have met the love of her life?

And so on and so forth. Woven throughout the novel are the stories of four women, beginning with Lorna as mentioned above, who escapes her rigidly upper-class family in pre-war England to settle down with an equally young artists in a bare-bones cottage. They have a daughter, whose fate is similarly sealed, as is that of HER daughter...and all of these quick quirks of time, so fleeting, have changed every life.

I found the book well-written as always, and absolutely fascinating. It is well worth the read and leaves one thinking in the end.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fate is Formulaic but fine reading too, January 2, 2008

By 

readernyc "readernyc" (New York City, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Consequences (Hardcover)

I had a flu; it was New Years' Eve and everyone was out having fun or no fun. I had to admonish myself not to go the route of self-pity and so I read Consequences right through, losing myself to Penelope Lively's three decades cast of characters.

Although falling in love via Lively is somewhat formulaic I found this book's characters quite wonderful. From Lorna and Matt, whose romance is the first and very well developed, to daugher Molly, who finds love rather later in life, to the granddaughter Ruth, whose story was most obviously plotted, I felt all were interesting people, living from 1935-2001+ and it kept my interest on a pretty hot boil.

Though as David Denby, the film critic observed about the popular Mexican film (name?) that you can't have fate and formulaic together, I will post the film's name when it comes to me: I also enjoyed said unnamed film as much as I did this novel. It was in fact rather comforting to see how falling in love via this author is so very sweet even as it has consequences and I also liked very much arriving back at the beginning here with the third generation living in the same place with the same art we saw being made at the beginning. I highly recommend this book and once "in" it is pretty great and definitely involving, many well drawn bohemian characters.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Consequences: Something Logical or Naturally That Follows, July 11, 2007

By 

prisrob "pris," (New England USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Consequences (Hardcover)

4.5 stars

"Consequences: Something that logically or naturally follows from an action or condition.
The relation of a result to its cause.
A logical conclusion or inference." Dictonarly.com


"The women are buffeted by events but do not break. The consequences come from their refusal to conform; which generally leads to happiness." Ruaridh Nicoll.


Penelope Lively manages to tell a story of three generations of women, from the early 1930's to the present. The book is always emotionally full. Each sentence gives the feel of conveying the story and emotions of the moment; it's describing without being fussed over. The combination of personal life and historical events is Penelope Lively's forte in fiction This latest story begins in 1935, with an unhappy rich girl, Lorna, sits weeping on a bench in St James's Park. Nearby, a young man, Matt, sketches the ducks. "Their accidental meeting will later be described as the opening of a game of consequences, from which flows a long, rich narrative." Livley. Lorna and Matt and their child, Molly. Molly develops into a a beautiful young woman and has a child out of wedlock. Later on Molly marries and her life begins again. Ruth, the daughter carries on the tradition of independence and marries, has children and the natural consequences follow.

'Consequences' has a great feel and story lines. For me,it falls short of developing the characters in depth. The story jumps from one decade to the next. Penelope Lively replays memories. Penelope Lively sets her novel in the lovely lands of England.

"And "Consequences," despite its shadows, is also a joyous ever-widening dance. At its center shimmers the idea of resiliency, of the continuity of humankind as embodied in one family, shattered and reconstituted, fragile, stubborn, enduring." Nancy Kline

I often speak of a novel that affected me as a journey. Penelope Lively's 'Consequence' is a return for me of the storyline that brings me great satisfaction. Her prose and her style bring me to a new place each read. A traditional novel that equates great love to great happiness.

Highly Recommended. prisrob 07-11-07