Customer Reviews

Debutantes Hb

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Debutantes is a wonderful novel that really allows you to get involved with the lives of the three girls and their world of the constant parties, teas, and the social funtions of a season in London. For anyone that loves this time in history the novel is perfect for you. Mrs. Bingham is a wonderfully detailed writer describing every detail of their lives, from clothes to the london enviorment around them. By the end of the novel, I really felt like I knew the three very different but wonderful girls and I really cared what happened to them. Debutantes is a incredible story and very interesting. It really makes you want to dash away with the heroines and their life in the London Season! Read it, it's wonderful!

This is the best book that I've read this year. It's an interconnecting story of three debutantes, young ladies who are being presented to polite society at the turn of the 19th century. It's a fascinating observance of the mores and morals of English society at that time, with its strict obsrvances of the codes of etiquette, without which, anyone not quite up to scratch, could be easily weeded out. The author has gone into great detail about the clothing worn by the three girls and their chaperones, and I must say that I found it incredible that ladies of that time, were dressed from head to toe by their maids, including their most intimate apparel, and were virtually incapable of dressing themselves. It's a good story with revenge, deceit and plain old lust rearing their heads, and would certainly recommend this book to any lover of historical or Edith Wharton type historical tales.

A good historical novel about 3 debutantes in England during the 19th century. The author tells each woman's story separately and then brings them to London for the season and for their debut at court. The main story revolves around the revenge of one of the girl's patrons on Lady Evesham. This is a good read if you like historical novels and if you enjoy reading about the English aristocracy.

Loved the storyline and the characters portrayed in the book. Making one glad those bygone days of coming out are no longer with us as much as before. You felt sorry for the pressure put upon the girls expected to land a rich and titled husband because the general rule was that girls were worth nothing except to be good wives by marrying well. If you read this book you really must read The Season next. The sequel to Debutantes and continuation of once upon a time.

There are three things that upset me about this novel:
1) There are too many characters that we are introduced to, who I would have liked to have revisted, even if it was just a "Portia passed him on the street, but he was so preoccupied with blah blah blah." For example Louisa Forrester, Dick Ward, Richard Tradescant, Uncle Lampard, Sarah Jenkins and Daisy Landford/Evensham. The fact that there is no postscript or epilogue telling us the fate of the final character really is a let down since the entire novel revolved around her in one way or another.
SPOLIER 2) Did EVERYONE have to have a happy ending? Even Aunt Tattie?
3) Okay so unless you have some knowledge about the life of Oscar Wilde, you will be at a loss to the significance of his trial. Bingham keeps alluding to it, but no character ever really discusses it. It is passed over with such trite lines as 'Alice Danby knew that discussing such matters in detail with a young lady who has not yet come out is beyond propriety'or some such variation. Just tell us what the significance was and how it would have affected anyone other than Uncle Lampard. (For those who don't know basically, Oscar Wilde was on trial for being gay).Whenever it was mentioned I felt that it was part of a thesis paper, it was written for a certain group of people who would be the only ones to grasp the significance.