Love and War: An Upstairs Downstairs Saga [Hardcover]

Anne Herries (Author)

Book Description

Series: Upstairs Downstairs Saga | Publication Date: September 1, 2008

With war declared, life at Trenwith Hall will never be the same again.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Herries’ involving saga of the people of Trenwith Hall continues as World War I begins. Jack and Rose Barlow have grown up in Trenwith, and they serve the family as their parents did, but now they head out, join up, and hope for a new life. Jack plans to return to England after the war and become a mechanic. When he is injured in France and loses his memory, he is taken in by a young woman running a farm alone. When he regains his memory, will he return to England or stay behind and be thought a deserter? Rose volunteers as a hospital aide. She thinks fondly of Luke, heir to Trenwith Hall, but marries a young officer who is shot down. So she is alone, believing that her brother is dead. Luke keeps the truth of her brother’s situation a secret as well as his longing for his former maid. Once again, Herries intertwines personal and social conflicts into a captivating story. --Maria Hatton

Product Details

• Hardcover: 219 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727866575
• ISBN-13: 978-0727866578
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,782,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Love and Bore, oops, War, October 27, 2011

By 

SusieQ (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love and War: An Upstairs Downstairs Saga (Hardcover)

I had to force myself to finish this novel, which is never a good thing. The book is not long, but the pace is draggy, and with a plot and characters as dry and unexciting as these, it was a definite chore to finish LOVE AND WAR.

I'm an unashamed lover of fiction and non-fiction about Edwardian-era aristocrat and servant classes, with the First World War thrown into the mix. That's what attracted me to LOVE AND WAR in the first place. But maybe all that reading has given me too much familiarity with the time period. It also makes it difficult for me to forgive a novelist who just doesn't have the writing chops to bring off a touching love story, or is too weak a writer to create a believable, albeit fictionalized, 1910's atmosphere and background for her characters.

I think many authors who try to use this period of time totally miss the mark. Ms. Herries uses what I can only term 'stock characters' of masters and servants - for example, the hidebound aristocratic parents; the devoted family butler; the aristocrat son who goes reluctantly but dutifully to war, and the servant girl who's on the move away from her class. And she uses stock situations, like the potential love affair that's hinted to happen between the last two (in the next installment of this trilogy). And then the author throws in some bare 'stock' about the First World War, such as army superiors who are cruel to the main characters, or don't know their arse from their elbow in conducting the war, and that trenches are crappy places to be, what with the cold and mud.

Of course, many of these things are based in fact, but the writer who chooses to re-use them fictionally needs to bring something new to the table - fresh nuances, emotional resonance - BELIEVABLITY. Otherwise, it's all just (at least for me): been there, read that.

I don't knock Ms. Herries for trying to write something of her own about a family and its servants during the First World War, but I do knock her for being un-original, unmemorable, and just really dull. It doesn't help that the writing doesn't 'flow' at all. It's flat as a pancake and oddly abrupt at times, lacking gracefulness.

Also, I have to mention that I was immediately struck by the odd fact that she seems to have borrowed a little from the Poldark series by Winston Graham when it comes to surnames for her characters, particularly Carne and Trenwith. One name I might have overlooked - but two? And why use Rose for the name of the maid (shades of Rose the house parlourmaid from the old TV serial, Upstairs, Downstairs)?