The Middle Ground [Mass Market Paperback]

Margaret Drabble (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 1989

The classic bigraphy of Queen Victoria, reissued in advance of the centenary of her death. Lady Longford regards her with undisguised affection and respect - respect for the iron sense of duty which impelled the secluded widow to emerge at last and rule her empire as a mother, her family as a Queen.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire in 1939, and is the younger sister of A.S. Byatt. Margaret's novel THE MILLSTONE won the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize and she was granted a Society of Author's Travelling Fellowship in the mid-1960's. She received the James Tait Black and the E.M. Forster awards, and was awarded the CBE in 1980. She has three children and lives in London with her second husband, biographer Michael Holroyd. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Ivy Books (January 30, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804103623
• ISBN-13: 978-0804103626
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,976,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Margaret Drabble is the author of The Sea Lady, The Seven Sisters, The Peppered Moth, and The Needle's Eye, among other novels. She has written biographies of Arnold Bennett and Angus Wilson, and she is the editor of the fifth and sixth editions of The Oxford Companion to English Literature. For her contributions to contemporary English literature, she was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2008.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A modern Dickens, March 4, 2011

By 

Vital Spark (Or, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Middle Ground (Mass Market Paperback)

The Middle Ground is another great novel from Margaret Drabble. I guess the title refers to that period in a person's life when the weight and seeming responsibilities of youth have been seen to be what they are: youthful egocentrism and arrogance. To come to that realization is both a release and a challenge: where do we go from here?

Kate Armstrong has reached thst point in her life. The mother of three children, she feels that men are impossible, and yet: "They (she and her ex lover)would gaze at one another forever, good friends perhaps, old allies, old enemies,across this impossible void...trying new voices, new gestures, making true efforts to hear, to listen, to understand.But hopelessly, hopelessly. Admit defeat....men and women can never be close. They can hardly speak to one another in the same language.But are compelled forever, to try, and therefore even in defeat there is no peace." (P 236).

She looks back on the frustrations of a stultifying upbringing; she copes in the present with the difficulties of her complicated life in London in the 1980's; and when we leave her she's sitting on her bed, wondering what to wear, excitedly anticipating a party to which too many people have been invited, at which things can, and probably will, go wrong.She is bravely facing an unknown future, and this reader, for one, feels emboldened by her example in this wonderful, life-affirming novel.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An English Women of Lower Class Origins Who's Finally Made It, May 18, 2009

By 

Bonnie Brody "Book Lover and Knitter" (Port St. Lucie, FL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Middle Ground (Mass Market Paperback)

I am surprised that there are no other reviews of this novel. Margaret Drabble is an English writer who has written several novels. I am a fan of Ms. Drabbles' work and enjoyed this novel very much.

It is about an English woman who is somewhat 'hip', of lower class origins, who has finally made it. There is a lot of character analysis of her, along with her friends and lovers and their intermingling lives. The book is fun and very readable.