Customer Reviews

Nine Coaches Waiting

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like most of Mary Stewart's novels, this one also centers around a beautiful and brave heroine. However, each and every one of these novels are different in content as well as in plot, so that even though you think you know what the outcome is going to be, in reality you don't! I read most of Mary Stewart's novels when I was a teenager (when I used to borrow them), but 15 years down the road, I find myself rummaging through bookstores for them - to be able to reread them, but more because I want to own my own copies (so that I can reread them yet again in a few year's time)! (Hint: London bookstores carry many of them, esp. Dillon's and Books Etc..) 'Nine Coaches Waiting' is great in the sense that it transports the reader into the rustic countryside of France, which Mary Stewart describes, as always, with so much pleasurable detail. The sense of mystery is heightened as the heroine searches for the truth behind the troubled family for whom she works; and the romance is made more even more romantic with the notions of 'unrequited love' and 'forbidden love'. I think that with most Mary Stewart's novels, there is never a huge emphasis on romantic love in terms of action or words, but better still, she concentrates on the inner feelings of longing and sacrifice (esp. before the official 'start' of a relationship) which serve to enhance the romantic atmosphere of her books.

I have read quite a few of Mary Stewart's books and for anyone who is interested "This Rough Magic" ties with "Nine Coaches". "The Moon-Spinners" is very good, so is "My Brother Michael" and "Airs Above the Ground". These are more along the romance line as opposed to fantasy as in "The Crystal Cave" which was very good but a different style of story.

I first found Mary Stewart when I was rather young The Wonderful World of Disney did "The Moon-Spinners" with Haley Mills. I was hooked and I still enjoy her books as true mystery romances with the covers falling off and all.

They don't write books like this anymore. Sadly, even the author didn't write books like this for long. Her writing has deteriorated since the Merlin books (which I also disliked), but her 1950s and 1960s romantic suspense were superb. What do we need to do to get more of Stewart's works reissued in paperback? If there's a petition, I want to sign it.

The language is lovely, the setting as much a character as the protagonists themselves. The mystery is wonderfully crafted with just the right element of whimsy, allusion, magic and sophisticated romance. Ms. Stewart has the formula down to an almost perfect science; she is the wordsmith of description. As all her novels have been virtually overlooked by today's readers, I recommend that all her earlier books be re-issued in trade paperback format, so that another generation may enjoy the almost perfect structural honing of her craft. While categorized as 'romantic suspence', I don't believe these stories were ever given the literary praise they deserve.

Linda Martin, an English governess, accepts what she considers the perfect position. She is put in charge of young Philippe de Valmy, nine years old and heir to the Chateau Valmy in France. The unusual requirement for this position was the governess was to know no French. Reason given for this strange requirement was that young Philippe was learn English perfectly with no help in his native tongue. Linda wanting the job desperately, lies and thinks no more of it...That is until some strange and dangerous incidents occur; and she realizes that someone is out to harm young Philippe. The likely suspects are his uncles, who would stand to inherit the Chateau if the young boy died.

Not a mystery alone, this novel also a wonderful love story as Linda falls in love with Raul Valmy. Raul also stands to inherit the Chateau and Linda is torn between her love him and her love and the need to protect young Philippe. "Nine Coaches Waiting" was a beautifully written book that held my attention. I've read it many, many times, enjoyed it and consider it a "Classic."

This was a wonderful book. One of my favorites by Mary Stewart. Ms. Stewart is a master of description......she had my mouth watering as she described the meal of asperagas soup and steak Linda and Philipe ate as they were running away from the villian. Also, my heart was pounding as they hid in the mountain cabin while the henchman searched for them just steps away.

I agree with the other reviewer who asked why more of Ms. Stewart's book cannot be found in new print. My books are in tatters! Please reprint more of her books!!

Like several of the reviewers below, I read Nine Coaches Waiting when I was very young - in fact, all of 14 years old. It was the epitome of romance for me then, and in the years since I feel the same. I hope my teenaged nieces read this novel, and any young girl who loves a truly quality romantic suspense story. Today we have pornography instead of love, explicit violence takes the place of the aura of danger, heightened by imagination. This book is for the sensitive, those who are yet unjaded by the surfeit of sensation purveyed today in films and trashy novels. This is a beautiful story, full of fascination. It does start slowly, but so does Jane Eyre. The heroine in both must reach a mysterious and dark stranger, and win his love. What a spark for a young girl's imagination!

I first read this book years ago as a young girl. When I reread it, I was delightfully surprised and just as absorded as the first time that I traveled through the pages of the mind of this truly amazing writer! Mary Stewart has and will always be one of my favorite novelist. Do yourself a favor; enjoy the summer and take along the roadmap to exotic and unexpected travel (near & far);where excitment and suspense awaits; history unfolds, peppered with a just the right touch of romance. Let Mary Stewart be your guide on this adventure!

Next to Jane Eyre, the best "governess goes to the big spooky mansion" type of romantic novel. Has all the elements: a Cinderalla type love story, suspense, danger, and heroism. Excellently written and very superior to anything done in the past twenty or even thirty years. I first read this in high school, borrowed from the local library, and always wanted a copy, but was not able to find a copy of it until I started using Amazon. Reading it, I really became aware of how much romantic fiction has declined since then. The sheer quality of the writing is so good. Mary Stewart's best contemporary romance. I wish she had written more.

I first read this book when I was in High School--I think it was the first modern romantic fiction I ever encountered. Now that I'm nearly 40 years older than I was then, there are little quirks of writing that are more noticeable (the heroine seems to bite her lip rather frequently, for instance), but all in all, the tale has held up well.

The story concerns the trials and tribulations of 23-year-old Linda Martin, born and raised in France but more recently schooled in an orphanage in England, who returns to France as the governess of the young Comte Phillipe de Valmy. Phillipe, unfortunately, is all that stands between his uncle Leon, who is his guardian, and the Valmy estate, which Leon loves with an obsessive love made stronger by the fact that he is a paraplegic (I did mention melodrama, didn't I?). Circumstance piles on circumstance until Linda realizes that she must save Phillipe, even if this dooms her own budding romance with Leon's son, Raoul.

Part of what makes Linda a real person to me is that she's very well-educated--not so much by her orphanage, but by her very literary papa. Because Linda's thoughts are full of literary allusions, Mary Stewart can play with all the stories of misunderstood maidens, poor governesses, and handsome wrecks of men. Cinderella walks hand in hand with Jane Eyre, and Lady Macbeth is also in evidence. By bringing these allusions to the fore, Sewart cleverly escapes the charge of repetition and makes what one might call the history of melodrama part of the plot.

Mary Stewart is also a genuinely good writer. Thus, tense scenes have real tension, and romantic scenes have real romance. While she always stays within the conventions of the Gothic novel form, she does it with grace, elegance, and even, at times, beauty.