Set in Stone [Library Binding]

Linda Newbery (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 9, 2009

When Samuel Godwin, a young and naive art tutor, accepts a job with the Farrow family at Fourwinds, their majestic home, little does he expect to come across such a web of secrets and lies. His two tutees are as different as chalk and cheese - the beautiful younger sister Marianne, full of flightiness and nervous imagination, and Juliana, controlled and sad. With their governess, Charlotte Agnew, Samuel begins to uncover slowly the horrifying truth behind Juliana's sadness and Marianne's emotional fragility. Their discoveries change their perception of life at Fourwinds for ever and none of their lives will ever be the same again. With her usual brilliance and ease, Linda Newbery has written a haunting and faultlessly plotted novel with characters that leap of the page and stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up—The setting, set-up, and characters in this entertaining suspense novel are pure Victorian Gothic. At the close of the 19th century, an earnest young artist named Samuel Godwin has been hired by a wealthy man to tutor his elder daughter at their magnificent country estate. Samuel arrives by foot on a moonlit night, hears wild shrieking in the woods, and encounters a seemingly mad young girl in a nightdress before he reaches the front door. Pushing his forebodings aside, Samuel enters the life of the household and becomes obsessed with the vibrant younger sister, Marianne, who is a talented artist. The secluded mansion is a hothouse of repressed emotions, and Samuel begins to suspect that this family is a lot more complicated than it appears. His sleuthing leads to a crescendo of climactic revelations. Readers learn that there is a secret baby, that the baby is the older daughter's son, and that the prime suspect for fatherhood is gay and so "couldn't" have fathered the child. This is just the beginning. There is incest, another unacknowledged child, an attempted suicide, and the accidental-on-purpose drowning of the predatory father during a raging storm. The potboiler action would seem to presage an equally dramatic ending. But the final pages are more autumnal in mood, a look back on the compromises and losses throughout the characters' lives. Only Marianne appears unscathed; still vibrant, she leads a bohemian life of art and lovers, in the very house her father built.—Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

At first, this novel, set in Sussex in the late nineteenth century, seems like a conventional gothic, complete with a plain governess and an attractive, widowed head of household. But it is so much more. Samuel Godwin arrives at Fourwinds, the home of Ernest Farrow and his teenage daughters, the despondent Juliana and the wild, erratic Marianne. Hired to tutor the girls, Samuel soon feels real affection for them, as well as for their governess, Charlotte. He reveres Mr. Farrow, not just because he is treated well but also because of Farrow's keen interest in art and architecture. He soon learns, however, that the household is not what it seems, and that to solve one mystery only uncovers another. Samuel and Charlotte alternately narrate the chapters, and it is at first hard to pick up who is speaking--especially as readers race to strip away the layers of deception that include suicide, incest, and illegitimacy. Evocatively written and carefully crafted (though with one too many surprises), this will tantalize readers. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Library Binding: 357 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439583269
• ISBN-13: 978-1439583265
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,163,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a wonderfully absorbing read, October 13, 2007

By 

tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Set in Stone (Hardcover)

I don't read children's fiction much; but I had to put a display together and write a few shelf talkers for the books I had chosen. And while "Set in Stone" promised to be an interesting and good read, I didn't expect too much from the book. How wrong I was. "Set in Stone" proved to be such a well written and wonderfully absorbing book, that I stayed up to finish the book.

In late nineteenth century England, young Samuel Godwin is hired by the wealthy owner of Fourwinds, Ernest Farrow, to tutor both of Ernest's daughter's on the finer points of drawing and painting. For the impoverished Samuel, who has a mother and a sister to provide for, this job is like a godsend -- a generous employer, the beautiful and enchanting Fourwinds, two pretty and talented students -- could any employee ask for anything more. But soon, Samuel senses that there is something rather odd about the entire setup at Fourwinds. The governess, Charlotte Agnew, seems to be very anxious and watchful, and very protective of her charges; the two Farrow sisters seem to be wrapped up in a scandal from the past; while the behaviour of Mr. Farrow leads Samuel to suspect that he has been specially chosen for a particular purpose. Before long, Samuel finds himself enmeshed in the strange atmosphere at Fourwinds, and finds himself compelled to unravel all the mysteries that Fourwinds seems to be hiding...

I kept thinking about how alike "Set in Stone" was to Wilkie Collins' "The Woman in White" -- the impoverished art teacher who finds himself drawn to one of his charges and mixed up in the scandals and secrets of the gentry -- not only was the storyline somewhat similar but like "The Woman In White," "Set in Stone" was also magnificently layered with atmosphere and mystery. I like a good gothic novel, and had read quite a few gothic novles as a teen. So I was pleased to discover that good gothics were still being published for teens. True the very last secret seems a tad over the top but that's a small price to pay for a well crafted and beautifully written gothic novel. Absorbing and compelling, "Set in Stone" is an excellent choice as a recommendation for a young reader you're hoping to introduce Wilkie Collins to one day.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stones Set in Scandal, April 17, 2009

By 

Jeannie Mancini "vernefan" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Set in Stone (Mass Market Paperback)

Set in Stone by Linda Newbery is an atmospheric Victorian gothic novel with stirrings of family drama, love, passion, and hidden secrets. What a tantalizing novel this turned out to be! I was expecting a rather predictable light and easy turn of the century gothic romantic suspense story and was pleasantly surprised to be led down other paths I had not anticipated, which is always so much fun to encounter. This enchanting novel is about the lives of one widowed father gone mad, Ernest Farrow, two teenager daughters; Juliana and Marianne who are opposites in temperament, one somber and withdrawn, the other an untamed wild girl with a vivid imagination. They are cared for by a doting spinster governess named Charlotte who has her own secrets she covets, and an invited local painter, Samuel Godwin, that is brought into their magnificent mansion they call Fourwinds, to teach the girls the art of drawing and painting.

The story, taking place just outside of London in the English countryside, opens dramatically with the youngest daughter Marianne colliding with her new tutor as he opens the gates to their home in a cloud of mist and fog. Immediate mystery and mayhem draws the reader in as Samuel's first impression of Marianne is that she is a madwoman recently escaped from an asylum. Nearly knocking him over in the street, she rambles on hysterically about needing him to help her find a certain lost Mr. Westwind, leaving Samuel to believe the girl deranged. Samuel listens to her incoherent hysteria, but thankfully is quickly rescued by Charlotte as she shepherds him and the crazed young woman into the house. Other proper introductions are immediately made to the other residents of the household. Samuel is soon swept up into what he believes is going to be a simple luxurious job of tutoring two young ladies. When the reader realizes that Samuel is basically of the same age as the two girls and even the governess, it is easy to assume that a romance with one of them is imminent. However, Samuel very quickly realizes he was manipulated into this household of mysterious occupants by Mr Farrow who dangled the carrot of advancing his art career, but had his own secret agenda for Samuel's true purpose amongst them.

This is a riveting story that brews and bubbles slowly, giving you the initial feelings of a Jane Austen novel touched by Victoria Holt or Phyllis Whitney, who were great authors of this gothic genre. Newbery creates a feel of sensual awareness between the players and soon evokes remarkable sensations and story attributes to make the reader wonder just what in the world is really going on behind closed doors and in the hallways of Fourwinds. All is not as it seems as shocking revelations are chiseled and carved into the pages offering glimpses into a family quite filled with corruption and deceit. Ample doses of horrible acts, family betrayals, and desperate actions that slowly unravel page after page, leave the reader gasping in shock and losing the ability to breathe, so absorbed they will be.

The author provides many impressions that fight for dominance in this story; love, family obligation, murder, mystery, sexually scandalous acts, and a nicely added dollop of art craftsmanship, all jockeying for position while arousing the reader for a compelling and curious read.

I have one complaint with Set in Stone. This story is marketed for young adults 9yrs old and up, and I honestly feel that due to the heavy content of this book involving sexual acts and violence, that this is more an adult novel and not for young teenagers. 14 yrs old and up would be fine, maybe, but I would certainly caution parents for younger children. There are no graphic descriptions per se, but the story details finely just what acts these characters are engaging in and leaves nothing to the imagination. Beyond that comment I loved this novel because it held so many surprises I had not anticipated, and I found Newbery's writing skill to be of a very high quality. Wow on this one!