Customer Reviews

Tryst

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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If movies like the "The Ghost and Mrs Muir" send a sentimental chill up your spine, prepare yourself for a treat---"Tryst", originally published in 1939, contains the same thrill of the supernatural bound by romantic love.
Lovely 17-year old Sabrina lives in the rented country estate, Nuns Farthing, with the rest of her dysfunctional family---her bitter father, Alan, and her fusty spinster aunt, Effie. From the moment the door of the room at the top of the stairs is opened for her by sympathetic and sensitive housekeeper, Mrs Pilton, imaginative and lonely Sabrina conjurs up an entire history revolving around the room's previous inhabitant, Hilary Shenstone. The Shenstones own Nuns Farthing and the youngest son, Hilary is off in India carrying on in his father's dangerous tradition of intrepid Englishman working for the Home Office. As Sabrina thumbs through Hilary's library at home, we glimpse a bit of the adventure of Hilary's life as his plane goes down miles away from Nuns Farthing. Instantaneously, thoughts of his childhood mysteriously and irrationally capture his mind, and Hilary finds this inexplicable longing compells him to make the long journey home. After much soul-seeking and understanding, Hilary reconciles with his old life and moves towards his new one back at the home of his childhood. When he arrives, Mrs. Pilton recognizes him on sight and sends him with her blessings up to his old room where she knows Sabrina innocently awaits. And as Hilary first lays eyes on the lovely fresh-faced girl, he realizes why he was driven to make this homecoming---this is the girl he is destined for, the ONE he has been waiting for up until now to make his wife. Sabrina already half in love with him from her own imaginings, cannot help but fall for him, head over heels. Magical halycon days lie ahead for a couple star crossed in their love for one another . . .except for one slight detail . . . Hilary died in the plane in India.
Sound intriguing? It is. Written in a sweet yet unsentimental way that is perfect for all age groups, the story moves along swiftly, keeping the reader wondering 'what is to become of the two lovers?' living on different planes. The likeable characters epitomize the era between the World Wars; the politeness and sensibilities portrayed enhance Sabina's wistful frustrations and emphasize Hilary's desperate need to make this one last connection work.
This bittersweet love story is recommended to all who love spending a rainy afternoon watching romantic black&white films while fantasizing about that perfect lover.

Agreeing with all the other reviewers, this is one of the best romantic stories I have ever read, as well as a stunning and beautifully handled novel on the afterlife. Along with the film The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Tryst is one of the wonderful stories about love that truly meant something, not like what we read about or see in films lately. The book is emotionally moving, but also intelligent, being a contrast to a lot of the nonsense being written these days. This is a hopeful story as well as a tragic one, and it has haunted me for nearly 30 years. I was ecstatic to discover it was in print!

I read this book when I was in high school, remembered it deeply, clearly, and have hunted for a copy of it for nearly two decades. It's a very sweet love story, with all the undercurrents and tensions of complex human lives. I agree with the reviewer that said that the situation of the out-of-sync lovers is both memorable and so deftly resolved.

I loved this book enough to search it out after decades of remembering it.

This book is one of the memorable ones from my adolescence. I was a freshman in high school at Ursuline Academy in Wilmington Dealware, when my school had a book fair with a bookmobile full of new books for sale. I picked out Tryst, read it, fell in love with it, and read it over and over again through my high school years. It was the perfect read for an introverted, bookish teenage girl who, like Sabrina, had a much more romantic idea of love than what passed for romance with the silly boys wanting to make out in the back seats of cars.

Hilary and Sabrina - a love story, a ghost story, a romance of adventure even though Sabrina never leaves the staid English countryside.

I have a used book business now, and I listed my battered old copy of Tryst for sale, for $26. I couldn't resist, most mass market paperbacks have far less resale value. Obviously, there are others who appreciate this book and love it as I do.

Yesterday somebody bought my copy. So I had to give it one last read. i stayed up all night, carefully turning pages so as not to make a well-worn book even more so. I just finished it again, and will ship it tomorrow. Sigh. Will I ever see the book again? It is true, it reads as well for a 55 year old as for a 14 year old.

...perfectly balanced, perfectly plotted, and perfectly wonderful.

I wish I had written this book. I wish I *could* have written this book. Tryst is the story of a love that death could not destroy, and is my favorite romance book ever. Sabrina and Hilary transcend time, and their love will widen the range of your heart.

Simply put, TRYST is the single most romantic book I've ever read. Sweet without being soppy, romantic without being cheaply sentimental, TRYST is the wistful, delightful love story of Sabrina and Hilary, two of the most truly lovable characters in all of fiction. Forget the box of Kleenex -- grab yourself a lace-edged linen handkerchief and a sunny window seat and revel in a pure true love that death can't end and time can't cheat.

"You will find yourself reading this one over and over. The plight of these out-of-sync lovers and the resolution is very touching. It has many moments of light humor, wonderful descriptions of England in that period and well-developed characters. Treat yourself to this wonderful book." (my earlier review)

Ms Thane's descriptions are perfect of the young girl's fascination with the forbidden room in their rented country house and of Hilary Shenstone return from a premature death. The characters and situations delight the reader. The romance touches my feelings with each rereading.

I was introduced to TRYST in 1967 when I was a high school senior. I have read TRYST again every year and still love it dearly. What is it about this extraordinary book, written in the 1930s that still holds so many of us enthralled? The idea of eternal love, that death is no barrier to? Young Sabrina, sheltered by her aloof father and somewhat dingy aunt, comes to a home called Nuns Farthing and falls in love with an absent son of the family -- away on a mission in India. She loves him sight unseen and waits for his return. But the Fates have thrown them a curve ball. Nonetheless, Hilary and Sabrina find one another. The philosophies in this book come out the more you read -- the thing you're reaching for won't be there until it's time for you to have it. Hilary and Sabrina may be star-crossed lovers, but their story is one that continues to touch the hearts of all who read it. It is timeless -- in every sense of the word.

I was first introduced to this book by Miss Florence Naudain, the high school librarian at Corinth Central School in upstate New York. It was the late 1960's or early 1970's--I graduated in 1974. I went to her and asked for a "ghost story," and she suggested Tryst.

Miss Naudain knew best, and this romantic tale has stayed in my mind all this time. I finally bought a copy from Amazon and finished reading it last night--I thought about reading only a few pages a day to draw it out and keep the story from ending but I couldn't stop reading it. It was as wonderful as I had remembered, and the tears were flowing down my face by the last page. Wonderful!

No other book compares! My favorite since I first read it when I was 13. Every time I read it my heart aches for Hilary and Sabrina's misfortune. Miss Thane weaves a rather believable ghost love story that you will want to read over and over again!!