Customer Reviews

A Woman Named Smith

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

 

 

Sophy Smith is a thirtysomething-year-old woman working as a secretary. She's accepted that nothing exciting is going to happen in her life. Then she inherits Hynds House from Sophronisba Scarlett, a horrible great-aunt only related to Sophy by marriage who only left her the house in order to spite her neighbors.

Sophy and her friend Alicia arrive at the house and find that it's a mess, but it's a mess full of valuable old furniture and things, and they set to work cleaning it up. Everyone in town seems to hate them except for their neighbors on either side. They are Dr. Richard Geddes -- sarcastic and short-tempered, but kind -- and Nicholas Jelnik -- mysterious, musical, and dazzlingly handsome -- and both of them are related to the Hynds family. There is also a Hynds family mystery, a cache of jewels that went missing sometime in the 18th century.

This book starts off a bit slow, but it picks up once Sophy and Alicia finish restoring the house and start making it into a sort of upscale boarding house. The first person they invite to stay is The Author, a famous literary figure who is never given a name. He falls in love with the house and doesn't seem to want to leave. I love fictional famous people, and The Author is hugely entertaining. Other guests include a suffragist, a famous illustrator, and a lady from Boston with an interest in the occult, and with the help of their guests, Dr. Geddes, and Jelnik, the two girls win over the townspeople. And Sophy gets proposed to by Geddes, Jelnik, and The Author.

I won't say which one she says yes to, although it's obvious pretty early on, but I will say this: I'm often disappointed in the heroine's choice of husband, as I am here. But I'm only a little disappointed, which says a lot, considering how much I liked one of the guys who got turned down.

Seriously, this book has everything. The haunted house, the missing jewels, the lost -- and not so lost -- family members, the mysterious personage in Oriental costume, the car crash, the nearly fatal illness...there's even a mummy and a secret midnight visit to a graveyard. What more could one want?

I should add that since this was published in 1919 and is set in the south, there're a lot of stereotypes about black servants, which can be kind of off-putting. I've learned to bypass that kind of thing without thinking about it too hard.

This story has words that seem dated, but the story they reveal is timeless. The humor and romance are completely and thoroughly at home in any age. I think the other reviews have covered the one drawback, but no one but myself could tell you how much i enjoyed this book and how i yearned to get back to reading it.

great novel with insight to the previous century. this matches stories from my grandmither. grab a dictionary some of the words are archiac. loved it thanks volunteers.

This book is wonderful! The authors use of "archaic" language has to be taken with a grain of salt. This book was written before the Civil Rights movement, before Women's Suffrage was fully in place, and is set in the South around the turn of the century. Remember a classic called "Uncle Tom's Cabin? That novel also uses period language and doesn't make it any less of a great book. This will be a book that I will pull out every once in a while for a long time. Love always prevails!

This was a moderately fun mystery/romance. At first I didn't realize it was written in the early 1900s, and was wondering why this lady was writing like my Grandmother spoke. There are some holes in the plot which require suspension of disbelief, and the romantic relationships are extremely predictable, but the book has it's positive attributes. Some of the characters are quirky and interesting and overall the author does a good job with character development.
It is a happy book, with nice interactions and relationships between people. The writing style was sometime a little pretentious I thought, but in general she wrote well without excessive use of awkward adverbs which I don't like. She writes with a nice wit that keeps a little chuckle going. Much of the story is told with dialogue which is well written, and this keeps the story moving along. It starts off slow, unless you find descriptions of antiques and old do-dahs interesting. After the first couple chapters I found it to be a relaxing, mildly interesting and pleasant no-brainer book.

I found the beginning of this book to take off a bit slow. As someone not from the south, I found some of the dialogue hard to decipher. But, it's worth the read. The pace picks up nicely about half way through and finishes beautifully. It's a book that kept me thinking long after putting it down, which is in my world, a good book.

A Woman Named Smith is a delightful surprise. Originally published in 1919, the main character is Sophy Smith, a businesslike thirty-something New England bred spinster. Her staid world is turned upside down when she inherits a South Carolina mansion from her eccentric great-aunt by marriage. Heading south with her best friend, confidante, and protegee, the beautiful young Alicia, she turns the mansion into a winter retreat for wealthy clients. In the process, she acquires friends and cats, solves a mystery, and finds romance. The "down sides" to the book include occasionally archaic language, and an old-fashioned view of race relations. Otherwise, it's a fun if lightweight read. Two thumbs up.

I would have given this book a 5 star review but the parts about the maids and gardeners deserve at least a minus one star. Her descriptions of black people are shocking and archaic. I've been having an internal debate--can a book be good even it's racial approach is so bad? Otherwise, the book is a bit magical.

I read others reviews, and since I was a new Kindle user, I went with their reviews. I don't think I read 10% of the book before I just deleted it from my reader. It is beyond boring. The characters are so badly built if you will that it took all of my resolve to even read as far as I did.....save the $0.00 and buy something else!!