The Tower Room: The Egerton Hall Novels, Volume One (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Once upon a time, the linoleum was green..." (more)
Key Phrases: Tower Room, Egerton Hall, Miss Herbert (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in the early 1960s in an English girl's school, Geras's novel--the first of a trilogy--is a loose variation of the Rapunzel story. No evil witch holds Megan captive, however; instead, she and her two best friends choose the privacy of a tower room. Her prince is Simon, a young science teacher who climbs a scaffolding to tryst with Megan. Megan's spinster guardian Dorothy, who has herself developed a romantic attachment to the young man, discovers their secret meetings and expels them both from school. The story, told from the London garret where Megan and Simon are living, ends with Megan cutting her waist-length hair and moving back to school. While the new slant on an old fairy tale is engaging, the message, if any, is not clear. Megan's sexual involvement with a teacher, however young and handsome, may alarm some readers (and parents). Even if later installments in the series help flesh out Megan's decisions, readers may find the lack of a convincing resolution makes this an unsatisfying love story. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 8-12-- Megan Thomas's parents left her in the care of Dorothy Doolittle, headmistress of Sciences at Edgerton Hall, when she was 11, and were subsequently killed in an accident. Now nearly 18 and about to graduate from the protective, regimented world of the boarding school, Megan and her two roommates take their studies and themselves very seriously. When a handsome, young lab assistant, Simon Findlay, arrives at the all-female school, he turns plenty of heads, including his employer's. Megan is lovestruck from the moment she spies him from her window; Simon shares her infatuation and gladly climbs the scaffolding to her tower room for clandestine meetings. The couple runs away together when Dorothy discovers the affair and melodramatically dismisses them both. In the modern twist on the fairy-tale ending, Megan realizes that love does not necessarily conquer all and decides to go back and finish her education. Set in Britain in the 1960s, the rather heavy-handed story unfolds through a series of journal entries, flashbacks, and letters so that the perceptions and personalities are all filtered through Megan's rather naive sensibilities. However, this, the first book of a trilogy about the three friends, should appeal to romance fans.
-Luann Toth , School Library Journal
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Paperbacks; 1st Harcourt Brace Pbk. Ed edition (April 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152015183
• ISBN-13: 978-0152015183
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,810,617 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh...for a happy ending..., December 29, 2001

By	Jessica Cameron (Decatur, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A happy, resolved ending is the only thing missing from this book, and I still gave it five stars. Megan is Rapunzel, and she is a beautiful fairy tale. Megan lives in a tower (at her British all-girls school), with no other family in the world, save Sleeping Beauty (Alice) and Snow White (Bella). Megan falls madly in love with Simon and their whirlwind affair costs her almost everything. This is a wonderful book, it is not full of sex, like a few other reviews have suggested. Geras stays faithful to the original story and, like most original versions of fairy tales, sex is involved. I highly recommend this book and the rest of the trilogy, "Watching the Roses" and "Pictures of the Night." Trust me, if you read all three, your happy ending will come. Maybe your prince too...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!, May 8, 2000

By A Customer

I absolutely loved this book when I first read it and over the course of several more readings its power has not diminished. It is a lovely, romantic story and I especially liked the interweaving, past-present narrative style. I think that Adele Geras has perfectly and touchingly captured the adolescent confusion of the girls at Egerton Hall.

There is a fair amount of sex in it but fairy tales are often sexually based; I think that the updating of this story has simply removed the subtlety which veiled the original Rapunzel tale.

Highly recommended!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific!, September 6, 2003

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Tower Room (Hardcover)

A poetic, intelligent first-person prose is the first thing I remember about this book. The second is the beautiful characters that really personalize the general fairy-tale princesses. Bella has a beauty-obsessed stepmother who is jealous of Bella's creamy, perfect skin, figure, and jet-black hair. (Does that sound familiar?) She's the rebel of the trio, whereas Alison is the shy one, whose great-aunt made a fuss about not being invited to her christening. Megan's guardian expels her and Simon, her Prince, when she finds that they've been making love in the Tower Room.

Three well-developed characters and a boarding-school atmosphere make this book one that you'll remember years after you finish it.

P.S. I read this book at age 11 (I am 12) and was not "tainted" at all by thr sexual references. It is not too explicit, just implied, and adds intrigue to the story.