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annabelws23's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
jgintrovertedreader's review against another edition
4.0
After a life spent doing everything a woman is expected to do--marrying, having children, being a perfect helpmeet to her ambitious husband--Lady Slane decides to only please herself when she is widowed at the age of 88. Once her husband's funeral is over, she announces that she is not going to spend her remaining days living with her children, as they wish, but is instead going to rent a charming house that caught her eye thirty years ago.
She rents the house and fills it with a select group of new friends who suit her quiet, introspective nature. She reflects on the life she has lived and dreams of what might have been if she had been free to follow her own desires as a young woman.
I'm not entirely sure what I expected when I started this book, but it's not what I got, and that was a pleasant surprise for me.
Lady Slane is a delightful creature and I know she and I would be friends if she were real. She's always been dutiful to her family but she has a rich inner landscape. She draws eccentrics to herself and values their friendship. She takes a quiet, devilish pleasure in poking at four of her six children--the four who are bossy, unimaginative, cheap beyond all reason, and cantankerous.
The book takes a feminist slant, most overtly in the middle section, when Lady Slane reflects on her past. She never actually chose the life she lived. It was all just sort of arranged for her. No one consulted her about her wants and needs. She didn't even have the vocabulary to express her desires for a different life because she didn't know any women who seemed to want to be anything other than a wife or mother.
I know the book was eminently quotable, about both aging gracefully and feminism, but I honestly just read for the pleasure and didn't mark anything. You'll just have to take my word that Sackville-West is a beautiful, thoughtful writer.
I read this on my Kindle and I'm glad I did. Lady Slane's maid is French and speaks almost exclusively in French. Nothing she says is terribly important for furthering the story, but I did like having the option to highlight her sentences and translate them.
If you're in the mood for a contemplative book with a delightful character who shares some profound thoughts about aging, mortality, and feminism, this will absolutely fit the bill. I'm so glad I picked it up.
She rents the house and fills it with a select group of new friends who suit her quiet, introspective nature. She reflects on the life she has lived and dreams of what might have been if she had been free to follow her own desires as a young woman.
I'm not entirely sure what I expected when I started this book, but it's not what I got, and that was a pleasant surprise for me.
Lady Slane is a delightful creature and I know she and I would be friends if she were real. She's always been dutiful to her family but she has a rich inner landscape. She draws eccentrics to herself and values their friendship. She takes a quiet, devilish pleasure in poking at four of her six children--the four who are bossy, unimaginative, cheap beyond all reason, and cantankerous.
The book takes a feminist slant, most overtly in the middle section, when Lady Slane reflects on her past. She never actually chose the life she lived. It was all just sort of arranged for her. No one consulted her about her wants and needs. She didn't even have the vocabulary to express her desires for a different life because she didn't know any women who seemed to want to be anything other than a wife or mother.
I know the book was eminently quotable, about both aging gracefully and feminism, but I honestly just read for the pleasure and didn't mark anything. You'll just have to take my word that Sackville-West is a beautiful, thoughtful writer.
I read this on my Kindle and I'm glad I did. Lady Slane's maid is French and speaks almost exclusively in French. Nothing she says is terribly important for furthering the story, but I did like having the option to highlight her sentences and translate them.
If you're in the mood for a contemplative book with a delightful character who shares some profound thoughts about aging, mortality, and feminism, this will absolutely fit the bill. I'm so glad I picked it up.
bookish_skies's review
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
pjmoore's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
bekaf's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
kgfugate8299's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
eimear_stockmann's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
scremes's review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
This is perhaps the greatest novel on the subject of old age I’ve ever read. Love in the Time of Cholera also touches close to the heart of that phase of life, but in All Passion Spent Sackville-West delves into with the most delicate and successful of probes the rarely explored mind of one for whom life has become all rear-view and death is the only item awaiting in the agenda. Goregously wrought prose.
coolbaud's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
kategci's review against another edition
4.0
I had never read, nor really heard of Vita Sackville-West and then at some point Thomas from The Readers and hogglestock.com mentioned her. I picked this from the Bas Bleu catalog which always ahas an interesting selection of books and this was the perfect book to carry me through this part of December. Lady Shane is 88 years old and a recent, relieved widow. Truth be told she is not a huge fan of her 6 children, their spouses, her grandchildren or her great grandchildren. She is happy to move out of her house and into a rental in Hampstead which is out of the way for her family. Act two for her involves the owner of the house, the handyman and her maid Genoux, conversing and caring for her. Another old gentleman comes to visit and she realizes she met him in India where her husband had been the Viceroy of India before he became the Prime Minister of England. A lovely story, Sackville-West makes her point clear about women subsuming their lives for their husbands.