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florapants84's review against another edition
4.0
I cannot tell you enough how much my family and I enjoyed the PBS series The 1900 House. It's hard not to romanticize the Victorian era, so when a modern London family is given the opportunity to go back in time, and live in a remodeled home according to the customs of the era, they jump at the opportunity. Shoot, I'm sure I would have also, except that as the show went on, one realizes that modern advances in technology, science, and society have made life so much easier now.
The Victorian Chaise-Longue is a wonderful time travel novel that has quite a few horror elements. Melanie is newly married and has just given birth to a child. Due to health issues, she's been confined to bed since her pregnancy in present day (1953, the time the book was published). Upon being moved to another room in the house for a change of pace, she is laid to rest on a Victorian chaise-longue that she purchased at an antique shop. Upon waking from a nap, she soon realizes that she's trapped in another woman's body...in a bygone era. Is she just having a nightmare, or this a form of reincarnation? The scary conclusion left more questions unanswered than anything else.
I loved the way Laski wrote. Her descriptions of everything, right down to the curtain fabric and wallpaper, really painted a lovely picture of two bygone eras. I'm so glad that her work is being reprinted. The introduction by P.D. James also shed some light on Laski's other work outside of writing, including journalism. She sounded like a very interesting woman!
The Victorian Chaise-Longue is a wonderful time travel novel that has quite a few horror elements. Melanie is newly married and has just given birth to a child. Due to health issues, she's been confined to bed since her pregnancy in present day (1953, the time the book was published). Upon being moved to another room in the house for a change of pace, she is laid to rest on a Victorian chaise-longue that she purchased at an antique shop. Upon waking from a nap, she soon realizes that she's trapped in another woman's body...in a bygone era. Is she just having a nightmare, or this a form of reincarnation? The scary conclusion left more questions unanswered than anything else.
I loved the way Laski wrote. Her descriptions of everything, right down to the curtain fabric and wallpaper, really painted a lovely picture of two bygone eras. I'm so glad that her work is being reprinted. The introduction by P.D. James also shed some light on Laski's other work outside of writing, including journalism. She sounded like a very interesting woman!
jemimahorne's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
blankgarden's review against another edition
5.0
My thoughts: https://theblankgarden.com/2021/05/31/review-the-victorian-chaise-longue-by-marghanita-laski/
cintiandrade's review against another edition
2.0
Uma história curtinha de terror sobre uma mulher que adquire uma chaise-longue vitoriana e, ao dormir nela, se vê transportada para a casa onde o móvel foi originalmente feito, presa no corpo de uma moça vitoriana que está morrendo de tuberculose. Não é mal escrito, mas acaba sendo tudo meio bobo e desinteressante.
ruthiella's review against another edition
3.0
I had no idea that this was a sort of ghost/horror story nor did I realize that it was so short (99 pages). It reminded me a bit of The Yellow Wallpaper in its feminist message as portrayed by a woman trapped by societal mores and convention.
barbarabarbara's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
hayleysreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Spooky, confusing, a real sense of panic and not knowing what is happening - for the character or reading. It feels a bit jumpy and chaotic and it works really well, encoding the strangeness and darkness of the situation and Melanie/Millie’s feelings. I had lots of theories about what actually led to these events, lots of potential ideas of madness, hallucination, some kind of spiritual or religious switch or flip in time - it’s very open to the reader’s interpretation
callum_mclaughlin's review against another edition
4.0
This was a brilliantly ambiguous and claustrophobic little read. For me, it threw up fascinating ideas about the fine line between ecstasy and ruin, the toxicity of being supressed, and the frivolousness of time; how in one era, a woman's actions could be her making, but in another, they could spell her very ruin. With subtlety, Laski also shrewdly questions just how much progress women had made in gaining autonomy over their bodies, minds and actions by the time of the book's writing, despite comparative improvements over the past; a theme still relevant to this day.