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A review by nadia_g
Mariana by Monica Dickens
4.0
"But most she loathed the hour
When the thick-moted sunbeam lay
Athwart the chambers, and the day
Was sloping towards his western bower.
Then said she, "I am dreary,
He will not come," she said;
She wept, "I am aweary, aweary,
Oh, God, that I were dead!"
Monica Dickens' novel "Mariana" takes its title from Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem of the same name. It's a poem that Mary, the main character in Dickens' novel, had to learn by heart when she was at Drama School.
The story is the story of Mary's early life. As Mary waits for the morning to get news from the British navy to confirm her husband is lost at sea, she lies alone in her cottage in the country during a storm unable to sleep.
As the night begins, memories flood back and Mary remembers all the childhood moments and her years as a young woman which have shaped her meeting the love of her life.
This is a beautiful ode to love, not the honeyed kind but of the eyes-open-wide.
Dickens crafted such a warm coming of age, and beautifully grasped the obstacles and ups-and-downs of falling in and out of love. This novel will stay with me for a long time.
And don't think the end is all set. It took me totally by surprise. Awesome read.
When the thick-moted sunbeam lay
Athwart the chambers, and the day
Was sloping towards his western bower.
Then said she, "I am dreary,
He will not come," she said;
She wept, "I am aweary, aweary,
Oh, God, that I were dead!"
Monica Dickens' novel "Mariana" takes its title from Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem of the same name. It's a poem that Mary, the main character in Dickens' novel, had to learn by heart when she was at Drama School.
The story is the story of Mary's early life. As Mary waits for the morning to get news from the British navy to confirm her husband is lost at sea, she lies alone in her cottage in the country during a storm unable to sleep.
As the night begins, memories flood back and Mary remembers all the childhood moments and her years as a young woman which have shaped her meeting the love of her life.
This is a beautiful ode to love, not the honeyed kind but of the eyes-open-wide.
Dickens crafted such a warm coming of age, and beautifully grasped the obstacles and ups-and-downs of falling in and out of love. This novel will stay with me for a long time.
And don't think the end is all set. It took me totally by surprise. Awesome read.