forgotten garden....book review

[eleanor2]

well here goes........anyone who has read it would you have any opening remarks....

[eleanor2]

the first few chapters i have found timid and undescriptive. we have the little girl hiding on a boat to Australia she thinks the lady who told her to hide is coming back for her. Then we get a lady of 21 who is going to be told a secret by the person she has always called father.we dont get told the secret. It then jumps to this lady nell,her death and her grandaughter cassandras bedside vigil.I am just at the point where the aunties are going to reveal all to cassandra.nell is now dead so the family secret can come out... i am intrigued to go on.

[Gentian]

I don't want to tell you the story, but you will meet Nell again and all will become clear why she was on the ship. Persist with it, to start with it is irritating when the time changes because you want to know more about that time, but you will see how necessary it is not to reveal all of Nell's life as there would be no build up.

[souter girl]

I have found it a common device to have two stories going side by side within a book and I find it quite irritating as I want to read on with the one I am on, not jump to the other, It is effective in this case, but I have also found it frustrating.

[eleanor2]

the aunties are still unravelling the begining of the story.i imagine the white suitcase with silver buckles has a tale to tell.i do find this jumping about a bit disconcerting.but have read books where the jumping about makes it more intriguing.looking forward to going on.

[eleanor2]

2 questions....
1. could you have burnt a letter that was asking for information of a lost child.if you had that child secretly living with you cus you thought no-one wanted, her at first?
2.when this said child was 21 would you then need to tell her she wasnt your real daughterand not real sister to her sisters.?
It seems that by telling nell at the age of 21 she was not thier real daughter,that they had found her.it changed her whole nature.one minute we see her the mainstay of the family looking after her sick mother and younger sisters.the minute she hears she was not born into the family but found deserted on a ship wharf.nell feels dejected.
"but pa's secret had changed everything .his words had tossed the book of her life up in the air and the pages had blown into dissaray.she couldnt look at her little sisters again with out seeing her own foriegness".her fathers whispered confession had robbed her of herself.she stopped believing her pa could really love her.that he must love his own children more.she broke off close relations with everyone.even her engagement.how could her fiance love her once he knew she had been an unwanted disposable person.she thought her own true family had discarded her.this is where hughs secret of burning the letter caused most destruction.

[eleanor2]

interesting point that was made.the likeness of consumption(T.B) was contrasted with vampires in old London.people with T.B were very pale,couldnt stand the light and coughed blood from thier mouth.i wonder if it was superstitions of this illness started the first vampire stories going round.
nell went back to England eventually to find her roots.the story is unravelling as to what nell found out.all that cassanda knows is that nell bought a cottage in the grounds of an old estate.now cassandra all these years later has bought a ticket and off she is flying to good old G.B to unravel the mystery.

[eleanor2]

this story takes some getting used too.it keeps flicking through three different time sets. i do get into each time set but then it flicks to the next.i think i find young Elizas story the most interesting......set in London at the turn of the century. a young Aristocratic women falls in lve with a sailor and runs off with him to London.she gets or (is ) pregnant and has twins a girl Eliza and a boy Sammy.they live in abject poverty as the sailor dies quite soon.mother and 2 children have to work every hour and whatever job they can just to have a roof over their head and the barest food to be scratched together.mother does have an expensive broach a family heirlom but refuses to sell it.she warns Eliza of a bad person who might come looking for them and she must stay away from him.on mothers death bed she gives Eliza permission to sell the broach but not through the proper channels.as the person who is looking for them might use this to find them.mother dies of T.b.2 young children alone sammy a chimmney sweep and eliza a laundress for the lady they lodge with.they live in the hovel of a damp cold roof space.one small meal a day.being treated horrendiously by their landlords.we have to ask here what awful thing was mother running away from.to live in abject poverty and the lives of her children at risk from this way of life.yet she would not seek help from her family and did everything she could to avoid letting them know where she was.

[buecherwurm]

I was in town today and ordered the book. Will probably go on Monday to pick it up.

[eleanor2]

great beuch look forward to your review of it.i am enjoying it very much but not actually thinking it is as great as i have been led to believe by my sister.obviously i havnt come to the real twists yet.but i am suspicious of what i think has been happening between linus and Georgina his sister.....you dont hear much of Linus but he seems a cold hard man.totally unloving to the wife he obviously wed just for the sake of marrying.their daughter he is very cold and distant too.he does have a slight interest in ragamuffin Eliza who is georginas daughter.who he has searched for and found an orphan in abject poverty in london.Eliza is now living at Blackhurst manor much to the disagreeableness of the Lady of the house.however their sickly daughter Rose.after the first meeting which she did not like the look of her cousin Eliza at all.slowly warmed to her.the thing that she liked most about her was her great ability at storytelling.

[eleanor2]

thinking about nell now.left abandoned on a ship sailing from England to Australia.she was only about 4.survived alone by making friends with some poor kids who showed her the ropes on how to get food.(i know children were more ndependant in those days but nell had come from a very well todo family and would have been used to being waited on hand and foot)still she survives the trip and a bout of typhoid.to be found after the ship docks in Australia .sitting alone on the wharf cold and hungary.she is taken home by a dock worker to his childless wife.they both started to love and care for her.to the point of ignoring an appealing letter of some -one looking for a child of her appearance. next thing we know nell is a loving caring adult.looking after her sick mother.her mother dies and nell reaches the age of 21.her father decides he must tell her the truth.that she was not their child.they had found her abandoned .that they loved her as their own but his conscience made hm tell her the truth.she is devastated.straight away startng to feel an interloper in a famly that is not her own.she slowly starts to reject them.putting up walls of emotonal defence that bviously harden her heart.she breaks of her engagement thinking she is no longer good enough to marry a nice friend of the family.as she is now some-one who was unwanted.she marries an American and goes to live in the U.S.A.they have one child a daughter.who nell obviously with her injured emotions does not bring up with the love and affection a child needs.

[buecherwurm]

Went to town again and picked up the book. Looks like quite a lot to read.Hope I can find some time tonight

[eleanor2]

go on beuch once you start it you will really get into it.am interested to see what you think of different parts of the story line.its not anormal read put it that way.

[buecherwurm]

Started to read the book. I'm not too keen on this jumping back and forth in time all the time. Especially as it doesn't seem necessary. But the story seems to be interesting or is it only because as soon as we get some information about 2005 we are thrown back to 1913 for no apparant reason and then of course you want to find out more about things happening in 2005. Does it keep us artificially in suspense?

[eleanor2]

beuch i hate the jumping about.but i do think somehow she keeps you in suspense and you just want to keep reading.it makes it difficult to write about tho.

[eleanor2]

well i dont much like the jumping from 3 time eras.but i am in the last quarter of the book.the suspense is definately mounting.i have not been able to turn the light off till after eleven 2 nights running.

[eleanor2]

when hugh died (theman nell thought was her father)he had asked one of his daughters to give nell the suitcase she had with her when he found her.inside there is a few pieces of clothing a silver brush and a fairytale book.even rarer it has illustrations by a famous artist nathanial walker.nell recognized the face of the author.deep down memories rose into her brain.it was Eliza the authoress.at first nell thought maybe this Eliza was her mother.but later found the authoress had been childless.nel knew she was a link to her past.she had repressed memories that were real and were slowly being triggered to the surface of her mind.she went to london and started her search.slowly one thing leads to the other.nell sees a portrait in a museum and knows instantly itis her mother.an aristrocat named Rose mountrachet.she married nathaniel walker and became rose walker.they lived at Blackhurst manor cornwall.nell travelled to cornwall and started to unearth her past.there are definately lots of skeletons in the cupboard.whilst there nell buys an old cottage in the grounds of blackhurst manor.it is here that there is a secret walled garden.

[buecherwurm]

I read the fairytale "The crone's eyes" yesterday. It really is more or less like any other fairytale exept for the end. "He and the princess were betrothed and lived together happily and busily evermore in the crone's little cottage, her eyes watching over them eternally from a jar atop the fireplace." Definitely very creepy. Who would want that, I ask you.

[eleanor2]

beuch i agree.but later you see why they keep showing you elizas fairy tales.....there is a reason and all will be revealed
if however the crux of the story is what i think it is i will be a bit disapointed................

[eleanor2]

the crux of the story is what i first thought not what they later lead you to believe.the end made me cry and is quite poignant.

nell goes back to Australia.intending to sell up and go to live in cornwall in her cottage.but her daughter out of the blue turns up on her doorstep and states she needs nell to look after her daughter for a while.nell takes on her grandaughter cassandra not very willingly.but the two become firm friends.nells daughter doesnt come back for cassandra as she has made a new life and a new baby.years later the whole story starts on nells death bed.cassandra is with her and nell starts to ramble on about her past.at nells death she leaves cassandra all she owns.including a cottage in cornwall and a suitcase with the famous fairytale book.also a note book with all the information nell had managed to find on Eliza makepiece the authoress and rose mountrachet whom she presumes is her mother. you really have to read the book to get into the feel of things.Eliza the pennyless orphan .finally found by her uncle.goes to live at Blackhurst manor.meets her sickly cousin Rose.they become firm friends.unseperable as they grow up and a deep love develops.there is a lot of jealousy from roses mother at Elizas beauty and health.the most terrible thing for Rose was as a child she had swallowed a thimble.the up and coming doctor in wanting to advance his career had got the parents to agree to rose having an x ray to see where the thimble was.in the ignorance of the day he had the xray machine turned on to rose for a whole hour.even tho at the time no-one new what this was doing.it had devastating results for everyone in the future.

[buecherwurm]

I'm just reading the chapter were Nell sits in the bookshop reading Eliza Makepiece's biographie. It is mentioned there that Eliza had a twin. Do they ever tell what happened to that twin. I hope so as I hate it when questions are not answered in the end.

[eleanor2]

oh beuch you sure do hear of the twin and his demise.very sad.........

[eleanor2]

LOOKING AT LOVE
there are mostly doomed relationships in this book.adeline and linus.he married a poor girl to spite his parents.she married linus for money and position.aristocratic Georgina fell madly in love with a poor sailor and to get away from her brothers over possesive love.she ran off with her sailor.but her brother had him found and killed.leaving Georgina with 2 baby twins and absolute poverty.even in her poverty she hid from her brother.Elizas love for her brother sammy.the only person in the world she had to love or be loved by.he gets killed young during a game of her making.adelines love for her daughter makes her over protective.so she allows doctor to xray her.which destroys her health and causes infertility.Elizas love for rose.doomed because of jealousy. rose and nathanial fall in love but roses ill health and infertility cause her to be eaten away with possesiveness and jealousy.then in modern day you have nells ending her engagement to the man she really loves out of her own low self esteem.she obviously then just marries the first man that comes along.nell is not a loving person from then on.not even to her daughter.leley her daughter sleeps around.gets pregnant.doesnt love her daughter cassie. cassie gets married and loses her husband and son in an accident. there is hope as nell and cassie build up a loving relationship.the only love you see in a positive light is cassie and christian at the end.thats early beginings.dont think kate morton thinks much of love somehow.

[buecherwurm]

I read until I came to the second fairy tale but then decided that I neither have the time nor the patience at the moment to read the book to the end. It is very annoying that whenever you think that it might develop into a nice read, the story jumps into a different time. I was temptend to read all the stories headed 1900, then the ones 1913 and so on. I think Kate Morton has put too many unnecessary secrets into the story. Why can't the reader be told straight away why Cassandra is/was living with her grandmother? Why insinuate something and the when the reader turns the page he/she is transported back to 1900. Is Kate Morton afraid that people won't read her book if there where less secrets. Well, it annoys me!I read the rest of the book by looking for interesting information, skipping several pages, reading a bit, skipping..... This way I found out what I wanted to know and I must admit that I had the idea that Nell was the Authoress's daughter as soon as it was mentioned that Rose was a sickly cousin from a rich family. Have read this type of thing before. At the moment I don't think I want to read another book by this author as I don't think the two different styles, one being kind of a novel and the other part being kind of a factual report go together very well. Not for me anyway.

[eleanor2]

i know beuch it can be annoying.but in a way it did keep me intrigued.the end i think is sad.because by then you have really got to like Eliza.you cant help but get emotionally involved.she has had a very hard innings.she should have been born to an aristocrat.been as spoilt as rose.yet she is born in poverty.lost all her loved ones.eventually makes a true heart friend and sister in Rose.only once again.poverty and riches rule her life.her poverty makes her subject to Roses wishes.only to let jealousy from spoilt ,selfish Rose.destroy a beutiful relationship.to the point Eliza is treated like a leper .it is not surprising nathanial fell for her.i suppose this story is the first mention of surrogacy.i wonder if it did go on much in those days.i suppse the fact that Eliza was a blood relative made a difference.the gentry wouldnt have wanted poor blood in there family line would they.

[eleanor2]

forgotten garden a bit forgotten whilst grandson is here...............

[buecherwurm]

don't worry. Grandson is more important!

[eleanor2]

sure is beuch, not much time for reading.

[eleanor2]

i have lent the book forgotten garden to d.f.
so from memory i will wrap up the book review.
we never know by our actions how we will affect many other peoples lives.elizas mother left home because she fell in love and feared her brothers possesivness of her.just from the action of her brother cutting her many people suffered.all ended up dying unhappy and unfullfilled.right down the century.the gist of it iselizas mum lived and died from poverty becaus of leaving her wealthy famly behind.eliza surrogated herself to her rich cousin.having a baby for her.rich cousin then resents eliza.through unhappines rich cousin and husband go to book a ticket to leave England.there train crashes and they die.Eliza knows the baby will not be loved by the granny as it is a surrogate child.so she kidnaps the child and hides her on a ship whilst she goes to get a belonging of hers that is in hiding.eliza gets kidnapped .she is in a carraige thinking of her little girl on a ship waiting for her.she jumps from the carraige and gets killed. the rich famly secretly bury her body.in the process rich gran pricks her finger on a rose bush.gets blood poisoning.goes mad and dies of the blood poisoning.rich grandad who is original possesive brother.spends his life and wealth looking for said child because it is the last fragment of his sister who he possesively loved.thats all of them died unhappily.now the child off the ship is found.named nell and loved by pretend parents.when she finds out they arnt her real family.she goes to pieces.marries not for love.brings up her daughter in a cold relationship.does end up loving her grandaugher cassie.nell gives up chasing her past to look after cassie.nell dies at least with the love of a grandaughter if nothing else.cassie finds out all the truth and oh some happiness.she falls in love with a man who holds the same love for the forgotten garden as she does. the end.

[dragonfly]

Well I finished the book late last night. Eleanor has summed up the story very well. Although it was a very good story I didn't like all the swapping and changing dates. I would start to read and have to check which time zone it was in. I have read a lot with two time zones but thought three was to much especially as they told you an outcome before the events. It told you about the aunt dying before it told you that it was her who buried Eliza before she died. I liked the twist that the rose bush Eliza was burried under pricked the aunts finger and gave her blood poisoning leading to death (sounded a bit like another fairy story). I had also guessed early on that Eliza was Nells mother. I didn't like the gruesome fairy tales but realise that anyone who had had such a deprived tragic life would have made up horible stories not nice ones and they did relate to things that had happened. It is a story of tragedy and unhappiness and very little niceness. Even the modern person in 2005 although she fell in love again at the end had lost her first husband and child in a car accident. I will not be reading this author again for although it was a very good story it was to annoying to relax with. She didn't tell you why events happened until much later and I didn't find this exciting but confusing as there was so much going on to so many people at the same time. Although I like stories that go back to the past this was too much toing and froing.

[eleanor2]

you have done so well d.f finishing book and getting some enjoyment out of it.even tho it was irritating how it twoed and frod.good on ya.the story does kind of get you a bit doesnt it.