A lovely, feel-good, escapist read on a cold February day!
In Radstow (Bristol) live two spinster sisters' their lovely younger sister, Rose, has some sort of romance going on with local landowner Francis Sales. And then, unexpectedly billeted on them, comes young niece, Henrietta, daughter of their late scapegrace brother.
There is a rivalry between the two younger women, and uncertainty until the last page...
Last read this 32 years ago and bits of it still come back to me! ( )

easy good read ( )

In her first novel written after the Great War, the death of her husband, and her embarkation on a rather unconventional new life, E H Young tells the story of four Misses Mallett.

There are two sisters in late middle age, Caroline and Sophia Mallett. They live in a large, beautiful and comfortable home that had been left to them by their father, the Colonel; together with their much younger half-sister, Rose Mallet, the child of the Colonel’s second marriage.

Caroline is delighted with their situation, and she explains to their niece:

‘The Malletts don’t marry, Henrietta. Look at us, as happy as the day is long, with all the fun and none of the trouble. We’ve been terrible flirts, Sophia and I. Rose is different, but at least she hasn’t married. The three Miss Malletts of Nelson Lodge! Now there are four of us, and you must keep up our reputation.’

Henrietta was the fourth Miss Mallett, the daughter of the Colonel’s disinherited son, who had come to live with her aunts after her mother’s death. She had lived a very different life, she had an independent spirit, and she wanted to make her own decisions and not be told that she must follow a particular traditions.

She would learn that things were not quite as simple and straightforward as Caroline suggested.

Sophia had a great love in her past, and she cherished her memories of him

Rose had been beloved by a local landowner, Francis Sales, but she had rejected his proposals because she wasn’t sure that she loved him enough. She wondered if she had made the right decision when he went away, and when he returned with a bride who was quite unlike her; but she knew that she had to live with her decision.

And then there was a particularly cruel twist of fate ...

Henrietta and Rose learned each other’s stories, but they were of different generations, they had different backgrounds and different outlooks, they didn’t talk about the things that were most important to them and so they didn’t understand what the other was feeling and what the other would do.

E H Young drew and delineated four the Misses Mallett quite beautifully. Caroline was warm and vibrant, Sophia was delicate and empathic, Rose was reserved and controlled, Henrietta was modern and independent; and as she portrayed their lives and their relationships she showed the advantages and disadvantages of being an unmarried woman between the wars.

By contrast, the men in the story were all flawed: Henrietta’s father, Reginald Mallet, was charming but he was utterly self-centred. Francis Sales was completely lacking in self knowledge and in understanding of the women he said he loved. Charles Batty, the son of Caroline’s dearest friend, was eccentric, and today it would probably be said that he was somewhere on the autistic spectrum, but he was true to himself and he would be a reliable friend to the younger Misses Mallett.

They were all interesting and believable characters; but it was the women who were strong and who set the course of the story.

That story was simple, but there were deep waters swirling below the calm surface. There was danger that Henrietta could be led astray, that Rose’s control could snap, that the good name of the Malletts’ could be tainted by scandal …

The playing out and the resolution of the story is a little predictable, and maybe a little unsatisfactory in that it wasn’t exactly what I wanted for characters I had come to know vey well; but I believed that it could have happened, I understand why it could have happened, and I loved my journey through this book.

I loved spending time with each of the Misses Mallett, and I loved spending time in their world.

E H Young wrote so well. She could capture so much in a single sentence, and she could sustain a point over much longer passages.

The depictions of the family home and the other homes that are part of the story are so perfect, every detail is so well drawn, that I was transported there. The descriptions of the countryside, the woods, and the fields, are so evocative that I wished that I could be there, riding with Rose or walking with Henrietta.

It was lovely, but there times when it was a almost too much and I would have liked to get back to the story a little more quickly.

I can’t say that this is E H Young’s strongest book; the later books that I have read are more subtle and more sophisticated, and I am inclined to think that she grew as a writer over the years.

I can say that this is a lovely period piece, that it is a wonderfully engaging human drama, and that it has made me eager to fill in the gaps in my reading of its author’s backlist. ( )

An early twentieth-century novel about life in Clifton, Bristol, for four women, the Misses Mallett.
Rose Mallett is the central character, living without any true purpose in life, possibly in love with Francis Sales, a landowner and farmer. Henrietta, her niece, also falls for Francis, a married man. Another few characters appear who have some impact on the story but it’s really about Rose and Henrietta, their thoughts and love.
There is not a lot of action and a lot of introspection from Rose and Henrietta. Compared with Jane Austen, it lacks her wit and I was disappointed with it following a praising introduction.
( )

Two spinsters of middling years, Caroline and Sophia Mallett, live in their beautiful and exceedingly comfortable home willed to them by their father, the Colonel. Their half sister, Rose Mallet, a product of the Colonel’s second marriage and therefore much younger (late 20s at the start of the novel) lives with them as well. Caroline maintains that the Malletts are always unmarried and yet are confirmed flirts but as the story unfolds, we learn that Rose is idolised by a local landowner, Francis Sales, and has teetered on reciprocating his love, while Sophia has had a deep love of her own in her past.

Into this ordered world comes the young Henrietta, their niece, with her beauty, vigour and intelligence. She will not be moulded into the format created by the older Misses Mallet but, freed from awful poverty, strikes out to make her own life in their village.

Young’s characters are finely drawn, from the saucy Caroline to the deeply reserved Rose, the delicate Sophia to the sparkling Henrietta. Letter perfect are her depictions of the interiors of each of the three homes forming the triangle of the story: Nelson Lodge of the Malletts, the Batty’s home and the Sales’ farm. But also perfect are her descriptions of the countryside, the woods, fields, river and roads–so much so that you feel that you are there on horseback with Rose or walking across the village green with Henrietta.

Underneath the veneer of calm and order there are deep waters swirling, treacherous at times, threatening to pull Henrietta astray and Rose's serene exterior apart. There is danger and death, possible betrayal and misbehaviour, all held at bay by the control and strength of Rose.

The men in the story are flawed and weak: Henrietta’s father, Reginald Mallet, was an impulsive and philandering cad with a huge streak of egocentric selfishness. Francis Sales is Heathcliffian in his striking handsomeness and strength, sultry and sulky, but ultimately weak, with almost no understanding of women or even his own mind, which is probably why Rose rejected his proposal when she was twenty-two (although she claimed it was for his lack of romance). Charles Batty is an odd duck whose mannerisms and eccentricities struck me as owing no little to autism spectrum disorder, with strong hints of Asperger’s, and yet he has a strength to him that Sales lacks, proving himself a good and true friend. The women, by contrast, are strong and centred.

How it all falls out and is resolved might seem slightly predictable or even unsatisfactory to a reader wanting more action or crisper resolutions but I enjoyed this story immensely. It wasn’t so much the arrival at the destination as the journey–and definitely the writing.