Frost in May
1 journaler for this copy...
I would have never have read this, had an ex-hm not left behind a boxed set of 'Virago Modern Classics'. Thanks to the ex-hm for doing so, however, as this is a great book. Beautifully written and intense, this is the story of Nanda Gray and the time she spends at a Catholic girls boarding school (the Convent of the Five Wounds). It's another book that's very hard to describe - it's not very big and flits in and out of the 4 years that Nanda is at the Convent. One of the most interesting aspects of the book for me was the portrayal of the Nuns and Catholicism itself. I am not religious and this is probably one of closest looks at Catholicism I've ever had and, actually, I found it both bizarre and somewhat disturbing. It certainly brought home the points Elizabeth Bowen makes in the introduction of how different school life at the convent is to the liberal education most children would experience today.
There's a quote on the front of the book that I didn't actually read until after I'd just finished, but sums up the book perfectly for me:
'Beautifully written, it is a calm and factual record of the slow death of the soul' (Selina Hastings).
There's a quote on the front of the book that I didn't actually read until after I'd just finished, but sums up the book perfectly for me:
'Beautifully written, it is a calm and factual record of the slow death of the soul' (Selina Hastings).