Identify Regarding Books The Light Years (Cazalet Chronicles #1)

Title:The Light Years (Cazalet Chronicles #1)
Author:Elizabeth Jane Howard
Book Format:Paperback
Book Edition:Special Edition
Pages:Pages: 434 pages
Published:July 1st 1995 by Washington Square Press (first published 1990)
Categories:Historical. Historical Fiction. Fiction. European Literature. British Literature
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The Light Years (Cazalet Chronicles #1) Paperback | Pages: 434 pages
Rating: 3.96 | 7308 Users | 860 Reviews

Narrative As Books The Light Years (Cazalet Chronicles #1)

This novel is the first of a Quintet called the Cazalet Chronicles, a family saga that begins in 1937-1938 just prior to World War II.

There are a great number of characters introduced herein, and I expect they will also be present through the subsequent novels. In the family alone (including one daughter-in-law’s sister, husband, and children) we meet 11 adults and 12 teens and children. There are also many servants and others who interact regularly with the family.

In retrospect, I was astonished by these numbers. Each character is presented, usually alone, in a little vignette – one that is intimate and immediate as we are privy to their thoughts about a particular topic or series of topics. These pieces are all so well written they immediately begin to add their own thread colour to the larger design of the tapestry. I found it difficult to put the book down because I wanted to know them all right away: who they are, their likes and dislikes, the things they enjoy and don’t. I don’t recall ever before getting to know such a large cast of characters, let alone doing so with such ease.

Ms Howard’s writing is smooth and elegant, ensuring that I found myself completely immersed in the lives of this family, their staff, and even their neighbours. As in real life, there are many revelations for these people, many shifts and changes in friendships and relationships, attitudes and opinions. I found the children’s voices to be authentic and brilliantly observed. How children perceive certain things can be very funny at times; very poignant and even sad at other times. Ms Howard opens up their minds and hearts to us – a skill that also extends to the insights she offers in the development of all of the adult characters, too.

The family is wealthy due to their lumber business. They supply wood for building things, veneers for finishing things, and they supply not only common woods but also the more exotic. Although the Cazalets are well-placed financially and in society, they tend for the most part to take all their holidays together at the country estate, returning to their London homes once school resumes. They have friends, yet their family life is the most important organism around which their lives revolve.

The two oldest brothers served in WW I and its effect on them is more obvious in one, and more subtle in the other. And now, WW II is looming. Despite a collective disregard of the possibility of war, ”But nobody wants another war!!” the family eventually begins to take steps to prepare – ‘just in case’. This also has its own consequences, for both the adults and the children.

I have wanted to read this quintet for more than two years and I am so excited about actually beginning. This novel is a wonderful, intimate introduction to this family on the verge of a life-changing time in our collective history. The story is a treasure-trove of symbolism while remaining a captivating and entertaining surface read for anyone who prefers that approach.

I can’t wait to read the second novel next month!


Define Books Supposing The Light Years (Cazalet Chronicles #1)

Original Title: The Light Years
ISBN: 0671527932 (ISBN13: 9780671527938)
Edition Language: English
Series: Cazalet Chronicles #1
Setting: England United Kingdom


Rating Regarding Books The Light Years (Cazalet Chronicles #1)
Ratings: 3.96 From 7308 Users | 860 Reviews

Assessment Regarding Books The Light Years (Cazalet Chronicles #1)
2.75 stars. As a teenager, I really really enjoyed these books. My mum loved them and somehow got me onto them, and I ended up completely engrossed in the characters. Fast forward 15 years and I'm like "..............this book is kind of a hot mess". This series is basically Downton Abbey but during World War II. This first one is set during the summers of 1937 and 1938, so it's really the lead up to war and setting the scene as far as family dynamics and family relationships are concerned. But

Wonderful, transportive escapism. In spite of having a heaving cast of characters they are all fully developed and fully realised, you get the sense that EJH could easily have written a spin-off for any of them, right down to the most insignificant character. She knows these characters right down to their bones and by the end of the book so do we all. This is a total masterclass in character-driven family drama. The period setting grabbed me immediately and still hasnt let me go, it has a

2.75 stars. As a teenager, I really really enjoyed these books. My mum loved them and somehow got me onto them, and I ended up completely engrossed in the characters. Fast forward 15 years and I'm like "..............this book is kind of a hot mess". This series is basically Downton Abbey but during World War II. This first one is set during the summers of 1937 and 1938, so it's really the lead up to war and setting the scene as far as family dynamics and family relationships are concerned. But

Volume one of a great family saga.

I was surprised to like this as much as I did. A family saga? Normally, I'd say 'no thanks'. But my step mother-in-law posted me the whole series, and since nothing is nicer than receiving an unexpected parcel of books, I thought I should read the first one. I loved how we got to dip in and out of the characters' heads, sometimes for only a couple of paragraphs. Although I would have liked to see inside Edward's head more to understand what he was thinking about the things that he did. Other

Gripping, enthralling saga, swan song of the end of an era - an era in which good china and maids and drivers and butlers and country mansions gave the upper class - and the middle and lower class, reflecting their life - the illusion of an harmonic, ordered life, a time and space where beauty had the upper hand on war and death. Cannot wait to start the second volume.

I really wanted something different to read and the Cazalet Chronicles were recommended to me by several people. I'm so glad that I listened. I am completely hooked on the details of the daily lives of the Cazalet children and their parents and grandparents, as well as their servants - in this case during the summer of 1938. This is beautiful writing, exquisitely realised characters and such a wonderful setting in their country summer house near the coast. War, of course, looms and some are