NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A novel to cure your Downton Abbey withdrawal . . . a delightful story about nontraditional romantic relationships, class snobbery and the everybody-knows-everybody complications of living in a small community.”—The Washington PostThe bestselling author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand returns with a breathtaking novel of love on the eve of World War I that reaches far … of love on the eve of World War I that reaches far beyond the small English town in which it is set.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND NPR
East Sussex, 1914. It is the end of England’s brief Edwardian summer, and everyone agrees that the weather has never been so beautiful. Hugh Grange, down from his medical studies, is visiting his Aunt Agatha, who lives with her husband in the small, idyllic coastal town of Rye. Agatha’s husband works in the Foreign Office, and she is certain he will ensure that the recent saber rattling over the Balkans won’t come to anything. And Agatha has more immediate concerns; she has just risked her carefully built reputation by pushing for the appointment of a woman to replace the Latin master.
When Beatrice Nash arrives with one trunk and several large crates of books, it is clear she is significantly more freethinking—and attractive—than anyone believes a Latin teacher should be. For her part, mourning the death of her beloved father, who has left her penniless, Beatrice simply wants to be left alone to pursue her teaching and writing.
But just as Beatrice comes alive to the beauty of the Sussex landscape and the colorful characters who populate Rye, the perfect summer is about to end. For despite Agatha’s reassurances, the unimaginable is coming. Soon the limits of progress, and the old ways, will be tested as this small Sussex town and its inhabitants go to war.
Praise for The Summer Before the War
“What begins as a study of a small-town society becomes a compelling account of war and its aftermath.”—Woman’s Day
“This witty character study of how a small English town reacts to the 1914 arrival of its first female teacher offers gentle humor wrapped in a hauntingly detailed story.”—Good Housekeeping
“Perfect for readers in a post–Downton Abbey slump . . . The gently teasing banter between two kindred spirits edging slowly into love is as delicately crafted as a bone-china teacup. . . . More than a high-toned romantic reverie for Anglophiles—though it serves the latter purpose, too.”—The Seattle Times
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I have read both of Helen Simonson’s best selling books. I find her stories to be so creative, so well told, and so original that I rush to read her books.
A glimpse into pre WW1.
This book was very good. It was one of the best books I have read in quite a while. Very original and well written.
This is a story about relationships starting just before and during WW1. It is a mix of cousins, colleagues relatives and a newly arriving teacher. It involves how the Englished viewed the Germans on home soil during the war and how gypisies were a part of the culture that were both a mainstay but living on the edge.
The lives and lives of two cousins are followed during the book. Both go to war. It deals with family expectations and how they affect decisions. And in the end how people are able to get beyond the expectations and look for what they really want in life. Not all threads are happy threads. But that would be unrealistic in a book the included thevsins and daughters going off to war.
This book keeps you hooked. The character development is wonderful. The atmosphere painted is lyrical. Emotions run high. You are drawn into this story. You want tho read the sequal.
a very good story… hated for it to end.
Great perspective of life in England as the war approaches.
I found it to be very strange.
A journey from a time and place that is well written and a very good read.
Haven’t finished yet, but am loving it. The writing is so descriptive – you can so picture the characters and the settings.
This book was billed as appealing to people who liked Downton Abby. I liked this book so much better. I thought the characters were more real and more involved in real issues, not just how to perpetuate the aristocracy. Plus, DA killed off all my favorite characters in the first 3 seasons and I didn’t think the rest were very likable. I enjoyed this one very much.
Exceptional Writing
It covers a period I am interested in. It is well worth reading though it is not as good as her ” Major Pettigrew” novel
A very pleasant read.
I loved this book. Simonson has a light touch with irony that is absolutely charming. She takes us to a time of innocence, when the world was cozy, safe and stupid, and then leads us gently through hell and back. Loved it all.
It’s not often that I finish a book, only to return to the beginning to begin rereading it (albeit quickly!) with an eye toward anything I missed the first time around. Helen Simonson’s The Summer Before the War is just such a rare book.
On one level, it is the story of the inhabitants of the Rye, a quintessential English village, as they come to terms with this new war – and the new world it ushers in. It is peopled with rich characters and not a few petty rivalries. The Kent family is the heart of the story, with Aunt Agatha and Uncle John and their nephews Daniel and Hugh. Into their midst enters Beatrice Nash, come to town to teach Latin, a proposition which many in the town find downright scandalous. She arrives in Rye in the middle of that last summer when England was “Old England,” and when the English, and the upper classes in particular, had every faith that war could be averted. Simonson captures the end of the age as well as those who lived it.
On a deeper level, The Summer Before the War is the story of stigma: the stigma of insufficient patriotism; the stigma of acts that mar an otherwise upstanding reputation; the stigma of loving the wrong person – or loving the right person at the wrong time; the stigma of not being British (or not being British enough). The stigma of being a Gypsy. From war crimes to homosexuality, Simonson handles heavy topics with a deft touch. In fact, her work is so fine that it was not until I’d finished this novel that I realized how consistently this thread runs through the book. Moreover, and like Simonson’s last novel, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Simonson’s characters are multi-dimensional and feel entirely real. Their adventures are fun, touching, and highly readable. The relationships that she crafts are a strong point of the story.
I have read many novels with World War I as the backdrop, and no small number of these British. (The Walnut Tree and Somewhere in France are but two that trade on this setting.) To my mind, though, The Summer Before the War is the richest, most involved, and most emotionally charged of those I have read. From the presence of the Belgian refugees to the emergence of women’s rights, Simonson has created a story in which going over the top is only part of the story of England’s war.
(This review was originally published at http://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2016/10/the-summer-before-war.html)
Nice summer read! I’ve gotten hooked on books that take place during WWII! This book has been on my “to read” list for over a year!
The first few pages had me wondering if this book could hold my attention. I’ll admit that I put it down several times. When I made it to the middle of the book it really took off! The characters became real and important and I was sad when it came to the end.
This is what I perceive to be a good representation of the middle to upper middle class strata in Edwardian England. The story is compelling and the characters are well-formed. I found it enjoyable although at times uncomfortable because of the truths it dealt with.
I love Helen Simonson’s works because she understands and portrays the history well. This title, however, resonates with me on so many academic levels that I was shocked at the parallels I could draw. I am a public historian, and in grad school one of our classes was Documentary Editing. We had to comb through archives and transcribe articles, letters, journals and diaries, notes, etc. The reaction, attitude, and temperament of the town ladies to the Belgium refugees mimicked letters I found in an archive where the ladies did complain about Belgium refugees and their smell and their lack of clothing and their inability to communicate in English. The ladies further expressed had they known the state of “their” refugees, then they would have reconsidered opening their homes to refugees! I couldn’t believe Simonson’s story.
Then there is Daniel. We had a specific assignment that caused us to use The First World War Poetry Archive (http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/). I swear Daniel is a character drawn from that specific archive. Oh the talented and great writers and poets the world lost because of the Great War.
Hugh really hit home. In Historical Methods class, my major paper was “Military Medicine Benefits Civilian Medicine.” How Simonson chose to portray Hugh was so strikingly similar to what I discovered in the Great War era, that I had to review my research notes to see if I could discover if Simonson was again referring to an actual person I researched.
My appreciation for Simonson’s attention to historical detail in the weaving of her fiction is what appeals to me. I know others did not seem to like the number of characters or the class system or how she portrayed people, but I think they just don’t like this historical genre and therefore fail to miss just how accurately marvelous Simonson developed her characters. Like all Great War stories, it was a bittersweet one, too. Having seen the ground that was the Western Front and the markers that delineate the lines at the start and end of the war which are about 75 yards apart and read wartime writings, I can’t think of a better era-reflective novel than The Summer Before the War.
I usually enjoy period pieces, but never could get absorbed by this book. I gave up about half-way through and have never wanted to go back to it. I think I only read that far because I don’t like leaving a book unfinished.
Wonderful characters!