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by Elaine diRollo

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  • ISBN: 0701181788
  • Category: Fiction
  • Author: Elaine diRollo
  • Other formats: txt lit mobi doc
  • Language: English
  • Publisher: Chatto & Windus (August 5, 2008)
  • Pages: 320 pages
  • FB2 size: 1529 kb
  • EPUB size: 1837 kb
  • Rating: 4.9
  • Votes: 653
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Pages cm. Set in 1857, between England and India, The Peachgrowers' Almanac is a rollicking novel about feisty women, the devotion of sisters and the Victorian obsession with empire, experiments and photography.

Pages cm. Lilian and Alice are twin sisters, living with their eccentric father at the Great House. Lilian, in mysterious disgrace, is married off to a dreary missionary and goes to live in India. Alice is left at home, curator to her father's monstrous collection of artefacts, under the watchful eye of the malevolent Dr Cattermole. Originally published: London: Chatto & Windus,.

Used availability for Elaine Di Rollo's The Peachgrowers' Almanac. August 2009 : UK Hardback.

The Peachgrowers' Almanac book. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Start by marking The Peachgrowers' Almanac as Want to Read: Want to Read savin. ant to Read.

Set in England and India in the mutinous year of 1857, "A Proper Education for Girls" tells the story of Alice and Lilian Talbot, twins separated for the first time in their lives by their martinet father

Random House, 10 февр. The second book this weekend that is about the aftermath of WW1. This one has some funny bits in as well as the sadder side of WW1.

Random House, 10 февр. Monty and Ada last saw one another on the frontlines of the First World War, when Monty was a nurse and Ada an ambulance driver who drove like the devil. Now, the two friends have been reunited at crumbling Bleakly Hall, where Monty has been hired to look after the grumpy, gouty guests who have come to take the Hall's curative waters. Not a bad read.

The Peachgrowers' Almanac. by Elaine Di Rollo (Chatto & Windus, £1. 9). By Stephanie Cross for MailOnline Updated: 12:04 EST, 4 August 2008. A peach tree on wheels, an artificial volcano and a servant wonderfully named Sluce - just some of the curiosities in this Victorian-era debut. For sisters Lilian and Alice novelty is the norm, thanks to their father's appetite for the strange.

Download PDF book format. Choose file format of this book to download: pdf chm txt rtf doc. Download this format book. The peachgrowers' almanac Elaine di Rollo. Book's title: The peachgrowers' almanac Elaine di Rollo. Library of Congress Control Number: 2010291040. book below: (C) 2016-2018 All rights are reserved by their owners.

About Elaine Dirollo. Elaine di Rollo comes from Lancashire and now lives in Scotland. The building she works in used to be a hydropathic. This is her second novel. Her first, The Peachgrowers' Almanac/A Proper Education for Girls, which was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book prize, the Scottish Arts Council First Book Award and the Guildford Literary Festival First Book Award, was set in 1857 between England and India.

This is her second novel. Her first, A Proper Education for Girls""(first published as The Peachgrowers' Almanac), which was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book prize, the Scottish Arts Council First Book Award and the Guildford Literary Festival First Book Award, was set in 1857 between England and India.

Автор: Rollo, Elaine Di Название: Peachgrowers& almanac ISBN .

Описание: The peachgrowers are 27 year-old twin sisters with a passion for botany. Lilian, in mysterious disgrace, has been married off to a dreary missionary. Alice is left at home, curator to her father& monstrous collection of artefacts under the watchful eye of the malevolent Dr Cattermole.

A dazzling debut novel, both comic and dark, about the Victorian obsession with science, inventions and experiments. Two sisters, one in England, the other married-off in India, communicate via coded messages that reveal deep secrets, and lead to adventure . . . with a twist.
Reviews about The Peachgrowers' Almanac (7):
GoodBuyMyFriends
The story was intriguing and touched on some history I'm interested in, including concepts of medicine and hysteria influenced by the sexism of the times.

Some aspects of the story are far fetched, which is okay, but I found the characters a little less than believable. I went back and forth on this book as far as enjoyment goes. There were interesting bits of information on art and the culture of India.

I just found it hard to stay in the story or to buy into the overall premise.
Fohuginn
I loved this book. The right mix of history, intelligence and questioning authority. Great read.
Mightdragon
I cannot love this book more. It was such a treat to read. Twins Lilian and Alice live with their father Mr. Talbot who collects strange and rare objects. The twins themselves seem to be part of the collection! When Lilian is compromised by Mr. Hunter she is married off to a boring missionary who whisks her off to India leaving Alice with her aunts in Mr. Tablots strange world. Mr. Blake is hired as a photographer to catagorise every piece of the collection. Alice who has gone against the conventions of her time acts as his assistant. He is perplexed to find that he is attracted to her despite her obvious plainess, though Alice is unaware of his feelings. When she comes into possession of some 'racy' photographs that Mr. Blake brought with him she blackmails him into marrying her so that she can escape her father and rush off to India after her sister. To her surprise he is more than willing to agree.There are even rumours that she is a hermaphrodite! The malicious Dr. Cattermole enters the picture who claims he can 'cure' her conditon. Meanwhile Lilian is thriving in her new country while her husband does nothing but complain. She learns the language and even goes as far to wear sari's which scandalises the english population. Just as she thinks that she has settled into her life Mr. Hunter returns to her life and confesses than he made a huge mistake. Lilian is not having any of it but with revenge in mind she leads him on. The sisters ultimately struggle to be together and are strong heroines who go against convention. I absolutely love them! I was saddened when it ended.

Give this book a shot. It's unusual. I love it! It's hilarious.
Pumpit
This novel is a surprisingly clever rout of Victorian mores and pretensions, the hypocrisy of an era stripped bare as twin sisters, Lilian and Alice Talbot find themselves at the mercy of a science-obsessed father and his friend, the evil Dr. Cattermole. Talbot House filled with his "Collection", the sisters' father is an avid member of the Society for the Propagation of Useful and Interesting Knowledge, each room filled with artifacts and curiosities. After a scandalous incident, Lilian has been married to a missionary and dispatched to India, her name never to be spoken in the home again. Alice is devastated, left to care for her father's oddities as well as their deceased mother's fertile conservatory. Dabbling in photography, Alice is somewhat comforted to learn her father will soon have a new assistant, Mr. Blake.

In chapters that alternate between Alice's bleak existence at Talbot House to Lilian's adventures in India, the author excoriates the particular attitudes of Victorian England and the British occupation of India, the male hubris that dominates both societies and the restrictions females must endure, an enforced childishness that renders them helpless without a male's superior intelligence to guide their every move. While Alice submits to her father's demands, supported by the frivolous fluttering of five charming elderly aunts, Lilian thrives in India, ignoring her husband's voluble complaints. Even when Lilian is confronted with a face from the past, she barely breaks stride, shedding the shackles of society for freedom from restriction and a well-planned revenge. Alice is not so fortunate, the object of Cattermole's compulsion to wield his surgeon's scalpel. Alice's situation is dire, the young woman in great and irreversible danger.

With a vengeful eye and a sharp wit, diRollo mines the Victorian repression of womanhood in a subtly subversive novel, exposing the pomposity of men who disguise their carnal appetites in scientific research, their obsession with experimentation veiling a thirst for all things libidinous. Faced with only two options, institutionalization or marriage, Lilian and Alice are the heroines of the piece, charged with outwitting the males who dominate them and escaping the control of those who view women as objects. Crowded with sentiment, theory and bizarre curiosities, this is a novel to be savored, fools left sputtering in confusion as two sisters soar above the petty presumptions of their era. Luan Gaines/2009.
Bludworm
Two girls left from a set of triplets in which one girl died young. They have become engaged in their father's collection which takes up every inch of the house. Their father does not let anyone leave this house without his permission. However, one sister, manages to escape after she disgraces herself and her father is forced to marry her off to a missionary who takes her to India. The other girl, Alice, however, is left behind. Her father sort of thinks of her as part of his collection after the nasty Dr. Cattermole points out that she is less than lady-like. Lillian (the girl in India) knows she needs to get Alice out of there, before something awful befalls her.

I enjoyed this book, even though it took me quite awhile to get through. The ideas seemed fresh and intriguing (twins, a bizarre collection, India, England, Sexism, new medical procedures, hermaphrodites, photography, uprisings). I really enjoyed that it switched back and forth between Alice and Lillian's point of views every few chapters. This definitely kept you reading because they would switch at the height of excitement. This book dealt largely with the sexism that was very present in England around the early days of petticoats and such. Elaine di Rollo did extensive reading and research when writing this book and it makes the book that much better as an insight into the (sometimes crazy) things that people believe and how they acted. I recommend this book to people who are looking for and interesting almost factual type of read. This book does contain exciting parts, action, adventures, little mysteries. I did not find it a fast read however, it was still quite enjoyable.

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