A Favourite of the Gods and A Compass Error

Fiction & Literature, Psychological, Family Life, Literary
Cover of the book A Favourite of the Gods and A Compass Error by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn, New York Review Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn ISBN: 9781681370576
Publisher: New York Review Books Publication: July 11, 2017
Imprint: NYRB Classics Language: English
Author: Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
ISBN: 9781681370576
Publisher: New York Review Books
Publication: July 11, 2017
Imprint: NYRB Classics
Language: English

A Favourite of the Gods is the story of two generations of a single family, united by a strong matrilineal bond but divided by the customs of their differing nationalities. Anna Howland, the matriarch and American heiress, born in the 1870s to a prominent, liberal New England family marries an Italian prince and makes her home in Rome; her daughter Constanza, the favorite of the title, inherits her mother’s beauty, intelligence, and wealth, along with her father’s Catholicism, which she soon rejects.

When disaster strikes, Anna and the prince fall back on the standards of behavior of their disparate cultures; Constanza, with her European upbringing, is free to plot her own course, and she does so with daring, making an unconventional life for herself in England and on the continent during and after the First World War.

Her own daughter Flavia is the heroine of A Compass Error, which begins where the first novel concludes. Flavia too is a brilliant young woman, though both more brash and more faltering than her mother, studying for her entrance exam to Oxford when she becomes involved with a mysterious woman whose arrival at a sensitive moment in Flavia’s adolescence will alter both her and her mother’s lives forever.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A Favourite of the Gods is the story of two generations of a single family, united by a strong matrilineal bond but divided by the customs of their differing nationalities. Anna Howland, the matriarch and American heiress, born in the 1870s to a prominent, liberal New England family marries an Italian prince and makes her home in Rome; her daughter Constanza, the favorite of the title, inherits her mother’s beauty, intelligence, and wealth, along with her father’s Catholicism, which she soon rejects.

When disaster strikes, Anna and the prince fall back on the standards of behavior of their disparate cultures; Constanza, with her European upbringing, is free to plot her own course, and she does so with daring, making an unconventional life for herself in England and on the continent during and after the First World War.

Her own daughter Flavia is the heroine of A Compass Error, which begins where the first novel concludes. Flavia too is a brilliant young woman, though both more brash and more faltering than her mother, studying for her entrance exam to Oxford when she becomes involved with a mysterious woman whose arrival at a sensitive moment in Flavia’s adolescence will alter both her and her mother’s lives forever.

More books from New York Review Books

Cover of the book Nairn's Paris by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book The Little Bookroom by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book 1948 by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book The Communist by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book The Return of Munchausen by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Austerity Measures by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Mawrdew Czgowchwz by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book On the Abolition of All Political Parties by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Young Once by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book All for Nothing by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book The Pilgrim Hawk by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Novels in Three Lines by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book The Thirty Years War by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book The Lord Chandos Letter by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Little Reunions by Sybille Bedford, Daniel Mendelsohn
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy