Solaris
03-22-2005, 12:21 AM
This started out as a reply in another thread, but after I went digging for titles, I decided it ought to be its own thread... :) L'Engle has an astounding number of books out there, many of them out of print and hard to find (even finding references on Amazon to some of them took me a good while!)... so share what you know about her books!
PS---the latter books on the list have reviews I copied over from Amazon---they're in quotation marks.
...I Recently read A Wrinkle in Time by L'Engle and I liked it....
Joy! It's a great book. When I first read it, I had no clue that there were sequels to it (found out 4 years later, to my great delight and chagrin---I'd missed reading them sooner!), so here you go just in case:
A Wind in the Door (book 2, features Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace again)
A Swiftly Tilting Planet (book 3, features mainly Charles Wallace and Meg, but has some very interesting background on Calvin's family)
Many Waters (technically (timewise), this fits in between 2 & 3, but it's a totally different book featuring the twins, Sandy and Dennis, as they have their own supernatural adventure unbeknownst to the rest of the family, and it's way cool)
PLUS, there's other books further into the future, re: Meg's children (The Arm of the Starfish, Dragons in the Water, House Like a Lotus, An Acceptable Time). There's also some tie-in/crossover characters between this set and her books about the Austin family (Meet the Austins, The Moon by Night, A Ring of Endless Light, The Young Unicorns).
For the latter, for continuity's sake, I recommend reading in the order of:
Meet the Austins
The Moon by Night
Arm of the Starfish
The Young Unicorns
A Ring of Endless Light
Dragons in the Water
House Like a Lotus
An Acceptable Time
Troubling a Star (frankly, the last two I didn't care for nearly as much as the others... you won't lose a lot by skipping them, IMO).
Then there's her two book set about classical pianist, Katherine (these are Adult Fiction, btw)... the first book is Katherine in her youth, and the second is of her as a very old woman retiring to NYC---in the latter, there's crossover with "The Young Unicorns" and some of the Austin family. I highly recommend these as well: The Small Rain and A Severed Wasp.
She's got some other great books for youth and for adult:
Youth:
And Both Were Young--- (Just after WWII, youthful artist Phillipa Hunter is forced to attend a Swiss boarding school, and finds it to be a growing experience...especially her friendship with a mysterious boy...)
Camilla--- "Life had always been easy for fifteen-year-old Camilla Dickinson. But now her parents, whom she had always loved and trusted, are behaving like strangers to each other and vying for her allegiance. Camilla is torn between her love for them and her disapproval of their actions.
Then she meets Frank, her best friend's brother, who helps her to feel that she is not alone. Can Camilla learn to accept her parents for what they are and step toward her own independence?")
...and some others that I'm blanking on the title of right now, and can't find on Amazon for reference... argh...
Adult:
The Other Side of the Sun: A Novel I've read this one, and it's an awesome read.
Innocence can be a deadly thing. So Stella Renier, nineteen-year-old bride from England, learns when she reaches her new husband's home in South Carolina. It's 1910, and the veterans of the War Between the States are growing old. Yet the conflicts that war failed to resolve - along with some new ones created by its aftermath - simmer just below the surface of the coastal community surrounding the house called Illyria. That house will become the one place Stella regards as home throughout her married life, which is destined to be long. We know this because elderly and recently widowed Stella narrates the story for her adult grandson, during another era of turmoil in the American South. But in 1910, as she comes to Illyria without the husband she's barely had time to wed - sent to his family while Terry Renier sets off on a secret assignment for his employer, the U.S. State Department - it's a fantastic house in an alien country. And her husband's family are, of course, strangers.
How can Stella, who grew up at Oxford, understand the basics of keeping herself safe in a place where she's expected to treat the first Negroes she has ever met as if they were members of a different species? How can the girl reared by an agnostic father grasp the conflict between the powerful Christian faith of Honoria, a one-time African princess who takes care of everyone at Illyria, and the dark spirits invoked by the "Granddam" in the desperately impoverished black hamlets just inland from the beachfront homes of the Reniers? Stella doesn't even know the significance of robed horsemen who ride by night. But her husband's people all know it. And so does the English-educated black physician whose danger she increases with every innocent gesture of friendship.
"The Other Side of the Sun" is a book to read through to the end, and then read again. It has much to say about the nature of faith, of fate, of aging, and of human love. But most of all, it's a well-told and compelling story about characters as real as any I've ever met on the printed page.
--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of "Love, Jimmy: A Maine Veteran's Longest Battle")
A Live Coal In The Sea This one I've also read, and can recommend as a powerful book.
"Madeleine L'Engle's first adult novel in four years -- now in paperback! With 23,000 copies sold since May 1996, this "haunting domestic drama" (Publishers Weekly) examines the powers of faith and mercy in one family's confrontation with a legacy of evil.
When Dr. Camilla Dickinson's teenage granddaughter confronts her with the disquieting question of whether Camilla is, in fact, her grandmother, long-kept secrets rise to the surface to test the faith, love and loyalty of the Xanthakos family. This skillful, gripping tale shuttles between past and troubled present, providing clues to a multigenerational mystery -- clues that begin to focus on Camilla's son, the deeply troubled TV idol Artaxias, and on Camilla's mother, the irresistibly beautiful and adulterous Rose. Though riveting and psychologically complex, A Live Coal in the Sea is "infused with the warmth of love and mercy" (Booklist), showcasing the keen eye and deep compassion that have made L'Engle one of this century's premier writers on faith and its place in human experience."
---yes, this one ties into her teen book "Camilla".
A Winter's Love (I haven't read this one yet)
This book is notable for several reasons: in typical L'Engle "nepotistic" style, it features the younger version of characters who appear in later books (Virginia Porcher, _House Like a Lotus_, and Mimi Oppenheimer, _A Severed Wasp_); and it features characters who obviously evolved into two important characters of her more recent Young Adult fiction, Zachary Gray and Max Horne. While a fascinating read, this book does not have the maturity of writing that Ms. L'Engle developed in her more recent adult fiction.
The Love Letters (haven't read this one yet either, darn it)
"It took me two read-throughs to properly appreciate this book. At first, it reads like 60s romance fiction, which is when it was originally written. Upon a second, more careful reading, the true (and very typical L'Engle) message comes through... Life's set-backs can rock us to the core, and we can take time to grieve, but we should not turn our back on Life and Love (of self, of others, etc.) and give in to Nothingness. Also of interest, in typical L'Engle "nepotism," (something I truly enjoy) there are scenes in this book that are referred to in another one of her books, 'Certain Women'."
"This is one of my favorite L'Engle books! I'd put it into a category called the "Europe Collection". Also in this collection would be "And Both Were Young", and The Small Rain". Madeleine weaves a mesmerizing tapestry of Sr. Mariana Alcoforado, passionate Portuguese nun, and Cotty, frightened American changeling. A companion resource to this novel should be "The Letters of a Portuguese Nun," now out of print, but contains original artwork by Pablo Picasso. Mariana's story will catch our stomachs on the verge of somersaults. Tears come to my eyes,three cheers, L'Engle!!!"
***
... can't remember some of her other fiction works for adults, but they grapple with some very adult problems in very human ways, as is usual for her.
---see next post
PS---the latter books on the list have reviews I copied over from Amazon---they're in quotation marks.
...I Recently read A Wrinkle in Time by L'Engle and I liked it....
Joy! It's a great book. When I first read it, I had no clue that there were sequels to it (found out 4 years later, to my great delight and chagrin---I'd missed reading them sooner!), so here you go just in case:
A Wind in the Door (book 2, features Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace again)
A Swiftly Tilting Planet (book 3, features mainly Charles Wallace and Meg, but has some very interesting background on Calvin's family)
Many Waters (technically (timewise), this fits in between 2 & 3, but it's a totally different book featuring the twins, Sandy and Dennis, as they have their own supernatural adventure unbeknownst to the rest of the family, and it's way cool)
PLUS, there's other books further into the future, re: Meg's children (The Arm of the Starfish, Dragons in the Water, House Like a Lotus, An Acceptable Time). There's also some tie-in/crossover characters between this set and her books about the Austin family (Meet the Austins, The Moon by Night, A Ring of Endless Light, The Young Unicorns).
For the latter, for continuity's sake, I recommend reading in the order of:
Meet the Austins
The Moon by Night
Arm of the Starfish
The Young Unicorns
A Ring of Endless Light
Dragons in the Water
House Like a Lotus
An Acceptable Time
Troubling a Star (frankly, the last two I didn't care for nearly as much as the others... you won't lose a lot by skipping them, IMO).
Then there's her two book set about classical pianist, Katherine (these are Adult Fiction, btw)... the first book is Katherine in her youth, and the second is of her as a very old woman retiring to NYC---in the latter, there's crossover with "The Young Unicorns" and some of the Austin family. I highly recommend these as well: The Small Rain and A Severed Wasp.
She's got some other great books for youth and for adult:
Youth:
And Both Were Young--- (Just after WWII, youthful artist Phillipa Hunter is forced to attend a Swiss boarding school, and finds it to be a growing experience...especially her friendship with a mysterious boy...)
Camilla--- "Life had always been easy for fifteen-year-old Camilla Dickinson. But now her parents, whom she had always loved and trusted, are behaving like strangers to each other and vying for her allegiance. Camilla is torn between her love for them and her disapproval of their actions.
Then she meets Frank, her best friend's brother, who helps her to feel that she is not alone. Can Camilla learn to accept her parents for what they are and step toward her own independence?")
...and some others that I'm blanking on the title of right now, and can't find on Amazon for reference... argh...
Adult:
The Other Side of the Sun: A Novel I've read this one, and it's an awesome read.
Innocence can be a deadly thing. So Stella Renier, nineteen-year-old bride from England, learns when she reaches her new husband's home in South Carolina. It's 1910, and the veterans of the War Between the States are growing old. Yet the conflicts that war failed to resolve - along with some new ones created by its aftermath - simmer just below the surface of the coastal community surrounding the house called Illyria. That house will become the one place Stella regards as home throughout her married life, which is destined to be long. We know this because elderly and recently widowed Stella narrates the story for her adult grandson, during another era of turmoil in the American South. But in 1910, as she comes to Illyria without the husband she's barely had time to wed - sent to his family while Terry Renier sets off on a secret assignment for his employer, the U.S. State Department - it's a fantastic house in an alien country. And her husband's family are, of course, strangers.
How can Stella, who grew up at Oxford, understand the basics of keeping herself safe in a place where she's expected to treat the first Negroes she has ever met as if they were members of a different species? How can the girl reared by an agnostic father grasp the conflict between the powerful Christian faith of Honoria, a one-time African princess who takes care of everyone at Illyria, and the dark spirits invoked by the "Granddam" in the desperately impoverished black hamlets just inland from the beachfront homes of the Reniers? Stella doesn't even know the significance of robed horsemen who ride by night. But her husband's people all know it. And so does the English-educated black physician whose danger she increases with every innocent gesture of friendship.
"The Other Side of the Sun" is a book to read through to the end, and then read again. It has much to say about the nature of faith, of fate, of aging, and of human love. But most of all, it's a well-told and compelling story about characters as real as any I've ever met on the printed page.
--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of "Love, Jimmy: A Maine Veteran's Longest Battle")
A Live Coal In The Sea This one I've also read, and can recommend as a powerful book.
"Madeleine L'Engle's first adult novel in four years -- now in paperback! With 23,000 copies sold since May 1996, this "haunting domestic drama" (Publishers Weekly) examines the powers of faith and mercy in one family's confrontation with a legacy of evil.
When Dr. Camilla Dickinson's teenage granddaughter confronts her with the disquieting question of whether Camilla is, in fact, her grandmother, long-kept secrets rise to the surface to test the faith, love and loyalty of the Xanthakos family. This skillful, gripping tale shuttles between past and troubled present, providing clues to a multigenerational mystery -- clues that begin to focus on Camilla's son, the deeply troubled TV idol Artaxias, and on Camilla's mother, the irresistibly beautiful and adulterous Rose. Though riveting and psychologically complex, A Live Coal in the Sea is "infused with the warmth of love and mercy" (Booklist), showcasing the keen eye and deep compassion that have made L'Engle one of this century's premier writers on faith and its place in human experience."
---yes, this one ties into her teen book "Camilla".
A Winter's Love (I haven't read this one yet)
This book is notable for several reasons: in typical L'Engle "nepotistic" style, it features the younger version of characters who appear in later books (Virginia Porcher, _House Like a Lotus_, and Mimi Oppenheimer, _A Severed Wasp_); and it features characters who obviously evolved into two important characters of her more recent Young Adult fiction, Zachary Gray and Max Horne. While a fascinating read, this book does not have the maturity of writing that Ms. L'Engle developed in her more recent adult fiction.
The Love Letters (haven't read this one yet either, darn it)
"It took me two read-throughs to properly appreciate this book. At first, it reads like 60s romance fiction, which is when it was originally written. Upon a second, more careful reading, the true (and very typical L'Engle) message comes through... Life's set-backs can rock us to the core, and we can take time to grieve, but we should not turn our back on Life and Love (of self, of others, etc.) and give in to Nothingness. Also of interest, in typical L'Engle "nepotism," (something I truly enjoy) there are scenes in this book that are referred to in another one of her books, 'Certain Women'."
"This is one of my favorite L'Engle books! I'd put it into a category called the "Europe Collection". Also in this collection would be "And Both Were Young", and The Small Rain". Madeleine weaves a mesmerizing tapestry of Sr. Mariana Alcoforado, passionate Portuguese nun, and Cotty, frightened American changeling. A companion resource to this novel should be "The Letters of a Portuguese Nun," now out of print, but contains original artwork by Pablo Picasso. Mariana's story will catch our stomachs on the verge of somersaults. Tears come to my eyes,three cheers, L'Engle!!!"
***
... can't remember some of her other fiction works for adults, but they grapple with some very adult problems in very human ways, as is usual for her.
---see next post