The Friendly Young Ladies by Mary Renault
Elsie, sheltered and naive, is seventeen and unhappy. Stifled by life with her bickering parents in a bleak Cornish village, she falls in love with the first presentable young man she meets -- Peter, an an ambitious London doctor. On his advice she runs away from home and goes to live with her sister Leonora, who escaped eight years earlier. But there are surprises in store for conventional Elsie as her sister has a rather bohemian lifestyle: not only does Leo live in a houseboat on the Thames where she writes Westerns for a living, she shares her boat, and her bed, with the lovely Helen. When Peter pays this strange menage a visit, turning his attention from one 'friendly' young lady to the next, he disturbs the calm for each of them -- with results unforeseen by all . . . Mary Renault wrote this delightfully provocative novel in 1943 partly in answer to the despair characteristic of Radclyffe Hall's the Well of Loneliness. The result is this witty and stylish social comedy.
Undeniably charming. . has an enormous nostalgic attractiveness * New Yorker *
Written with rare insight * Boston Globe *
A very lively and human story * New York Times Book Review *
Written with rare insight * Boston Globe *
A very lively and human story * New York Times Book Review *
At her death in 1983, Mary Renault was one of the most popular historical novelists writing in English, and her books have been translated into every major language.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781844081363 |
| ISBN 10 | 1844081362 |
| Title | The Friendly Young Ladies |
| Author | Mary Renault |
| Series | Virago Modern Classics |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Little, Brown Book Group |
| Year published | 2005-12-01 |
| Number of pages | 320 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |