Having enjoyed 'The Fountain Overflows' so much I thought this might not live up to my expectations. So glad I was wrong, it was lovely, the characters are wonderful to be with and when I had finished the book it felt like some friends had moved away. I loved the characters of Mary and Rose and felt sympathy with them over Cordelia. I liked the scene at the Morpurgo's, Mrs Morpurgo being rude was descibed by Rose noticing 'she did not suddenly start being disagreeable this afternoon, she was so [...]

‘This Real Night’ was to be the second volume of a trilogy that would tell the story of a century, but the trilogy was never completed. The first book, ‘The Fountain Overflows’ was published in 1956 but this book wasn’t published until 1984, a year after the author’s death, and the final, incomplete book was published not long after, with notes suggesting what might have followed.I loved ‘The Fountain Overflows’ and I was delighted to find that this book picked up the threads of [...]

Having enjoyed The Return of the Soldier, I picked this up in a charity shop, without realising it was the second of a trilogy until after I started reading it. Fortunately, it still works as a standalone book.This is a coming of age novel, set in in the run up to WW1: "I wanted to make friends to be part of the general web, to be linked with boys and girls and men and women who were not yet what they would be in the end."PLOTClare Aubrey, a retired concert pianist, has been abandoned by her gam [...]

This book is the sequel of "The Fountain Overflows", being the second book of the Aubrey trilogy.The plot follows the lives of the main characters which were described in the first volume of this series. The author takes the reader 5 year later on, after their father disappearance and showing how the children have grew up and starting a new period of their lives - their adulthood.Then World War I begins and their destinies will take a new turnover.Its sequel is Cousin Rosamund.Aubrey Trilogy:5* [...]

This Real Night is the second book in Rebecca West’s Aubrey family trilogy; A Saga of the Century (there are editions which publish all three books together). The trilogy begins with The Fountain Overflows . I read that wonderful book back at the end of February while I was on holiday with friends in Iceland, I hadn’t meant to leave it quite so long before catching up with these characters again. This Real Night and Cousin Rosamond were published in the 1980s following Rebecca West’s death [...]

I got into it, and preferred it to the part 1 of the trilogy.The next generation of the adults in the book were all interesting, slightly eccentric in various ways. It makes me want to read part 3- not a bad recommendation.

This Real Night, the second book of the Cousin Rosamund trilogy, was definitely less focused than The Fountain Overflows. But I am so enamored of these characters that it didn't matter a bit.

The last section just about did me in. Added to the shelf "Books That Made Me Cry In A Starbucks."

I read this book on vacation in Croatia and enjoyed the continuing saga of West's autobiographical novels, the second in a series of three, the first being The Fountain Overflows about the narrator Rose's childhood and the third, Cousin Rosamund.

This book picks up where "The Fountain Overflows" left off and is, in many ways, an inferior book; however, her treatment of the start of WWI and Mrs. Aubrey's illness are so movingly beautiful that I was able to overlook West's missteps with this book. I could feel her struggling with the words as I read it and am not surprised she didn't have it published. Why West felt the need to put in all the recaps is beyond me and they come close to spoiling the book by giving it a Horatio Alger or roman [...]

Reading this is like admiring an exquisitely designed automobile and then being terribly disappointed in how it drives.

"We all act as we are made."We are specifically made as if tailored cut to perform certain acts in blind obedience, creating great small ripples before us from the moment of our conception. It seems that events from our very first breathe of life conclusively come to pass resonating in premeditated organization like a musical composition that starts with its first beat of a beginning, rhythmically moving with the harmony of its aptly combined sounds as it glides in preparation towards the last n [...]

This REal Night is the second book in the trilogy, taking up where the first leaves off pretty much. The lines are blurred, as if she lost her notes and a copy of her first books. Some events are reserved, as if we didn't already read of them. We now find the two pianist sisters beginning their studies in earnest and playing a little for money at concerts. They realize they aren't even the best of their class as they had assumed. One sister marries, a cousin goes to nursing school and dear broth [...]

This Real Night is the sequel to The Fountain Overflows, taking the Aubrey family through about 5 years after their dad disappears from the picture and the family begins to find its way along. It's an uneven book: the first part d---r----a----g----g----e----d---- along, with huge paragraphs of description and monologues by Richard Quin on all kinds of issues. The ending was devastatingly sad but suddenly intensely powerful, giving a vivid picture into what it was like to be the ones who stayed a [...]

Crinkle-crinkle plastic covered jacket, and a few pages smeared with what I hope is marinara sauce and not something more sinister.I love West. Such a sensuous writer. I love her first person narrator, Rose, who is opinionated and stubborn and absurdly romantic, all while either being remarkably insightful for a teen/20-something or equally remarkably obtuse.But the novel is a bit of a mess. One keeps wondering why she includes a scene or a character, charming as they can be. Rather like going t [...]

Watching the family through the eyes of the child was fascinating. I never understood quite why her mother and sisters were so unkind to Cordelia .It was a wonderful glimpse into life and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a similar appeal to 'Ballet Shoes' in that we followed the characters through hardship and good fortune as they worked out their lives and formed friendships with a colourful variety of characters.

I did not love this as much as the first book, The Fountain Overflows, because it's very much a sequel in the "more of the same" vein, and new complications arise mostly at the very end. The writing and characterizations are strong, and I will eventually read the third book, even though it was apparently left unfinished at West's death.

Much of this book dutifully caught the reader up on what might have been forgotten from the previous novel. But then it would soar off into hilarious satire or a lyric description of a last happy summer evening. A similar thing happened with some of the characters. Mr. Mopurgo starts off as wince-making stereotype and evolves into a human being.

I loved The Fountain Overflows. This has the same beautiful poignant writing, the same characters but not quite the compelling narrative of the earlier book. Even so I'd love to be able to write half as poetically as this.

One of those books that, like Joan Chase's In the Reign of the Queen of Persia, contain interesting feminist observations while telling stories from an older era. Lots of odd characters in here, and some things not fully explained, making me think I should read the first one in the trilogy soon.

This and its predecessor, The Fountain Overflows, had one irritating characteristic in common. West's dialogue seems often to represent the wrong part of the conversation. She narrates the interesting part and then uses dialogue for the mundane comments. Irked me after awhile.

Not half as good as The Fountain Overflows. So much focus is on outside characters instead of the family unit.

Beautiful novel!

:( :( :( :( :(

Just read The Fountain Overflows. No need for this one.

RICHARD QUIN.

Published posthumously, and definitely not as polished or gripping as The Fountain Overflows. The same characters are all there though, and so I still tore through the book.