A Glove Shop in Vienna and Other Stories
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
'Discovering Eva Ibbotson’s books is one of the nicest things that’s ever happened to me. The most beautiful, delicious, wry read' – Marian Keyes
Curl up with a collection of romantic short stories taking you from nineteenth-century Vienna, over the wild moors of Northumberland to the snowy streets of pre-revolutionary St Petersberg.
A collection of eighteen romantic short stories from the award-winning and much-loved Eva Ibbotson, A Glove Shop in Vienna will show you the great passions and astute observations of everyday life. Join Great-Uncle Max, torn between his grand and secret love for Susie, the enchanting glove shop assistant, and the devotion of his opera-singing wife. Meet Miss Bennett, drama mistress at the fading Markham Street Primary School, whose search for a baby Jesus for the nativity play yields unexpected and miraculous results. And agonise with Kira, a dancer in Russia's Imperial Ballet school, thrown out onto the streets of St. Petersburg, and found by Edwin, a lonely dreamer.
A chocolate-box collection of deliciously romantic, atmospheric and witty stories to lose yourself in this Christmas.
'Eva Ibbotson is such a good writer that her characters break the bonds of the romantic novel' Washington Post
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Known for her neatly fashioned romance fiction, Ibbotson (Madensky Square) here collects 19 decorous stories of love gained and lost. With settings that range from the early 1990s to the present day, they generally feature surprise endings, some of them sadly contrived. In the title story, Max, a lawyer and confirmed bachelor in pre-WW I Vienna, attends the opera, where Helene, a singer of Wagnerian heft, is hurt in an onstage accident. She hires Max to file suit; they marry; later, Max takes a mistress. On his wife's death he is free to marry his paramour, but Helene's will dictates otherwise--she knew that forbidden fruit is sweetest. The London grocer in ``Doushenka'' is obsessed by Russia. Traveling to St. Petersburg, he falls in love with a young ballerina, but their relationship is ended by his sacrifice on her behalf, and for the rest of his life he must be content with the memories of his Great Love. A Great Love is the essential element in these old-fashioned tales, of which ``Sidi'' is the most celebratory--and blatantly sentimental. Eschewing the angst and alienation discussed in much contemporary fiction, Ibbotson offers leisurely details of a more genteel era whose passing she obviously laments. Her stories, however, are oversweet and ultimately cloying.
