Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Headline Review (2006), Hardcover, 416 pages
Description
Remember this moment. These moments are rare. You are about to discover your favourite book of the year, the book you will give to all your friends, the book that will linger in your thoughts long after you've turned the final page. You are about to discover THE MATHEMATICS OF LOVE. From the gentle Suffolk countryside to the battlefields of Waterloo and the ports of Spain, this is an extraordinarily moving account of war and the pain of loss, the heat of passion and the redemptive power of love.
Media reviews
Darwin’s two independent story lines suggest riches — the way the past and present, and sometimes even the future, can meet in artistic representation — that remain, for the most part, unexplored. Like her visual artists, Darwin plays intriguingly with light, shadow and perception, but her
Show More
novel’s overall picture isn’t fully developed. Some equations remain to be solved. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member gypsysmom
This book was chosen by my work book club for our March 2010 read. It is broken into two stories from two different time periods. One time period is the early 1800s just after the Battle of Waterloo. Stephen Fairhurst, a career soldier, lost a leg at the battle. As a result he was without a career
The other timeline is modern and centres on a teenage girl, Anna Ware, who has come to live with her uncle at the home Stephen Fairhurst had inherited. Anna becomes friends with the couple next door who are photographers. Through them she meets someone who gives her the letters that Stephen and Lucy exchanged. Anna escapes her abusive grandmother and drunken uncle through the letters and through her work with the couple next door. A young boy, who may be her uncle's son, travels between the stories. The modern story wasn't particularly successful and the device of the young boy was poorly done. However, the historical story was quite interesting and therefore redeemed the book in my mind.
Show More
and low on money. He worked as a guide to the battlefield at Waterloo and also in Spain where he had spent some time. Then he received notice that he had inherited a large and successful estate from his cousin. Trying to establish a normal life he is introduced to a young widow. The widow rejects his suit, because of his injury, but he has a friendship with her sister, Lucy.The other timeline is modern and centres on a teenage girl, Anna Ware, who has come to live with her uncle at the home Stephen Fairhurst had inherited. Anna becomes friends with the couple next door who are photographers. Through them she meets someone who gives her the letters that Stephen and Lucy exchanged. Anna escapes her abusive grandmother and drunken uncle through the letters and through her work with the couple next door. A young boy, who may be her uncle's son, travels between the stories. The modern story wasn't particularly successful and the device of the young boy was poorly done. However, the historical story was quite interesting and therefore redeemed the book in my mind.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ratastrophe
This could have been a 4-star book if the ending had in any way followed naturally from the preceding plot!
LibraryThing member eejjennings
Intertwined stories centered on an old English estate explore the nature of love and conflicts with society's restrictions about it.
LibraryThing member saucyhp
I was very disappointed with this book. The two stories (one modern day and one historical) were not intertwined at all, they were hardly even related! Also I didn't find either story that gripping. I wasn't interested enough to decipher the old-fashioned language in the historical story so in the
Show More
end I just skipped those parts! Show Less
LibraryThing member delphica
(#13 in the 2008 book challenge)
I'm not quite sure what to make of this one. It was this great, fabulous language used to tell a fairly good story ... but with a lot of sex added that felt goofy and extraneous. I KNOW I've become a little bit of a prude in my old age, but I manage my time as best
Grade: C+, but I would continue to watch for more from this author and see if there is any improvement in the Free Love area.
Recommended: Not harmful if you picked it up at the library or something like that, especially if you enjoy Regency settings, but no need to seek it out.
I'm not quite sure what to make of this one. It was this great, fabulous language used to tell a fairly good story ... but with a lot of sex added that felt goofy and extraneous. I KNOW I've become a little bit of a prude in my old age, but I manage my time as best
Show More
I can to get as much reading as possible in, and repetitive sex scenes aren't high on my list. I think this book would be extremely popular for 6th graders who like to fold the corners down on the naughty parts and pass it around before homeroom. It's one of those novels with two settings -- anchored to the same English manor house, one love story takes place in Regency times when a returned veteran meets an independently-minded woman, and the other is in the 1970s when a teenage girl comes to stay with a distant relative at a recently closed boarding school. As best as I can figure, the 70s were selected as the second time period so that there could be a lot of unfortunate hippy-esque sex. But I have to return to the fact that the writing was lyrical and focused and all-around stellar, especially in the way that the same narrative voice takes on a slightly different tone for each time period, and the plot points that happen occur outside of bedrooms are engrossing. Another great theme is built up around images -- our feisty Regency woman is an artist who is fascinated by the early development of daguerreotypes, and our 1970s teen discovers a love for photography. The two time periods are linked with a nice Gothic touch -- the characters catch fleeting glimpses of each other in dreams or at a distance. It's purely a device to transition from one setting to the other, and doesn't have much concrete effect on the plot.Grade: C+, but I would continue to watch for more from this author and see if there is any improvement in the Free Love area.
Recommended: Not harmful if you picked it up at the library or something like that, especially if you enjoy Regency settings, but no need to seek it out.
Show Less
LibraryThing member fyrefly98
Summary: In the first of two interweaving story lines, it is 1819 and Major Stephen Fairhurst is trying to rebuild his life as a civilian after sacrificing so much in the Napoleonic wars. He has inherited Kersey Hall, his family estate, and he soon meets Lucy Durward, a bright and opinionated young
In the summer of 1976, fifteen-year-old Anna Ware has been sent by her flighty mother to stay with her uncle at Kersey, which since the time of Stephen has become a school. Anna is lonely and bored - there's nothing much to do for a teenager who's used to the activity of London, and the only people around to talk to are her alcoholic and mentally unstable grandmother, and Cecil, a small boy who mostly runs wild. Then Anna meets Eva and Theo, two photographers who live nearby, and their eccentric ways open Anna's eyes to a new way of seeing the world... but that broader scope is not without its costs.
Review: I knew, from reading Emma Darwin's A Secret Alchemy last summer, that Darwin's writing required a substantial input of both time and attention to be worthwhile, but if you can make that investment, the payoff is more than worthwhile. I knew that, but somehow it completely slipped my mind when I picked up this book from my TBR pile. I have recently been busy and rather stressed, and just have not had the mental energy nor the three-hour-blocks of reading time that I think this book deserved. As a result this book took me forever to finish - almost three times longer than I would have predicted given its size - but not through any fault of its own.
When I was able to devote some time and energy to this book, it was absolutely lovely. It was full of things that I enjoy - historical fiction! Napoleonic wars! Intertwining storylines! 19th century courtship! Photography! All of it, too, is rendered in Darwin's exquisite prose. She's equally adept at evoking the horror of a battlefield and the delicate tension of a sitting room and the close atmosphere of a darkroom pungent with developer, and her tone shifts effortlessly to match her time - not always an easy feat in a book with two first-person narrators. The plot(s) and characters are equally well-done; I thought Stephen's story in particular was excellent in the way that it slowly unfurled, carefully drawing the reader in with bits of accumulating information about what had happened to him... much like the gradual appearance of a photographic print in its chemical bath. The layers of meaning and metaphor present here are remarkable for a first novel, and Darwin's writing is mature enough to leave them mostly below the surface, so that the reader has to uncover them for herself.
Although the themes of Stephen's and Anna's stories parallel and intertwine beautifully, the actual plots are less interconnected. They are living in the same place, and Anna reads some of Stephen's letters to Lucy, but neither of these really affect either story in a material way. There are some additional elements of a magical realism nature - Cecil and Anna having dreams that seem drawn from Stephen's memories, Stephen catching a glimpse of Cecil in the fields around the house - that I thought were one of the weaker elements of the story. I don't have a problem with Gothic-y ghosts and imprinted memories and different periods of time overlapping, that's fine - I've read plenty of books that do that well. However, if you're going to include things like that, I feel like you really need to commit to it and embrace it fully - which Darwin didn't, and so the nightmares and the visions wind up not very well explained and sort of superfluous.
Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book - despite my non-existent attention span, I never wished I was reading something else, and when I was able to get into it, I was richly rewarded with a lovely story, beautifully told. 4 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: I would give this to readers of historical fiction who like their novels well-written, literary, and mature, and are willing to put some effort into their reading.
Show More
lady with whom he develops a correspondence and friendship. However, as well-matched as they are, the horrors of war will not let him be, and the secrets in his past threaten to destroy any small peace he might build for himself.In the summer of 1976, fifteen-year-old Anna Ware has been sent by her flighty mother to stay with her uncle at Kersey, which since the time of Stephen has become a school. Anna is lonely and bored - there's nothing much to do for a teenager who's used to the activity of London, and the only people around to talk to are her alcoholic and mentally unstable grandmother, and Cecil, a small boy who mostly runs wild. Then Anna meets Eva and Theo, two photographers who live nearby, and their eccentric ways open Anna's eyes to a new way of seeing the world... but that broader scope is not without its costs.
Review: I knew, from reading Emma Darwin's A Secret Alchemy last summer, that Darwin's writing required a substantial input of both time and attention to be worthwhile, but if you can make that investment, the payoff is more than worthwhile. I knew that, but somehow it completely slipped my mind when I picked up this book from my TBR pile. I have recently been busy and rather stressed, and just have not had the mental energy nor the three-hour-blocks of reading time that I think this book deserved. As a result this book took me forever to finish - almost three times longer than I would have predicted given its size - but not through any fault of its own.
When I was able to devote some time and energy to this book, it was absolutely lovely. It was full of things that I enjoy - historical fiction! Napoleonic wars! Intertwining storylines! 19th century courtship! Photography! All of it, too, is rendered in Darwin's exquisite prose. She's equally adept at evoking the horror of a battlefield and the delicate tension of a sitting room and the close atmosphere of a darkroom pungent with developer, and her tone shifts effortlessly to match her time - not always an easy feat in a book with two first-person narrators. The plot(s) and characters are equally well-done; I thought Stephen's story in particular was excellent in the way that it slowly unfurled, carefully drawing the reader in with bits of accumulating information about what had happened to him... much like the gradual appearance of a photographic print in its chemical bath. The layers of meaning and metaphor present here are remarkable for a first novel, and Darwin's writing is mature enough to leave them mostly below the surface, so that the reader has to uncover them for herself.
Although the themes of Stephen's and Anna's stories parallel and intertwine beautifully, the actual plots are less interconnected. They are living in the same place, and Anna reads some of Stephen's letters to Lucy, but neither of these really affect either story in a material way. There are some additional elements of a magical realism nature - Cecil and Anna having dreams that seem drawn from Stephen's memories, Stephen catching a glimpse of Cecil in the fields around the house - that I thought were one of the weaker elements of the story. I don't have a problem with Gothic-y ghosts and imprinted memories and different periods of time overlapping, that's fine - I've read plenty of books that do that well. However, if you're going to include things like that, I feel like you really need to commit to it and embrace it fully - which Darwin didn't, and so the nightmares and the visions wind up not very well explained and sort of superfluous.
Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book - despite my non-existent attention span, I never wished I was reading something else, and when I was able to get into it, I was richly rewarded with a lovely story, beautifully told. 4 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: I would give this to readers of historical fiction who like their novels well-written, literary, and mature, and are willing to put some effort into their reading.
Show Less
LibraryThing member nocto
Fab. I'll have to go back over my list of books but this is a leading contender for my best read of 2007 (not that I ever get around to the award ceremony). As with many of the best reads it was a book I wasn't at all sure I'd like when I pulled it off the library shelf.
Historical story of a
Historical story of a
Show More
Waterloo veteran muddled up with a present day (well 1976, does that count as historical yet?) story of a teenage girl. The paired stories fought for my attention and at the joins between them I was torn between wanting to keep on reading the half of the tale I was in and needing to find out what was happening in the other half. Extremely well written, I look forward to more books from Darwin, this is her first. Show Less
LibraryThing member SimoneA
This book had a lot of ingredients to make it a great book. It tells two stories in two different eras with a manor as link between the stories. Especially the historical story in the 1800s had interesting characters: a Waterloo survivor and a woman who is fighting what is expected of her. However,
All in all, the book is an ok read, but I would not recommend buying it. I am curious though about the next book of Emma Darwin, since she obviously has interesting story ideas.
Show More
the book never really gripped me. The way things are described, all the problems and struggles are very obvious and repeated too much. Also, the modern day story could have easily been left out, since I found it boring. There were some interesting bits where the two stories mixed, but I felt it should have been elaborated on. All in all, the book is an ok read, but I would not recommend buying it. I am curious though about the next book of Emma Darwin, since she obviously has interesting story ideas.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Gary10
Emma Darwin--a distant relative of Charles--links a love affair between an injured British soldier in the mid-1800s and an adventurous young woman to a relationship between a young female teenager and a much older photographer in the twenty-first century. When I finished the book the word that came
Show More
to mind was “satisfying.” The plot unfolds gradually and the connections are not at all obvious at first. As they emerge the story line seems to grow organically and feels natural. And the fact that both relationships involve a kind of forbidden love for their time adds a fascinating twist.links a love affair between an injured British soldier in the mid-1800s to a young female teenager in the twenty-first century in a satisfying way. The connections gradually emerge and feel like an organic part of the story line. And the fact that both relationships involve a kind of forbidden love for their time adds a fascinating twist. Show Less
LibraryThing member phoebesmum
A well-crafted novel that switches between England and post-Napoleonic Europe of 1819, and the heatwave summer of 1979, the two segments sharing the location of Kersey Hall, Stephen Fairhurst’s Regency home and a temporary refuge for modern-day teenaged Anna, along with themes of loss,
A good book; just, somehow, not mammothly endearing. The acknowledgement page at the end tells us that it was written for the author’s MPhil in Writing at the University of Glamorgan, and this may account for the slightly impersonal feel.
Show More
abandonment, and violence. Fairhurst is trying to rebuild his life after a war which has left him crippled, but finds little in English country society to keep him there; his travels into Europe bring him deeper understanding of himself and, eventually, lead him to confront a vital piece of his past. Anna has been dumped on an uncle she barely knows while her mother tries to sort out yet another new life for them, only to find herself defending her uncle’s unacknowledged child from their crazed, bitter, violent grandmother. She finds respite and consolation with the exotic European photo-journalists who rent the old stables next door, but this ends in grief when she finds herself falling in love with the much-older Theo. And then there are the old letters she’s given to read – letters from the long-dead Stephen Fairhurst.A good book; just, somehow, not mammothly endearing. The acknowledgement page at the end tells us that it was written for the author’s MPhil in Writing at the University of Glamorgan, and this may account for the slightly impersonal feel.
Show Less
LibraryThing member scot2
Wonderful book. normally I totally avoid anything romantic. I bought this book a long time ago and didn't read it until now. It moves between two times, past and present. I think I enjoyed the story in the past more although the teenager in the present came across as a very real character. Complex,
Show More
sad, happy! Show Less
Language
Original publication date
2006
Physical description
416 p.; 7.8 inches
ISBN
0755330625 / 9780755330621
Local notes
Having lost a leg at the Battle of Waterloo, Stephen Fairhurst, ensconced at Kersey Hall, is not surprised that Hetty Greenshaw rejects his marriage proposal. But he is caught off guard when he finds he can share his darkest thoughts with Hetty's independent, artistic sister, Lucy Durward, who is fascinated by early attempts at photography.