Newbery, Linda. Set in stone.NEWBERY, Linda. Set in stone. Random House, David Fickling. 368p. 0-385-75102-8. $16.95. SA Like Newbery's previous novel, A Shell House, this is a story about YAs, not precisely adolescents, and would appeal to both YAs and adults. It is set in the English countryside, in the latter part of the 19th century, and features a Gothic situation: a grand, isolated home and a young person who enters the household in all innocence, only to uncover an evil lurking See lurk. (messaging, jargon) lurking - The activity of one of the "silent majority" in a electronic forum such as Usenet; posting occasionally or not at all but reading the group's postings regularly. behind the genteel gen·teel adj. 1. Refined in manner; well-bred and polite. 2. Free from vulgarity or rudeness. 3. Elegantly stylish: genteel manners and appearance. 4. a. facade facade (fəsäd`), exterior face or wall of a building. The term implies ordered placement of its openings and other features and thus seems inapplicable to a wall without design. . In this case, the person introduced to the strange family is a man, Samuel Godwin, a young artist hired by the father of the house to teach painting to his daughter, Juliana, who is withdrawn, sad and sickly. Samuel soon determines she is hiding a secret that is eating away at her health. There is a younger sister, Marianne, wild and beautiful; the young man is susceptible to her, knowing he must resist the attraction because of her youth. There is no mother in the household, but there is a young woman, Charlotte Agnew, who runs the household. The sisters treat her as part of the family. Part of the denouement de·noue·ment also dé·noue·ment n. 1. a. The final resolution or clarification of a dramatic or narrative plot. b. is discovering just how closely Charlotte is connected to this family. Over nearly 400 pages, the mystery is slowly revealed. Newbery uses letters, changes in narrative voice (sometimes it's Samuel, sometimes Charlotte) to continue the story; even the final obituary from the London Times reveals portions of the truth. It's a complicated plot, featuring incest incest, sexual relations between persons to whom marriage is prohibited by custom or law because of their close kinship. Ideas of kinship, however, vary widely from group to group, hence the definition of incest also varies. (the father has abused his daughter) and other family secrets (those Victorians were strange prudes). Readers who love Wuthering Heights Wuthering Heights remotely situated home where Heathcliff nurses his vengeful plans. [Br. Lit.: Emily Brontë Wuthering Heights in Magill I, 1137] See : Houses, Fateful Wuthering Heights and other such Gothic tales will certainly enjoy shivering shivering /shiv·er·ing/ (shiv´er-ing) 1. involuntary shaking of the body, as with cold. 2. a disease of horses, with trembling or quivering of various muscles. shivering see shiver, stringhalt. over Set in Stone. Claire Rosser, KLIATT S--Recommended for senior high school students. A--Recommended for advanced students and adults. This code will help librarians and teachers working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement students. This also will help extend KLIATT's usefulness in public libraries. |
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