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A Song for Summer [Unknown Binding]
Ellen never expected the Hallendorf school to be quite so unusual. Her life back in England with her suffragette mother and liberated aunts certainly couldn't be called normal, but buried deep in the beautiful Austrian countryside, Ellen discovers an eccentric world occupied by wild children and even wilder teachers, experimental dancers and a tortoise on wheels. And then there is the particularly intriguing, enigmatic, and very handsome Marek, part-time gardener and fencing teacher. Ellen is instantly attracted to the mysterious gardener, but Hitler's Reich is already threatening their peaceful world, and only when she discovers Marek's true identity and his dangerous mission does Ellen realize the depth of her feelings for him - and the danger their newfound love faces in the shadow of war.
282 pages, Hardcover
First published September 7, 1997
134 people are currently reading
4925 people want to read
About the author
Eva Ibbotson
77 books2,347 followersEva Ibbotson (Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner) was a novelist specializing in romance and children's fantasy.
She was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1925. When Hitler appeared, her family moved to England. She attended Bedford College, graduating in 1945; Cambridge University from 1946-47; and the University of Durham, graduating with a diploma in education in 1965. Eva had intended to be a physiologist but was put off by animal testing. Instead, she married and raised a family, returning to school to become a teacher in the 1960s. They have three sons and a daughter.
Eva began writing with the television drama “Linda Came Today” in 1965. Ten years later, she published her first novel, “The Great Ghost Rescue”. Eva has written numerous books including “The Secret Of Platform 13”, “Journey To The River Sea”, “Which Witch?”, “Island Of The Aunts”, and “Dial-A-Ghost”. She won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for “Journey To The River Sea” and has been a runner up for many of major awards for British children's literature.
Her books are imaginative and humorous and most of them feature magical creatures and places, despite that she disliked thinking about them. She created the characters because she wanted to decrease her readers' fear of such things.
Some of the books, particularly “Journey To The River Sea”, reflect Eva's love of nature. Eva wrote this book in honour of her husband (who had died before), a naturalist. The book had been in her head for years.
Eva said she dislikes "financial greed and a lust for power" and often creates antagonists in her books who have these characteristics. Some have been struck by the similarity of “Platform 9 3/4” in J.K. Rowling's books to Eva's “The Secret Of Platform 13”, which came out three years before the first Harry Potter book.
Her love of Austria is evident in works such as “The Star Of Kazan” and “A Song For Summer”. These books, set in the Austrian countryside, display the author's love for all things natural.
She was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1925. When Hitler appeared, her family moved to England. She attended Bedford College, graduating in 1945; Cambridge University from 1946-47; and the University of Durham, graduating with a diploma in education in 1965. Eva had intended to be a physiologist but was put off by animal testing. Instead, she married and raised a family, returning to school to become a teacher in the 1960s. They have three sons and a daughter.
Eva began writing with the television drama “Linda Came Today” in 1965. Ten years later, she published her first novel, “The Great Ghost Rescue”. Eva has written numerous books including “The Secret Of Platform 13”, “Journey To The River Sea”, “Which Witch?”, “Island Of The Aunts”, and “Dial-A-Ghost”. She won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for “Journey To The River Sea” and has been a runner up for many of major awards for British children's literature.
Her books are imaginative and humorous and most of them feature magical creatures and places, despite that she disliked thinking about them. She created the characters because she wanted to decrease her readers' fear of such things.
Some of the books, particularly “Journey To The River Sea”, reflect Eva's love of nature. Eva wrote this book in honour of her husband (who had died before), a naturalist. The book had been in her head for years.
Eva said she dislikes "financial greed and a lust for power" and often creates antagonists in her books who have these characteristics. Some have been struck by the similarity of “Platform 9 3/4” in J.K. Rowling's books to Eva's “The Secret Of Platform 13”, which came out three years before the first Harry Potter book.
Her love of Austria is evident in works such as “The Star Of Kazan” and “A Song For Summer”. These books, set in the Austrian countryside, display the author's love for all things natural.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 603 reviews
August 18, 2024
why does every other person who reviewed this hate joy
2020 reread: truly cannot overstate how iconic it is that the hero of this novel makes such a habit of throwing nazis out of windows that every time a nazi gets thrown out of a window everyone thinks "there goes marek"
2024 reread: rereading to feel something while in the post eras tour emotional comedown trenches. marek is still the most fanciable historical romance love interest of all time!
2020 reread: truly cannot overstate how iconic it is that the hero of this novel makes such a habit of throwing nazis out of windows that every time a nazi gets thrown out of a window everyone thinks "there goes marek"
2024 reread: rereading to feel something while in the post eras tour emotional comedown trenches. marek is still the most fanciable historical romance love interest of all time!
September 7, 2007
Having now read two of Ibbotson's teen romances, I am beginning to see a trend. Both have featured angelic young women who coo over babies and frolic in meadows and have no personality whatsoever. These young women fall in love with great guys: tough, handsome, intelligent, whom they barely know. Lovely.
December 10, 2012
If you ever get a chance to read A Song for Summer, for Godssake run away.
I haven't had such a visceral negative reaction to a heroine since Twilight. I picture her something like this:
"My name is Ellen I was raised by eccentric, rich, and intelligent Aunts in London. They wanted me to go to school for intellectual pursuits, but all I wanted to do was follow Grandpa's housekeeper around! I want to be a housekeeper when I grow up and go work at a school with unruly, Godless children who need to learn to organize their own affairs! I want to bring them God, because I'm simply angelic! Every man falls in love with me, but I friend-zone every single one of them. The war means nothing to me unless it directly affects my love life!"
The love interest, once you get past all the men that fall in love with Ellen who she doesn't love back, is obsessed with finding his one Jewish friend in Germany and getting him over the border to Austria. Ellen is totally unaware of the war until said friend basically falls into her lap!?
And this "real" love interest, he's a lot like Ellen.
"My name is Marek and I was given everything growing up, but I just want to be a Groundskeeper. And of all the ridiculousnesses, I'm super talented at music composition! I don't want this, but I cannot escape it no matter how hard I try! My talent, it's such a burden!"
On top of that, it took the author 62 pages of dancing around the topic to actually say that the setting was the beginning of the second world war. This took me three days to read. This is supposed to be young adult?
The only interesting part of the novel was when Marek was helping people across the border. How much of the novel did that make up? Not enough!
AND THEN. AND THEN. The author made allusions to Jane Eyre and Rebecca. I was devastated. I felt dirty. That such a terrible book could use the same literary device as two of my favorite books? Argh. Just. ARRRRGH.
This is poorly written diluted garbage.
I haven't had such a visceral negative reaction to a heroine since Twilight. I picture her something like this:
"My name is Ellen I was raised by eccentric, rich, and intelligent Aunts in London. They wanted me to go to school for intellectual pursuits, but all I wanted to do was follow Grandpa's housekeeper around! I want to be a housekeeper when I grow up and go work at a school with unruly, Godless children who need to learn to organize their own affairs! I want to bring them God, because I'm simply angelic! Every man falls in love with me, but I friend-zone every single one of them. The war means nothing to me unless it directly affects my love life!"
The love interest, once you get past all the men that fall in love with Ellen who she doesn't love back, is obsessed with finding his one Jewish friend in Germany and getting him over the border to Austria. Ellen is totally unaware of the war until said friend basically falls into her lap!?
And this "real" love interest, he's a lot like Ellen.
"My name is Marek and I was given everything growing up, but I just want to be a Groundskeeper. And of all the ridiculousnesses, I'm super talented at music composition! I don't want this, but I cannot escape it no matter how hard I try! My talent, it's such a burden!"
On top of that, it took the author 62 pages of dancing around the topic to actually say that the setting was the beginning of the second world war. This took me three days to read. This is supposed to be young adult?
The only interesting part of the novel was when Marek was helping people across the border. How much of the novel did that make up? Not enough!
AND THEN. AND THEN. The author made allusions to Jane Eyre and Rebecca. I was devastated. I felt dirty. That such a terrible book could use the same literary device as two of my favorite books? Argh. Just. ARRRRGH.
This is poorly written diluted garbage.
March 18, 2008
Set in Austria and London just before and during World War II, A Song for Summer follows a young woman named Ellen Carr who takes a job as a housekeeper at an unusual private school in the Austrian Alps. I knew this book and I would get on when Ellen first arrived at Schloss Hallendorf to find a tortoise on wheels speeding across the lawn.
Soon after the well-equipped tortoise, Ellen encounters Professor Chomsky who teaches metalwork and swims naked in the lake at all hours, Professor Ritter who teaches drama and encourages the children to be kitchen utensils and to give birth to themselves, and a cabbage-person from an English mining village masquerading as a Russian ballerina. These delightful, at time hilarious, side characters bring a wonderful flavor and variety to the novel as, one by one, they are drawn into the bright circle of Ellen's influence. There is humor, danger, romance, and a beautiful longing for the world as it was and as it should be among the pages of this book. Ibbotson's light, lyrical writing flowed through each chapter, like the glissandi and grace notes of the music that is so central to its theme. And at is core is Ellen, a girl who is both strong and domestically inclined. The daughter and niece of dyed in the wool suffragettes, she is independent and smart and firmly chooses baking over marching. And, as so many of the characters do, reading this book means falling in love with her.
This was my first Eva Ibbotson book and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it. I have to say, finding a fabulous debut author is a delightful experience. But is there anything that compares with the tingle of discovering a wonderful established author, who already has six or seven books out there ready and waiting and in paperback? Nope, nothing comes to mind.
Soon after the well-equipped tortoise, Ellen encounters Professor Chomsky who teaches metalwork and swims naked in the lake at all hours, Professor Ritter who teaches drama and encourages the children to be kitchen utensils and to give birth to themselves, and a cabbage-person from an English mining village masquerading as a Russian ballerina. These delightful, at time hilarious, side characters bring a wonderful flavor and variety to the novel as, one by one, they are drawn into the bright circle of Ellen's influence. There is humor, danger, romance, and a beautiful longing for the world as it was and as it should be among the pages of this book. Ibbotson's light, lyrical writing flowed through each chapter, like the glissandi and grace notes of the music that is so central to its theme. And at is core is Ellen, a girl who is both strong and domestically inclined. The daughter and niece of dyed in the wool suffragettes, she is independent and smart and firmly chooses baking over marching. And, as so many of the characters do, reading this book means falling in love with her.
This was my first Eva Ibbotson book and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it. I have to say, finding a fabulous debut author is a delightful experience. But is there anything that compares with the tingle of discovering a wonderful established author, who already has six or seven books out there ready and waiting and in paperback? Nope, nothing comes to mind.
January 27, 2021
An exquisitely unconventional historical romance written with sensitivity, charm and acute observation.
A Song for Summer is an unlikely fusion of high culture, female autonomy, sexuality and legacy. Ibbotson’s prose is so evocative of the Austrian landscape and her plot is beautifully infused with its culture. The setting in particular is stunning: a dilapidated castle/boarding school crammed full of wonderfully complex, eccentric inhabitants.
Ellen Carr is a brilliant heroine; kind, clever and brave without ever becoming saccharine. I love how Ibbotson quietly champions femininity, endowing her female lead with enough courage to participate in the Resistance, but never in overwrought, fanciful and implausible ways (The Nightingale I am looking at you) and always remaining true to her values. Whilst the War does haunt the fringes of the novel, internal and personal conflict are always the focus of the plot.
If I have one complaint, it is that the ending does not suit a story of otherwise such power. But nevertheless, a wholesome romance wonderfully at odds with the current market. It’s so refreshing to read about sweeping, against-the-odds love stories. I will definitely be seeking out more of Ibbotson’s work.
A Song for Summer is an unlikely fusion of high culture, female autonomy, sexuality and legacy. Ibbotson’s prose is so evocative of the Austrian landscape and her plot is beautifully infused with its culture. The setting in particular is stunning: a dilapidated castle/boarding school crammed full of wonderfully complex, eccentric inhabitants.
Ellen Carr is a brilliant heroine; kind, clever and brave without ever becoming saccharine. I love how Ibbotson quietly champions femininity, endowing her female lead with enough courage to participate in the Resistance, but never in overwrought, fanciful and implausible ways (The Nightingale I am looking at you) and always remaining true to her values. Whilst the War does haunt the fringes of the novel, internal and personal conflict are always the focus of the plot.
If I have one complaint, it is that the ending does not suit a story of otherwise such power. But nevertheless, a wholesome romance wonderfully at odds with the current market. It’s so refreshing to read about sweeping, against-the-odds love stories. I will definitely be seeking out more of Ibbotson’s work.
January 20, 2020
I’m really starting to understand Eva Ibbotson and surprisingly I think I understand why people tend to dislike her books.
She gives us these amazing highs and the next moment everything you’re rooting for is ripped away, essentially the lowest low for the characters. Her ability to transform your emotions from feeling like you’re on top of the world to wondering how any good could come from what’s happened and then making it work, is really remarkable but admittedly not for everyone.
I, however, absolutely love the way she manages to pull this off and makes it feel like life feels - difficult, beautiful, and at times very sad and hopeless. But, by the end of her books I feel happy to go out into the world truthfully and as myself because of the hopeful tone she leaves me with.
Rest In Peace, Eva, you have spread so much love and hope through your books.
She gives us these amazing highs and the next moment everything you’re rooting for is ripped away, essentially the lowest low for the characters. Her ability to transform your emotions from feeling like you’re on top of the world to wondering how any good could come from what’s happened and then making it work, is really remarkable but admittedly not for everyone.
I, however, absolutely love the way she manages to pull this off and makes it feel like life feels - difficult, beautiful, and at times very sad and hopeless. But, by the end of her books I feel happy to go out into the world truthfully and as myself because of the hopeful tone she leaves me with.
Rest In Peace, Eva, you have spread so much love and hope through your books.
October 24, 2013
Eva Ibbotson's romances are all of the same pattern, Viennese pastry fiction. Incredibly stubborn, kindly, eccentric young girl who gets along well with her elders and youth-- though not necessarily her own peers-- defies her parents and has an adventure, encountering her perfect match-- but she is hampered by loyalty/attachment to a young man she grew up with. The eccentric side characters are mostly loveable, and even the worst either end with finality or reform when seen in their perfect circumstances. After many difficulties, and some terror -- usually having to do with World War II-- all is resolved and most people live happily ever after. It's a wonder that the Japanese Shojo Manga industry hasn't discovered Ibbotson: her plots are perfect for them.
And that's why I read Ibbotson's romances, slowly, one at a time, taking a break between them, lest the intellectual equivalent of buttercream, strudel pastry, and chocolate overwhelm my senses and burn me out on them. But when you really just need something feel-good, in which the heroine is smart, nice and somewhat naive but stubborn as all get out, this is the stuff.
In this volume Ellen disappoints her bluestocking, suffragette mother and aunts by falling in love with domesticity and wanting to follow in the steps of her pseudo-step-grandmother, a cook and housekeeper from Austria. She eventually gets a post working at a very bohemian school run by an idealistic Englishman, and get herself entangled with a gentleman there who is not who he seems. Music, escaping Jewry, the pre-WWII climate in Austria, Germany and the Czech lands, Albrecht Durer, a crew of wild children and a local saint feature prominently.
Delightful fluff, with the historical troubles admitted and struggled with.
And that's why I read Ibbotson's romances, slowly, one at a time, taking a break between them, lest the intellectual equivalent of buttercream, strudel pastry, and chocolate overwhelm my senses and burn me out on them. But when you really just need something feel-good, in which the heroine is smart, nice and somewhat naive but stubborn as all get out, this is the stuff.
In this volume Ellen disappoints her bluestocking, suffragette mother and aunts by falling in love with domesticity and wanting to follow in the steps of her pseudo-step-grandmother, a cook and housekeeper from Austria. She eventually gets a post working at a very bohemian school run by an idealistic Englishman, and get herself entangled with a gentleman there who is not who he seems. Music, escaping Jewry, the pre-WWII climate in Austria, Germany and the Czech lands, Albrecht Durer, a crew of wild children and a local saint feature prominently.
Delightful fluff, with the historical troubles admitted and struggled with.
May 9, 2019
I cannot be objective about this book but honestly every male lead in every romance novel can never live up to Marek, a composer slash handyman who's so good at throwing Nazis out windows that the instant one gets defenestrated everyone in a five mile radius just goes "ah, Marek must be here" . Eva gets it
July 31, 2012
If you have read any of my previous reviews of books by Eva Ibbotson, you already more or less know the plot: The protagonist is a young, beautiful girl who is well-born but eschews her status as part of her love and appreciation for the little joys in life, including domesticity, nature, and rewards reaped from kindness. She is loved by all, including the surly, the old, the young, the birds and the bees. Along comes a princely type who falls for her goodness and simplicity as well as her beauty. Alas, he believes he belongs to another, and she believes he belongs to another, and they go their separate ways. But they never forget each other, and in the end, their love triumphs.
Ibbotson’s books are very, very similar. And yet, there are enough differences in each to make the predictability seem familiar and endearing rather than annoying. It’s amazing to me that this is the case, and yet, other Ibbotson fans concur: we love Eva Ibbotson in spite of the fact that we can safely and reliably predict the arc of every single story.
In A Song For Summer, Ellen Carr, in her early twenties, fits the usual Ibbotson profile of small, thin, blonde, and beautiful. Additionally, she has big brown eyes, and is known for being both clever and kind. (In a departure from other Ibbotson heroines, Ellen is not ditsy.) Ellen answers an ad to take a domestic post in Corinthia in the southern end of Austria, in a school at Schloss Hallendorf specializing in music, dama, and dance. (Ibbotson’s books tend to be set in castles, and always involve music, opera, and ballet.) There are flowers everywhere, tended by the mysterious, kind, resourceful and handsome Marek Tarnowsky, age 29, who looks like every other Ibbotson hero: broad-shouldered, with blunt, irregular features, and penetrating eyes.
Marek turns out to be leading a secret life – one both exceptional and noble: he is helping stranded European Jews escape from the Nazis. Moreover, he is a music prodigy. And yet, here he is doing landscaping at the castle. Ellen suspects there is more to Marek than meets the eye, and doesn’t shirk from danger when she too has an opportunity to help save Jews. There are some notable moments in this book when both Marek and Ellen work to rescue the talented violinist Isaac Meierwitz. Marek claims that Isaac is his friend and he “can’t allow” Ellen to take this risk:
"’Don’t!’ She turned on him furiously. ‘Just don’t dare to say this is no job for a woman. My mother and my aunts didn’t get kicked by police horses and thrown to the ground [in the struggle for women’s rights] for you to go around treating me as an imbecile. Furthermore, if war comes no one will bother to distinguish between men and women. Ask the women of Guernica whether anyone cared what sex they were when they bombed the marketplace. Getting Isaac out is part of fighting Hitler and I won’t be left out of it.’”
I liked the fact that Ibbotson balanced Ellen’s love of cooking and cleaning and sewing with a firm commitment to rights for women.
At one point, Isaac wonders why their contacts – religious Jews – would take risks on Isaac who was practically an atheist: "But he knew. He himself had scarcely set foot in a synagogue; his mother had been baptized, but Hitler had created a new kind of Jew – someone who existed to be hunted and killed – and [therefore] these unknown men had accepted him as a brother.”
I thought that was an exceptionally perceptive observation.
Isaac, like everyone else, falls in love with Ellen, with “her strange mixture of softness and steel.” But it is only Marek that she wants....
Evaluation: This book has all the usual Eva Ibbotson bare bones, fleshed out by a story of courage and enduring love. I adore all of her books. In spite of their sameness, each one has a bit of something new, and both parts are equally appealing.
Ibbotson’s books are very, very similar. And yet, there are enough differences in each to make the predictability seem familiar and endearing rather than annoying. It’s amazing to me that this is the case, and yet, other Ibbotson fans concur: we love Eva Ibbotson in spite of the fact that we can safely and reliably predict the arc of every single story.
In A Song For Summer, Ellen Carr, in her early twenties, fits the usual Ibbotson profile of small, thin, blonde, and beautiful. Additionally, she has big brown eyes, and is known for being both clever and kind. (In a departure from other Ibbotson heroines, Ellen is not ditsy.) Ellen answers an ad to take a domestic post in Corinthia in the southern end of Austria, in a school at Schloss Hallendorf specializing in music, dama, and dance. (Ibbotson’s books tend to be set in castles, and always involve music, opera, and ballet.) There are flowers everywhere, tended by the mysterious, kind, resourceful and handsome Marek Tarnowsky, age 29, who looks like every other Ibbotson hero: broad-shouldered, with blunt, irregular features, and penetrating eyes.
Marek turns out to be leading a secret life – one both exceptional and noble: he is helping stranded European Jews escape from the Nazis. Moreover, he is a music prodigy. And yet, here he is doing landscaping at the castle. Ellen suspects there is more to Marek than meets the eye, and doesn’t shirk from danger when she too has an opportunity to help save Jews. There are some notable moments in this book when both Marek and Ellen work to rescue the talented violinist Isaac Meierwitz. Marek claims that Isaac is his friend and he “can’t allow” Ellen to take this risk:
"’Don’t!’ She turned on him furiously. ‘Just don’t dare to say this is no job for a woman. My mother and my aunts didn’t get kicked by police horses and thrown to the ground [in the struggle for women’s rights] for you to go around treating me as an imbecile. Furthermore, if war comes no one will bother to distinguish between men and women. Ask the women of Guernica whether anyone cared what sex they were when they bombed the marketplace. Getting Isaac out is part of fighting Hitler and I won’t be left out of it.’”
I liked the fact that Ibbotson balanced Ellen’s love of cooking and cleaning and sewing with a firm commitment to rights for women.
At one point, Isaac wonders why their contacts – religious Jews – would take risks on Isaac who was practically an atheist: "But he knew. He himself had scarcely set foot in a synagogue; his mother had been baptized, but Hitler had created a new kind of Jew – someone who existed to be hunted and killed – and [therefore] these unknown men had accepted him as a brother.”
I thought that was an exceptionally perceptive observation.
Isaac, like everyone else, falls in love with Ellen, with “her strange mixture of softness and steel.” But it is only Marek that she wants....
Evaluation: This book has all the usual Eva Ibbotson bare bones, fleshed out by a story of courage and enduring love. I adore all of her books. In spite of their sameness, each one has a bit of something new, and both parts are equally appealing.
February 23, 2018
This was definitely not for me. It's a wishy/washy romance with a backdrop of world war 2. Our protagonist Ellen is just so good . She is beautiful, kind and her life's calling is to cook and clean. She moves from London to Austria to become a nanny in a school, where she meets the gruff groundsman, Marek. I think you can all see where it goes from there...
I had so many issues with this book. There was no grand passion, or depth of emotion. We kept being told the two main characters loved each other, but as far as I could see, they weren't that compatible. Marek seemed to aloof, and Ellen was too much of a Mother Theresa.
I had so many issues with this book. There was no grand passion, or depth of emotion. We kept being told the two main characters loved each other, but as far as I could see, they weren't that compatible. Marek seemed to aloof, and Ellen was too much of a Mother Theresa.
February 1, 2016
It's been a LONG time since I read a book that made me forgo all other plans and curl up in my bed until the last page was turned. I love when I have to do that.
What is a Song for Summer? It's a romance, pure and simple - but a romance that begins in the most tumultuous of times in a place on the brink of war. Hitler is already stirring and making life difficult in Germany when Ellen arrives in a picturesque village in Austria. The run-down boarding school where she's taken a position is the least likely place to find love, which is fine for Ellen, who has so much more on her mind than finding a man to marry. However, when the fallout of a war's beginning touches Ellen's life, she does not shirk and we follow Ellen's story throughout Europe as the love that we know she's found works itself out amidst the uncertainty of the Third Reich's advance.
I just don't want to spoil any of the rest of the plot. It's too good, even if it took a detour that caught me completely by surprise and I had to work my way back into the story. Let me just say there are opera divas and storks, musicians and rescues, and one of my favorite scenes of community togetherness that I've ever read. Ibbotson's writing is so, for lack of a better word, RIGHT for this story, it felt real and poignant without being sentimental. While perhaps TOO good, I loved believing in Ellen's goodness, her appreciation for well cooked meals and children who are taken care of. So many things that interest me were tied into this book that while perhaps some of the characters seemed slightly one-dimensional, I just loved the story so much that I didn't care in the slightest.
One thing that this book made me think of was the strength of the British when under attack during the war - and about those ordinary people in mainland Europe who would go to such efforts to save even one person from death. I just like reading about people who will stand up and do the right thing even when the odds are absolutely stacked against you. So there was love AND all that other good stuff. What more could I ask for than that?
What is a Song for Summer? It's a romance, pure and simple - but a romance that begins in the most tumultuous of times in a place on the brink of war. Hitler is already stirring and making life difficult in Germany when Ellen arrives in a picturesque village in Austria. The run-down boarding school where she's taken a position is the least likely place to find love, which is fine for Ellen, who has so much more on her mind than finding a man to marry. However, when the fallout of a war's beginning touches Ellen's life, she does not shirk and we follow Ellen's story throughout Europe as the love that we know she's found works itself out amidst the uncertainty of the Third Reich's advance.
I just don't want to spoil any of the rest of the plot. It's too good, even if it took a detour that caught me completely by surprise and I had to work my way back into the story. Let me just say there are opera divas and storks, musicians and rescues, and one of my favorite scenes of community togetherness that I've ever read. Ibbotson's writing is so, for lack of a better word, RIGHT for this story, it felt real and poignant without being sentimental. While perhaps TOO good, I loved believing in Ellen's goodness, her appreciation for well cooked meals and children who are taken care of. So many things that interest me were tied into this book that while perhaps some of the characters seemed slightly one-dimensional, I just loved the story so much that I didn't care in the slightest.
One thing that this book made me think of was the strength of the British when under attack during the war - and about those ordinary people in mainland Europe who would go to such efforts to save even one person from death. I just like reading about people who will stand up and do the right thing even when the odds are absolutely stacked against you. So there was love AND all that other good stuff. What more could I ask for than that?
September 14, 2019
Sometimes it's difficult to know where to begin with Eva Ibbotson and then, I realise, it's here. A sunlit, simple day where breakfast was buttery toast and the world's open to explore. She's simple that way, instinctive; food features heavily, sunlight idyllic days too, feature, but also the world is also there underneath it all, ready to be discovered or ran away from. It's a very particular sort of world populated with pastries and eccentrics, but also a peculiarly distinct ache for something that can never be easily found. Happiness. Problems being answered before they haven't quite realised that they're problems. People finding people. Homes being made out of ash. Hearts being made whole when they didn't think that could ever happen.
And that is Eva Ibbotson for me, an author who brings something perfect to me when I need it; a perfection that isn't, really, going to change the world for me or solve my problems, but a perfection that will give me time to breathe and escape and find myself all over again. She has her rhythms, of course, but in a way I long for them. A noble young woman of noble ways, irrespective of birth, will continue to be noble and resist he slow, soft, endless love she feels for an equally noble man. Noble ways will keep them apart, misunderstandings too, perhaps, before life will bring them back together. Predictable, yes, but also sometimes incredibly vital. Important. A problem solved. The world coming together, aligning.
A Song For Sumer is, in this wonderful new Macmillan edition, a book that seeks alignment. People are out of place. The world is shifting, moving towards an awful, awful war, and people are trying to find hope in it. Ellen Carr has gone to Austria where she shall keep house for an experimental school (so, intensely, always Dartington ), and she shall fall in love. You know it, I know it, there's no point in trying to be coy. The question is who and why and where and when, and how many things shall get in their way before they realise that they are meant to be together.
It's darker too than many of the other Ibbotson titles I've read; though the school remains relatively unaffected by the war, and it's set in pre-annexation Austria, there are still moments that are breathlessly pained. Ibbotson really could write, she did write, and we are so lucky that she did.
My thanks to the publisher for a review copy.
And that is Eva Ibbotson for me, an author who brings something perfect to me when I need it; a perfection that isn't, really, going to change the world for me or solve my problems, but a perfection that will give me time to breathe and escape and find myself all over again. She has her rhythms, of course, but in a way I long for them. A noble young woman of noble ways, irrespective of birth, will continue to be noble and resist he slow, soft, endless love she feels for an equally noble man. Noble ways will keep them apart, misunderstandings too, perhaps, before life will bring them back together. Predictable, yes, but also sometimes incredibly vital. Important. A problem solved. The world coming together, aligning.
A Song For Sumer is, in this wonderful new Macmillan edition, a book that seeks alignment. People are out of place. The world is shifting, moving towards an awful, awful war, and people are trying to find hope in it. Ellen Carr has gone to Austria where she shall keep house for an experimental school (so, intensely, always Dartington ), and she shall fall in love. You know it, I know it, there's no point in trying to be coy. The question is who and why and where and when, and how many things shall get in their way before they realise that they are meant to be together.
It's darker too than many of the other Ibbotson titles I've read; though the school remains relatively unaffected by the war, and it's set in pre-annexation Austria, there are still moments that are breathlessly pained. Ibbotson really could write, she did write, and we are so lucky that she did.
My thanks to the publisher for a review copy.
July 25, 2021
Having recently run out of new books to read, I chose to reread one of my old favourites, A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson. The book is set in the 1930s-40s, and is centred around the life of Ellen Carr, the daughter of an English former suffragette. It begins in her childhood, when she is inspired by her grandfather's Austrian housemaid to one day travel to Austria, and follows her as she pursues this dream, becoming the matron of a forward-thinking, arts-based school, Hallendorf, in the Austrian countryside. Despite the good intentions of the headmaster, an Englishman named Bennet, the children run wild, and instead of his dreams of having an institution famous for its progressive nature, he is mainly left with children whose parents don't have time for them, or who lack discipline.
However, Ellen fixes the contrary nature of the school within her first week of being there, helping the children with their problems, comforting the staff, and, most importantly, reinventing the kitchen. It is not only the school which attracts Ellen, but also the quiet, mysterious gardener, Marek Tarnowsky. As we are drawn deeper into the book, it appears that Marek isn't all he first seems to be. Ellen discovers that he is part of an organisation helping to rescue Jews from various countries and take them to safety. Not only this, but he is also a world-famous composer. From the beginning, Ellen is determined not to fall for anyone, fearing the thought of being blinded by love, but this conviction proves difficult as she becomes more involved with Marek. As both Ellen and Marek have other love interests pursuing them, pathetic Kendrick Frobisher and ageing diva Brigitta Seefeld respectively, their relationship appears to be doomed, despite the fact that they are evidently meant for each other. Another issue is that Marek's close friend, Isaac Meierwitz, falls deeply in love with Ellen, who, in turn is desperate not to hurt either man. Nevertheless, even after many tragedies and hurdles along the way, the book ends with happiness for both, a fitting finale for such a book.
Ibbotson, as always, manages to transport the reader, if not to a fantasy world, at least to a world full of enchantment, where it seems anything could happen. Her portrayal of all the characters, protagonists and antagonists alike, is fantastically unconventional, and throughout the book, her scene setting is truly perfect. Whilst including many other historical facts in the book, it is primarily a love story, and this is clearly Ibbotson's forte. The simple ways in which she conveys the relationship between Ellen and Marek as the story progresses are enough, leaving each reader with enough space to invent other dimensions within both the relationship and their characters. Ibbotson is evidently a master at knowing just how much description to put into a scene, and this is what makes the book so special.
However, Ellen fixes the contrary nature of the school within her first week of being there, helping the children with their problems, comforting the staff, and, most importantly, reinventing the kitchen. It is not only the school which attracts Ellen, but also the quiet, mysterious gardener, Marek Tarnowsky. As we are drawn deeper into the book, it appears that Marek isn't all he first seems to be. Ellen discovers that he is part of an organisation helping to rescue Jews from various countries and take them to safety. Not only this, but he is also a world-famous composer. From the beginning, Ellen is determined not to fall for anyone, fearing the thought of being blinded by love, but this conviction proves difficult as she becomes more involved with Marek. As both Ellen and Marek have other love interests pursuing them, pathetic Kendrick Frobisher and ageing diva Brigitta Seefeld respectively, their relationship appears to be doomed, despite the fact that they are evidently meant for each other. Another issue is that Marek's close friend, Isaac Meierwitz, falls deeply in love with Ellen, who, in turn is desperate not to hurt either man. Nevertheless, even after many tragedies and hurdles along the way, the book ends with happiness for both, a fitting finale for such a book.
Ibbotson, as always, manages to transport the reader, if not to a fantasy world, at least to a world full of enchantment, where it seems anything could happen. Her portrayal of all the characters, protagonists and antagonists alike, is fantastically unconventional, and throughout the book, her scene setting is truly perfect. Whilst including many other historical facts in the book, it is primarily a love story, and this is clearly Ibbotson's forte. The simple ways in which she conveys the relationship between Ellen and Marek as the story progresses are enough, leaving each reader with enough space to invent other dimensions within both the relationship and their characters. Ibbotson is evidently a master at knowing just how much description to put into a scene, and this is what makes the book so special.
June 26, 2025
*reread while on holiday in Vienna <3
I strongly suspect that this is the book that made me fall utterly and helplessly in love with reading.
Everything about A Song For Summer is perfect. Every single thing.
It absolutely wrecks me every time I read it and it remains my idealistic blueprint for love.
The writing is gorgeous and glorious and just <333 I really fucking love this book.
I strongly suspect that this is the book that made me fall utterly and helplessly in love with reading.
Everything about A Song For Summer is perfect. Every single thing.
It absolutely wrecks me every time I read it and it remains my idealistic blueprint for love.
The writing is gorgeous and glorious and just <333 I really fucking love this book.
August 13, 2019
¡Qué pena!
Un libro que empezó gustándome muchísimo
y fue perdiendo (casi) todo su encanto por el camino.
Un libro que empezó gustándome muchísimo
y fue perdiendo (casi) todo su encanto por el camino.
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June 2, 2020I'm a huge fan of EI, including most of her children's books too. I do find it odd that her romances are considered YA though, as I am not YA at all, and I love them, and don't see why they should be limited to YA - I guess they've just been marketed as such? (They are not M&B, they are not chic-lit etc etc, so maybe they don't fit into modern adult romantic fiction categories??)
A Song for Summer, which I've just re-read (must have read it first a good few years ago now) isn't my favourite however. Looking at the publication date it seems quite a 'late' novel, and I wonder if that shows?? It's quite uneven in its plotting, with a lot of jumping around, and I don't find Marek very convincing (and sometimes quite nasty?). Maybe there is just too much going on, with all the rescue work of Hitler's victims, etc, and he also seems to have 'too much' of a background - his English grandmother, his Czech/Sudetan land-owning class, and then his music (he seems to have found fame both young and easily), and how he 'ended up' as a groundsman at the school etc. It's a bit bitty and 'thrown in' I feel.
I can understand why some reviewers dislike the heroine, but I guess EI wanted to have, for a chance, a heroine who embraces all the 'Hausfrau' qualities most of her other heroines don't have. Just ringing the changes maybe?
I find the book quite sad overall, it has a darker tone even than the others set in WW2/Third Reich. It also 'goes on a bit' (!), just 'on and on and on', without much sense of shape or structure? The dwarf part 2 where the action jumps to the war itself doesn't really work in terms of the book's structure either - not satisfying. The length of time the novel encompasses doesn't help, right up into the 1950s (though that Epilogue is necessary to cheer us all up!). I found the whole 'sad suitor' character of Kendrick almost too depressing for words, and I really didn't like what happened between her and him - though I was relieved by finally sorting out what happened to the ghastly Tamara (who maybe wasn't quite ghastly enough?).
There were too many characters, almost inserted to fill up space I fancied, and difficult to distinguish sometimes.
Overall, it was a sadder book than her others, less well plotted and structured, with less sense of satisfaction and resolution at the end. I'd probably rate this the least enjoyable of her romances, other than the Star of Kazan (only read once and really didn't like it - also it is, I guess, definitely childrens/YA?) (very 'dark', the SofK).
That said, it's still EI and she can't write a bad book in my book! She's a unique and wonderful voice, and I love to read her books for comfort and joy. So I do!
A Song for Summer, which I've just re-read (must have read it first a good few years ago now) isn't my favourite however. Looking at the publication date it seems quite a 'late' novel, and I wonder if that shows?? It's quite uneven in its plotting, with a lot of jumping around, and I don't find Marek very convincing (and sometimes quite nasty?). Maybe there is just too much going on, with all the rescue work of Hitler's victims, etc, and he also seems to have 'too much' of a background - his English grandmother, his Czech/Sudetan land-owning class, and then his music (he seems to have found fame both young and easily), and how he 'ended up' as a groundsman at the school etc. It's a bit bitty and 'thrown in' I feel.
I can understand why some reviewers dislike the heroine, but I guess EI wanted to have, for a chance, a heroine who embraces all the 'Hausfrau' qualities most of her other heroines don't have. Just ringing the changes maybe?
I find the book quite sad overall, it has a darker tone even than the others set in WW2/Third Reich. It also 'goes on a bit' (!), just 'on and on and on', without much sense of shape or structure? The dwarf part 2 where the action jumps to the war itself doesn't really work in terms of the book's structure either - not satisfying. The length of time the novel encompasses doesn't help, right up into the 1950s (though that Epilogue is necessary to cheer us all up!). I found the whole 'sad suitor' character of Kendrick almost too depressing for words, and I really didn't like what happened between her and him - though I was relieved by finally sorting out what happened to the ghastly Tamara (who maybe wasn't quite ghastly enough?).
There were too many characters, almost inserted to fill up space I fancied, and difficult to distinguish sometimes.
Overall, it was a sadder book than her others, less well plotted and structured, with less sense of satisfaction and resolution at the end. I'd probably rate this the least enjoyable of her romances, other than the Star of Kazan (only read once and really didn't like it - also it is, I guess, definitely childrens/YA?) (very 'dark', the SofK).
That said, it's still EI and she can't write a bad book in my book! She's a unique and wonderful voice, and I love to read her books for comfort and joy. So I do!
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December 1, 2020Reread Nov 20
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January 3, 2023i'm self-soothing, please do not disturb!
November 12, 2021
I love Eva Ibbotson’s books. Having discovered them around the age of eleven or twelve they have very much become some of my go too comfort reads. They are gentle stories that nevertheless don’t ignore problems. They’re predictable in that each one uses the pattern of state of equilibrium, disruption to this, further disruption and then return to equilibrium. You also know that without fail everything will work out in the end, every good deed will be rewarded and every loose end will be nicely tied up in a satisfying conclusion. They are basically fairy tales for a slightly older audience.
Reading them when I was younger I was very much caught up in the direct plot, the development of the main character and also the love story that is in each story. Rereading them as an adult I actually think the main love story and development is not really of the characters on the pages at all. I think instead Ibbotson wrote of a much larger love story; her love of a pre-war Europe, of a lost world, an innocence of many people and before lots of death, destruction and change in systems. A time really before capitalism and modernity. She writes of a simpler things and an innocence that was and shows how in each story war disrupted this and how it changes everything. There is a grief on this level that is not resolved and that as a younger reader I missed entirely. Of course her characters are also all upper class and educated and there is a distinct lack (except for the occasional quite paternalistic mention) of people on lower tiers of society who I think wouldn’t fully agree with the authors love for old systems and hierarchies. Ibbotson I think would have been an interesting author to meet.
While this is probably my least favourite of her books (I just can’t fully take to either Ellen or Marek), it is still brilliant. Good prevails and, though challenged, overall wins. Operas and folk tales are compared, people rescued in dangerous missions, lonely people given families of a kind and everything coming together at last on the final page.
Reading them when I was younger I was very much caught up in the direct plot, the development of the main character and also the love story that is in each story. Rereading them as an adult I actually think the main love story and development is not really of the characters on the pages at all. I think instead Ibbotson wrote of a much larger love story; her love of a pre-war Europe, of a lost world, an innocence of many people and before lots of death, destruction and change in systems. A time really before capitalism and modernity. She writes of a simpler things and an innocence that was and shows how in each story war disrupted this and how it changes everything. There is a grief on this level that is not resolved and that as a younger reader I missed entirely. Of course her characters are also all upper class and educated and there is a distinct lack (except for the occasional quite paternalistic mention) of people on lower tiers of society who I think wouldn’t fully agree with the authors love for old systems and hierarchies. Ibbotson I think would have been an interesting author to meet.
While this is probably my least favourite of her books (I just can’t fully take to either Ellen or Marek), it is still brilliant. Good prevails and, though challenged, overall wins. Operas and folk tales are compared, people rescued in dangerous missions, lonely people given families of a kind and everything coming together at last on the final page.
February 15, 2021
One of a series of authors whose works I've been gobbling up lately. There's a small village on the edge of an Austrian lake, and opera people, and a boarding school that's not doing very well, and a very young and very practical woman, and horrible things are looming on the horizon.
It's lovely and hopeful and full of the struggle for good and funny and kind. And yes, given the tendency of Ibbotson to set her novels for adults in the vicinity of the world wars, there is a great deal of sadness behind it, but not too much at the surface.
Library copy
It's lovely and hopeful and full of the struggle for good and funny and kind. And yes, given the tendency of Ibbotson to set her novels for adults in the vicinity of the world wars, there is a great deal of sadness behind it, but not too much at the surface.
Library copy
September 18, 2023
male protags that throw nazis out of windows are the BEST book boyfriends <3
October 17, 2011
Originally posted here.
Eva Ibbotson is one of my favorite YA authors. She writes historical fiction novels with romance in them. I've read all of her YA novels except for A Song for Summer and I've been saving it up for when I feel like getting cozy with a good book. That time came up last week and I finally got to read this.
I mentioned this in my review of A Company of Swans last year but I want to say it again: there's something about Eva Ibbotson's writing that makes her novels comfort reads even when you're reading them for the first time. Maybe because she usually writes about bright, happy, young women - all of them intriguing in their own way. They're the kind of girls that everyone loves and Ellen is no exception. She's young but has very motherly traits because her passion lies in taking care of the household and everything involved in that - cooking, baking, cleaning, doing the laundry and making everyone else more comfortable. At first, her liberated mother and aunts were disappointed because they wanted bigger things for her but they eventually accepted that Ellen is bound to excel in whatever she does. I love that Ellen was brave enough to go after what she really wanted even when it meant that she can't be a doctor, lawyer or professor like her relatives wanted. She's such a sweet person but with a backbone of steel that becomes evident when the need arises. It's not surprising that all of the characters in book are drawn to her.
A Song for Summer is a charming novel but the latter part of the book was a bit frustrating. I wanted Ellen to get her happy ending, she deserved that and more for being the kind of person she is. I felt like she had to go through so much for it to happen. There were several bumps in the road when it comes to the romance in this novel and I think I would have loved the book more if there was less conflict. There were times when I wanted to knock some sense into the guy and tell him that he shouldn't be hurting her feelings. But I guess that's what happens when romance gets complicated because of war, everyone suffers although you can't help but hope that things would eventually work out. Overall, an enjoyable read that I would probably pick up again but A Countess Below Stairs and The Reluctant Heiress are still my favorite Ibbotsons. I feel kind of bad that I've finished reading all of her YA novels because I want more of them! Oh well, I still have to go through her children's novels and I have a feeling they're good too. If you're a YA fan and you've never heard of Eva Ibbotson, you should definitely remedy that situation. Her novels are lovely and something that can be enjoyed by any reader. Oh and if you have recommendations similar to her work, feel free to let me know. I would love to discover more authors like her.
Eva Ibbotson is one of my favorite YA authors. She writes historical fiction novels with romance in them. I've read all of her YA novels except for A Song for Summer and I've been saving it up for when I feel like getting cozy with a good book. That time came up last week and I finally got to read this.
I mentioned this in my review of A Company of Swans last year but I want to say it again: there's something about Eva Ibbotson's writing that makes her novels comfort reads even when you're reading them for the first time. Maybe because she usually writes about bright, happy, young women - all of them intriguing in their own way. They're the kind of girls that everyone loves and Ellen is no exception. She's young but has very motherly traits because her passion lies in taking care of the household and everything involved in that - cooking, baking, cleaning, doing the laundry and making everyone else more comfortable. At first, her liberated mother and aunts were disappointed because they wanted bigger things for her but they eventually accepted that Ellen is bound to excel in whatever she does. I love that Ellen was brave enough to go after what she really wanted even when it meant that she can't be a doctor, lawyer or professor like her relatives wanted. She's such a sweet person but with a backbone of steel that becomes evident when the need arises. It's not surprising that all of the characters in book are drawn to her.
A Song for Summer is a charming novel but the latter part of the book was a bit frustrating. I wanted Ellen to get her happy ending, she deserved that and more for being the kind of person she is. I felt like she had to go through so much for it to happen. There were several bumps in the road when it comes to the romance in this novel and I think I would have loved the book more if there was less conflict. There were times when I wanted to knock some sense into the guy and tell him that he shouldn't be hurting her feelings. But I guess that's what happens when romance gets complicated because of war, everyone suffers although you can't help but hope that things would eventually work out. Overall, an enjoyable read that I would probably pick up again but A Countess Below Stairs and The Reluctant Heiress are still my favorite Ibbotsons. I feel kind of bad that I've finished reading all of her YA novels because I want more of them! Oh well, I still have to go through her children's novels and I have a feeling they're good too. If you're a YA fan and you've never heard of Eva Ibbotson, you should definitely remedy that situation. Her novels are lovely and something that can be enjoyed by any reader. Oh and if you have recommendations similar to her work, feel free to let me know. I would love to discover more authors like her.
September 14, 2011
I guess I'm losing hope in Eva Ibbotson. Her books are hopelessly YA fiction. High-end YA fiction, but still lumped in the category.
And what have I come to expect of YA fiction?
Absolutely no redeeming value, episodes of teenagers or young adults with no self-control or morals that they abandon with a disheartening lack of regret or hesitation, language, flighty heroines and perfect heroes who are really nothing but fluff under the skin. That's what I expect.
Unfortunately, that's what I get.
Marek was hopelessly perfect. I couldn't believe the limitlessness of his perfection. He did everything the way you would expect, had basically no faults (though, I suppose, my argument that his habit of having affairs is a fault is probably no longer considered), and is ultra-talented, and the object of every woman's affection and every man's hero-worship.
Faugh.
Ellen, again, was a good heroine. A lot too perfect and good, but I still liked her. Unfortunately, she fell into the same trap that Harriet from "A Company of Swans" fell into. After all her goodness and everything I guess I just expected her to keep herself to herself. After Harriet, I should have expected that she wouldn't.
And I was rather disappointed that divorce was used to hook up Ellen and Marek at the end. The ending would have been more cliche, but it would have sat better if Marek had halted the wedding before it happened.
Again, this is a wonderful display of Ms. Ibbotson's talented, humorous writing, but the enjoyment of that is ruined by her disregard for the better things in life (i.e. self-control, saving yourself for marriage, remaining faithful to your husband, faith, and love) and her descent into the "accepted" subjects of YA fiction.
And what have I come to expect of YA fiction?
Absolutely no redeeming value, episodes of teenagers or young adults with no self-control or morals that they abandon with a disheartening lack of regret or hesitation, language, flighty heroines and perfect heroes who are really nothing but fluff under the skin. That's what I expect.
Unfortunately, that's what I get.
Marek was hopelessly perfect. I couldn't believe the limitlessness of his perfection. He did everything the way you would expect, had basically no faults (though, I suppose, my argument that his habit of having affairs is a fault is probably no longer considered), and is ultra-talented, and the object of every woman's affection and every man's hero-worship.
Faugh.
Ellen, again, was a good heroine. A lot too perfect and good, but I still liked her. Unfortunately, she fell into the same trap that Harriet from "A Company of Swans" fell into. After all her goodness and everything I guess I just expected her to keep herself to herself. After Harriet, I should have expected that she wouldn't.
And I was rather disappointed that divorce was used to hook up Ellen and Marek at the end. The ending would have been more cliche, but it would have sat better if Marek had halted the wedding before it happened.
Again, this is a wonderful display of Ms. Ibbotson's talented, humorous writing, but the enjoyment of that is ruined by her disregard for the better things in life (i.e. self-control, saving yourself for marriage, remaining faithful to your husband, faith, and love) and her descent into the "accepted" subjects of YA fiction.
July 2, 2010
I'm going to have to go ahead and call this book flat out silly. I picked it up because I had read Ibbotson's A Countess Below Stairs some years ago and vaguely seem to remember having liked it. It can't have been this bad else I'd have remembered, I'm convinced.
The heroine is Ellen, the domestic goddess who loves cooking and hugging babies and is beautiful beyond compare. The hero is Marek, the dashing gardener and fencing teacher who is also a member of the Resistance and a very famous composer. They fall in love, are kept apart by World War II, everyone is married for a brief time to the wrong person, and it all ends in a general swapping of spouses that leaves everybody rapturously happy.
So the plot is nothing special. But the truly irritating thing was Ibbotson's narrative. I can only call it erratic. It jumps here and there, somehow managing to skip all of the good parts and dwell interminably long on the descriptions of operas and pageants. Generally, Ibbotson is going along, telling us about storks and little flowers and then, just when something good is going to happen, she throws in a page break, skips ahead a few weeks, and then tells us what happened in retrospect, stripping the action of any, well, action. The narrative also constantly shifts point of view. The book would have been much stronger, not to mention readable, had she just picked one.
Pretty much the only thing this book had going for it was an interesting setting. Austria, just before the war, at a little castle turned into a rather eccentric school for eccentric people's children, which were fun to read about at times.
The heroine is Ellen, the domestic goddess who loves cooking and hugging babies and is beautiful beyond compare. The hero is Marek, the dashing gardener and fencing teacher who is also a member of the Resistance and a very famous composer. They fall in love, are kept apart by World War II, everyone is married for a brief time to the wrong person, and it all ends in a general swapping of spouses that leaves everybody rapturously happy.
So the plot is nothing special. But the truly irritating thing was Ibbotson's narrative. I can only call it erratic. It jumps here and there, somehow managing to skip all of the good parts and dwell interminably long on the descriptions of operas and pageants. Generally, Ibbotson is going along, telling us about storks and little flowers and then, just when something good is going to happen, she throws in a page break, skips ahead a few weeks, and then tells us what happened in retrospect, stripping the action of any, well, action. The narrative also constantly shifts point of view. The book would have been much stronger, not to mention readable, had she just picked one.
Pretty much the only thing this book had going for it was an interesting setting. Austria, just before the war, at a little castle turned into a rather eccentric school for eccentric people's children, which were fun to read about at times.
June 16, 2010
Another of Eva Ibbotson's charmingly humorous romances, combining her usual elements of Austria, England, quirky minor characters, brave hero and effervescent heroine. Hitler is hovering over the horizon, and an English girl named Ellen adventurously travels to Austria where she takes a job as housemother at a progressive boarding school. The teachers are an eccentric bunch, and the children are an undisciplined lot being encouraged to get in touch with far too many primal impulses, but Ellen quickly becomes a favorite as she brings a little order to the chaos. Love and danger find Ellen in the form of Marek, the school's handyman who moonlights with the resistance movement in helping smuggle Jews out of Hitler's reach. As usual, Eva Ibbotson's strength is in her zany cast of minor characters: a fake Russian ballerina everyone calls The Cabbage, Ellen's eccentric suffragette aunts, a usually-naked professor of metalworks, and the beleaguered headmaster with his love for Shakespeare and his stubborn belief that art and freedom will conquer, in his words, "war, flag-waving, and cant." And in the end, at least in "A Song For Summer," he's absolutely right.
January 10, 2016
Okay, so this book is in two parts. The first part is about 80% of the book and it is a very nice story! Maybe it didn't blow me away, but I liked it. It was satisfying.
But then the last 20% of the book was all weirdly dramatic! Big spoilers here.
Four stars for the first half. Two for the second.
But then the last 20% of the book was all weirdly dramatic! Big spoilers here.
Four stars for the first half. Two for the second.
October 16, 2010
So much to say about this book, pre-read for Violet...saving for when she's a little older.
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November 23, 2020Can someone who's read this please confirm that in this book ? I'm trying to determine if this is in fact the book I'm thinking of...
March 16, 2024
I’m so disappointed. This is my least favourite Eva Ibbotson book I’ve ever read. It’s about Ellen, who was raised by intellectual suffragettes but who’s passionate about domesticity herself. She leaves England for Austria to be a housekeeper in a school for music & dancing and meets many different people, all affected by the rise of Hitler in one way or another.
I loved Ellen but I didn’t grow fiercely attached to her and protective of her the way I do all the other Eva Ibbotson heroines, which is surprising because she’s closest to me on paper. The romance was a missed opportunity - Marek and Ellen spend the entire book at odds with or indifferent to one another and I wasn’t swept away by their love the way I usually am. A lot of the plot has all the characters being directly threatened by war and persecution and that was too much for me too. Eva Ibbotson always mentions things in one or two scenes so you know what the threats are but you always feel like her little world of characters is safe - not so much here.
I feel awful giving any of her books three stars because she’s really special but A Song for Summer wasn’t my favourite.
I loved Ellen but I didn’t grow fiercely attached to her and protective of her the way I do all the other Eva Ibbotson heroines, which is surprising because she’s closest to me on paper. The romance was a missed opportunity - Marek and Ellen spend the entire book at odds with or indifferent to one another and I wasn’t swept away by their love the way I usually am. A lot of the plot has all the characters being directly threatened by war and persecution and that was too much for me too. Eva Ibbotson always mentions things in one or two scenes so you know what the threats are but you always feel like her little world of characters is safe - not so much here.
I feel awful giving any of her books three stars because she’s really special but A Song for Summer wasn’t my favourite.
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