The Summer House: A Trilogy

The Summer House: A Trilogy

<div><p>"A work of astonishing illumination and delight...so edgy, bright and subversive about women's inner lives and experience."-Francine Prose, <I>New York Times Book Review</I></p><p>A <I>New York Times</I> Notable Book</p><p>In <I>The Summer House</I> trilogy, three very different women, with three very distinct perspectives, narrate three very witty novels concerning one disastrous wedding in the offing.</p><p><I>The Clothes in the Wardrobe</I>: Nineteen-year-old Margaret feels more trepidation than joy at the prospect of her marriage to forty-year-old Syl.</p><p><I>The Skeleton in the Cupboard</I>: Syl€s mother, Mrs. Monro, doesn€t know quite what to make of her son€s life, but she knows Margaret should not marry him.</p><p><I>The Fly in the Ointment</I>: And then there€s Lili, the free spirit who is determined that the wedding shall not happen, no matter the consequences.</p><p>"Her style is succinct, her humor dry…Unputdownable."-<I>The Spectator</I></p><p>"The subtlety of James, the comedy of Spark, the penetrating-and the deep, unflinching-eye of Jane Austen."-<I>Kirkus Reviews</I></p><p>"A witty and original writer."-<I>Times Literary Supplement</I></p><p>"Inspired malice...Alice Thomas Ellis only bothers with the things that really bother her. That's why her novel is short. That's why her novel is good."-Victoria Glendinning in <I>The Times</I></p><p>"It oozes enjoyable malice."-<I>Observer</I></p><p>"The glitter comes from Alice Thomas Ellis's mastery in keeping just the right distance between tones and undertones...This is a dark comedy."-<I>Sunday Times</I></p><p><B>Alice Thomas Ellis</B> (1932–2005) was one of Britain's most widely admired writers. Her dozen novels include <I>The 27th Kingdom</I>, which was nominated for a Booker Prize, and <I>The Inn at the Edge of the World</I>, which won the 1991 Writers' Guild Award for Best Fiction. She also published many essays and edited books by Penelope Fitzgerald and Beryl Bainbridge. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.</p></div>