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    The Shooting Party

    Author Isabel Colegate
    Ebook
    Catapult | Counterpoint
    On sale May 01, 2009 | 208 Pages | 9781582439099
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    A leisurely weekend among the British gentry reveals the cracks in their upper-class society in this “beautifully crafted” historical fiction novel set in pre-WWI England (Washington Post).

    “A lovely piece of writing, in which subtlety, irony, and close observation abound.” —Larry McMurtry

    It is the autumn of 1913. Sir Randolph Nettleby has assembled a brilliant array of guests at his Oxfordshire estate for the biggest hunt of the season. An army of gamekeepers, beaters, and servants has rehearsed the intricate age–old ritual, the gentlemen are falling into the prescribed mode of fellowship and sporting rivalry, the ladies intrigued by the latest gossip and fashion. Everything about this splendid weekend would seem a perfect consummation of the pleasures afforded the privileged in Edwardian England.

    And yet it is not: the moral and social code of this group is not so secure as it appears. Competition beyond the bounds of sportsmanship, revulsion at the slaughter of the animals, anger at the inequities of class—these forces are about to rise up and engulf the assured social peace, a peace that can last only a brief while longer. In imagining Sir Randolph's shooting party, wrote The Spectator, Miss Colegate has found a perfect metaphor for the passing of a way of life.
    ISABEL COLEGATE was the acclaimed author of many bestselling books, including The Orlando Trilogy, Statues in a Garden, and Winter Journey. The Shooting Party, first published in 1980, was an international bestseller and the winner of the W. H. Smith Literary Award for the British book of the year. It was made into a celebrated motion picture starring James Mason, Edward Fox, and John Gielgud. Colegate lived near Bath, England, and died in 2023.
    Isabel Colegate View titles by Isabel Colegate
    "A beautifully crafted novel, remarkably visual and evocative. The characters are caught in stunning images and tableaux that convey the essence of their natures, the sweep of their emotions." —The Washington Post

    "Colegate's prose is dimly luminous, like ancient silver . . . A feast of elegant writing." —Los Angeles Times

    "A novel of unusual force and flavor." —The New Yorker

    "Colegate explores a world—upper-class England on the eve of the Great War—with affection and distance, recording its grace as well as its cruelty . . . finally making it both meaningful and moving." —The Atlantic

    "Poised, wry, lovable, informative . . . An utterly complete rendering of a way of life." —Gail Godwin, author of Queen of the Underworld

    "The Shooting Party is a lovely piece of writing, in which subtlety, irony, and close observation abound." —Larry McMurtry

    About

    A leisurely weekend among the British gentry reveals the cracks in their upper-class society in this “beautifully crafted” historical fiction novel set in pre-WWI England (Washington Post).

    “A lovely piece of writing, in which subtlety, irony, and close observation abound.” —Larry McMurtry

    It is the autumn of 1913. Sir Randolph Nettleby has assembled a brilliant array of guests at his Oxfordshire estate for the biggest hunt of the season. An army of gamekeepers, beaters, and servants has rehearsed the intricate age–old ritual, the gentlemen are falling into the prescribed mode of fellowship and sporting rivalry, the ladies intrigued by the latest gossip and fashion. Everything about this splendid weekend would seem a perfect consummation of the pleasures afforded the privileged in Edwardian England.

    And yet it is not: the moral and social code of this group is not so secure as it appears. Competition beyond the bounds of sportsmanship, revulsion at the slaughter of the animals, anger at the inequities of class—these forces are about to rise up and engulf the assured social peace, a peace that can last only a brief while longer. In imagining Sir Randolph's shooting party, wrote The Spectator, Miss Colegate has found a perfect metaphor for the passing of a way of life.

    Author

    ISABEL COLEGATE was the acclaimed author of many bestselling books, including The Orlando Trilogy, Statues in a Garden, and Winter Journey. The Shooting Party, first published in 1980, was an international bestseller and the winner of the W. H. Smith Literary Award for the British book of the year. It was made into a celebrated motion picture starring James Mason, Edward Fox, and John Gielgud. Colegate lived near Bath, England, and died in 2023.
    Isabel Colegate View titles by Isabel Colegate

    Praise

    "A beautifully crafted novel, remarkably visual and evocative. The characters are caught in stunning images and tableaux that convey the essence of their natures, the sweep of their emotions." —The Washington Post

    "Colegate's prose is dimly luminous, like ancient silver . . . A feast of elegant writing." —Los Angeles Times

    "A novel of unusual force and flavor." —The New Yorker

    "Colegate explores a world—upper-class England on the eve of the Great War—with affection and distance, recording its grace as well as its cruelty . . . finally making it both meaningful and moving." —The Atlantic

    "Poised, wry, lovable, informative . . . An utterly complete rendering of a way of life." —Gail Godwin, author of Queen of the Underworld

    "The Shooting Party is a lovely piece of writing, in which subtlety, irony, and close observation abound." —Larry McMurtry

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