A Winter's Love

by Madeleine L'Engle

Book Overview

Tenuously holding on to a failing marriage, Emily Bowen finds herself caught up in a relationship with a man who offers her the love and affection she so desperately desires.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345306449
• ISBN13: 9780345306449
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Dreamy, like moonlight on snow

Do you know how awful it is that this book is out of print? I found a copy at the library, and read it in one night -- it's wonderful! The writing style is definitely early L'Engle, reminiscent of The Small Rain. The theme isn't quite as evident as it is in later novels . . . but it's still a delightful read.The characters are interesting -- both the "younger incarnations", Virginia Bowen Porcher and Mimi Oppenheimer (wasn't there a Renier in there somewhere?), and the characters whom we haven't seen before: Emliy Bowen, Abe Fielding, Kaarlo . . .The plot in brief: Emily's husband Courtney used to be a professor at a university, and he resigned. They're spending the winter holidays in France, not many years after World War II ended. From there, it's the usual L'Engle family-in-conflict. Vee, their daughter, is also struggling with adolescence and that whole L'Engle-style conflict . . .It combines the best of many of her novels: the adult conflict and the children's conflict. Not that this is exactly a book for children: it's as heavy as anything else she writes. But in this book I see beginnings of most of the novels that came after it, both for adolescents and for adults.Highly recommended! That is, if you can find it . . .

Pretty good, for early L'Engle

This book is notable for several reasons: in typical L'Engle "nepotistic" style, it features the younger version of characters who appear in later books (Virginia Porcher, _House Like a Lotus_, and Mimi Oppenheimer, _A Severed Wasp_); and it features characters who obviously evolved into two important characters of her more recent Young Adult fiction, Zachary Gray and Max Horne. While a fascinating read, this book does not have the maturity of writing that Ms. L'Engle developed in her more recent adult fiction.