The Observations

by Jane Harris

Book Overview

An extraordinary historical novel about a peculiar friendship between the mistress of a Scottish estate and her irresistibly appealing housemaid Scotland, 1863. In an attempt to escape her... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143112015
• ISBN13: 9780143112013
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A saucy narrator and a riveting plot

This book was an unexpected, edge-of-your-seat, wild ride! I enjoyed it so much and blew through it in a few days, mostly because of its conversational tone. Bessy as the narrator is incredible - saucy, mischievous, determined, but also tender - and I loved her charmingly human tone of voice. This book has everything - mystery, ghosts, old mansions, gossip, and intrigue. 10/10 recommend.

Exceeded my expectations and is entertaining as all get out

Written in the vernacular of the time and that of teenage ex-prostitute, this book will both give you a dose of real life at this time but also gives voice to the Irish/British sense of humor that is rarely if ever seen in a book of this period. Very well written, toggles between story teller, history lesson and comedy. You have to "get" the sense of humor that the Brits and Irish are so good at perpetuating. It may be lost on someone not versed in his type of levity but even so, you will still enjoy this wonderful story. Rich with details, a bit of suspense tremendous amounts of visual tapestry, definitely worth reading.

Wonderful!

Absolutely loved this book, it was hysterically funny and the story was deeply engaging. Bessie won my heart with little effort ❤️

A flight of gayety

A rousing romp of a read. Engages all of the emtions. Well said Ms. Harris!!! I enjoyed it very much, and would reommend to others without hesitation.

Original and funny page-turner

What a wonderful book! Having just slogged through a few books which were named "best of 2006," I found this funny historical novel to be especially refreshing and delightful. A good book does not have to be ponderous and depressing, despite what book critics often seem to think. I finished _The Observations_ in just two days because both the narrator and her strange story were so thoroughly compelling. I highly recommend this book and am looking forward to future books by this author.

Could not put it down!

I just finished 'The Observations' and felt compelled, for the first time in my life, to write a review. What a fantastic book --- the best part of this book (besides the narrator) was that I didn't know what to expect on the next page. I loved the rough, speechlike narration -- Bessy's voice was a perfect way to tell this tale. I loved every minute of it -- Brava!

Gothic humor and a dash of horror

This is another of those great novels published this year that I just couldn't put down, right up there with The Ghost Orchid and the Girl in the Green Glass Mirror. The book is like driving one of those Connecticut back roads at night, every few yards a new twist or turn, but you follow it, not knowing where it's leading you because you want to find out. In 1860s Scotland, an Irish girl named Bessy Buckley comes to Castle Haivers to work as the new maid. We soon find out that isn't her real name, the castle is not a castle at all, and the inhabitants are a whole lot stranger than they first appear. "Bessy" herself is running away from an awful situation. Because she can read, the lady of the house, Arabella Reid, gives her Dickens novels with apt titles for this book, like Bleak House and Great Expectations. When Bessy starts telling her own childhood story, it is one that would have made Mr. Dickens shudder. More and more questions are raised. What happened to the former maid, Nora? Is she dead or alive? Is she haunting the house? Is Arabella delusional or is she seeing actual people that are a threat to the household? There is surprise after surprise right up to the end. The story is told by Bessy, a likeable character with sincerely good intentions who had a bad early life through no fault of her own. Bessy's sense of humor and irreverent remarks about the other characters will leave you laughing and firmly on her side. I couldn't recommend this book more highly for well-researched entertainment and originality of writing.

A first-rate novel with a bit of everything

Fifteen-year-old Bessy Buckley "had reason to leave Glasgow," but that reason she'll tell you later on. First, she wants to start at the beginning of her story. In her journey along the Great Road toward Edinburgh --- which she made on foot, for this is 1863 and the automobile is a ways off yet --- she encounters a lady chasing a pig, which she thinks looks like tremendous fun. She stops to see if she can help. This woman turns out to be the mistress of Castle Haivers, a grand manor that is a little the worse for wear by the time Bessy gets there, but the offer of work as a maid is a far cry better than what she left in Glasgow. A strange but electric kind of relationship builds between the maid and the lady of the house. Even a bold and bawdy young Irish girl fleeing a questionable past needs someone to love and care for. Bessy forms a fierce attraction for her mistress, with an almost desperate desire to please. Unfortunately, lady Arabella exhibits some unique behavior, eccentric at best. Right off, Bessy notes "...there was something queer about all this...you could have sensed it a mile off downwind with your eyes blindfolded your nose blocked your ears stopped up and a cork in your hole." Well, Bessy can read and write, to Arabella's delight, and the lady takes it upon herself to teach her more proper ways. She asks her, as she has all her previous maids, to keep a journal of her daily doings. Bessy writes freestyle, without the bother of commas and periods, which she deems about as understandable as goat droppings. As Arabella gets her to pay more attention, more punctuation finds its way into Bessy's story. If currying favor with missus means learning how to use those funny dots and squiggles, so be it. Bessy is about as honest a person as you'll meet, taking responsibility and all its repercussions without a flinch, whether she deserves to or not. She doesn't care one bit what others think of her --- except, that is, for missus. As she goes about her duties, Bessy (not exactly nosy but let's call her unusually curious) makes some disturbing observations of her own about her mistress and Castle Haivers. Lady Arabella's odd requests leave Bessy flummoxed, to say the very least, a state she does not handle well, and it prompts her to probe deeper to make sense of what's going on. What she finds out is heartbreaking. Bessy's is the freshest voice to come along in a long time. Totally unpretentious, plainspoken, blunt and highly observant, Bessy tells it like it is, and a bit like it isn't, if the truth be told. It is sometimes hard to tell whether she is making up words and phrases or whether they are Irish colloquialisms, but they are all hilarious. Case in point: Pig's pizzle, one of my favorites. And she has many, many more. THE OBSERVATIONS will make you laugh and it will make you cry, and it will be remembered for a long time to come. Told by the highly entertaining narrator, Bessy Buckley, it is utterly unputdownable. --- Revi