Treasures of Time

By Penelope Lively

Book Overview

Treasures of Time is the twelfth novel by Booker Prize winning author Penelope Lively a spellbinding story of the dangers of digging up the dark secrets of the past. This edition features an introduction by Selina Hastings.

Penguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published some were bestsellers some were considered scandalous and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling.

Penelope Lively's Treasures of Time was published in 1979 and is an acutely observed study of marriage and manipulation. When the BBC want to make a documentary about acclaimed archaeologist Hugh Paxton his widow Laura daughter Kate and her fianc Tom are a little nervous: digging up the past can also disturb the present . . .

Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel The Road to Lichfield and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger. Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra's Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains a collection of short stories; Oleander Jacaranda a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award and How It All Began. She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours List and DBE in 2012. Penelope Lively lives in London.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0141044853
• ISBN13: 9780141044859
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Fig Tree
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.5" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

beautifully written

While one of Lively's earlier novels, "Treasures of Time" is beautifully written. Lively brings wit and intelligence to comments on culture and character, and is also equally adept at descriptions of nature and settings. The comments are made by her characters, and are consistent with who they are. Lively's characters are apt to switch their thoughts from the present to the past and back without notice, but also without awkwardness or confusion. What stood out in this novel was how major decisions may be built up by the slow accretion of experience and reflection. I am thinking primarily of Tom's decision to leave Kate, but also of his career change.

Nice understated novel, about a marriage's secrets

This book, from 1979, concerns the ramifications of the production of a TV program (okay, television programme) about Hugh Paxton, a 5 years dead archaeologist who had made a major discovery about ancient England. Hugh's daughter, Kate, and her fiance, Tom (who is an historian studying for his thesis a 17th century antiquarian/archaeologist) come down to Hugh's old home to visit Hugh's widow, Laura, and her crippled sister, Nellie. Laura turns out to be a truly awful woman, portrayed with catty gusto in a way which seems unique to women writers. (If a man wrote of Laura the way Lively does he would be called a raging misogynist.) Anyway, Laura is terrible to both Kate and Nellie, very controlling but also incredibly stupid, and a raging bore to boot. Kate is emotionally stunted, presumably partly due to Laura, while Tom is a bit vague and unfocussed. Nellie, it turns out, was another archaeologist, and in love with Hugh, and on the evidence Hugh probably (but we can't be quite sure) carried on an affair with her after his marriage to Laura soured. Over several months, the television programme production progresses, Tom works toward his degree, his relationship with Kate hits some rocks, while secrets about Hugh and Nellie and his discoveries seem ready to burst dangerously into the open. The resolution is emotionally sensible, though a bit understated -- it seemed to me that some guns shown on the mantel were left unfired. But it's a very nice book, and all the main characters come through very strongly, though I did think at times the portrait of Laura seemed almost of necessity a caricature. Certainly I will be reading more Lively.

A work of wonder

A truely great work of understated beauty by a writer of grace and style.