Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Fans of this British author's bestselling fiction (The Far Pavilions) will greatly enjoy the third volume (following The Sun in the Morning and Golden Afternoon) of her autobiography, Share of Summer. This memoir extends from the end of WWI through WWII, when, in the midst of the complex international situation, a number of momentous events occurred in Kaye's life. In her early 20s, she and her family left India, the country where she spent a happy and protected childhood as the daughter of a career British army officer. Her beloved father, Tacklow, brought the family back to China, but his wife and two daughters did not share his enthusiasm for the country in which he had first established himself; after several years, the family returned by way of Japan to India. Back in India, TacklowDKaye's bedrockDdied suddenly of a heart attack, a loss that transformed her life. She returned to London, where she worked as a painter during the day and, to cope with her lonely evenings, joined a "Tuppenny Library" and started to write. The success of her first novel (Six Bars and Seven) and a children's book series (Potter Pinner Meadow) enabled Kaye not only to return to India during the war, but made it possible for her to do a good bit of traveling, including a visit to Persia (now Iran), faithfully detailed here. Kaye writes with a vivid and personal immediacyDwhether describing exotic locales or the most ordinary day. At the same time, as one who lived a privileged life and celebrates the glories of British imperialism, her world and point of view often seem remote, decadent and even unjust. But fans of her fiction and readers who enjoy tales about the halcyon days of the British Empire will be charmed. B&w photos. Agent, Phyllis Westberg, Harold Ober Asoociates. (Dec. 18) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Enchanted Evening: Volume III of the Autobiography of M. M. Kaye
by M. M. KayeView All Available Formats & Editions
In the first volume of her autobiography, The Sun in the Morning, M.M. Kaye detailed the first eighteen years of her life in India and England and introduced readers to her love affair with India. She brought to life its people, scents, vibrant colors, and breathtaking landscapes. In the second volume, Golden Afternoon, she happily returned to her
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In the first volume of her autobiography, The Sun in the Morning, M.M. Kaye detailed the first eighteen years of her life in India and England and introduced readers to her love affair with India. She brought to life its people, scents, vibrant colors, and breathtaking landscapes. In the second volume, Golden Afternoon, she happily returned to her beloved India after years in a British boarding school. New to the glories of the Delhi social season, M.M. Kaye recounted her delightful exploits as a vivacious young woman in Raj society.
Now, in Enchanted Evening, M.M. Kaye is a young woman forced to leave her cherished home in India when her father takes a new post in china. Though at first disoriented by the unfamiliar customs and confusing protocol of her new surroundings, it is in China that she discovers the pleasures that come from independence. Coming into her own as a painter, Kaye first meets with artistic success in China and then moves to cramped quarters in London's South Kensington neighborhood, where she begins to flourish as a writer.
With vivid descriptions and the wisdom that comes with age, M.M. Kaye looks back on the years she spent as a young woman in a world as yet unmarked by World War II's devastation.
Editorial Reviews
Library Journal
Writer and artist Kaye (The Far Pavilions) was born in 1909 in India to British parents and grew up as a member of the ruling class during the waning years of the Raj. This third volume of her autobiography begins in 1932, when she is 23, and ends in the early Forties with her engagement. Kaye's family lived comfortably, enjoying endless diplomatic parties, dances, and outings with friends and relatives. Kaye was a spunky, confident young woman, and her tone here is that of an energetic friend relating a series of amusing anecdotes. Her affection for India is apparent in her lush, detailed descriptions of the country's natural beauty, which she recalls against the historical backdrop of an expanding world war and the decline of the British Empire. The publisher has also issued the American editions of the first two parts of her autobiography, The Sun in the Morning and Golden Afternoon. This volume is recommended for public libraries with earlier Kaye titles.--Carol A. McAllister, Coll. of William & Mary Lib., Williamsburg, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Product Details
- ISBN-13:
- 9781466842755
- Publisher:
- St. Martin's Press
- Publication date:
- 12/05/2000
- Sold by:
- Macmillan
- Format:
- NOOK Book
- Pages:
- 368
- Sales rank:
- 544,415
- File size:
- 681 KB
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