Books That Sparkle

"There are books I go to when I don't want any more of the place I'm somehow stuck in and I long for a lighter and brighter world...They make me feel I've just had a drink of a particularly sparkling Champagne."
-- Mary Gordon

I have a wonderful address book called "The Reading Woman" that I bought at the Frick Museum in New York. It is illustrated with lovely paintings of women reading and filled with quotes by writers. One of my favorite quotes is the one above.

It is true -- there are books that sparkle, books that take us to a lighter and brighter world. We read them and are taken away, transported to a place of witty conversation, well-dressed people, candle-lit rooms, beautiful flowers, glistening silver, china teapots, dialogue sprinkled with bons mots, humorous mishaps, and enterprising heroines searching for love and a place in the world. These books feature dashing detectives, bungling aristocrats, glamorous characters, bright young women and ordinary people who have the ability to see the beauty in everyday life. We are swept away by their stories as well as the settings of their stories. The characters go on elegant picnics, create beautiful environments out of run-down houses and gardens, meet friends over afternoon tea, write letters and diaries in cozy libraries, solve mysteries over sherry in the drawing room, and fall in love under an ancient elm tree. Romance, mystery, intrigue, and comedy are the subjects.

Here are some books that have the power to sweep us away into a lighter and brighter world.

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The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse

 The aristocrat Bertie Wooster would be lost without the guidance of his brilliant valet Jeeves. The mishaps Bertie encounters in this book are endless, as are the laughs. This may be the perfect escapist book!

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Comedy and romance set in the ancestral home of an eccentric British family. The heroine longs to escape to a more glamorous life and her adventures take her to Paris. The ending is surprising and poignant.

Pride and and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The ultimate in romantic, happy endings

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

 English women find love and lose their inhibitions in Italy, written by one of the masters --E.M. Forster. He called it his "merry and bright" book.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

  Do you remember how funny this play is?

Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers
The dashing detective Lord Peter Wimsey is in love with the mystery writer Harriet Vane. Together they solve a crime set at Harriet's alma mater Oxford University

The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield

A middle-class housewife living in the English countryside keeps a diary recounting her mundane life with her family and servants. It turns out she has literary aspirations and a witty sense of humor.

Merry Hall, Down The Garden Path and other books by Beverley Nichols
The debonair bachelor Nichols buys a run-down estate in the English countryside and sets about restoring the garden to its former glory. These books are laugh-out-loud funny.

Mapp and Lucia series of novels by E.F. Benson
Comic novels by Benson about the social rivalry between two women -- Elizabeth Mapp and Emmeline Lucas (Lucia) -- in a country village. The question is, who will be queen?

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

Mildred Lathbury, a spinster and clergyman's daughter living in London in the 1950's, narrates this very funny story of her peaceful life being shaken up by her new and glamorous neighbors. Barbara Pym at her best!

 Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Even though tragedy and disillusion occur, when Charles Ryder falls in love with Sebastian Flyte and his glamorous family, we also fall under their spell.

 To the North by Elizabeth Bowen
A serious book about two young women who are lost -- one is an orphan and the other a widow -- finding their way together in London and searching for a meaningful life, as well as a home. Evocative descriptions of houses and furnishings that envelop and comfort, at least for a while...

And more recent books:

Le Divorce by Diane Johnson

 Diane Johnson's comedy of manners about American expats living in Paris

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman
A modern re-imagining of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. If you love cookbooks, English literature, love stories and Jane Austen, this is the book for you. It combines contemporary themes with old-fashioned storytelling.   

Any Human Heart by William Boyd
A romantic and sweeping saga of a book, this novel tells the story of the fictional character Logan Mountstuart, who during the course of his life is a writer, spy, and art dealer. It reads like a social and cultural history of the twentieth-century. Anglophiles will love it.

 Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Two young women meet a handsome banker in Greenwich village. They enter his glittering social world and their lives change. With echoes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Truman Capote, this book is such a good read!


I had fun coming up with this list and revisiting some of my favorite books. Can you think of any others?

Go here to read an essay on Barbara Pym in the New York Times. This month is the centenary of her birth and Pym's fans are celebrating the occasion.