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Elizabeth Taylor
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Wreath of Roses Paperback – January 1, 2011

by Elizabeth Taylor (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 293 ratings
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Elizabeth Taylor's darkest novel is a skillful exploration of the danger we'll go to to avoid loneliness. Taylor is increasingly recognised as one of the best writers of the twentieth century, and this little-known novel displays her range admirably. Spending the holiday with friends, as she has for many years, Camilla finds that their private absorptions - Frances with her painting and Liz with her baby - seem to exclude her from the gossipy intimacies of previous summers. Anxious that she will remain encased in her solitary life as a school secretary, and perhaps to spite of her friends, Camilla steps into an unlikely liaison with Richard Elton, a handsome, assured - and dangerous - liar.
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  1. Language
    English
  2. Publisher
    Virago Press (UK)
  3. Publication date
    January 1, 2011
  4. Dimensions
    5.2 x 0.59 x 7.8 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1844087123
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1844087129
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Virago Press (UK) (January 1, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1844087123
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1844087129
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.59 x 7.8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars 293 ratings

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Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor

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293 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Sense and Sensibility
    5.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing and beautifully written thriller
    Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    This is an engrossing crime thriller, written in an intimate and rich voice, introducing you to characters I liked so much I was sad when the story ended. I had never heard of this novelist, but this novel was featured by a London bookstore discussion group as one of the forgotten literary masterpieces. The writer's work was a finalist for the Mann Booker once, but I had never heard of her. Her work has a feminist sensibility that would have put her ahead of her time: Meaning that its lead characters are women who are depicted coping with the various constraints on women in their day, but her male characters are also very compelling, and this book asks existential questions about love and a meaningful life that would resonate with most readers. The fact that this is a crime thriller adds another layer to this period drama, and pushes it forward in a compelling and suspenseful arc.
    10 people found this helpful
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  • kaminsky
    5.0 out of 5 stars i had a surprise coming
    Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    until the middle of the story I was a bit disappointed. this is not one of Taylor best novels ... happens to the best authors ... But then some unexpected turns of the plot. Things got thrilling...
    3 people found this helpful
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  • obsessedreader
    5.0 out of 5 stars an enticing wreath!
    Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    An intricate novel that is remarkably unpredictable: a treasure. The backdrop of the plot is ghostly and uncertain.

    The book is a page-turner, for sure!
    3 people found this helpful
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  • J. Folk
    3.0 out of 5 stars A Distinctive Voice and Time
    Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2018
    Women writers in England in the late 1940s and early 1950's were marvelous. Imagery and use of language, the philosophizing: all helped build enjoyable novels. Barbara Pym immediately comes to mind. This may have been a bit too tidy inspire of its attributes. A writer is certainly aware of all that has changed in society, especially the pacing of country life. People walk about. This novel has elegiac scenes of the country that sometimes lead to philosophical ramblings that seem quite true and shiny.

    I plan to read a couple more to see where I come down on the over-all oeuvre of Taylor before I make a more considered judgement other than now to say they are worth a read.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Frank G
    2.0 out of 5 stars A Wreath of Roses is a disappointment.
    Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2021
    I have read several of Ms. Taylor's novels, and this was the weakest and the least enjoyable. I recommend that anyone interested in reading one of her novels skip this one and read At Mrs. Lippincote's or Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont.
    One person found this helpful
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  • TGM
    5.0 out of 5 stars Superb
    Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2023
    No one writes like Elizabeth Taylor. Her prose can jump from dialogue to interior monologue to a description of a landscape, all in half a page. The characters’ ways of speaking can be pedantic, stilted, and overly preachy and epigrammatic, but she gets away with it because she is such a good storyteller.

    This novel’s plot would sound boring if I were to summarize it; the struggles of the characters (not the plot) drew me in, made me care for the characters, and kept me reading.

    Taylor’s artfulness and her occasionally overwrought prose are an acquired taste, and I am quite glad to have acquired a taste for all of her work. “A Wreath of Roses” and “Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont” are superb novels.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Tanaya Pandey
    1.0 out of 5 stars Pirated copy recieved.
    Reviewed in India on April 14, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    Received a pirated copy, only realised it too late for a return and refund.
    Report
  • helene gerard
    5.0 out of 5 stars A lire absolument
    Reviewed in France on November 8, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Découvert E. Taylor (rien à voir avec l'actrice) grâce à une amie anglaise. Craignais d'avoir affaire à de la "littérature pour dames" mais cet auteur et tous ses romans se sont révélés être de vrais trésors d'observation, de délicatesse, le tout écrit dans une très belle langue. Je recommande tous ses romans. Si vous aimez Douglas Sirk au cinéma, vous retrouverez ici la même élégance de fond et de forme.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Sandradan1
    5.0 out of 5 stars Sublimely written
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 3, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    There are some novels that you want to start read again as soon as you’ve finished it. To appreciate the finer details, unravel sub-text, and simply to admire. ‘A Wreath of Roses’ by Elizabeth Taylor had that effect on me.
    It is described in reviews as ‘her darkest novel’. What fascinated me was the inter-play between the three key female characters, how they see each other, and themselves, how they behave individually and together. Multiple contradictions complicated by self-delusions and self-awareness. I don’t mean to seem cryptic. The story is simple, as is often the way with Taylor.
    In that period after the Second World war when life begins to look normal, the undercurrents of the war experience are everywhere. Camilla and Liz are staying with Frances, Liz’s former governess, for their annual summer holiday. It is a habit forged by years with happy memories of podding peas and sharing stories. Except this year is different. Liz is now married and has brought her baby, Harry. Frances, an artist, is now painting dark tortured pictures rather than feminine florals and portraits. And Camilla has a shocking experience on her journey to stay with Frances; she witnesses a suicide at a train station that makes her melancholy, lonely and inadequate. She looks at herself in the dressing table mirror, ‘Her flesh was golden as an apricot; her hair, in contrast, looked tarnished and harshly bright.’
    Taylor inserts three male characters as wedges into the cosiness of the three women. Camilla resents Arthur, Liz’s husband, for taking her friend away. Richard Elton, who with Camilla is there when the suicide happens, is staying at a pub in the village. Camilla feels sorry for him and at the same time attracted to him and will not listen to Liz’s instinctive uneasiness about him. Morland Beddoes is a collector of Frances’ work, he arrives in the village and stays at the same pub as Elton; he too feels uneasy about the man’s motivations. A friendly sort who finds himself the recipient of peoples’ woes, ‘Morland Beddoes was not in the last self-infatuated. He loved himself only as much as self-respect required, and the reason why he saw himself so clearly was that he looked not often, but suddenly, so catching himself unawares.’
    This is a dark novel, but not in today’s meaning of psychological thriller. It is a study of ageing, friendship, the power of sexual tension, and it is sublimely written.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Patricia M. Sheldon
    4.0 out of 5 stars First of many
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 15, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    This was the first Elizabeth Taylor novel that I've read. I enjoyed it enough to want to read many more of hers. She is often recommended by other authors. Margaret Drabble referred to it in "The Dark Flood Rises", which I read recently, so I ordered "A Wreath of Roses" as soon as I'd finished it. Will definitley more of hers.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Patsy Pink
    3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 27, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Not a riveting read but not bad.
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