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The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm | 
 enlarge | Author: Juliet Nicolson
Publisher: Grove Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $4.39
You Save: $10.61 (71%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 32943
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0802143679
Dewey Decimal Number: 390
EAN: 9780802143679
ASIN: 0802143679
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The Perfect Summer chronicles a glorious English summer a century ago, when the world was on the cusp of irrevocable change. Through the tight lens of four months, Juliet Nicolson’s rich storytelling gifts rivet us with the sights, colors, and feelings of a bygone era. That summer of 1911 a new king was crowned and the aristocracy was at play, bounding from one house party to the next. But perfection was not for all. Cracks in the social fabric were showing. The country was brought to a standstill by industrial strikes. Temperatures rose steadily to more than 100 degrees; by August deaths from heatstroke were too many for newspapers to report. Drawing on material from intimate and rarely seen sources and narrated through the eyes of a series of exceptional individuals--among them a debutante, a choirboy, a politician, a trade unionist, a butler, and the queen--The Perfect Summer is a vividly rendered glimpse of the twilight of the Edwardian era.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
 It's Great to be Rich, Anytime October 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What is most interesting about this memoir/story/family anecdote is that the writer is one of the privileged class that she looks down her nose at. Do you think that she would have been able to get this book published if she was just some run of the mill writer. I mean, how many people get to write a book and get to mention that their grandmother (one of those 'Bloomsbury' people) had an affair with Virginia Stephen Woolf. Talk about snobbery, she even gets to slide in a mention of her grandfather (that he attended some ball or party).
Much of the book reads like something off of 'Page 6' because the stories are taken from the "Tattler" and peoples private diaries. Nothing like digging up dirt on the upper crust one hundred years after it happened. "Guess who had an affair with some prime minister behind the back of a minister of war?" Talk about juicy.
What's worse, if you take time to read the book, is that the summer wasn't anywhere near perfect; does irony come through in a title? Everyone who is anyone in the book suffers from a terrible case of 'ennui'. While the rich spend their summer complaining about boredom and jumping out of each others beds, the poor are starving to death in disgusting tenements and dying from the hottest summer on record. Look at how disgracefully decadent my ancestors were. Oh boo hoo.
All through the book I got this vision of it being narrated by John Cleese with Eric Idle in the background going "wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know-what-I-mean, know-what-I-mean" a wink is as good as a nod to a blind man! Sometimes it's just hard to tell whether she's being sarcastic or not. At one point she comment that the "Suffragettes" (who were mostly wealthy) looked down their noses at anyone who didn't where the 'right clothing' to demonstrations. OK
It's hard for Americans to understand how much fun it is for those who went to the 'right' schools and came from the 'best' families to air their 'dirty' linen in public. Look how decadent my family was, I'll have to spend my whole life living it down; isn't it just to precious? There is nothing so '%*wijf0o' as the rich talking about how bad the poor had it, and how none of 'their' people did anything to alleviate it.
Try being one of the 'poor', it's a lot worse.
She spends an inordinate amount of time telling stories from the perspective of the 'downstairs' help. But though the servants might have led a life of drudgery, it was still way better than the urban poor and working class. Look how bad we have it having to clean up after all these parties, washing the clothes and dishes (but they had food when most did not). Is it better to be a peasant/slave or servant; ask any house 'n*gger'. OK enough dialectic drivel. Take it as you may this is NOT history at it's best.
Zeb Kantrowitz
 England before the Great War September 3, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is an extremely well-written social history of England during the summer of 1911. We follow the activities and actions of many different people, from high to middle to lower class, during what was considered one of the most beautiful three summer months in the 20th century. The author gives us a carefree look at how the folks lived, and what they did and how they thought. Over everything, however, looms the cloud of the coming war, even though the people at that time were completely unaware of it. That is what makes this book so poignant; they laughed and loved, and probably believed that their way of life would continue into the foreseeable futre, when in reality the end of their era was swiftly approaching. It's an informative, and sad, book that shows we can never really plan for the future, because fate is making its own decisions for us, and taking our lives out of our hands.
 From the perspective of privilege September 1, 2008
Having access to some wonderful archives, Juliet Nicholson gives us a view of a fading era from the perspective of privilege. While the social unrest that marked the time weaves through the story as a subtext, the focus is on the rarified life of the upper class. Despite it's title, the summer was anything but perfect--marked by an unprecedented heatwave. If anything, the reader may well see the title as filled with irony rather than paradox. One gets the sense of an empire on the decline, much as anything because of the decadence of its leadership--and that is where this story really misses the bigger picture. Ultimately, this is more of an individuated presentation of the age, akin to "The Shooting Party", than a political analysis or true sociological study. As such it is a good summer read.
Charming August 26, 2008
The Perfect Summer is a charming history of Edwardian England before the upper class existence was irrevocably changed by WWI. Nicolson has written a truly lovely book that reads almost like a novel. If you enjoy 19th century English history this book is a delightful good read. Enjoy!
Engaging and absorbing August 3, 2008
This is one of the best social histories I have read. It reads like a novel with intriguing characters and plot twists. It was very informative to read about the famous and well-known (e.g. Virginia Woolf, Winston Churchill) as they were just starting out. The book gives real insight into not only a pivotal year before World War I, but into the birth of 20th century as a whole. Highly recommended.
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