A Countess Below Stairs
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$8.99
Austria Hotels Travel Price: $8.99
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Manufacturer: Puffin
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780142408650
ISBN: 0142408654
Label: Puffin
Manufacturer: Puffin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2007-05-10
Publisher: Puffin
Reading Level: Young Adult
Studio: Puffin
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Editorial Reviews:
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After the russian revolution turns her world topsy-turvy, Anna, a young russian countess, has no choice but to flee to england. penniless, Anna hides her aristocratic background and takes a job as servant in the household of the esteemed westerholme family, armed only with an outdated housekeeping manual and sheer determination. Desperate to keep her past a secret, Anna is nearly overwhelmed by her new duties—not to mention her instant attraction to rupert, the handsome earl of westerholme. to make matters worse, rupert appears to be falling for her as well. As their attraction grows stronger, Anna finds it more and more difficult to keep her most dearly held secrets from unraveling. And then there’s the small matter of rupert’s beautiful and nasty fiancée. . . .
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Yawn
Comment: Anna is a Countess of Russia who is driven from her luxurious home to find safety in England. Betrayed by a nursemaid the family entrusted with their precious jewels and wealth, Anna, her mother, and younger brother are left penniless in a foreign land living off the generosity of a favorite English governess. Anna, determined to not be a burden, finds work as a lower housemaid of an Earl, who is recently returned from the war. Anna wins over the trust of the household servants, as well as the Earl, but the Earl's nasty fiancée doesn't like the maid who "acts above her station." Anna and the Earl fall in love, but obviously have a few obstacles to overcome.
This story could have really been so much more than what has been written. Anna is flawless. She has been spoiled by her adoring parents, and her own father says of her "I may spoil her, but is she spoilt?" There is nothing interesting about her--she did everything correct as a child, as a young aristocrat during the Russian Revolution, and as a emigrée. Even the Earl is practcally without faults, other than his stupidity for getting engaged to a awful women who only wants a title. Even all of the Earl's friends seem perfect and accepting, where the fiancée is flawed and prejudiced. It's like all the characters have 21st century views while the fiancée is the only one who is acting like someone during the early 1900's. The only persons of interest are the fiancée and her mentor, only because they are doing something other than being perfect, but I even tired of them because they, too, were so stereotypical.
And of this "Forbidden Love." No where in the story do you see or feel like Anna and the Earl start to fall in love. No where can you see how it was conceivable. No where. It was just thrown at you.
It felt like the author was trying to have a cast of characters all inter-connected like an Austen novel, but it just didn't work. In the end I did enjoy reading this story, but I'm not likely to pick it up to read again.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Angieville: A COUNTESS BELOW STAIRS
Comment: What wordy, frothy fun Ibbotson's books are. Perfect going on a trip books. In fact, reading them makes me wish I was going somewhere, as her heroines always seem to be off somewhere new and exciting and exotic. But since I am not going anywhere (exotic or otherwise) in the near future, getting lost in them has proved a wonderful balm for the blues.
Anna is a Russian countess whose family is forced to flee their wealth and their home after her father is killed in the Russian Revolution. Completely displaced, living in a flat in London with her former governess, she determines to support her ailing mother and younger brother by taking a job as a maid at the country estate of the Earl of Westerholme. Rupert, the young Earl, is recently home from the war, wounded and desperately trying to save the destitute estate he didn't want to inherit in the first place. You see, he promised his older brother just before he died that he would do anything in his power to keep the old place afloat. Ah, those pesky deathbed promises. They always come back to haunt you...
To avoid selling, Rupert proposes to a beautiful, very wealthy nurse he meets while recovering in hospital. Muriel is gorgeous, rich, and oh, just by the way, a passionate believer in eugenics--the philosophy of selective breeding in order to achieve a master race. That's right. The woman is Evil Incarnate and Poor Rupert doesn't know! As Muriel sinks her claws deeper and deeper into Westerholme, attempting to dispose of all of its lovely, offbeat, misfit inhabitants, Rupert and Anna strike up a friendship. Not fooled for a second by her maid disguise, Rupert is struck by how much Anna seems to love his home and family, how different it all looks when seen through her eyes. And, indeed, everyone from the other servants to the Earl's giant hound is enamored of Anna. But the path gets thornier and thornier as the wedding draws closer and pride and honor get in the way of everyone's happiness.
Ibbotson's books remind me of a cross between Anne of Green Gables, 100th Anniversary Edition and Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics), with a dash of Mary Stewart thrown in for good measure. A COUNTESS BELOW STAIRS has a wedding scene that had me laughing out loud. Best of all, though, it contains a truly wonderful rant delivered by the leading lady whilst standing in front of a formal dinner party, clutching a basket of rolls to her chest. Brilliant.
It also contains the best last line of Ibbotson's books yet.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Forbidden romance
Comment: This book is a truly intriguing and delightful historical fiction book. It all started with an interesting character named Anna who was a countess in Russia. During the Russian revolution Anna and her family left the country. Instead of moping around while the family hid in England, Anna says one of the craziest things. Anna had wanted to move in to an English household to be a maid. Anna's nanny had told her that this was insane but Anna did not listen and Anna moved to Western Holm. While in the English house hold Anna had hidden her secrete but falls deeply in love with the Earl of Western Holm. As he had invited gusts and Anna had run into the Earl, Anna's feelings for the Earl deepened. Since they where two different social classes they could never be together. The intensity of Anna's love grew and then intensified. This truly made an interesting book with the challenges of love and social classes. The challenges, the drama and the distance that a person will go for the sake of true love makes this book truly well written, making it truly one of the best teen youth books I have ever read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Just wonderful!
Comment: What a beautiful book. Rich in historical context and vibrant, three-dimentional characters, this book is a treasure appropriate for any agegroup!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Parody of Great Classics
Comment: Its been hard to find a teenage romantic fiction that is so delightful. The book is very well written. Ibbotsen is extremely clever. She creates complex and varied characters. Her story telling is filled with historical and cultural references without becoming a lecture. There were times where I couldn't stop laughing and other times when I stopped, reread the sentence, and acknowledged how witty it was written. I especially liked her caricature of the dashing Russian prince who has been relentlessly pursued by women since he was six. There are prima donnas, babies who cut their teeth on heavy gold crowns, a snobbish dog, pseudo-science, spirits, dignified butlers, gold diggers, and a club of Russian royalty scheming on how to regain their fortune. This book is incredibly entertaining, and I recommend it to anyone who likes a book in the style of the grand old classics with an extra dose of humor and wit.
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