A Company of Swans
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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: 9780142409404
ISBN: 0142409405
Label: Puffin
Manufacturer: Puffin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2007-09-06
Publisher: Puffin
Reading Level: Young Adult
Studio: Puffin
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Editorial Reviews:
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For nineteen-year-old Harriet Morton, life in 1912 Cambridge is as dry and dull as a biscuit. Her stuffy father and her opressive aunt Louisa allow her only one outlet: ballet. When a Russian ballet master comes to class searching for dancers to fill the corps of his ballet company before their South American tour, Harriet’s world changes. Defying her father’s wishes and narrowly escaping the clutches of the man who wishes to marry her, Harriet sneaks off to join the ballet on their journey to the Amazon. There, in the wild, lush jungle, they perform Swan Lake in grand opera houses for the wealthy and culture-deprived rubber barons, and Harriet meets Rom Verney, the handsome and mysterious British exile who owns the most ornate opera house. Utterly enchanted by both the exotic surroundings and by Rom’s affections, Harriet is swept away by her new life, completely unaware that her father and would-be finacé have begun to track her down. . . .
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Angieville: A COMPANY OF SWANS
Comment: Once again Ibbotson shows how apt she is at expressing just how her character is feeling, in such a way that the reader sets the book down in her lap and sighs, "Yes. That is exactly how it feels."
"She stood for a long time looking at the verses in which Emily Dickinson had chronicled her heartbreak. Loneliness had taught Harriet that there was always someone who understood--it was just that so very often they were dead, and in a book."
I remember feeling that way when I was a teenager. The first time I read Middlemarch (Signet Classics), passages from A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics), most of Shakespeare. Certainly Dickinson. The feeling of making contact on the page with someone long gone, at a time when it is so difficult making any contact at all in real life.
When we first meet Harriet, it is indeed difficult to find an aspect of her life that is not dreary and isolated. Kept on an unbelievably tight rein by her scholar father and spinster aunt, her only outlet is the weekly ballet lessons that have somehow slipped under the radar. When a talent scout offers her the chance to join a touring ballet company on its way to Brazil, Harriet can't sit back and watch life pass her by once more. Escaping from her father, her insect-obsessed intended, and England in general, she sails to the Amazon and into another life.
In Manaus, Harriet finds friendship, hard work, inspiration, and Rom--the mysterious and wealthy expat who owns the Teatro Amazonas where the company performs. Ibbotson's novels are all about home. About finding it somewhere you least expected it, about returning to it again after you thought all was lost. Harriet is, without a doubt, the most beleaguered of all her heroines, and this tale is a particularly sweet one because it is about a young woman trying so hard to do the right thing and keep a grasp on happiness at the same time, and a man who is afraid to hold onto hope when it is offered him for what, he is certain, is the last time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Love Story
Comment: As someone who teaches eighth grade language arts, I read a lot of adolescent lit. This one is a new favorite! In a school year full of the Gossip Girls, the Clique series, and vampire love (it's everywhere!), I found this story to be a refreshing and thoughtful alternative without losing any of the intensity of romantic love affair. The Amazon setting is unusual/exciting for adolescent readers, but they'll perhaps find familiarity in the miserable father-daughter relationship and Harriet's desire to leave. This is definitely something I'd recommend to girls who seem ready to take a break from--or even leave behind altogether--the vampires and catty school girls.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It was wonderful. I am torn that I couldn't give it 5 stars.
Comment: There were a few scenes that were wonderfully surprising and delighting. I found myself amazed and laughing out loud when I thought about those scenes later. However, I was disappointed to find the author used one of my pet peeves. The hero and heroine made erroneous assumptions about each other that would have been cleared up if only they had communicated in a normal manner. They loved each other and wanted to marry, but each one thought the other did not. Therefore, they separated. I hate this. I wanted to rate this 5 stars due to creativity and ideas I haven't seen elsewhere, but I'm giving it a 4, due to the reasons for the separation. I was also a bit sad at the end thinking about the evil done to Harriet by her father and aunt.
CAUTION SPOILERS: Following are brief references to two wonderful scenes. Page 203, after seeing Harriet dance, Alvarez decides to do something he previously was not going to do. Page 233, Harriet's unbelievable delight in describing herself as "ruined" after she sleeps with Rom.
Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: none. Setting: 1912 England and Amazon River in Brazil. Copyright: 1985. Genre: historical romance.
Customer Rating:
Summary: intelligent romance
Comment: Eva Ibbotson's early romantic books have been out of print for a number of years, so i was delighted to see this new printing of her adult novels. Perhaps due to her popular children's fiction, i have seen this book and her other romance novels listed under adolescent literature, but there are definitely adult themes. Ms. Ibbotson's novels make frequent references to mythology, classic literature, and musical arts, which set them apart from the ordinary romance genre. I have learned a lot about opera, ballet, and the classics just from reading her books.
I first read this novel almost 20 years ago. It is a warm, feel good story which i can escape into over and over again. Highly recommended
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Favorite
Comment: This book is one of my favorites. I picked it up not knowing the author at all and became lost in a touching romance. I now try to find her books wherever I can. This is usually in libraries, because most of her adult books at out of print.
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