This group has four polls currently open, and you can vote
by going to http://www.egroups.com/polls/howatch

1. The most moving scene in the Starbridge novels is...
"the funeral at the end of Absolute Truths" in the lead

2. The minor Starbridge character who most deserves a novel of their
own is... Charley Ashworth, according to our voters.

3. What's your favorite of the Susan Howatch family sagas?
"The Wheel of Fortune" is leading

4. What's your favorite Starbridge novel?
"Glittering Images" is leading (with no votes as yet for Ultimate
Prizes, Scandalous Risks or Mystical Paths)

Suggestions for further poll questions are welcome.

I've been thinking about a line from one of those Howatch interviews,
where she says "I suppose I saw the long novels I did as stories on
moral themes". Here's my shot at spotting the themes.

"Penmarric" - I don't know. Anyone else want to take a stab at this
one? For me Penmarric is just a good story, made more enjoyable by
the character of Janna as a version of Eleanor of Aquitaine, not that
Eleanor would have been half as insecure as poor Janna. But Eleanor
of Aquitaine is one of my favorite figures in medieval history, along
with Hildegard of Bingen; so I'll read any book about her (Sharon Kay
Penman produces a great version of Eleanor in "When Christ and His
Saints Slept").

"Cashelmara" - I don't care. I recently re-read Cashelmara, trying to
figure out why it's my least favorite of the family sagas; and all I
can say is that I don't particularly give a damn about any of the
characters. I wouldn't have lunch with any of them, except maybe
Marguerite. It's a perfectly decent novel in its way, but I like it
best as a prequel to "Wheel of Fortune", which continues the story of
the same screwed-up family 30 years later in a different setting, and
gets more out of it.

"The Rich Are Different" - ah, this is where things get interesting
and moral themes start bursting out all over. Of course, it's Dinah
Slade's book, and her story provides the main themes: ideals,
figuring out what's important to you, knowing your values and being
prepared to take a stand. Dinah succeeds in doing so, eventually.
Steve Sullivan thrashes around and goes under. Paul Van Zale is
nicely summed up as "a romantic and an idealist who compromised every
romantic ideal he possessed in order to pursue his ambition and his
revenge". Cornelius is introduced as a person who "has no true
concept of right and wrong. He's not immoral but amoral..."

"Sins of the Fathers" - it's funny how so many blurbs and summaries
present this book as Vicky's story. I disagree: it's overwhelmingly
Cornelius Van Zale's story. And Cornelius is such a wonderful
character! Howatch presents us with this monster of a millionaire -
who really *is* amoral without realizing it, always talking of his
"moral duty" - and yet when he takes a turn at narrating, we're right
there in his head and can empathize with him. IMHO, the theme of this
book is communication and isolation, as in a key statement by
Sebastian halfway through: "communication's like love. It doesn't
matter where, how or with whom you do it so long as you do it because
if you don't do it you die." Cornelius can only communicate through
power; but since power isolates a person, it is inherently unsuitable
as a means of communication - there's no return path of communication
through power, and Cornelius is ultimately isolated (those mills of
God finally catch up with him).

"The Wheel of Fortune" - this one's about obsession: with winning
(Robert), with sex (Bobby), with control (John), with writing
(Kester). I won't even start on Harry's obsessions. The novel is also
about guilt and redemption, particularly the destructive force of
guilt. The last of the family sagas, "Wheel of Fortune" has more in
common with the Starbridge novels in that Hal needs to sort out his
family history and heal a lot of seriously unresolved conflicts
before he can get on with his life (one almost expects Jon Darrow to
walk in and take charge). This really is a story with neither heroes
nor villains; "just ordinary people who failed to draw the line" (and
failed to sort out their heads afterwards). All the characters are
excellent; with each switch to a new narrator, I feel sad to say
goodbye to the previous one, especially at the end of John's section
and Ginevra's section.

These are just some rough thoughts, and I'd be really interested to
hear if anyone else on the list agrees or disagrees!

Elena

Below are links to the four interviews with Susan Howatch I've found
on the web. If anyone knows of other interviews with her that are
available online, please speak up.
Elena
----------------------------------

http://www.bookends.co.uk/bookends/chat/howatch.asp
1999 interview in "BookEnds", on the site of a British online
bookstore. Howatch talks about "The High Flyer" and why she stopped
writing family sagas: "But the fact is that I never really saw them
as sagas. I am always very concerned with people. They are my prime
interest. I suppose I saw the long novels I did as stories on moral
themes."

http://www.touchstonemag.com/docs/issues/12.2docs/howatch.html
"A Novelist Looks at Faith and Fiction" - interview in a March/April
1999 issue of a Christian magazine. Contains this bit of
scene-setting: "Susan Howatch lives in the Barbican, in the heart of
London's financial district. Her flat is spacious and
comfortable. A portable typewriter rests on a table next to the sofa.
She disdains computers."
(She writes those huge books on a *typewriter*?! :-o )

http://www.christianityonline.com/bc/8B5/8B5026.html
(Sep/Oct 1998 issue of "Books & Culture: a Christian Review".) This
page starts off with a review of the Starbridge series by a Canadian
theologian, below which is the interview. Includes the comment: "When
I wrote the last of my long sagas and it was just treated like
another airport book, I was discouraged. I felt I was just beginning
to say something interesting, but nobody wanted to know."
(All together now: We want to know! We want to know! :)

www.randomhousebooks.com/BB/readerscircle/howatch/excerptguide.html
1998 interview presented with an excerpt from "The Wonder Worker", so
Howatch mostly talks about that book in particular. When asked about
her strongest literary influences, she answers: "Trollope. Iris
Murdoch. Graham Greene. Raymond Chandler. Not C.S. Lewis."

http://associnst.ox.ac.uk/st-marys/sermon17.htm
Not an interview, but a sermon preached by Howatch in November 1998.
Interesting comments on how she created the character of Charles
Ashworth.

------------------------------------------------

And just a gratuitous mention of the silliest thing I've encountered
online during a fairly intense bout of searching for Howatch links...
There's a company out there that specialises in hollowing out books
and converting them into storage containers! On their website you can
buy a hardback copy of "Scandalous Risks" (why that title in
particular, I wonder?) that's been... gutted? eviscerated? scooped?
www.secretstoragebooks.com/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi?product=romance

I just finished Howatch's latest book ... The High Flyer.  Like Martha, I
ordered it
online (from the British branch of Amazon).  It is a terrific book.

I don't want to spoil it, but I will say that it appears to take place a couple
of years
after The Wonder Worker.  Much of the book's setting is around The Healing
Center and
rectory of St. Benet's so we see a lot of characters from TWW.  These include
Nicholas
Darrow,  Lewis Hall, and Alice, as well as Val the doctor and Robin the
psychologist.
There are also several minor appearances by the gay priest, Gil Tucker.  The
main
character is non-clerical ... a businesswoman on the fast road to SUCCESS with a
definite life plan.  In fact, she is an atheist.  The story is fast-paced and
spell-binding.  I highly recommend it ... it's up there with my favorites of the
Starbridge series.

Mary S

I don't know how many of you are interested in the
theologians whose works undergird Howatch's
Starbridge novels, but she has edited a series
for Morehouse Publishing  under the umbrella
title of "Library of Anglican Spirituality" that
consists of works by these theologians - Austin
Farrer, Evelyn Underhill, Dorothy L. Sayers,
Christopher Ward, and so on.   Howatch provides
an introduction to each volume, and she describes
the series thusly:

"I commend these authors who have given me so much
enlightenment.  I first became interested in the great
Anglican writers of modern times when I was researching
my six novels about the Church of England, and the
purpose of this series is to share some of the wisdom of
these leading lights who have written of the ceaseless
human quest to attain the richest possible life."

I came across the books by doing a search on Howatch
as author on Amazon.com

Martha

Thanks, Elena!


On Wed, 24 May 2000 18:05:43 -0000 Elena
<elleon_tver@...> wrote:

> Bruce Johnson <johnsoba@...> wrote:
> >Would you be interested in submitting for approval a
> >chapter-length (perhaps 3,000-8,000 words) study of Susan Howatch?
> >The book will include seven to ten essays by various scholars.
> >I also hope to secure permission from Mrs. Howatch to include
> >one of her hitherto unpublished lectures on her own writing.
>
> What a good idea!
> Professor Johnson, I hope this group can be of use in finding some
> suitable material for your book. I for one will rush out and buy a
> copy whenever it is published, and I'm sure there are others on this
> list who will too.
>
> Thank you for posting this message, and please keep us informed on
> the progress of your project!
>
> Elena
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Missing old school friends?  Find them here:
> http://click.egroups.com/1/4055/10/_/_/_/959191551/
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> howatch-unsubscribe@egroups.com
>
>
>

--
Johnson, Bruce Arthur
johnsoba@...

(Apologies to anyone who has already read this message, it appeared
on the website but it didn't seem to come through via e-mail, and
most of us are e-mail subscribers. I'm not sure why; maybe because it
contained a non-text attachment and I've set the list configuration
to delete attachments? - Elena)
----------------------------

From: Johnson, Bruce Arthur  <johnsoba@...>
Date: Wed May 24, 2000 6:45pm
Subject: prospectus for a collection of essays


Would you be interested in submitting for approval a chapter-length
(perhaps 3,000-8,000 words) study of Susan Howatch?

The book will include seven to ten essays by various scholars. I also
hope to secure permission from Mrs. Howatch to include one of her
hitherto unpublished lectures on her own writing. I would like to
have the bulk of the manuscript in hand by early 2001, but I am
prepared to arrange for a later deadline in some cases. I will be
speaking with university presses as prospective publishers, even
though I imagine that the book will have appeal to audiences outside
academe.

This book grows out talks with Prof. Charles Huttar of Hope College,
who read a paper at a conference session I organized on Howatch's
fiction at the 1999 meeting of South Atlantic Modern Language
Association. As far as I know, this was the first scholarly gathering
for a discussion of Howatch's work exclusively (aside from Howatch's
lectures to university audiences). The book would certainly be the
first to address the work of one of the most important popular
writers of our time. Prof. Huttar's correspondence with Howatch
reveals her approving interest in what may come of this project.

The book will deal with all aspects of her work, and those parts of
her life which are relevant to that work. Essays which I have
solicited so far deal with the scope of her career and literary
production, the intersection of the languages of psychology and faith
in her novels, and her narrative style. All of these essays will be
fairly general, so I'm especially interested in receiving analyses of
individual works, characters, themes, cruxes, ideas, leit motiven,
the relation of her work to the traditions represented by Trollope
and Galsworthy, historical moments/cultural studies (for example, her
take on "the 60's" in England), etc. I hope that at least one essay
will focus on her pre-Starbridge work.

Given the popularity of the subject and the uniqueness of the book,
I'm optimistic that I'll be able to secure a publisher soon.  I'll be
able to discuss with you the intellectual property rights to your
essay once I've gotten further with the publisher.

If you are interested, please give me a sketch of your ideas and your
argument. Finished essays are not guaranteed to find their way into
this book, of course; decisions to include essays will be based on
the overall thematic balance of the book.

                  --
Johnson, Bruce Arthur johnsoba@...

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Helga Schuessler wrote:
>
> Well, I personally did not vote for Dido, cerainly not!, but I pity
> her a lot. She was just a very unsecure young woman and didn`t mean
> any harm to anyone. It was Aysgarth`s fault - he should have known
> better - he was older, and experienced , and a father , too.

>
> For me, she isn`t a bitch at all. A "bitch" for me implies a woman
> who is mean - and Dido is not, just helpless.

Well, yes, Dido obviously has huge problems - but I don't see her as
helpless at all. We are repeatedly told how smart she is about
people, and she's certainly assertive.
Actually, I think Dido was very lucky to find Neville, and ended up
having a much better life than might have been expected. Face it,
with that personality of hers, any partner who didn't have a huge
overwhelming additional motive for staying with her would have dumped
her. Neville had the motive.
(But it could be argued that if Dido hadn't been so awful to live
with, Neville wouldn't have gone off the rails enough to fall for
Venetia - and look how beastly Dido was to poor Venetia...)

I noticed this interesting viewpoint on Dido in an article recently:

>Uncle Willoughby's forgiveness enables Aysgarth to forgive
>his wife Dido through the years as she spends his money,
>destroys his chances for advancement in the Church,
>and bores him with her conversation. In the other books
>various characters speculate on the mystery of Aysgarth's
>steadfast love for Dido and the suffering he endures for
>her sake, but we as readers can see that this mesalliance
>hints at God's love for mankind.

ROTFL. The idea of humanity as a giant Dido, driving God nuts with
its inane chatter, is delightfully surreal. (The author of this
article is a theologian, and no doubt didn't mean readers to find
this comment funny, but I can't help myself...!)

If you want to read the whole article, it's called "Forgiven Sinners:
Susan Howatch's church novels" and it's in the members-only Files
section of our group's pages, at
http://www.egroups.com/files/howatch/
We have 20MB of space here - any suggestions for what to do with it?

Elena

Hello, I'm Mary and I was introduced to Howatch by a good friend, who is
an excellent judge of books and people.  I've read the whole Starbridge
series as well as The Wonder Worker, and am just starting on The High
Flyer.  I must admit, I was somewhat skeptical when I started the first
book of the series, but knew I was hooked before I finished the first 10
pages.  Howatch is a very profound writer, mixing characterization,
theology, and psychology in a way that I had never imagined and has
become, perhaps, my favorite author.

  I haven't yet read any of Howtch's family sagas, but would like to give
them a try.  The only other Howatch I've read was one of her early
Gothics, not nearly as engrossing as the Starbridge series.  I was very
happy to see an online group dedicated to Howatch and look forward to
many interesting discussions.

Mary S

Bruce Johnson <johnsoba@...> wrote:
>Would you be interested in submitting for approval a
>chapter-length (perhaps 3,000-8,000 words) study of Susan Howatch?
>The book will include seven to ten essays by various scholars.
>I also hope to secure permission from Mrs. Howatch to include
>one of her hitherto unpublished lectures on her own writing.

What a good idea!
Professor Johnson, I hope this group can be of use in finding some
suitable material for your book. I for one will rush out and buy a
copy whenever it is published, and I'm sure there are others on this
list who will too.

Thank you for posting this message, and please keep us informed on
the progress of your project!

Elena

Would you be interested in submitting for approval a chapter-length (perhaps
3,000-8,000 words) study of Susan Howatch?
The book will include seven to ten essays by various scholars. I also hope to
secure permission from Mrs. Howatch to include one of her hitherto unpublished
lectures on her own writing. I would like to have the bulk of the manuscript in
hand by early 2001, but I am prepared to arrange for a later deadline in some
cases. I will be speaking with university presses as prospective publishers,
even though I imagine that the book will have appeal to audiences outside
academe.
 	 This book grows out talks with Prof. Charles Huttar of Hope College, who read
a paper at a conference session I organized on Howatch's fiction at the 1999
meeting of South Atlantic Modern Language Association. As far as I know, this
was the first scholarly gathering for a discussion of Howatch's work exclusively
(aside from Howatch's lectures to university audiences). The book would
certainly be the first to address the work of one of the most important popular
writers of our time. Prof. Huttar's correspondence with Howatch reveals her
approving interest in what may come of this project.
The book will deal with all aspects of her work, and those parts of her life
which are relevant to that work. Essays which I have solicited so far deal with
the scope of her career and literary production, the intersection of the
languages of psychology and faith in her novels, and her narrative style. All of
these essays will be fairly general, so I'm especially interested in receiving
analyses of individual works, characters, themes, cruxes, ideas, leit motiven,
the relation of her work to the traditions represented by Trollope and
Galsworthy, historical moments/cultural studies (for example, her take on "the
60's" in England),  etc. I hope that at least one essay will focus on her
pre-Starbridge work.
Given the popularity of the subject and the uniqueness of the book, I'm
optimistic that I'll be able to secure a publisher soon.  I'll be able to
discuss with you the intellectual property rights to your essay once I've gotten
further with the publisher.
If you are interested, please give me a sketch of your ideas and your argument.
Finished essays are not guaranteed to find their way into this book, of course;
decisions to include essays will be based on the overall thematic balance of the
book.




--
Johnson, Bruce Arthur
johnsoba@...



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Enter your vote today!  Check out the new poll for the howatch
group:


The most moving scene in the Starbridge
novels is...

   o Charles reading Lyle's diary
   o Jon telling Anne the story of Whitby
   o Lewis Hall's session with Jon and Nick Darrow
   o Charles meeting Alan Romaine
   o Neville confronting Uncle Willoughby
   o Venetia's father explaining his feelings
   o Jon Darrow watching his child die
   o Neville visiting Venetia in 1975
   o The funeral at the end of Absolute Truths
   o Some other scene...? (Tell us why!)


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://www.egroups.com/polls/howatch

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the eGroups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

>
> Who voted for Dido? Want to own up and tell us why?

Well, I personally did not vote for Dido, cerainly not!, but I pity
her a lot. She was just a very unsecure young woman and didn`t mean
any harm to anyone. It was Aysgarth`s fault - he should have known
better - he was older, and experienced , and a father , too. How
could he ever think she would be able to cope with her role as a
mother of a family of near-adults? (Well, I know, we can make
excuses for Aysgarth, too ... we can always make excuses for
Howatch`s protagonists, no? that`s why she`s such a terrific writer -
such a psychological, forgiving writer .)
>
>
> And yet Howatch does try to present enough of Dido's viewpoint to
> dilute the "W.I." (Wife Impossible) impression... Do you think she
> succeeds? Or does Dido remain the bitch who drives Neville Aysgarth
> to drink and contributes to Christian Aysgarth's crisis?

For me, she isn`t a bitch at all. A "bitch" for me implies a woman
who is mean - and Dido is not, just helpless.
>
I forgot to include Rachel Hall in the above poll, but on reflection
> that's one story I'd really like to hear.

I`d be very interested to hear Rachel`s story, too!   This is the one
story in the whole lot that`s still missing!

Helga

Here's something for those who like "The Rich Are Different" and
"Sins of the Fathers". I first read these books when I was 17, in
1983; and they've sunk into my subconscious to such a degree that I
can't think of the Caesar-Cleopatra-Antony-Octavian history without
visualising them as Paul-Dinah-Steve-Cornelius.
Anyway, hope you enjoy these links.
Elena

---------------------------------
Bede: The Conversion of Northumbria : source of the "sparrow through
a lighted hall" story that Scott tells Cornelius
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/bede1.html

Biography of Cleopatra VII : historical counterpart to Dinah Slade
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7060/cleo.html

Burnt Norton : by T.S. Eliot, source of the "rose-garden" line
http://www.artofeurope.com/eliot/eli5.htm

Catullus (84-54 BC) : biography of Catullus and translated poems
http://arachne.jaze.net/~catullus/

Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came: full text Robert Browning poem
http://www.emule.com/poetry/dispoem.cgi?poem=289

John Donne (1572-1631) : Sebastian to Vicky: "Donne made language the
mirror of his mind. Language isn't futile with Donne. Language
lives."
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/index.html

Miff Mole and his Molers : RealAudio files of their music, including
"Alexander's Ragtime Band", Sam Keller's favorite song of 1929.
http://www.redhotjazz.com/mmm.html

Octavian / Augustus Caesar : the counterpart to Cornelius Van Zale.
Biographical info and a list of more fiction about Augustus.
http://www.stockton.edu/~roman/fiction/augustus.htm

Photos: A Breath of East Anglia : to help you picture the setting for
Dinah Slade's Mallingham in The Rich Are Different
http://www.easterncounties.com/guide/gallery.htm

Rich and Sins historical parallels : database on our site matching
characters with their real-life counterparts in Ancient Rome
http://www.egroups.com/database/howatch

Sink me the ship, Master Gunner : read "The Revenge" by Tennyson
http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/~ben/revenge.htm

St. John from "The Tribute Money" : (160k) Scott notes that Cornelius
resembles St. John in this painting by Masaccio
http://www.christusrex.org/www2/art/images/masacc27.jpg

T.S. Eliot Hypertext Project : where to go if you want to read "The
Waste Land" online and get lots of background about Eliot
http://people.a2000.nl/avanarum/index.html

I read my first Howatch when I was 21, in 1987 (The Rich Are
Different) and have since read all of her novels, including High
Flyer
which I purchased from the UK.  While I first loved her books as
family sagas, I got a whole new appreciation for her once I started
her Starbridge series.  I honestly feel she is one the best writers
ever.  I consistently read Updike, Oates, Tyler (Anne) and many
others
who are considered to highly literate and do not hesitate to add
Howatch to such an esteemed group.

It is almost impossible for me to say one the sagas I love best,
though I have read Rich Are Different 3 times.  All of them are
equally great tomes for hours of pure reading pleasure.

Of the Starbridge novels, Glittering Images and Absolute Truths are
books to be re-read.  I hesitated reading the last chapter of
Absolute
Truths knowing that it would be the last and I was afraid the series
would not end to my satisfaction, only because I had built the series
up so much in my mind.  However, all I could say at the end was "WOW"
what a great series and novel.

Of the Starbridge novels, I must say the Aysgarth was my least
favorite.  Though I like Ultimate Prizes very well indeed, I was
rather annoyed and did not care for him at all.  But that also shows
Howatch's genius in that though you may not like the current
narrator,
you can't help but obsessively read her novels.

Anyways, I am very happy about this group and can't wait to see more.

Gary Branson
Columbus Ohio

The first vote for Dido has appeared on our poll asking "Which minor
Starbridge character most deserves a novel of their own?"

Who voted for Dido? Want to own up and tell us why?

Susan Howatch must have had fun writing the character of Dido...
She's the character Starbridge readers love to hate. One can imagine
all too well the horror of the Aysgarth kids when their dad brought
Dido home!
Her monologues are works of art, they make the reader cringe in
sympathy with her audience.

And yet Howatch does try to present enough of Dido's viewpoint to
dilute the "W.I." (Wife Impossible) impression... Do you think she
succeeds? Or does Dido remain the bitch who drives Neville Aysgarth
to drink and contributes to Christian Aysgarth's crisis?

What would a whole novel about Dido be like, anyway?
Just curious.

If anyone hasn't discovered the polls yet, they're at
http://www.egroups.com/polls/howatch
I forgot to include Rachel Hall in the above poll, but on reflection
that's one story I'd really like to hear.

Elena

Hello fellow Howatch fans.  I recently started reading Howatch's
Starbridge series this spring.  Needless to say I've been hooked and
have become a huge fan.  I first heard of Glittering Images in a book
by Brennan Manning called Abba's Child.  I made a mental note to
check it out and forgot about it until recently, at a retreat, the
speaker mentioned the book and I bought a copy and devoured it.  So
far I've read 4 of the 6 Starbridge books (I'm reading Scandalous
Risks right now) and I've read The Wonder Worker.  I'm usually not
much of a fiction reader, but Howatch's books can be enjoyed on so
many different levels - intellectual, psychological, spiritual,
historical, etc.  Anyway, I'm glad to find this site and appreciate
the biographical info on Howatch and the links provided.  Until now I
had not been able to find much biographical information on her.  Look
forward to reading and posting.

Stacy

Hello and welcome to Martha and Helga, thanks for introducing
yourselves! And hello to the person from .ca who subscribed overnight.

As I don't know any other Howatch readers in real life, it will be a
real treat to mix with some people who understand when I say "I'm
having a Dido of a day..."
So - maybe we can have some fun with those Starbridge novels we know
and love, and introduce ourselves by entertaining each other.

I have a little bit of Javascript that makes a multiple-choice quiz,
tracks your answers, and tells you which ones you got wrong.
All we need is some insidiously trivial questions.

Like the idea? So think up a couple of questions and send them to me,
and once I have 10 or more I'll post the quiz.

(Level of difficulty should be well above "What was Jon Darrow's
favorite cat called?" We're all compulsive re-readers, right? :)

Elena

Hi fellow-Howatch fans!

I`m happy to have found this site and hopefully this message of mine
gets across!

I`ve been a Susan Howatch fan for a few years now. The first book of
hers I happened to stumble across was "Absolute Truths", in 1996,
and ever since I`ve been hooked! I`ve read all the books of the
Starbridge Series and then went on to order all those books she had
written before, i.e. the so-called Family Sagas, of which I
like "Penmarric" best.

I haven`t read her books for some two years now, so I`m sure I have
forgotten quite a lot, but I hope to join in the discussions now and
then.  What I am most interested in about her books is not the
religious aspect, but the psychological fundament. I find her
books quite unputdownable.

My other fav writer is Diana Gabaldon, but I couldn`t say which of
the two, Howatch or Gabaldon, I like better. Also, I am now reading
the Niccolò Series by Dorothy Dunnett, so this is another writer I
like very much .

I am female, 55, German and I`m happy to be able to read all of
Howatch`s books in the original, i.E. English version. Please bear
with all the language mistakes I`m making and will be making when
posting.

See ya!

Helga     (btw, I`m "Helmie" on the Lallybroch website)

Hello, I'm Martha, and I am delighted to find this list.
I have been a Howatch fan since she started writing;
yes, I actually read her (what was then called gothic
and what now would be called) romantic suspense
novels when they were first published.   One of those
books, _The Devil on Lammas Night_ scared the
daylights out of me, and even haunted me for years -
it is a very powerful and even spiritual story - and now
looking back that was a harbinger of things to come.   I didn't
pay much attention to her family sagas, though I
am now going back and seeing what I missed, and I
absolutely love the Starbridge novels and their
modern day "sequels", if I may call _Wonder Worker_
and _The High Flyer_ sequels.  Such a fan am I that I ordered
HF from  the Amazon UK site(I'm in the US).  Someone asked
about the narrator, after seeing the excerpt on the Random
House site - there is a single narrator for this book
rather than multiple narrators as in WW, and while Nicholas
and Lewis from the Starbridge series and Alice from WW
appear, Venetia does not.  It is a wonderful read, and I
think better than WW as a novel.

Anyhow, to tell you a bit about me, I'm in my 40s, single,
and a computer scientist living in the N. VA area.  I am
a Christian, though not (yet) an Anglican, though since I
have been drawn to that church for a long time, I am
considering changing denominations.  And I am really
looking forward to good discussions of a great author,
the finest writer of "religious" fiction writing today.

Martha

On the Random House site there's an excerpt from the latest Susan
Howatch novel (a very short excerpt - they're being mean!)
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.cgi?isbn=0-375-41057-0

"The High Flyer" is due out in July. It's set in London, 1990; about
Carter Graham, a successful lawyer who has a psychological and
spiritual crisis. She meets up with Nick Darrow and the gang at St.
Benet's (Alice is still there).

No information yet about whether it's all from Carter's perspective
or whether it uses multiple perspectives. I hope it's all narrated by
one person; IMHO, "The Wonder Worker" (Question of Integrity) was just
too short to sustain so many viewpoints, welcome as it was to learn a
bit more about what makes Lewis Hall and Rosalind tick...

My wish list would also include at least a brief mention of Venetia!

Elena

I'm curious about the people who are joining this list - are you more
of a Starbridge fan? do you like the family sagas? or are you keen on
all Susan Howatch books?

Anyway, here's something for the Wheel of Fortune readers among us...
some links to go with the book. Any other link suggestions?

Elena


...as the orchestra played The Blue Danube: listen to it in RealAudio
http://www.ace-1.com/pepperworld/music/danube.ram

Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy: All about "some old pet
called Boethius who lived in the year dot". Biography, translation,
commentary.
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/latin/boethius/consolatio.html

Worm's Head & Rhossili Bay : some visuals to go with your next
re-reading of The Wheel of Fortune. As this page notes, "the causeway
can be tricky" >:)
http://www.swansea-gower.demon.co.uk/Rhossili.htm

No coward soul is mine... (full text of Emily Bronte poem)
http://www.emule.com/poetry/dispoem.cgi?poem=3464

Prisoner of Zenda & Rupert of Hentzau: full text online
http://www.selfknowledge.com/205au.htm

Wheel of Fortune: historical parallels - Database on our pages at
eGroups, matching over 30 of the novel's characters with their 14th
century historical counterparts
http://www.egroups.com/database/howatch

Edward, the Black Prince: historical counterpart to Robert Godwin
http://www.infoplease.lycos.com/ce5/CE016315.html

Joan of Kent: historical counterpart to Ginevra Godwin
http://www.saradouglass.com/jofk.html

John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster: counterpart to John Godwin
http://www.infoplease.lycos.com/ce5/CE027119.html

King Edward III (1327-77): historical counterpart to Bobby Godwin
http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon32.html

King Henry IV (1399-1413): historical counterpart to Harry Godwin
http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon34.html

King Henry V (1413-22): historical counterpart to Hal Godwin
http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon35.html

King Richard II (1377-99): historical counterpart to Kester Godwin
http://obriencastle.com/RichardII.html

(all these links are also stored on the "howatch" group's pages at
eGroups, under "Links" in the left-hand column)

Enter your vote today!  Check out the new poll for the howatch
group:


The minor Starbridge character who most
deserves a novel of their own is...

   o Charley Ashworth
   o Christian Aysgarth
   o Dido
   o Martin Darrow
   o Alex Jardine
   o Eddie Hoffenberg
   o Lyle Christie
   o Lewis Hall
   o Primrose Aysgarth
   o Father Darcy


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://www.egroups.com/polls/howatch

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the eGroups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

--- In howatch@egroups.com, MarySTE28@a... wrote:
> This is wonderful!!  I have never found anyone who appreciated her
> books before or had even HEARD of her!

oh wow, somebody posted a message, cool! :) Thanks Mary Jane.
After setting up this group I went away and slept for 12 hours, woke
up to find that 3 people had joined.

Yes, there's not much out there on the net about Susan Howatch, is
there? Not when you compare it to the mass activity of Diana Gabaldon
fans, who have only 4 big novels to work with, after all... (don't
get me wrong, I love Gabaldon's books)

There's no Usenet group for Howatch; no other list that I've been
able to find - unless it's small, private and very well hidden.
There is only one full-on Howatch fan site,
by Jennifer Austa Harris at
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~harri096/howatch.htm

But in isolated comments around the net, like Amazon reader reviews,
people keep saying things like: she's my favorite author, there's no
one like her, I'm hooked on the books...

So with any luck this may become a viable group for those who really
care about the Howatch characters and themes. (Should Neville have
strangled Dido? Is Martin Darrow a clone of Kevin Daly? Does anyone
else desperately want a sequel to Sins of the Fathers?...)

Hello and welcome to all of you.

Elena

This is wonderful!!  I have never found anyone who appreciated her
books before or had even HEARD of her!  She is one of my favorite
authors! Maybe my favorite.  I don't know; I read avidly and love
alot of authors but she really stands out!  Never read a book by her
I didn't like and have them all and reread them every now and then. I
find her ability to write from different peoples' points of view and
do it believably, to be amazing!  Just wanted to say something.

Mary Jane

Please take a look at the Links (left-hand column of this site's web
page) - do you know of any other Howatch links out there?

Right at the end of The Wheel of Fortune, Susan Howatch includes a
note on the real-world history behind the plot, saying it's "a
re-creation in a modern dimension of a true story". She lists the
following historical counterparts:

Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince (Robert Godwin in the novel)
Princess Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent (Ginevra)
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (John)
Richard II (Kester)
Henry IV (Harry)
Henry V (Hal)

...but that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Having an affection for the Middle Ages, I try to spot the other
historical counterparts. Almost all the characters have one, even the
minor characters.
Guess which minor character is the counterpart of Geoffrey Chaucer? :)

To test the database feature on this site, I've posted a list - over
35 characters and counting - can you spot any others?
If you're reading this from the group's web page, the Database is one
of the links in the left-hand column.
I'll put up historical parallel lists for the other Howatch family
sagas if anyone is interested.

Elena

To anyone who wanders into this newly-hatched list, greetings and
welcome.

I've just registered this group, put some words together for its home
page, posted to a couple of newsgroups... now hoping that some
interested people drop by, so there ought to be at least one post for
you to read.
eGroups seems to be sprouting lists for every author on earth, so why
leave out Susan Howatch? Her books are just too cool.

They are big books, intricate books, winter-evening-by-the-fire type
books which absorb you, sink you into the mind of every character.
I've read all the family sagas and Starbridge books many times, and I
greatly admire Howatch's skill and intelligence. I'm hooked on the
multiple-perspectives approach; indeed, how little we know of what
goes on in other people's heads! And I particulary enjoy the elegant
transposition of historical characters and events into a modern
setting, as in all the family sagas.
For the record, I'm not an Anglican or even a Christian, but I gained
a new appreciation of the Church of England from reading the
Starbridge series, and enjoyed these six books as psychological
dramas with some valuable insights on life.

...So, now that you're here... add a message... vote for your
favorite Howatch book in the polls... check out the Howatch links...

Lists come into being - soar, explode, crash, fade out with a whimper
- here's hoping this one draws some fine people, and flourishes.

Elena

Enter your vote today!  Check out the new poll for the howatch
group:


What's your favorite Starbridge novel?

   o Glittering Images
   o Glamorous Powers
   o Ultimate Prizes
   o Scandalous Risks
   o Mystical Paths
   o Absolute Truths
   o The Wonder Worker / A Question of Integrity


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://www.egroups.com/polls/howatch

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the eGroups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

Enter your vote today!  Check out the new poll for the howatch
group:


What's your favorite of the Susan
Howatch family sagas?

   o Penmarric
   o Cashelmara
   o The Rich Are Different
   o Sins of the Fathers
   o The Wheel of Fortune


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://www.egroups.com/polls/howatch

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the eGroups
web site listed above.

Thanks!