My latest library find (book rescue?) is a novel that I came across, as I so often do lately, when I was looking for something else entirely. I had never heard of Edith de Born before, but as I love anything about Vienna, the title on the spine of this one caught my eye. The House in Vienna is actually the second book of a trilogy (we only have this title by her), which was published in 1960. Edith was born in Vienna and had a varied education--private tutoring, a progressive school, a convent, and a Gymnasium, finishing her studies at Vienna University. According to the biographical information about her she started writing in English during the German Occupation. And very interestingly she and her husband worked for the Resistance in Paris. I do wish I could find out more about her.
The bad thing about the books in my library is they no longer have their dust jackets. Occasionally the blurb from the jacket will have been trimmed down and glued into the back cover, but not so in this instance. The good thing, I should mention, about these books is that they might be in fragile or worn condition, but almost always they are clean otherwise. This one is fairly pristine despite having been around for more than half a century.
So what's to be done when there is no description? Just reading the first couple of pages gives a little taste, but doesn't tell much else. Reviews are always handy places to look. This is what the New York Times had to say on January 17, 1960.
"This third example of Miss de Born's manner of recapturing past feeling, of re-creating a lost air, is nostalgic and witty and deft. Her method recalls Elizabeth Bowen, who has more sinew, and Katherine Mansfield, whose style is more tenuous. She is a novelist of light controls and sensitive manipulations of scene, who writes clear sentences and tells slight stories without strain. She is all character, and her characters are shadowed over by imminent circumstance. Over The House in Vienna the shadow of Hitler plays faintly--like a flag waving in the distance. The shadow touches the uncertain lives of a family, the de Kailerns, who live in an ancient aristocratic house in Vienna which has remained a permanent set piece in a ruined empire."
I should mention the story is set in 1926 in Paris as the daughter of the family looks back at that summer many years later. It must be good as the reviewer called it a "consummately finished little novel". That seems very complimentary, doesn't it?
I'm in the market for a new library book as I've finished E.M. Delafield's excellent Gay Life (more about that one next week). It's always hard when you finish a very satisfying (and the Delafield was) read to choose another. Will it be this one, or something else entirely?