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Maisie Dobbs
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Manufacturer: Penguin Books
Author: Jacqueline Winspear
Publisher: Penguin Books
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $11.20
You Save: $ 2.80 ( 20% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
Author: Jacqueline Winspear
Publisher: Penguin Books
Average Customer Rating:
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Maisie Dobbs Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN: 9780142004333
ISBN: 0142004332
Label: Penguin Books
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2004-05-25
Publisher: Penguin Books
Product Release Date: 2004-05-25
Studio: Penguin Books
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN: 9780142004333
ISBN: 0142004332
Label: Penguin Books
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2004-05-25
Publisher: Penguin Books
Product Release Date: 2004-05-25
Studio: Penguin Books
Editorial Review of Maisie Dobbs
Hailed by NPR’s Fresh Air as part Testament of Youth, part Dorothy Sayers, and part Upstairs, Downstairs, this astonishing debut has already won fans from coast to coast and is poised to add Maisie Dobbs to the ranks of literature’s favorite sleuths.
Maisie Dobbs isn’t just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence—and the patronage of her benevolent employers—she works her way into college at Cambridge. When World War I breaks out, Maisie goes to the front as a nurse. It is there that she learns that coincidences are meaningful and the truth elusive. After the War, Maisie sets up on her own as a private investigator. But her very first assignment, seemingly an ordinary infidelity case, soon reveals a much deeper, darker web of secrets, which will force Maisie to revisit the horrors of the Great War and the love she left behind.
Customer Reviews of Maisie Dobbs
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Wonderful fun!
Review: I actually bought this book for my aunt, because I knew she would enjoy the charming Maisie Dobbs and the wonderful writing of the author. I look forward to the next Maisie and I will read it as slowly as the others, to savor the rich descriptions and characters. The descriptions of city and countryside settings and of time periods, as each book moves forward in time, is a door to the past for me.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Better Novel Than Mystery
Review: As several reviewers have noted, this book is a slow read, particularly for a mystery.
But Winspear seems more interested in people and social developments than in mysteries.
The book is punctuated by a LONG central section, a flashback, to Maisie's years as a nurse in WWI. The section is harrowing, and rightly so, because the book is about the horrifying effects on everyone of the war.
As usual, her period details (1897-1929) are perfect, and her prose is notably crisper and less affected than in "The Messenger of Truth."
Her eye on emotions is profound, and her choreography and plotting are stunning.
A warm and involving book, to which the mystery is really a footnote.
There really are no "bad guys," only people more and less shattered by war.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: PLOTS SLOW, MYSTERIES THIN
Review: After reading reviews, I purchased the first four books of the Maisie Dobbs series and am forcing myself to finish the third and fourth. Maisie is a private investigator, solving cases with her mind powers and her very calming manner, which is pretty much the way the books seem to be--too calm and boring! I found my mind wandering away from the reading, as the plots are too slow. The book starts out with Maisie being a servant with a lot of personal attention from her employers, her service in WW1, and her starting her own private investigating service. I feel more could have been written about these parts of her life, instead of sitting down constantly for a cup of tea. A good part of the book is Maisie taking trains or "motoring" around to interview different people, and to solve a case by singing a song? So disappointing! I liked some of the characters, such as Billy Beale and Enid, and enough wasn't written about them to make the Maisie Dobbs book more interesting. Even though it is supposed to have researched into World War I, I didn't learn much except that a lot of lives were lost and just about every family Maisie encountered had lost sons or were left with injuries, and while she served as a nurse, all that evolved was that she was cold in her tent and was injured, but nothing was written about the explosion that injured her or incapacitated her love interest. Perhaps this is a "young adult" book? Just too simple for me.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Superb literature
Review: Maisie Dobbs is just plain superb literature. The murder mystery is almost a secondary element in what is really a very introspective and sensitive portrayal of the effects and aftereffects of war on individuals. Even the murderer is treated compassionately by the author. Jacqueline Winspear.
The characters are very carefully crafted personalities; even those who are actually first encountered as names on graves, are vested with a history that matters to the reader and to the other characters. The various interactions among these people is engaging and carries the reader from mere spectator to thoroughly invested in the outcomes of these people's lives.
The time frame chosen by the author for the action is a very eventful one. English society is on the cusp of change, and nearly everyone senses it in some way. Some are confused about what these changes mean for their futures, while others are eager to plunge forward to a "better world." The old society, the aristocratic and privileged age of the 19th Century, is poised for transition to what the reader knows is a technologically advanced, sometimes very violent, but also a more egalitarian world.
The narrative is very tightly crafted. Although there are abrupt transitions between present and past, hardly an episode is included anywhere that does not forward the reader's understanding of the meaning of the tale, and the author leaves no lose ends.
As the story emerges, both the personal histories of the characters and the murder mystery, it will not leave the reader untouched.
Excellent.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Atmospheric setting and excellent characters
Review: London, 1929.
Maisie Dobbs begins her life as a servant but is fortunate enough, through the support of her employer Lady Rowan, to receive a good education. Having studied psychology under Dr. Maurice Blanche (a friend of lady Rowans who works with Scotland Yard) she sets up a business as a private detective. Her first case seems relatively straightforward, and she uses her intuition and her excellent interpersonal skills to solve the mystery and help the people involved to understand their situation. During the investigation, however, she stumbles onto something far more sinister and dangerous and this is where the real mystery begins.
As the story progresses we discover that Maisie Dobbs has seen the horrors of war first-hand. Her investigations lead her to a retreat for injured soldiers and we see her empathy for those who have been damaged by the Great War and eventually, the extent of her personal tragedy.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere of London in the post war era, and the plot moves along at a comfortable pace, interspersing Maisies investigation with flashbacks from her life. Jaqueline Winspear captures her characters - both major and minor- beautifully, especially Maisie who is a complex individual. She is courageous and sensitive, but not without flaws and by the end of the book I had run the gamut of emotions from frustration and annoyance to admiration and compassion for Maisie Dobbs.
Review Summary: Wonderful fun!
Review: I actually bought this book for my aunt, because I knew she would enjoy the charming Maisie Dobbs and the wonderful writing of the author. I look forward to the next Maisie and I will read it as slowly as the others, to savor the rich descriptions and characters. The descriptions of city and countryside settings and of time periods, as each book moves forward in time, is a door to the past for me.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Better Novel Than Mystery
Review: As several reviewers have noted, this book is a slow read, particularly for a mystery.
But Winspear seems more interested in people and social developments than in mysteries.
The book is punctuated by a LONG central section, a flashback, to Maisie's years as a nurse in WWI. The section is harrowing, and rightly so, because the book is about the horrifying effects on everyone of the war.
As usual, her period details (1897-1929) are perfect, and her prose is notably crisper and less affected than in "The Messenger of Truth."
Her eye on emotions is profound, and her choreography and plotting are stunning.
A warm and involving book, to which the mystery is really a footnote.
There really are no "bad guys," only people more and less shattered by war.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: PLOTS SLOW, MYSTERIES THIN
Review: After reading reviews, I purchased the first four books of the Maisie Dobbs series and am forcing myself to finish the third and fourth. Maisie is a private investigator, solving cases with her mind powers and her very calming manner, which is pretty much the way the books seem to be--too calm and boring! I found my mind wandering away from the reading, as the plots are too slow. The book starts out with Maisie being a servant with a lot of personal attention from her employers, her service in WW1, and her starting her own private investigating service. I feel more could have been written about these parts of her life, instead of sitting down constantly for a cup of tea. A good part of the book is Maisie taking trains or "motoring" around to interview different people, and to solve a case by singing a song? So disappointing! I liked some of the characters, such as Billy Beale and Enid, and enough wasn't written about them to make the Maisie Dobbs book more interesting. Even though it is supposed to have researched into World War I, I didn't learn much except that a lot of lives were lost and just about every family Maisie encountered had lost sons or were left with injuries, and while she served as a nurse, all that evolved was that she was cold in her tent and was injured, but nothing was written about the explosion that injured her or incapacitated her love interest. Perhaps this is a "young adult" book? Just too simple for me.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Superb literature
Review: Maisie Dobbs is just plain superb literature. The murder mystery is almost a secondary element in what is really a very introspective and sensitive portrayal of the effects and aftereffects of war on individuals. Even the murderer is treated compassionately by the author. Jacqueline Winspear.
The characters are very carefully crafted personalities; even those who are actually first encountered as names on graves, are vested with a history that matters to the reader and to the other characters. The various interactions among these people is engaging and carries the reader from mere spectator to thoroughly invested in the outcomes of these people's lives.
The time frame chosen by the author for the action is a very eventful one. English society is on the cusp of change, and nearly everyone senses it in some way. Some are confused about what these changes mean for their futures, while others are eager to plunge forward to a "better world." The old society, the aristocratic and privileged age of the 19th Century, is poised for transition to what the reader knows is a technologically advanced, sometimes very violent, but also a more egalitarian world.
The narrative is very tightly crafted. Although there are abrupt transitions between present and past, hardly an episode is included anywhere that does not forward the reader's understanding of the meaning of the tale, and the author leaves no lose ends.
As the story emerges, both the personal histories of the characters and the murder mystery, it will not leave the reader untouched.
Excellent.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Atmospheric setting and excellent characters
Review: London, 1929.
Maisie Dobbs begins her life as a servant but is fortunate enough, through the support of her employer Lady Rowan, to receive a good education. Having studied psychology under Dr. Maurice Blanche (a friend of lady Rowans who works with Scotland Yard) she sets up a business as a private detective. Her first case seems relatively straightforward, and she uses her intuition and her excellent interpersonal skills to solve the mystery and help the people involved to understand their situation. During the investigation, however, she stumbles onto something far more sinister and dangerous and this is where the real mystery begins.
As the story progresses we discover that Maisie Dobbs has seen the horrors of war first-hand. Her investigations lead her to a retreat for injured soldiers and we see her empathy for those who have been damaged by the Great War and eventually, the extent of her personal tragedy.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere of London in the post war era, and the plot moves along at a comfortable pace, interspersing Maisies investigation with flashbacks from her life. Jaqueline Winspear captures her characters - both major and minor- beautifully, especially Maisie who is a complex individual. She is courageous and sensitive, but not without flaws and by the end of the book I had run the gamut of emotions from frustration and annoyance to admiration and compassion for Maisie Dobbs.