• The Summer Before the War

  • A Novel
  • By: Helen Simonson
  • Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham
  • Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (1,959 ratings)

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The Summer Before the War  By  cover art

The Summer Before the War

By: Helen Simonson
Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham
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Publisher's summary

New York Times best seller

"A novel to cure your Downton Abbey withdrawal... a delightful story about nontraditional romantic relationships, class snobbery and the everybody-knows-everybody complications of living in a small community.” (The Washington Post)

The best-selling author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand returns with a breathtaking novel of love on the eve of World War I that reaches far beyond the small English town in which it is set.

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post and NPR

East Sussex, 1914. It is the end of England’s brief Edwardian summer, and everyone agrees that the weather has never been so beautiful. Hugh Grange, down from his medical studies, is visiting his Aunt Agatha, who lives with her husband in the small, idyllic coastal town of Rye. Agatha’s husband works in the Foreign Office, and she is certain he will ensure that the recent saber rattling over the Balkans won’t come to anything. And Agatha has more immediate concerns; she has just risked her carefully built reputation by pushing for the appointment of a woman to replace the Latin master.

When Beatrice Nash arrives with one trunk and several large crates of books, it is clear she is significantly more freethinking - and attractive - than anyone believes a Latin teacher should be. For her part, mourning the death of her beloved father, who has left her penniless, Beatrice simply wants to be left alone to pursue her teaching and writing. But just as Beatrice comes alive to the beauty of the Sussex landscape and the colorful characters who populate Rye, the perfect summer is about to end. For despite Agatha’s reassurances, the unimaginable is coming. Soon the limits of progress, and the old ways, will be tested as this small Sussex town and its inhabitants go to war.

Praise for The Summer Before the War

“What begins as a study of a small-town society becomes a compelling account of war and its aftermath.” (Woman’s Day)

“This witty character study of how a small English town reacts to the 1914 arrival of its first female teacher offers gentle humor wrapped in a hauntingly detailed story.” (Good Housekeeping)

“Perfect for readers in a post-Downton Abbey slump...The gently teasing banter between two kindred spirits edging slowly into love is as delicately crafted as a bone-china teacup.... More than a high-toned romantic reverie for Anglophiles - though it serves the latter purpose, too.” (The Seattle Times)

©2015 Helen Simonson (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"At once haunting and effervescent, The Summer Before the War demonstrates the sure hand of a master. Helen Simonson's characters enchant us, her English countryside beguiles us, and her historical intelligence keeps us at the edge of our seats. This luminous story of a family, a town, and a world in their final moments of innocence is as lingering and lovely as a long summer sunset." (Annie Barrows, author of The Truth According to Us and coauthor of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society)

"Helen Simonson has outdone herself in this radiant follow-up to Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. The provincial town of Rye, East Sussex, in the days just before and after the Great War is so vividly drawn it fairly vibrates. The depth and sensitivity with which she weighs the steep costs and delicate bonds of wartime - and not just for the young men in the trenches, but for every changed life and heart - reveal the full mastery of her storytelling. Simonson is like a Jane Austen for our day and age - she is that good - and The Summer Before the War is nothing short of a treasure." (Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun)

"Narrator Fiona Hardingham breathes life into a huge cast of characters.... She's especially adept with accents; the American author who is trying to downplay his heritage sounds appropriately ambiguous, and a Belgian refugee who speaks halting, heavily accented English is convincing.... This is storytelling at its finest, with a narration to match." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about The Summer Before the War

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Divine Book Club Listening

Just what I was in the mood for!
"The Summer Before the War" has a little bit of something for everyone. There is sweetness and charm, grit and war, artists and suffragettes, and a whole lot of historical realism. Oh, and a few laugh out loud moments. Oh! And a few lump-in-throat, blink back tears moments too.
While a lot of the book is predictable, the characters are immensely likable without being annoying and "cleverly quirky," and the situations are suitable. This is a book that author Helen Simonson obviously cared about to get right: her characters laugh and suffer, they make hard choices, they live wholly within an era that she draws with details down to a wrapped horse's feet in a funeral cortege. She has a wonderful sense of language and you can almost smell the summer air of a world at peace and feel the bitterness of the cold wind of a world at war.
Beatrice Nash serves as a wonderful heroine, progressive yet not unrealistically individualistic for the time. While she longs to be independent of society's strict rules, she still understands that she must live within the confines of those rules, and acts accordingly. And the book paints a grand portrait of how people lived and breathed within such a set society with lovely glimpses of how others, women in particular, tried to dodge and side-step it all. There is one wonderful scene featuring photography, nudity, and a whole lot of blushing and looking away: simply marvelous!
The weakest bit, and I feel bad saying this, is the narration. Fiona Hardingham does a splendid job considering the length of the book, the many, many characters, and the complexity of the situations, but she fails on a few points. Her American accent is deplorable, her French one is a tad overenthusiastic, her male voices can become flat and strident at times, and a few times she blends the characters so that they are indistinguishable and hard to follow. Still, a 3.5 performance rounded up because, for the most part, she does well with what is a demanding and formidable task.
Also, while the first nine hours of the book are compelling and engaging, the last part is flat-out... well, let's just say that I put off sleeping for a bit of time.
Lovely, heartfelt, bitter and poignant at times, this is a book well worth the time.

Updated after second listen in 6/20: Okay, I must admit that this book felt a tad contrived and a bit tedious with the second listen. Plus, Hardingham makes the male characters strident and imperious.
So, heavy sigh... good for a long-winded first listen, but the second listen had me yawning...

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Disappointing

I loved the authors first book and looked forward to this one. I was very disappointed. It reminded me of the Masie Dobbs series but nowhere near as interesting. It could have also been the author was going for a Downton Abbey similarity and failed on that level as well. I listened because I kept thinking it was going to improve but sadly it didn't. If you want to listen to a charming book, her first, Major Pettigrews last stand, was worth the time- this one falls flat.

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22 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The end of innocence

I have been somewhat disappointed in my last few selections and I really needed a good story with strong characters. That’s just what I got with The Summer Before the War. Simonson effectively evoked the innocent optimism and naive patriotism that accompanied England’s entry into the first World War, and through the lives of those living in a small country village slowly dismantles the illusions of glory, revealing war’s tragic devastation on soldiers, civilians and families. Most of the story is placed in England, focusing on the friendships and rivalries among the elite families, the daily trials of the common folk to make a living, and how the ties that bind the community together are tested with the stresses of the oncoming conflict. This portion of the story is balanced with an abundance of warmth and humor that strengthens the connection to the characters. Shifting scenes to the battlefield added to the drama with both heartbreak and heroism. It’s impossible to listen and not imagine seeing this produced for Masterpiece.

Fiona Hardingham’s reading was impressive in her ability to manage such a large cast of characters, including a variety of accents. A minor but common quibble is her handling of the male voices, especially the critical voicing of Hugh, who she made too stuffy where he should have been warmer. Not enough of a complaint to distract from the overall excellence of this story. I highly recommend this selection for those yearning for a well-developed character driven story.

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So very glad I stuck with it

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have already done so several times, especially to my friends who enjoy "Downton Abbey," and authors such as Sebastian Faulks ("Bridsong), Pat Barker (numerous award winning novels of The Great War), and others who are interested in this fascinating time in history.

What did you like best about this story?

I really enjoyed Simonsen's previous book, "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand." In addition, I am a devotee of the era just before and after World War I. So I was eager to read this book. It was a little weird that I did not take to it right away. The first part of the book is very much devoted to the often ridiculous standards of the day. I thought I'd gotten myself into more of a book of manners, one that did not move especially fast.

I am glad that I stayed with it, though, because the slower first half allows one to really understand the absurdities of standing on ceremony and how limited were the freedoms (especially for women) that we enjoy today. It also sets up wonderful characters that you fall in love with and want to root for.

The second half of the book, after the war begins, really delves into the sorrow, pride, courage, suffering, and total sacrifice made by all. And don't think the social absurdities jut stop. If anything, they become even more comic, more glaring, more absurd.

If you have read Pat Barker's recent "Noonday," or other novels that are situated in this times ("The Dust that Falls from Dreams," the superb "My Dear, I wanted to tell you," or "The Care and Management of Lies"), this is a book well worth a credit.

Have you listened to any of Fiona Hardingham’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I don't believe I have, but she did an excellent job of bringing this story to life.

Who was the most memorable character of The Summer Before the War and why?

The cast of women in this book all stand out for me. Some are poor and thus constrained by their stations. Some are wealthy, but also constrained by their stations. It was a difficult era in which to do the right thing.

Any additional comments?

A solid and satisfying follow-up to "Major Pettigrew."

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Sadly disappointing!

I was so wanting to like this book as I loved Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. I just found this book disagreeable & dull. It was an endless and heavy-handed reminder of how sexist, classist, and racist early 20th century England was, without an interesting plot or engaging characters.

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A Wonderful Book

I heard Helen Simonson discussing this book on NPR and as I had enjoyed her previous book, I bought this one. The interview made it sound like it was a light-hearted comical look at England the summer of 1914 and while there certainly are eccentric characters, it is a rather somber look at a world about to change forever. The characters grab your attention and hold it. I finished the book on the way home from work today (a 2.5 hour round trip commute) and when it was complete I did that very rare thing - drove in silence. I had to reflect on the characters and events. I didn't want it to end; it is one of the books that will stay with me. The narrator is wonderful - at one point as she was doing a male character I remember thinking "this man does a good job with females as well", completly forgetting the narrator was female. My error was made because she vocally creates such real characters that they come alive. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Sophomore Slump

I'm not sure why, but this book just didn't keep me engaged, until the last 2-3 hours ( and, for a 15 hour listen, that's a long struggle to keep listening). The author's first book, "Major Pettigrews Last Stand" was charming, the characters warm and sympathetic. Maybe that's what I found lacking here; there is really no one who captures the heart and interest of the reader. The only character who came close was Snout, and *spoiler* he comes to a tragic end. I can't falter the narration, it was quite good. This just didn't live up to the high standard of "Major Pettigrew".

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  • CV
  • 07-12-16

Disappointing

What disappointed you about The Summer Before the War?

I just couldn't get into the storyline or the characters. None of them held my interest- I found my mind wandering off.

What was most disappointing about Helen Simonson’s story?

I found it lacked a hook.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The narrator was good.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Worth It If You Can Wait for It

The Narrator was awesome. Some of the day to day life was more like Middlemarch than a modern book but that is ok when you trust an author, and I totally do here. I adored her first book so kept telling myself to be patient because I knew the story would really grab hold.

English village life, perfect summer, orphaned woman struggles to make it without the trust fund and its demands, two handsome cousins, their loving imperfect Aunt and we know WWI is coming.

Is this Downton Abbey? Not near so posh. Birdsong? Not near so heavy but a bit. Middlemarch? Yes but for WWI.

A bit too detailed in places but very active voice. You will be able to picture everything that unfolds and that is A++ in my book, as is a book with characters I care about like this one. So if you are a patient person and love a good old fashioned English love / Carry On story, this book is for you.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Sad

I understood this would be a sad book. I did imagine though, that it would be novel, a new perspective with interesting insights on the start of WWI. But oh! What a let down after the bright interest of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. These characters felt flat, 2D, not lifted off the page into light and interest,
But what really bothered me was the language used. People didn't ask others to 'please know' something, in 1914. And I think the word 'segue' had not come back into fashion then as it has now. Somehow that made me feel distrust of the author, which is sad.

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