Enchanter's Nightshade

In Enchanter's Nightshade, Bridge presents her reader with a period piece of Italian provincial society and distributes our sympathies over a surprising range of characters, several of whom touch on individual tragedies. The lovely Enchantress in the late thirties; the little English governess in the early twenties, full of Oxford enthusiasms; the ardent youth, Giulio; Marietta, that delightful child, puzzling over the problems into which she is plunged by the disaster which overtakes her beloved English instructress; the old Marchesa, whose hundredth birthday looms all through the book; above all perhaps the wise, patient Swiss governess - all these in turn claim our affection or our pity. Ann Bridge shows here an intensity of feeling and a dramatic power which may come as a surprise after the gentle restraint of her earlier books. But for all the characters who are capable of forging happiness for themselves, the doors open, at the end, on possibilities of future contentment.

In Enchanter's Nightshade, Bridge ii prezinta cititorului o piesa de epoca a societatii provinciale italiene si distribuie simpatiile noastre intr-o gama surprinzatoare de personaje, dintre care mai multe se refera la tragedii individuale. Incantatoarea incantatoare de la sfarsitul anilor treizeci; micuta guvernanta engleza de la inceputul anilor '20, plina de entuziasmuri Oxford; tineretul inflacarat, Giulio; Marietta, acea copila incantatoare, nedumerita de problemele in care este cufundata de dezastrul care o depaseste pe iubita ei instructoare engleza; batrana Marchesa, a carei suta de ani implineste toata cartea; mai presus de toate poate intelepta si rabdatoarea guvernanta elvetiana - toate acestea, la randul lor, ne revendica afectiunea sau mila.