Song of Songs

by Beverley Hughesdon

Book Overview

This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446360988
• ISBN13: 9780446360982
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Warner Books (NY)
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.

Customer Reviews

About "Song of Songs"

Read this fast-paced account of life before, during and after WW1 through the eyes of Lady Helena Girvan, who is raised in the traditional upstairs nursery, along with her twin baby brothers in a wealthy upper class family. Helena is sent to Germany to study, and on her return pines for her true love and begins nursing in London. You will feel the love, terror, joy, and sorrows of the shy Helena as she quietly but courageously works as a nurse in the French battlefields of Ypres, Rouen and Etaples, where only simple remedies are available to the soldiers. The suffering and pain of the injured men will cause you to shudder with sympathy and sadness, all the while as Helena continues to comfort and care for these broken men. Helena herself is a woman of despair and sorrow, and it takes a special man to lift her from her unrelenting grief and sadness. Another trial of pain and sadness occurs before Helena finally becomes a healed woman, when her frozen heart is melted by the steadfast love of her husband. This book takes the reader to the places where Helena lived and toiled, where you will feel the heartwrenching sorrows as if they are your own. A wonderful story that you will always remember - a book to treasure forever.

WWI causes class barriers to blur.

Meet Helena Girvan, the daughter of a peer of the realm, who finds spiritual redemption in the arms of a workingman. Circa late 1800's, Helena is the spoiled but lovable daughter of a British peer of the realm whose life is nearly destroyed and then forever altered by the cataclysm of WW I. When we first meet Helena, she is a child living an idyllic life on a large country estate. Her five siblings and she are being reared largely by a nursery staff. Her fieriness is first demonstrated by her touching and fierce loyalty to her two younger twin brothers, whom she goes to great lengths to protect against a cold and cruel governess. As she matures, she develops but two social skills: riding to the hounds and singing. Her strongest personal trait, however, is loyalty, especially to her two beloved brothers.She falls in love from afar with a much-older, dashing military hero; but then WWI erupts and forever alters her world. Against the wishes of her parents, she breaks social barriers by becoming an Army nurse, primarily in order to show common cause with her younger twin brothers when they join the military campaigns in France.In France, her work as a war nurse takes her into a hell worse than any of her imaginings. Her grim work brings her into contact with patients and staff of all social orders. And she finds that despite her cushy upbringing, hers is a backbone of steel. One day she takes extreme measures to save the life of Ben Holden, a sergeant-major from Lancashire who has been wounded while serving under the command of one of her twin brothers. This chance meeting, under the horrific circumstances of trench warfare, is yet another defining moment in her young life.Post-war, her family decimated by loss, she is forced to commit a deed of compassion with terrible emotional consequences. Only one man can help her regain her foothold on life: Ben Holden, who fights to save her life, as she had saved his.The story of Helena and Ben's relationship in the final section of the novel is by spells tragic, touching, amusing---and by the end, entirely unforgetable. This is a novel that grabs your attention from the onset. Its characters will live on in your memory long after you have turned the final page. And you will be haunted by the scenes from the trenches, in the "war to end all wars".

One of my favorites!

I found this book at a thrift store years ago, and have probably read it four or five times since. The characters are like old friends, extremely well-written and believable. I don't normally read many romance books, because they usually contain some weak damsel in distress type, waiting for Prince Charming to come and rescue them. But "Song of Songs" has a remarkable heroine that you cheer for till the end. I would recommend this book to anyone, but I can't bring myself to loan out my copy!

One of the best books I have ever read!

I found this book at a trash and treasure sale. I'm one of those annoying people that can't read a book unless the first line is interesting; if it isn't I won't read it. Song of Songs drew me in and that's where I stayed until I finished the book. I read it at work in my breaks, and paid no attention to anybody; I could not put it down. I lent it to friends who could not put it down either and raved about it for months afterwards. Very briefly: this story is set in the late 1800's in Edwardian times. It revolves around Helena whose life is easy till war breaks out. She becomes a nurse and spends a number of years tending the wounded. When peacetime comes, Helena becomes involved with a man of a lower class and marries him. The whole thing is wrong from the start, but Helena and Ben try to live together; he likes the simple things, she likes finery. Exceptionally well written, sensual and sad - and for those of you who like long sagas, roughly 800 pages. Well worth the reading, and certainly the best four dollars I've ever spent!