The Shooting Party

by Isabel Colegate

Book Overview

It is the autumn of 1913. Sir Randolph Nettleby has assembled a brilliant array of guests at his Oxfordshire estate for the biggest hunt of the season. An army of gamekeepers, beaters, and servants... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140057978
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Penguin
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 0.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.5" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

A masterpiece of precision.

Readers who admire careful, precise writing will thrill at Colegate's prose, which is so polished it sparkles here, avoiding pretension, excess verbiage, and empty lyricism. Instead, Colegate chooses words full of inference and irony, feeling and attitude. Broad themes, historical perspective, and a plot which contains a large cast of individualized characters from all levels of society come alive here in a mere two hundred pages. Setting the novel in the autumn of 1913, before the outbreak of World War I, Colegate establishes her themes in the first paragraph, asking the reader to imagine an Edwardian drawing room of a country estate, with gas lamps, a log fire, and people from a long time ago, sitting and standing in groups. In the room beyond, a "fierce electric light" shines forth, overpowering the quiet, lamplit room, making it seem shadowy and the people like "beings from a much remoter past." The gentry in this snapshot are not naïve. Even they recognize that "an age, perhaps a civilization, is coming to an end," as industrialization and urbanization are changing the centers of power, and a war looms. A lively cast of characters is invited to Sir Randolph Nettleby's 1000-acre park for a weekend shoot, and as they converse and interact, they quickly become individualized, the reader learning of their attitudes and prejudices, their understanding of the code of behavior, and the details of their very "civilized" lives. When the shoot begins and the beaters send the birds into the air, the symbolic parallels between the world as it has been, the world as it will be during the coming war, and the world as it may be after the war become obvious to the reader, and the death of one of the characters is not a surprise. Colegate is never polemical, however, imbuing her story with a great deal of personal interaction, warmth, and feeling, and as the action unfolds, the reader feels simultaneously wistful about the loss of cultural identity which is about to occur and gratified that the stultifying "predictable-ness" of that life will change. This is a book to savor, written by a remarkable stylist whose prose clearly illustrates that less is more. One of the most remarkable novels of the last fifty years, it has also been made into an equally remarkable film, starring the unforgettable James Mason. Mary Whipple Winter Journey Deceits of Time (King Penguin) The Shooting Party

Beautifully drawn portrait of an about-to-vanish world

Colegate is not a well-known author, not even in Great Britain, which is a shame because she's a first-rate novelist. The scene here is the late fall of 1913, the last pheasant season before the Great War, the true end of the old century and the beginning of the new. The setting is the Oxfordshire estate of Sir Randolph Nettleby, a thoroughly conservative but thoughtful and decent member of the landed gentry, and a famous host, as well. His guests include several ill-matched aristocratic couples, married only for reasons of finance and social standing (which opens the way to discreet affairs), and the author does a wonderful job of portraying them all in multiple dimensions -- especially Olivia and Lionel, both particularly sympathetic characters. There are also the house servants, and the beaters from the village who come out to assist in putting the pheasants overhead for the shooters -- especially the teetotaling poacher, Tom Harker, whose sudden death is the climax of the book. And there's even a wandering socialist opposed to blood sports for seriocomic relief -- though his last observation of the shooters is far from laughable. The effects of agricultural depression on the rural poor, the importance of private morality, the difference between "sport" and "competition," all are examined, satirized, and explained. At the end, she provides a "what happened to them" chapter, noting who died in the War, who survived, who had to leave town. Though I wish she had told us what happens to Ellen, the maid, and John, the footman, and to Sir Reuben, and to Tommy, who was already an army officer. Besides being interesting in its own right, this warmly written book would also be a good counterweight to _Gosford Park_.

Realism surmounts actual plot

Once I started reading, I found I could not abandon this book. Although the outcome of the book is announced on the first page, I found myself becoming more and more involved with the characters. I had several good "suspects" for who would do the shooting and also had marked at least six potential "victims" but was really alarmed and surprised when I reached the end. I felt the characters were well drawn and very realistic, although there was a touch too much "nobel love" between Olivia and Lionel.

Landed Gentry

The people in this book come in three layers. We are mostly concerned about the top layer, including Sir Randolph Nettleby and his 1'000 acre estate, Lord Lilburn and his wife Olivia, Sir Ruben Hergesheimer, Count Tibor Rakassyi of Hungary, and so many, many more. They set the tone.The lowest layer are the beaters for the shoot. They are farmers from the village. They are anonymous, and nobody talks to them. They are just the background noise. The exception is Tom Harker, occasional poacher.In between those two layers are those who bow to the top and kick those below. For instance Glass, the head game keeper, and his son Dan. Or the maid Ellen.And also somewhere in between is Cornelius Cardew. part preacher, compleat vegetarian, and convinced socialist. He seems too lightweight for an oracle, so his contribution to this novel is not quite clear.But to come to the book: Mrs. Colegate has assembled a very large cast that fits into the Edwardian age. She gives us detailed biographies of each cast member and thus makes clear that they are not all the same. Mainly, some of the wives have their own private amusement with men not their husbands. Olivia holds hands with Lionel Stephens, while Arline Hartlip flirts with Charles Farquhar. Cicely, granddaughter of Minnie Nettleby, reaches for Count Rakassyi, but is still too young to do damage. Her brother Osbert meanders through the story with his pet duck. As we go along, the characters take on their own, distinct personality. Lionel Stephens rates the shoot as a competition. That is decidedly uncivilized, and Gilbert Hartlip hates him for it. The picture of this society fills in as we read along.It has been said that the book describes the end of an era. I cannot find much indication of that. Also, everybody knew in October of 1913 that a major war was imminent, but this is not reflected. I believe it is too easy to use our knowledge of today to read something into that day before the Great War. Let us be honest and admit that the landed gentry is still with us, that they still have their shoots, and that their influence can still be felt. The more things change, the more they stay the same - as Voltaire said.Nevertheless, it is an elegant and worthwhile book..

A masterpiece of precision.

Scheduled for reprinting in December, 2002, this novel will thrill readers who admire careful, precise writing. Like a jeweler, Colegate has polished her prose till it sparkles, avoiding pretension, excess verbiage, and empty lyricism, choosing, instead, words full of inference and irony, feeling and attitude. Broad themes, historical perspective, and a plot which contains a large cast of individualized characters from all levels of society come alive here in a mere two hundred pages. Setting the novel in the autumn of 1913, before the outbreak of World War I, Colegate establishes her themes in the first paragraph, asking the reader to imagine an Edwardian drawing room of a country estate, with gas lamps, a log fire, and people from a long time ago, sitting and standing in groups. In the room beyond, a "fierce electric light" shines forth, overpowering the quiet, lamplit room, making it seem shadowy and the people like "beings from a much remoter past." The gentry in this snapshot are not naïve. Even they recognize that "an age, perhaps a civilization, is coming to an end," as industrialization and urbanization are changing the centers of power, and a war looms. A lively cast of characters is invited to Sir Randolph Nettleby's 1000-acre park for a weekend shoot, and as they converse and interact, they quickly become individualized, the reader learning of their attitudes and prejudices, their understanding of the code of behavior, and the details of their very "civilized" lives. When the shoot begins and the beaters send the birds into the air, the symbolic parallels between the world as it has been, the world as it will be during the coming war, and the world as it may be after the war become obvious to the reader, and the death of one of the characters is not a surprise. Colegate is never polemical, however, imbuing her story with a great deal of personal interaction, warmth, and feeling, and as the action unfolds, the reader feels simultaneously wistful about the loss of cultural identity which is about to occur and gratified that the stultifying "predictable-ness" of that life will change. This is a book to savor, written by a remarkable stylist whose prose clearly illustrates that less is more. Mary Whipple