Are you, like me, counting the days until Sunday, January 6th, when season 3 of Downton Abbey will FINALLY air here in the States? Well, if you just can’t wait for some sweeping historical fiction set in World War I, consider joining The Passing Bells Trilogy Read-Along! The Passing Bells by Phillip Rock is the first book in a breathtaking family saga with very Downton-like themes. Originally published in 1970s and 80s, the series was mentioned repeatedly in articles and blog posts last winter as a great read for fans of the popular Masterpiece series. Now the 3-book series is being reissued in paperback and on e-book beginning with The Passing Bells which will be on sale on 12/4, followed by Circles of Time on 1/2/13 and A Future Arrived on 2/5/13.
The Passing Bells was a New York Times bestseller when it was first published in 1978 and the New York Times Book Review praised its “A capacity to shock, to astonish, and to engage . . . written throughout with economy and wit.”
While I realize this is not necessarily the ideal time for a read-along (what with the holidays and all), I hope the schedule below isn't too taxing for anyone, and that we'll all be excited to be reading along as we're watching Downton Abbey in January and February.
If you'd like to join in, enter your name at the Mister Linky below, and write up a post that you're joining us, using the read along tile ad and post a link to your post in the comments.
Before Downton Abbey, there was Abingdon Pryory, the elegant country home of the Grevilles—a titled English family who, along with their servants, see their world turned upside down when England goes to war. Once their well-kept lawns and whirling social seasons give way to the horrors of World War I, no one, upstairs or downstairs, is left untouched.
A generation has been lost on the Western Front. The dead have been buried, a harsh peace forged, and the howl of shells replaced by the wail of saxophones as the Jazz Age begins. But ghosts linger—that long-ago golden summer of 1914 tugging at the memory of Martin Rilke and his British cousins, the Grevilles.
A Future Arrived - on sale 2/5 - we'll discuss it on Monday, March 4th
The final installment of the saga of the Grevilles of Abingdon begins in the early 1930s, as the dizzy gaiety of the Jazz Age comes to a shattering end. What follows is a decade of change and uncertainty, as the younger generation, born during or just after “the war to end all wars,” comes of age.
