Snow Ball
Author: Brigid Brophy, Eley Williams
Published by: Faber & Faber
Pages: 194
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★
Published by: Faber & Faber
Pages: 194
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★
London, New Year's Eve. Snow falls on a Georgian mansion, vibrating with the festivities of an eighteenth-century themed masquerade ball within. Middle-aged divorcee Anna stands alone, mourning her youth - until the clock chimes midnight and a mysterious masked figure kisses her on the mouth.
Thus begins a heady dance of seduction charged by other clandestine romances swirling around them, whipping the ball into an erotic frenzy of operatic proportions - until the night climaxes, revealing unease beneath the glitter...
Thus begins a heady dance of seduction charged by other clandestine romances swirling around them, whipping the ball into an erotic frenzy of operatic proportions - until the night climaxes, revealing unease beneath the glitter...
My thoughts:
This timely reissue of Brigid Brophy’s 1964 book, The Snow Ball, transports readers to a New Year’s Eve masquerade ball full of romance. With all that’s happening in the world right now, to imagine a ballroom thrumming with the colour and clatter of hundreds of people feels like an indulgent moment of escapism. The book is a quick read at less than two hundred pages, so it’s a perfect choice to curl up with this winter. It provided some much-needed glamour this Christmas and I finished it in one sitting.
When Anna is kissed by a masked figure at a New Year's Eve masquerade ball, a heady dance of seduction begins. The book is well-written, intelligent, witting, highly original and compellingly suspenseful.
From the very first page, The Snow Ball, transported me to a decadent masquerade ball in an opulent Georgian mansion. Various guests have gathered for an 18th-century costume ball on New Year’s Eve. What follows is a night of extravagance and excess. Spun out over a single evening, its characters navigate the 18th century-themed New Year’s Eve costume party from snowy midnight through to “blood-coloured” dawn. Brophy’s writing is beautiful as she transports her readers into the midst of a packed ballroom floor.
Central to the narrative are Anna K, a fortysomething divorcee attending the ball as Mozart’s Donna Anna, and another guest (identity unknown) who is dressed as a masked Don Giovanni. When Don Giovanni kisses Donna Anna on the stroke of midnight, naturally the pair are attracted to one another, irresistibly drawn together in the glitzy atmosphere of the ball.
Although the exact period is never really specified, the story appears to take place in the early 1960s, and the whole thing is incredibly atmospheric. The author creates a world of distorted surfaces—the story is packed with chandeliers, mirrors, thick carpets, Siamese cats, grotesquely painted cupids, crooked wigs, and men who look like boiled eggs.
I enjoyed the way various characters dip in and out of view throughout the night. And as the hours tick by, friends become strangers. “Have you noticed what a metaphysical ball this is?” the masked man asks Anna at one point. “All these people bumping into each other and asking, ‘who are you?’ even when they’ve known each other for years.”
I picked this one up as an impulse buy, and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading it. The Snow Ball is a highly imaginative and intriguing novel of attraction, ageing, mortality, and Mozart – worth a read.
Overall reaction:
This timely reissue of Brigid Brophy’s 1964 book, The Snow Ball, transports readers to a New Year’s Eve masquerade ball full of romance. With all that’s happening in the world right now, to imagine a ballroom thrumming with the colour and clatter of hundreds of people feels like an indulgent moment of escapism. The book is a quick read at less than two hundred pages, so it’s a perfect choice to curl up with this winter. It provided some much-needed glamour this Christmas and I finished it in one sitting.
When Anna is kissed by a masked figure at a New Year's Eve masquerade ball, a heady dance of seduction begins. The book is well-written, intelligent, witting, highly original and compellingly suspenseful.
From the very first page, The Snow Ball, transported me to a decadent masquerade ball in an opulent Georgian mansion. Various guests have gathered for an 18th-century costume ball on New Year’s Eve. What follows is a night of extravagance and excess. Spun out over a single evening, its characters navigate the 18th century-themed New Year’s Eve costume party from snowy midnight through to “blood-coloured” dawn. Brophy’s writing is beautiful as she transports her readers into the midst of a packed ballroom floor.
Central to the narrative are Anna K, a fortysomething divorcee attending the ball as Mozart’s Donna Anna, and another guest (identity unknown) who is dressed as a masked Don Giovanni. When Don Giovanni kisses Donna Anna on the stroke of midnight, naturally the pair are attracted to one another, irresistibly drawn together in the glitzy atmosphere of the ball.
Although the exact period is never really specified, the story appears to take place in the early 1960s, and the whole thing is incredibly atmospheric. The author creates a world of distorted surfaces—the story is packed with chandeliers, mirrors, thick carpets, Siamese cats, grotesquely painted cupids, crooked wigs, and men who look like boiled eggs.
I enjoyed the way various characters dip in and out of view throughout the night. And as the hours tick by, friends become strangers. “Have you noticed what a metaphysical ball this is?” the masked man asks Anna at one point. “All these people bumping into each other and asking, ‘who are you?’ even when they’ve known each other for years.”
I picked this one up as an impulse buy, and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading it. The Snow Ball is a highly imaginative and intriguing novel of attraction, ageing, mortality, and Mozart – worth a read.
Overall reaction: