Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Consequences: A Novel
    Consequences: A Novel
    Consequences: A Novel
    Audiobook8 hours

    Consequences: A Novel

    Written by Penelope Lively

    Narrated by Josephine Bailey

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Consequences is a love-story-times-three that opens on the eve of the Second World War, with a chance meeting in St. James's Park, London. Wholly in love, Lorna and Matt leave the city for a cottage in a rural Somerset village. Their intimate life together is shattered when the war begins and by Matt's tragic death in action.

    Twenty years later, their daughter, Molly, happens upon a forgotten newspaper-a seemingly small moment that leads to her first job and, eventually, a pregnancy by a wealthy man who wants to marry her but whom she does not love. But it is her own daughter, Ruth, who begins the journey that will take her back to 1941-and a redefinition of herself and of love.

    Told in Lively's incomparable prose, Consequences is a powerful story of growth, death, and rebirth and a study of the previous century-its major and minor events, its shaping of public consciousness, and its changing of lives.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 20, 2007
    ISBN9781400175024
    Consequences: A Novel
    Author

    Penelope Lively

    Penelope Lively is a novelist, short story writer and author of children's books. Her novels have won several literary awards including the Booker Prize for Moon Tiger in 1987, the Carnegie Medal for The Ghost of Thomas Kempe in 1973, and the Whitbread Award for A Stitch in Time in 1976.

    More audiobooks from Penelope Lively

    Related to Consequences

    Related audiobooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for Consequences

    3.5/5

    203 ratings25 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Consequences by Penelope LivelyThis is a wonderful story from a new (to me) but excellent author. She gives us the lives of three generations of women beginning in pre-WW II England. The story begins with a young woman, Lorna, who wants to live a meaningful life and is crossed at every turn by her high minded & moneyed parents. She accidentally meets a man, Matt, in the park and they begin to see each other. They eventually fall in love and marry against the wishes of her parents who turn their back on her. She and her husband who is a wood engraver find an inexpensive cottage in the country and live a simple life. The story of Matt's engraving work could be a story entirely unto itself. I loved all of that.He & Lorna have a little girl, Molly, and life is wonderful for them even though they are poor as church mice. Then comes the war. Matt feels that he must enlist and begs Lorna to go to his parents but she refuses and is set on waiting at the cottage for him to return.Molly, as she grows up, becomes the center of the story and her daughter Ruth, after her.Each woman's story is somewhat briefly but beautifully told. And as I am sure you have guessed the main theme of the book is that one lives out the consequences of one's life choices.I found this to be a lovely book. I want to read more of Lively's works and I recommend this one not for it's depth but rather for it's ease, comfort and readability.
    • 5/5
      Enjoyable book starting 1935 when a young man and woman meet by chance on a park bench. The story travels over time into the 1960s through the lives of subsequent family members and events that happen by fate or their own choices.
    • 4/5
      Lovely story about about a British mother (WWII-era) and her daughter and granddaughter. The women are lovely (maybe a tiny bit too perfect) and both wonderful and very sad things happen. Their men are sometimes imperfect but mostly well-meaning.

      I listened to this in audiobook form, superb reading by Josephine Bailey whose reading of Jane Eyre also moved me.
    • 3/5
      Penelope Lively is known for character-driven novels featuring strong women, with storylines advanced through a series of seemingly minor connections where the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. By its very title, Consequences promises to deliver on this formula, but unfortunately the execution doesn’t achieve the excellence of Lively’s other novels. The biggest problem with this book is Lively’s attempt to capture three generations in a mere 258 pages. The story opens with Lorna and Matt, a young newly-married couple living in the British countryside during World War II. Matt is a talented and promising artist. They have a daughter, Molly. Just as I was getting to know these characters, Molly is suddenly an adult and soon has a daughter of her own. And again, just as I began to care about Molly, the focus shifted again to her daughter, Ruth. For the most part, the eponymous consequences -- which would seem to be a way for Lively to do her usual “thing” with connections -- fall short. The lone exception is a tiny breadcrumb left by Lorna, which resurfaces later in a very satisfying way. Consequences ultimately left me feeling frustrated and a bit grumpy.
    • 5/5
      Enjoyable book starting 1935 when a young man and woman meet by chance on a park bench. The story travels over time into the 1960s through the lives of subsequent family members and events that happen by fate or their own choices.
    • 4/5
      The stories of Lorna, her daughter Molly, and Molly's daughter Ruth, taking in the period from the late 1930s to the early 21st century. I thought this started strongly, with Lorna and Matt's marriage, and Molly's relationship with James was also a very interesting episode. I loved Sam and Molly together very much, but after that I lost interest. Ruth didn't seem to have much personality and I didn't really care what happened to her. I would have liked to have heard more about Simon, Molly's brother, but the author only seemed interested in women. The male characters served only to love and care for the women, who were allowed to be more faulty and make more doubtful decisions.I wasn't quite sure what the title and the various references to "consequences" were really saying - obviously all actions and decisions have consequences, and we are also subject to external forces - wars, car accidents etc. Is this not self-evident?
    • 4/5
      This is an inter-generational story, followed through 3 women. So evocative of the changes in life's perceptions as we pass from one generation to the next. A writing style that's different: of quickly moving through the various lives and not detailing much of any one character, despite the regret that there was more to know. It is a style some readers might find irritating. I was captivated by this aspect.
    • 4/5
      This is an intricately plotted, warm and intelligent story following three generations of an English family since the mid 30s. On one level this is an exploration of the significance of apparently random events, rather like Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, though without the alternative narratives, and there is nothing random about the range of the novel or the ideas behind it. It is also about the changes in women's lives and expectations since the 1930s, and about memory, what is remembered and what is forgotten, not least what is forgotten about the political and social struggles of the recent past.
    • 5/5
      Lively is a remarkable writer. While following three generations of women, she manages to explore how the historical becomes the personal, how societal changes in the twentieth century affected the daily lives and possible choices of women, and the beauty and power of love.
    • 4/5
      Lorna and Matt meet on a park bench in London in 1936. Despite class differences, they fall in love and marry as the threat of WWII looms. Impoverished, they establish a home in a primitive cottage in the west country on the coast looking over Bristol Bay to Wales. Matt is a talented engraver. His relationship with Lucas who owns a printing press is what allows this occupation to provide a meager living for Matt, Lorna, and baby Molly.The story progresses to follow Molly and her daughter, Ruth, into the 21st century. The author explores changing societal norms and more's relative to love and relationship through that time period. As always, her adept use of language sweeps the story along through time and space.
    • 4/5
      I liked the way this book dealt with the "consequences" of the decisions made by characters in this story. I enjoy reading about how we all deal with issues and circumstances differently and they result in various outcomes. I believe it lends to a greater perspective in our own lives.
    • 4/5
      I listened to this book as a download from my library. This family saga starts with two young people who fall in love prior to World War II. The young man is an artist and the couple retire to a small cottage in rural England so he can concentrate on his art. Of course, World War II intervenes and he never come home. His daughter and his granddaughter have all heard the story of this tragic romance. When his granddaughter meets the man now living in the cottage who has discovered some forgotten art it transforms her life.A lovely story with very interesting, strong women.
    • 3/5
      This novel begins when a woman from a wealthy family and a poor artist meet, fall in love, and marry with parental disapproval in 1930s London. What follows is a narrative of three generations of women in the family today. It's a lyrical text that seems oddly plotless, just kind of multi-generational vignettes. In fact the title is an interesting choice. All fiction in a sense is about consequences - a protagonist makes a choice and then must respond to the consequences. Yet this book seems to be less about consequences than your typical novel. Anyhow, it's a short book but it took me forever to complete, so I think that says something.
    • 4/5
      This is a lovely story of three generations of women in an English family. Lorna starts it all off by rebelling against her wealthy family and their dreams for her and marrying Matt, a starving artist. They are madly in love and settle in the English countryside in a cottage with no electricity and dote on their daughter Molly, until World War II intervenes. Then Molly's story is told along with Ruth's, Molly's daughter. Enjoyable, well-written, fun read. It was a nice change from some of the "heavier" books I have been reading.
    • 3/5
      I had like two other books by Penelope Lively quite a bit (Passing On and The Photograph) so was looking forward to this, I was disappointed -- it wasn't terrible but the characterization seemed flat. It did seem to improve a bit as it went along, and I wondered if that was intentional-- that the people farthest back in time were distant and hard to know where the people more contemporary with me were easier to relate to...
    • 3/5
      Consequences is the story of three generations of women: Lorna, an unhappy rich girl who marries an artist, Matt. Matt is killed in World War II, leaving Lorna to raise their daughter, Molly. Molly becomes pregnant but refuses to marry the father, whom she doesn't love. Her daughter, Ruth, rounds out the trilogy and brings the story back full cycle by visiting her grandfather's grave and returning to the cottage where her grandparents lived.I was expecting to read a story about large consequences based on choices the characters made, but this is the story of the smaller, everyday consequences of life. The writing was lovely, but the plot didn't carry enough weight to keep me interested in the lives of Molly and Ruth.
    • 3/5
      liked this novel. I always enjoy a Penelope Lively novel. This one is superbly written. The tone of the novel is soft and thoughtful, with little that jars. Considering the fact that two of the three heroines in the novels die prematurely, as does the man who's the center focus of the novel, that's an achievement. Lively has a way of muting the traumatic by focusing on ancillary things. The way one gets through periods of great sorrow or stress by cleaning the bathtub as it's never been cleaned before--or some other task that's inconsequential in the fact of one’s feelings. Several parts of the book begin after a death has occurred and the reader picks up the basic fact and the details bit by bit. Each new part indicates the passage of some years and a new focus; there are no chapters, just informal break which also indicate smaller gaps in the action. I liked that technique. It avoids "scenes" in a way that's not covering up emotion (the way my mother discouraged "scenes") but enhancing it.It's the story of three generations of women, mothers and daughters, starting in the 1930ies, and their small, odd, unconventional family where the women are always at the center. The three women are distinctly different characters without being terribly different in their basic sensibilities and approaches to life. They could so easily just have been reincarnations of the same character. There might be a problem, I'm thinking though, in moving as quickly as Lively does from one main character to another and depending on a dead artist (who died in WWII at the end of the first section) to unify the book. The conventional generational novel is longer, with a broader focus, more events, more characters so there's more closure when one moves from one generation to the next. This novel is much sparser and can't really be compared with a generational novel. It is a bit artificial to kill off two of the women; it needs to happen for the novel to work though.
    • 3/5
      I am obviously feeling rather crotchety this week. All my comments should be ignored. But, nevertheless, I found this book predictable and slow going. The characters never struck me as all that brave. The story went on and on….Who knows why I’m not raving over it? But I am not.
    • 4/5
      This is a story of multiple generations of one family and as such, doesn't dwell too long on any one individual. Birth, life, and death, are all dealt with a touch too briefly for my liking. However, on the positive side, we do get a rather interesting 'big picture' view of families and relationships. Further, Penelope Lively's characters always seem to have a special appeal to me. She finds interesting aspects to focus on and their worlds are a little bit out of the ordinary...out of my ordinary experience, anyway. In this book I found particular resonance with the fact that the main characters felt somehow connected to their ancestors. I suppose it's a normal part of being old (as are both P.Lively and myself) that you tend to reflect on the past rather than looking to the future. Despite the many sad and tragic turns of events in the lives of the characters, the book has a pervasive optimism, and so it's not surprising that it ends in a decidedly positive mood. It says something for Lively's writing that it even lifted my spirits (for a short time).
    • 2/5
      Penelope Lively's novel, Consequences, begins in 1935, with an unhappy rich girl sitting weeping on a bench in St James's Park. Nearby, a young man sketches the ducks. Their accidental meeting will later be described as the opening of a game of consequences, from which flows a long, sometimes rich narrative. Lively uses the chronicling of the experience of love in the lives of three generations of women, beginning in the 1930s with Lorna, then focusing on Molly in the post-war years and finally rounding off the tale with up-to-date Ruth. But this is no 'family saga' novel. The book is about the way time changes perceptions, and about memory and loss.This is not a long novel but it has a certain richness and covers such a swathe of time that it feels as if you have absorbed a great deal. The prose is elegant, the plotting meticulous but it seems sporadic as it jumps from decade to decade. Lively paints with quick, broad brushstrokes, then suddenly paints in a detail that brings her characters and their emotions to life on the page. The history of seventy years is sketched out in less than 300 pages, and yet you feel you know the principal characters intimately. Lively is a master at telling the reader more by writing less. However, I feel Consequences is a multigenerational book that was poorly executed, for while Lively includes the portions of the characters lives that highlight the main women, both the men and the background events fade away, much like old wallpaper that has lost its patina. Some of the male characters are sketchy but the three women - in many ways, one woman seen at different times - are sensitively portrayed. As a whole, the characters were very one-dimensional and I couldn’t help but wish that Lively would have dropped the whole idea of a multigenerational book and instead concentrated solely on Lorna and Matt. A very modern book, Consequences is in some respects deeply traditional. True love is the ultimate fulfillment for all these women. It was not sufficient for this reader.
    • 5/5
      One of Lively's best novels. It explores how human characteristics are modified and preserved over generations. Starting with the meeting of a young couple, the novel describes the ways in which their children and grandchildren are recognizably related to each other in tastes and choices. In historical terms, it begins in the 1940s and ends in the 1970s. . .Beautifully written, it manages to be detailed, laconic and moving.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful book that takes you on an interesting ride through time from the main character to, in time, into the future with her granddaughter. Having never met her grandparents and wanting to know more she looks into her past and shows the readers a different view of the story they read just pages before. ;) I would highly suggest it to anyone who would like to read something meaningful, with a historical fiction based in London over many different time eras, and of course a twist of romance. :)
    • 3/5
      I stumbled across Consequences on GoodReads and added it to my list of books to read because I was intrigued by the idea of a multigenerational book. However, Consequences is a multigenerational book that was poorly executed.Lively’s best characters, Lorna and Molly, exist at the beginning of the book but by the time you finally get to “know” Ruth, Molly’s daughter and Lorna’s granddaughter, I had lost all interest in her plight. As a whole, the characters were very one-dimensional and I couldn’t help but wish that Lively would have dropped the whole idea of a multigenerational book and instead concentrated solely on Lorna and Matt.Yet, I did like the overall flow of the book. I can see how it would be perceived as “choppy” and “sporadic” but I felt that it was easy to read and follow along with.
    • 2/5
      Three generations of women grow up in 20th century England. Lorna breaks away from her stultifying upper-middle-class background to marry an artist - after having a daughter together, Lorna's husband dies in WW2. Lorna's daughter Molly grows up fatherless and almost motherless - Lorna dies in childbirth after marrying again - and becomes a forthright and self-sufficient woman who chooses not to marry after becoming pregnant by her rich lover. Instead, she successfully raises her daughter Ruth on her own. Ruth is lackadaisical - she drifts into jobs, drifts into a marriage and motherhood. Lorna's and Molly's stories were fascinating, as they illuminated a key time in British history and because those women are so strong and interesting. Ruth never came alive for me - I had the feeling the author had no real affection or understanding of her (and maybe of her - and my own!- entire generation). So the book started strong for me but petered out - although Molly does finally find strong love at the end, a very heart-warming episode.
    • 4/5
      What a wonderful book! It covered three generations in a sparse 258 pages. And there's no shortage of food for thought. It started with a love story just before the Second World War and came right up to the 21st century. It came full circle with the granddaughter going back to the original cottage her grandparents started off married life in and seeing the first time where and how they lived. Among the treasures - frescoes her grandfather painted in the old cottage and for her, a new relationship. It's a wonderful story written in fine style.