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The Seven Sisters Paperback – October 13, 2003

by Margaret Drabble (Author)
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 366 ratings
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When circumstances compel her to start over late in her life, Candida Wilton moves from a beautiful Georgian house in lovely Suffolk to a two-room, walk-up flat in a run-down building in central London--and begins to pour her soul into a diary. Candida is not exactly destitute. So, is the move perversity, she wonders, a survival test, or is she punishing herself? How will she adjust to this shabby, menacing, but curiously appealing city? What can happen, at her age, to change her life?
In a voice that is pitch-perfect, Candida describes her health club, her social circle, and her attempts at risk-taking in her new life. She begins friendships of sorts with other women-widowed, divorced, never married, women straddled between generations. And then there is a surprise pension-fund windfall . . .
A beautifully rendered story, this is Margaret Drabble at her novelistic best.
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  1. Print length
    307 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    October 13, 2003
  4. Dimensions
    5.3 x 0.8 x 7.9 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    9780156028752
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0156028752
  7. Lexile measure
    920L
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

PRAISE FOR THE PEPPERED MOTH

"One of the more absorbing novels I have read in a long time, both for its sheer storytelling ability and for its powers of imaginative conjecture."--The New York Times Book Review

"This book fairly bounces. Its zest derives in large part from the perfectly sustained tone, which expresses humor without poking fun, and deep regret without sentimentality."--The Atlantic Monthly

PRAISE FOR THE WITCH OF EXMOOR

"Part social satire, part thriller, and entirely clever."--Elle

"Part mystery, part fairy tale . . . with a wicked, dead-on wit."--People
—

From the Inside Flap

From the celebrated author of The Peppered Moth and The Witch of Exmoor, a splendid novel about starting over late in life
Candida Wilton-a woman recently betrayed, rejected, divorced, and alienated from her three grown daughters-moves from a beautiful Georgian house in lovely Suffolk to a two-room walk-up flat in a run-down building in central London. Candida is not exactly destitute. So is the move perversity, she wonders, a survival test, or is she punishing herself? How will she adjust to this shabby, menacing, but curiously appealing city? What can happen, at her age, to change her life? And yet, as she climbs the dingy communal staircase with her suitcases, she feels both nervous and exhilarated.
There is a relationship with a computer to which she now confides her past and her present. And friendships of sorts with other women - widows, divorced, never married, women straddled between generations. And then Candida's surprise inheritance...
A beautifully rendered story, this is Margaret Drabble at her novelistic best.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0156028751
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; First Edition (October 13, 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 307 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780156028752
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0156028752
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 920L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 0.8 x 7.9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 366 ratings

About the author

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Margaret Drabble

Margaret Drabble

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Margaret Drabble is the author of The Sea Lady, The Seven Sisters, The Peppered Moth, and The Needle's Eye, among other novels. She has written biographies of Arnold Bennett and Angus Wilson, and she is the editor of the fifth and sixth editions of The Oxford Companion to English Literature. For her contributions to contemporary English literature, she was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2008.

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
366 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

P. Schumacher
5.0 out of 5 stars Finding the Super in the Natural
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2006
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This is a spectacular book--but it may fool you, because it is quietly spectacular.

It's basically about death and rebirth--spiritual death and rebirth--but you only find this out gradually.

At first it just seems the (brilliant) musings of Candida Wilton, a fiftyish woman who has been dumped by her husband (who is the head of a pricy private school) for a younger model.

She uproots herself for London--penniless (or almost), friendless, jobless, childless, skill-less, and, it would seem, futureless.

Almost by accident, she takes a course on Virgil, then, thanks to an unexpected windfall, retraces part of Aeneas's journey from Carthage to the Sybil at Cumae. She takes with her five other women, some new, some old, and meets the astonishing Valeria; and these become the Seven Sisters of the title.

But the Seven Sisters are also a part of London she can see from her shabby apartment; and also a constellation she can see through her slightly flawed living room window.

And that's the way this novel works--by connecting. Connecting the past and the present, and building the future. By connecting unlikely people and building not only friendship but character. Connecting the present day with the ancient past and forming a huge perspective on civilization.

Drabble's character is a triumph. Candida writes a diary that, unwittingly, turns into a kind of poetry. Surprisingly, poetry is not so much a matter of expression as of observation.

And the book is full of unexpected twists and jolts--always moving into new thematic material, just when you thought it had finished.

The last (very short) part is called "A Dying Fall." This seems apt and almost anticlimactic, except that it perfectly ties off and rounds out the main theme, which is: even the most mundane things are miracles; it is only a question of jumping the fences and noticing them.
15 people found this helpful
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R. E. Cooke
4.0 out of 5 stars An Umbrella Life
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2014
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Each book is a journey and author Drabble's novel 'The Seven Sisters' is indeed a trip. At first I wondered where this book was going and it took some investigative reading. The first part was a diary written in first person by the protagonist Candida who is in her third quarter of life. Drabble can throw out some wonderful phrases like that. 'She likes to keep up with the past' and 'social squawkers on their mobile phones' were another couple of favorite phrases.
The next part was written in third person telling of the trip that Candida embarked on with a variety of women, all seven stars in the constellation in their own ways. After a following type of life Candida leads them in tracing Virgil's Aeneid's trip to Italy. Water plays a character throughout the novel too. The third part of the novel is a bit of a shock but rounds out the life of Candida.
5 people found this helpful
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Anne
3.0 out of 5 stars Uneven SPOILERS
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2021
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I enjoyed the first person accounts, but lost interest when she switched into third person, and then totally made up a portion in which the main characters daughter allegedly wrote about the protagonist’s death.
One person found this helpful
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Lulu
5.0 out of 5 stars I Adore this Author
Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2014
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.... and that adoration continues after reading "The Seven Sisters." Maybe because I'm in my 70's now and wonder what it would be like to be widowed at this age. I admired her efforts, appreciated her good fortune, satisfied my self that this character (her hero) lived an examined life and a life well-lived. Dear Margaret Drabble, please keep 'em coming.
4 people found this helpful
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A. Brookes
4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, 5 stars for style
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2014
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This book needs to be read more than once to fully appreciate the complex twists and turns the author flawlessly leads the reader through. The basic story concerns a middle aged woman starting over after the failure of her marriage. It is the writing that makes it much more than that. I would have rated it 5 stars, but there are a few things that I found tedious. Maybe I need to read it a third time to see if I can find the point of them, I am sure it is there.
2 people found this helpful
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Bookwoman
1.0 out of 5 stars No fun
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2018
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I was to read this for book club. I couldn't finish it. I just didn't like it and most of the woman felt the same way.
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Elisabeth
3.0 out of 5 stars Some disjunctions
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2014
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This book is a mixture of narrative and ruminations; not sure it works and felt somewhat manipulated at one point. To describe this manipulation would reveal too much of the story.
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NMGO
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant evocation of growing old alone--well not quite alone--growing old ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2017
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Brilliant evocation of growing old alone--well not quite alone--growing old with memories, with new and fleeting friends, with children who no longer care. Drabble is better at capturing the vicissitudes of aging than anyone I know of....and she is witty and a great stylist.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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carla pecchio
3.0 out of 5 stars Candida sola
Reviewed in Italy on October 30, 2013
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La parte migliore del libro è quella iniziale e finale, dove l'autrice parla di sé e della sua solitudine in prima persona. Questa parte è "vera", sincera e scritta in modo adeguato. La parte centrale (viaggio in Italia, contatto con la figlia e presento suicidio) è originale, ma non è del tutto convincente, in quanto più superficiale e, forse, meno curata.
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リンゼイ
4.0 out of 5 stars 読みやすいけど難しいですね
Reviewed in Japan on November 4, 2013
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この本、２回目です。前回と比べて、The Aeneidとかも僅かながら予習済みになって読みやすかった。ドラブルさんの文章は枯れた感じですね。前の３部作と比べると軽めの作品でした。ミドルエイジになって、やっと自由を得たキャンディダさんが、この年で「のこのこと」ロンドンに出てきて一人暮らしを始める。荒涼とした下町の描写、彼女の孤独、何だか孤独と一緒に生きていける微妙な友人たちとの距離感。北アフリカ、ナポリ旅行は明るくて楽しそうでしたね。その後が難解というか微妙。お嬢さんとの関係とか。構成も一般的ではなく、どう読めば良いんでしょうか。
ロンドンのスポーツ・クラブでの孤独と、なんだかそれを愛した描写が印象的でした。面白いかどうかは微妙ですが、ドラブルさんの小説にはまっています。
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Ms. M. Wilde
5.0 out of 5 stars On the Top of her Form
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 1, 2002
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Margaret Drabble - from her first book - charted the progress of the English family life in the welfare state. Her keen eye for detail makes readers nostalgic for years less influenced by television. Her protagonists were energetic, larky intelligent women. Candida Wilton - the diarist of "Seven Sisters" is the older version of those amazing characters and so, a bit slower. When the book opens, Candida has been living alone for a couple of years since being supplanted by a younger woman. Her headmaster ex-husband and her daughters having reduced her to invisible wife-work - they don't appear to notice she has gone. By now, she has come to terms with solitude, managing a small budget and coping. It sounds depressing but domesticated wives are watchers, and slowly her wry, crafty humour emerges into the diary. The spirited young woman she must have been, made her choose a flat in a mixed area of West London - very unlike the Georgian house in Sussex she left behind. Candida's life started to change when the building where she took evening classes was redeveloped into a health club, and she was encouraged to join. The flattening of her personality from a long boring marriage, begins to open out - she suggests the old classmates meet to continue their study. They discuss travelling to the Mediterranean to follow in the footsteps of Virgil's story. Then an unexpected windfall encourages her to organise the trip - six assorted intelligent women - and an exotic tour operator who drives their vehicle - makes seven. The grey of Ladbroke Grove explodes into brilliant colour and they start their great adventure. The atmosphere of symbolism & legend is beautifully maintained - a kind of tranquility produced by supportive companions on a pilgimage together. Then a minor drama from the inquisitive husband, temporarily brings her family nearer - but by this time - she is complete on her own. Candida is a beautiful character - a witty grumpy, complex and intelligent woman. I read every page slowly with pleasure - it's a marvellous book.
60 people found this helpful
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Lindsay
4.0 out of 5 stars This novel is a little dated now, but I ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 15, 2016
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This novel is a little dated now, but I am enjoying it so far. It deals with the subject of a women who finds herself on her own after years of marriage, and how she copes with this and her lack of confidence/self esteem. It speaks to many of us I feel.
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momoyukiko
4.0 out of 5 stars 「碾臼」と比較して読むと面白そう
Reviewed in Japan on September 20, 2003
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ドラブルは、実は「碾臼」しか読んだことがなかった。「碾臼」では主人公の女性はまだ若く、予期せぬ妊娠・出産体験を通して世の中を知っていくというストーリーだったが、この"The Seven Sisters"の主人公は中年で3人の子どもがおり、離婚の後ロンドンで一人暮らしをしている。この本は2つの点において興味深かった。
1つは、一人で都市に暮らす中年の女性の視点だ。基本的に刺激も変化も少ない生活だ。そのような暮らしを送る女性が現在の自分と過去の自分をどう受け止めるか、そして変化がおきたときには、どのようにそれを受け止め行動するか。人生の秋を迎えた女性の心の動きが時にユーモラスに時に鋭く描かれ、読み応えがあった。
2つ目は、小説の構成だ。1章は日記形式。しかもPCに彼女がつけている日記だ。2章は3人称。3章は娘の1人称。4章は主人公の女性の1人称だ。章ごとに形式が変わり、ともすれば退屈になりかねないリスクを回避している。また、このような構成のために、一層主人公の女!性とその生活が多面的に描き出され物語全体は豊かになっているように思われた。
ところで私は現在は「碾臼」の主人公とむしろ似た立場にいるが、数十年後には「The Seven Sisters」の主人公のように都市で暮らすのだろうか。そのとき私は何をどのように考えながら暮らすのだろうかと想像しながら読むのもまた楽しかった。
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