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Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽'s Reviews > Mrs Tim of the Regiment
Mrs Tim of the Regiment (Mrs. Tim #1)
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Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽'s review
bookshelves: historical-fiction, military, england, scotland, dated-social-attitudes
Dec 12, 2019
bookshelves: historical-fiction, military, england, scotland, dated-social-attitudes
3.5 stars. This is the first book in the Mrs. Tim series, a novel in the form of journal entries written by the wife of a career British military officer, Mrs. Tim Christie. D.E. Stevenson, who wrote this book in 1932, was herself a military wife, and based much of this book on her own real-life journal, so there's definitely a realistic take on the ups and downs of British military life in between the world wars.
The first half is best viewed as an immersion into Hester Christie's day-to-day life. It doesn't really have much of a plot, but she has a wry sense of humor and tells some interesting stories. The second half is more novel-like, as Hester visits a well-to-do friend in Scotland for a few weeks' vacation and there's lots of interpersonal drama, including her friend's son falling in love with the Wrong Girl and a Major Tony Morley (who works closely with Hester's husband Tim) who follows Hester around and has fallen in love with her ... which Hester utterly fails to realize because she's "hedged about with innocence," in Tony's words. Her obliviousness to his love for her never really worked for me, since Hester is otherwise quite observant, but maybe this is what readers in the 30s expected where one of the parties was married? In any case, even though Tim isn't around for most of the book, Hester is unswervingly devoted to him. And Tony, questionable though his motives may be, is a hilarious guy who always brightens up the pages when he appears.
It's a cozy read, definitely of its time in terms of social attitudes and unexamined classism, but that generally comes with the territory in older books. This isn't my favorite book by D.E. Stevenson (that would be Miss Buncle's Book) but I did enjoy getting a glimpse of another, bygone world through Hester Christie's eyes.
These books were very popular in their day (Stevenson wrote three more Mrs. Tim books) but I may or may not ever get around to reading them. I did read her book The Four Graces last week, which I'd recommend more than this one for people who like old-fashioned romances.
The first half is best viewed as an immersion into Hester Christie's day-to-day life. It doesn't really have much of a plot, but she has a wry sense of humor and tells some interesting stories. The second half is more novel-like, as Hester visits a well-to-do friend in Scotland for a few weeks' vacation and there's lots of interpersonal drama, including her friend's son falling in love with the Wrong Girl and a Major Tony Morley (who works closely with Hester's husband Tim) who follows Hester around and has fallen in love with her ... which Hester utterly fails to realize because she's "hedged about with innocence," in Tony's words. Her obliviousness to his love for her never really worked for me, since Hester is otherwise quite observant, but maybe this is what readers in the 30s expected where one of the parties was married? In any case, even though Tim isn't around for most of the book, Hester is unswervingly devoted to him. And Tony, questionable though his motives may be, is a hilarious guy who always brightens up the pages when he appears.
It's a cozy read, definitely of its time in terms of social attitudes and unexamined classism, but that generally comes with the territory in older books. This isn't my favorite book by D.E. Stevenson (that would be Miss Buncle's Book) but I did enjoy getting a glimpse of another, bygone world through Hester Christie's eyes.
These books were very popular in their day (Stevenson wrote three more Mrs. Tim books) but I may or may not ever get around to reading them. I did read her book The Four Graces last week, which I'd recommend more than this one for people who like old-fashioned romances.
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Reading Progress
December 3, 2019
–
Started Reading
December 3, 2019
– Shelved
December 11, 2019
–
Finished Reading
December 12, 2019
– Shelved as:
historical-fiction
December 12, 2019
– Shelved as:
military
December 12, 2019
– Shelved as:
england
December 12, 2019
– Shelved as:
scotland
December 12, 2019
– Shelved as:
dated-social-attitudes
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Sherwood
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Dec 12, 2019 11:03AM
I read the rest back in the day when these were found all over used bookstores for a dime apiece. The series gets successively more Mary Sue, as each book is filled with men who fall in love with sweet, cluelessly pure Mrs. Tim.
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The Major and Hester portion was a flop for me (too). I've downloaded the next audiobook in the series because of the narrator: wishing you'd already read and reviewed it ;-) so I could see if I'm going to be donating good reading time to a ho-hum story .......
Sherwood wrote: "I read the rest back in the day when these were found all over used bookstores for a dime apiece. The series gets successively more Mary Sue, as each book is filled with men who fall in love with s..."Thus confirming my decision to give the rest of the series a pass. :) Her inexplicable cluelessness on this one particular issue was not just unrealistic but actively irritating to me. And if she were as pure as she's made out to be, it seems to me she wouldn't be off gallivanting around the countryside alone with Tony (and on a solitary swimming expedition, no less!) At least she should have taken Betty (whose unwitting chaperone effect was specifically noted in reference to Guthrie and Elsie) along on the excursions or something.
Chelle wrote: "The Major and Hester portion was a flop for me (too). I've downloaded the next audiobook in the series because of the narrator: wishing you'd already read and reviewed it ;-) so I could see if I'm ..."
From scanning some reviews for the rest of the series it doesn't look like that particular dynamic ever changes. So yeah, I'm not likely to be of any help to you here. :)
Hester & I have parted company, but I am still interested in reading more of Stevenson's books.
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ wrote: "I think you'd like her book that I just read, The Four Graces."I think Stevenson has shown me I will like her later works. The two I can find in my bombshell office are Katherine Wentworth & Sarah Morris Remembers but I think i have at least two more.
I'm not familiar with either of those two.
I agree about her noticing Tony is in love with her, how can she not notice? I’ve always found that a bit irritating.
Louise wrote: "I agree about her noticing Tony is in love with her, how can she not notice? I’ve always found that a bit irritating."Full agreement here! It doesn't fit with her observant character.
From the author's introduction I think the difference between the first and second halves (two separate books originally) is the first is actually Stevenson's diary fictionalized. Totally agree about the ridiculousness of her not noticing. And it really gets worse in the sequels? I may just not go on...
D.E. Stevenson is hit and miss for me. I’ve really enjoyed some of her retro romance books, but others are forgettable.
