I really liked this book. It was somehow different then I thought when buying it.

Op mijn plank ligt het uit te rusten voordat het verder gaat

Given to me by Hema-verf in a bag of books at the meeting in OBCZ Lux on Thursday 8th October. Oh dear, looks like another book I can't resist reading before passing it on!
Shortlisted for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007.

Who is observing whom in this novel, and why? In some ways this is a cautionary tale about the failure to allow a natural outlet for a woman to make use of her brain and talents. In this somewhat gothic tale, a bored and isolated woman decides to observe the only person she has the opportunity to watch, her household maid. But soon she herself is under observation, and before the end, everything will change and she will be given another, richer opportunity to put her powers of scientific observation and analysis to the test.

Set in 1863, 'The Observations' is a thoroughly enjoyable tale of a self-assured young girl, "Bessy", running away from her despicable mother in Glasgow and taken on as a maid at a remote country house. Her new mistress, Arabella Reid, seems to have a split personality, sometimes caring and sometimes cold-hearted, yet Bessy soon becomes devoted to her, doing her best to please, even though her mistress often asks her to perform pointless tasks, makes strange measurements and asks Bessy to record her daily activities and thoughts in a journal. Bessy soon realises that the household seems to have a bizarre mystery surrounding it as Arabella has had an unusually large number of maids, and the previous one seems to have left after an argument. The reader is set up to expect tales of murder and mystery or secrets in the attic, and as Bessy has a vivid imagination, we can share in all her more fanciful ideas of what is going on. The majority of the book is an account by Bessy which she is writing for some unnamed "gentlemen" in an attempt to explain what led up to some mysterious climactic event which is only revealed near the end of the book. Gradually we learn more about Bessy's past as she recounts the tale of her stay with the Reids and how she managed to piece together the story of the house, and of how she herself had unintentionally been instrumental in the downfall of her mistress.

Although told in a totally different style, in the voice of Bessy herself, with all its comic asides and colloquialisms, this is a period piece with shades of 'Jane Eyre' and 'The Thirteenth Tale; hints of mysteries, ghostly visitations, mental illness and illicit meetings. The tension is kept going until almost the last moment, with many twists and turns in the plot, until everything is revealed at last. There is plenty of local colour both in the language and descriptions of Bessy's life, and yet it was difficult to place it in a particular time. The back cover mentions 1863, yet this is not specified in the book itself, and it could have taken place any time between the 1830s (when the railways were built) and WWI, although cars and telephones were not mentioned. As the book is written in Bessy's voice, the author seems to think we need to be reminded of this occasionally by the use of the odd dialect word, yet the narrative itself tells us that Bessy is writing, and though that is clever, too much of it is in standard English to make it completely convincing, and I found the omission of apostrophes in words such as "don't" to be irritating and unnecessary, as the rest of the punctuation and spelling was correct. I also found the last chapter detailing the fates of the minor characters unnecessary as I had not formed any attachment to them; once the mystery of the past and the fate of Arabella had been clarified, I would have been happy to stop reading this thoroughly absorbing novel.

Released during the New Year's Meeting.

This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - read and release books on the TBR list since before the end of 2013. My reading goal is 36 books.
- Pages Read Challenge - read a self-set target number of pages in 2013. My goal is 15,000.

TBR

I started reading and thought I would like the story, but soon gave up (after a bit over 100 pages) because I just got tired of the way both Bessy and 'marm' wrote all kinds of things I am not interested in ;-)

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Meegenomen vanaf OBCZ Bolle Boel

So I read this book already in 2015, but have no clue where it is! Hope it will turn up in one of my overflowing bookcases.

Anyway: here my review:
Love this book!
In the beginning it is quite difficult to follow what will happen and who is who. However, when you get the hang of it the book is really funny. Bessy writes in catchy tone and because you read present, past, lies and truth all in once it is never boring.

In the observation Bessy (also known as Rosebud and Daisy) runs away from her mother (also known as her sister ;) ) and finds herself at a 'castle' which is in need of a maid. She hasn't been a maid, but still. She is scared for the truth of her not being a maid will come out. Her missus (of marm) is measuring all kinds of strange things and asking strange tasks. Bessy finds out she is writing a great book about the obedience of maids. And that her missus knows the truth! But missus didn't care. There bond grows and Bessy will do everything to make her missus happy. When her missus start seeing Nora, the previous maid, who died in a train accident, hell breaks loose. How will Bessy, Marm (Arabella) and master James work everything out?

I really liked the ending. When Arabella turns out losing her wits, Bessy stays with her and will continue to try to make the missus happy. The ending is really a feel good book. It has the same feel over it as the Help. Which I also really enjoyed.

Zoals ik in de vorige boekbericht al aangaf heb ik geen idee waar het boek is. Ik vermoed dat hij met een boekendump in Utrecht beland is.