Confusion

Elizabeth Jane Howard

Pan Books, 1994 - Families - 481 pages

During the long, dark day of war, the divided and troubled Cazalets begin to find the battle for survival echoing the confusion in their own lives. Headstrong, independent Louise surprises everyone by abandoning her dreams of the stage and making a society marriage. Unhappiness and loneliness, which have also plagued her mother's marriage, quickly settle in - Michael seems more interesting in his ship and his mother, to whom he is extraordinarily close, than in his young bride. And both Michael and his mother are desperate for her to become pregnant, a wish not shared by Louise. Polly and Clary, now in their late teens, finally fulfil their ambition of living together in London. But the reality of the city is not quite as they hoped. Polly is having to come to terms with the death of her mother, as well as look after her grieving father. And Clary - clever, sharp Clary, acutely aware she is neither beautiful like Polly nor striking like Louise - is the only Cazalet who seems to believe that her father might not be dead." --Publisher description.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - k8_not_kate - LibraryThing

I keep trying to come up with an elevator pitch way to describe this series but I always fall short. "It's about an upper crust-ish English family before, during, and after WWII" is technically ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - ParadisePorch - LibraryThing

I love this series, the saga of an English family during the years 1939 through the war. Howard's writing is dignified but does not shy away from difficult issues.

About the author

Elizabeth Jane Howard was the author of fifteen highly acclaimed novels. The Cazalet Chronicles - The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, Casting Off and All Change - have become established as modern classics and have been adapted for a major BBC television series and most recently for BBC Radio 4. In 2002 Macmillan published Elizabeth Jane Howard's autobiography, Slipstream. In that same year she was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Confusion; Cazalet Series; Book 3 of Cazalet chronicle, Elizabeth Jane Howard
• Author: Elizabeth Jane Howard
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Pan Books, 1994
• ISBN: 0330339958, 9780330339957
• Length: 481 pages