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.

    Unavailable
    The Passing Bells: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Passing Bells: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Passing Bells: A Novel
    Ebook620 pages11 hours

    The Passing Bells: A Novel

    By Phillip Rock

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Before Downton Abbey, there was Abingdon Pryory, the elegant country home of the Grevilles—a titled English family who, along with their servants, see their world turned upside down when England goes to war. Once their well-kept lawns and whirling social seasons give way to the horrors of World War I, no one, upstairs or downstairs, is left untouched. For fans of sweeping historical fiction, the reissue of Phillip Rock's New York Times bestseller The Passing Bells is a breathtaking family saga not to be missed.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateDec 4, 2012
    ISBN9780062229328
    Unavailable
    The Passing Bells: A Novel
    Author

    Phillip Rock

    Born in Hollywood, California, Phillip Rock lived in England with his family until the blitz of 1940. He spent his adult years in Los Angeles and published three novels before the Passing Bells series: Flickers, The Dead in Guanajuato, and The Extraordinary Seaman. He died in 2004.

    Read more from Phillip Rock

    Related to The Passing Bells

    Related ebooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Life In Wartime: Women Dominate A Quartet Of World War II Novels

      Aug 25, 2021

      The 4 best recent novels set during World War II show the ingenuity of women who put everything on the line to defeat the Nazis.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jul 29, 2020

      Book Club
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Audacious Angel Of Auschwitz

      Aug 11, 2021

      The Audacious Angel Of Auschwitz
      8 min read

    • Article

      Aske And You Shall Receive

      Nov 10, 2022

      Aske And You Shall Receive
      6 min read

    • Article

      STRIKE IT RICH ... With This Gem

      Oct 15, 2020

      STRIKE IT RICH ... With This Gem
      7 min read

    • Article

      An Amazing Country

      Dec 27, 2019

      An Amazing Country
      3 min read

    • Article

      Busted Flat in Barrydale

      Mar 16, 2020

      Busted Flat in Barrydale
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Land Of ‘Pub’

      Apr 13, 2022

      The Land Of ‘Pub’
      8 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading

      Jun 7, 2019

      Summer Reading
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Modest Man

      Oct 17, 2019

      The Modest Man
      5 min read

    • Article

      DESTINATIONS Hill and DALE

      Nov 11, 2019

      DESTINATIONS Hill and DALE
      4 min read

    • Article

      Bookish In Britain

      Mar 9, 2020

      Bookish In Britain
      5 min read

    • Article

      Galloping With The Grafton

      Nov 9, 2023

      Galloping With The Grafton
      6 min read

    • Article

      Where The Living Is Easy

      Aug 5, 2020

      Where The Living Is Easy
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Road To Hell

      Sep 16, 2019

      The Road To Hell
      6 min read

    • Article

      We’ve Got Mail

      Dec 18, 2020

      We’ve Got Mail
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Lightning Thread

      Sep 1, 2021

      The Lodge was a Victorian shooting box of minimal architectural distinction, belonging perhaps to the psychiatric baronial school. Its heavy, irregular exterior was set off by monkey puzzle trees, a mossy lawn and an embattled garden. The household w

      5 min read

    • Article

      This is England

      Apr 21, 2021

      This is England
      6 min read

    • Article

      I’ve Seen The Light

      Aug 10, 2018

      I’ve Seen The Light
      9 min read

    • Article

      What's Brewing In Kent?

      Jul 11, 2019

      What's Brewing In Kent?
      8 min read

    • Article

      A New Beginning

      May 27, 2021

      THE JOURNEYING MOON Shortly after the war I married and tried to settle down to a life in London. Like most of my generation, though, I was infected by restlessness. Early in our lives we had been given a taste for the world of action, and too much a

      4 min read

    Reviews for The Passing Bells

    4.5/5

    32 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This is the first of a trilogy that was written in 1979 and was recommended as something a fan of Downton Abbey would enjoy. The novel is divided into four books and the first one is very reminiscent of the Downton Abbey story and moves equally between the upstairs and downstairs characters.

      Anthony Greville, Earl of Stanmore, is the typical traditional English aristocrat. He's married to a beautiful woman and has three smart and attractive children. Archie Foxe is the business genius behind White Manor Tea Shops, a sort of Fortnum and Mason's. He's the father of Lydia, who longs to give up her bourgeois life and marry the Greville heir, Charles. Charles' best friend, Fenton Wood-Lacy has a career in the Coldstream Guards and needs to marry someone wealthy to maintain his lifestyle. Ivy Thaxton is a young maid who wants more out of life than being promoted to parlor maid and having every Wednesday afternoon off.

      The novel will explore World War I through the extended family and servants. Books Two and Three take some of the main characters into the heart of WWI. The descriptions of the fighting are heartbreaking and the horror of WWI is not neglected. Through the eyes of the American cousin, Martin Rilke, we are witness to Gallipoli and the Battle of the Somme. I don't think I ever realized how truly horrific "trench warfare" was. Martin is also able to give us the American perspective of the conflict since most of the action he witnesses is before America enters the war.

      I don't know what I was expecting with this book but I really liked it. The author makes his male characters way more interesting than the female ones. He doesn't focus on one main character and perhaps that's because a lot of the story takes place during the war and the female characters are mostly relegated to England or as wartime nurses. One notable exception is Alexandra Greville, who comes to grip with the horrors of war and really grows up during the passage of the book.

      It was a very engaging family saga that reflects the British class, culture and spirit of that time period. I thought the story was very intriguing and immediately ordered up the second in the series called "Circles in Time".

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The advent of Downton Abbey has brought WWI English history to a new level of popularity. I will admit here and now that I have never seen an episode of the show. I think I am the last person on the face of the Earth.... That being said I am glad that it led to the re-release of this trilogy of books purported to be similar to the show. I can't write to that for the obvious reasons but I can tell you that The Passing Bells is book worth reading whether you watch BBC television shows or not.There are two sets of players as you would expect - the Grevilles who are the owners of Abingdon Pryory and their friends and the staff of the Pryory. According to England's long standing societal traditions - at least up until this point in history - never the twain shall meet. The cast of characters is a bit extensive but they are easy to keep track of once you meet them all. Mr. Rock does a great job of introducing them into the story so the reader gets a feeling for their personalities. All is right in both worlds of Abingdon Pryory until the Great War rears its ugly head and impacts each member of Upstairs and Downstairs are impacted in some way. Lines that were never crossed in the past are suddenly broken and new rules are being written.The book was written in the early '70s and actually reads as if from an even earlier time. I liked that. The characters are well rounded and the descriptions of place and time are dead on. When the book switches to France for the war the battle scenes do not make for easy reading (when is war ever easy?) but it is the focus for everyone at the time. No comes through unscathed and how each character - those that survive, this is war after all - must now learn to live in a new world.I found myself quite enthralled, entranced and engrossed in the lives and loves of the people of Abingdon Pryory. It's a world I am looking forward to revisiting in the next two books of the trilogy.
    • 4/5
      First published in 1978, The Passing Bells has gotten a new lease on life, thanks to the popularity of the BBC show Downton Abbey. As you can see from the description, this book is being marketed as similar to Downton, and, thankfully, there is some truth in that. However, the focus in The Passing Bells is much more on history than on romantic drama. The Passing Bells reads more like Herman Wouk's Winds of War in a Downton-like setting.

      The Passing Bells gets off to a rather slow start, introducing the myriad characters, but not delving too deeply to any one of them. This portion before the war is most reminiscent of Downton Abbey, but was also my least favorite part, because it lacked drama to pull me in and I did not yet know the characters well enough to be more than mildly interested in them. Given the 500 pages in the book, I feared I might regret my decision to be on the tour for all three novels in this series, but, thankfully, the novel picked up for me about 150 pages in.

      In Downton Abbey, WWI happens largely off-screen, and it's over quite quickly. The show races through history, but Rock lingers. He does not gloss over the war or keep the perspective more on the romances. He also shows off more of the dark side of war, which may have been his goal in composing the series. Rock highlights this time period as the turning point in England from the time of the landed estates to a more modern sensibility.

      The Passing Bells encompasses the whole of WWII, with an emphasis on the first couple years of the conflict. The characters in The Passing Bells have roles in the war that range from soldier to nurse to doctor to journalist to living a slightly reduced life back in England. There's a great scope of British experiences during the war, all done very well. If you love historical fiction about World War I, The Passing Bells is a must read.

      Rock develops a good cast of characters, some of whom are even reminiscent of characters in Downton Abbey, like Lydia who reminds me a lot of Lady Mary at her most scheming. I do wish there were more of an even focus on the female characters. The men receive a lot more attention than the women, who mostly appear only in relation to the male characters. The book does pass the Bechdel test, but only just barely.

      Rock's The Passing Bells is a family drama of large scope that poses serious questions about the nature of modern warfare. History fans will not want to miss this. I am looking forward to reading the next installment of the trilogy quite soon.