"Rather dated"

[ImJustMadAboutSaffron]

I just finished reading a book, published in 1977, set either 1975 or 1976. I went on Amazon to look at some reviews (I know these are not worth reading, for the most part; often I have seen "Boring" or "Rubbish" as a "review") because sometimes there are some interesting ones.

Someone has written that the book is "rather dated". What do they expect 45 years later for heavens' sake???

Just to add I love the period references but also find fascinating the contrast in, what I suppose you'd call, society attitudes between then & now.

I'm glad I started this thread!

Love this thread! I love Elizabeth Taylor which are real slices of life from the 50s/60s. And has anyone read Nan Maynard? I’ve not met anyone IRL who’s even heard of her.

@JaninaDuszejko i was reading a book and found it was set in and referred to the Spanish flu period in the US. Eerily reflective of covid. It’s called As Bright as Heaven and is by Susan Meissner.

Usually 'rather dated' is code for racism / sexism / homophobia in my experience. That's how interpret this too.

Anything by Mary Stewart, who is a cracking writer.

jilly Coopers early books, all with a girls name, eg Imogen

Ooh I just looked up Nan Maynard on Amazon. They seem to be second hand copies mostly and sone have rather raunchy covers

I know @tobee , the covers are very soft focus “erotic”! She’s a brilliant writer though. Leaf In the wind is terrific.

I don't think anyone has mentioned Iris Murdoch yet - very strong on rather dated middle class lives. I would particularly recommend 'The Sandcastle' 'A Fairly Honourable Defeat' and 'An Accidental Man' for rather dated everyday life. I like almost all her books, but some are more weird and wonderful than reasonably ordinary people.

Good thought @Antarcticant

I have a great copy of ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’ with the cover tag-line: “Makes ‘Room at the Top’ look like a vicarage tea party” 😺

My DF was a university lecturer and he used to collect paperbacks of DH Lawrence novels with raunchy covers and suggestive strap lines: I can’t help thinking a lot of readers must have been disappointed (even ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ is mostly a rather serious post-WW1 state-of-the-nation novel, IMHO).

Margaret Drabble’s “A Summer Bird Cage” was the first book I read (other than chrildren’s books, of course). It is about two middle-class sisters in the 1960s, and their aspirations. One is newly graduated from Oxford, and one is marrying a grim but wealthy man.

Margaret Drabble’s “A Summer Bird Cage” was the first book I read (other than chrildren’s books, of course).

That would make a brilliant thread - 'What was the first adult novel you ever read?'

I came on to recommend Mary Stewart too, fabulous escapist books which l first read in my teens and still return to now, 55 years later.

Get it going then!

Here it is! I didn't want to start a thread with the word 'adult' in the title late at night in case it attracted the wrong kind of attention!😃

www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/4610402-what-was-the-first-adult-novelbook-you-read-and-how-old-were-you

Just thinking about Penelope Lively, I'd really recommend According to Mark - it's one of those books that doesn't do anything in particular but is just incredibly, deeply, satisfying. I find it quite redolent of the 80s but there's nothing specific about that, just that it's set then, and it's surprising how it brings that time back for me, even though nobody in the book has much in common with me. Just small things perhaps - how people get in touch with each other, what they do for fun, their assumptions and what they do when they're pushing their own boundaries. I'm not really selling it but I do love it.

Susan Howatch is another good author and some of her books are set in the 70s or through different time periods of the 20th century like the Starbridge novels

I've also just read the Ella Palmer trilogy by Stan Barstow, hard to obtain as out of print but set in WW2.

Stan Barstow is such a good writer and I loved the Vic Brown novels even though he was a bit of an arse at times

Adore Mary Stewart! Plucky heroines in fast cars.
Also think Anita Brookner is very underrated.

Elizabeth Jane Howard is another one especially the Cazalet chronicles

Oh yes! I read The Rich Are Different at 18 and followed up with Sins of the Father's then got all the family sagas. I wasn't as much a fan of the Starbridge series though. Also her writing wasn't contemporary like Penelope Lively or Lynne Reid Banks, but she's probably my earliest favourite author. I re-read these regularly.

Fathers! Autocorrect!

I just read “According to Mark”! Yes, these older type novels are very pleasing in that there’s no need for great drama, a huge twist, sordid reveal of dark secrets etc. Just people being human and flawed and a bit stupid. I have to say Anne Tyler is a contemporary writer who also does those types of novels but she did start a long time ago so has just continued the tradition!

If you want a more lightweight version of these books, Rosamund Pilcher does a nice line in formulaic light romance-type novels in gorgeous settings with lots of very likeable characters (and always a devoted “woman who does” who works for the main male character who makes wonderful cakes etc and is always on hand to deal with the mundane aspects of life).

Did the reader say what they thought was "dated" about the book?

I guess she explores similar themes in all her books (memory, past/present interaction) and her characters tend to be middle class and of an intellectual bent. She doesn't get too bogged down by that though - I mean it's not like reading Ian McEwan where you can practically see him stroking himself as he writes about his character's massive big bloody desk or leather fucking key fob. Maybe it's just that the book isn't gritty?