(Larger Image)
|
Camilla (Laurel Leaf Books)
by Madeleine L'Engle
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Laurel Leaf (1982-12-15)
ISBN: 0440911710
EAN: 9780440911715
Binding/Media: Paperback - 288 pages
Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: 1982-11-15
SKU: 2H-S2CX-2HKO
Condition: Acceptable
Comments: Mass market paperback from Dell (1965), this is Camilla by Madeleine L'Engle. Saturday Review wrote of this early YA novel by L'Engle, "There is a remarkable similarity between this book and J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. Both are told in the first person, and both are concerned with the problems of a sensitive adolescent faced suddenly with the necessity of crossing the dividing line between childhood and maturity. Ms. L'Engle's Camilla has more innate strength and stability than Salinger's Holden Caulfied." I never thought I'd hear L'Engle compared to Salinger - this piques my curiosity! This copy is a Dell Laurel Leaf edition, very worn with chips at edges, urbbing, and a couple of creases on cover, and pages that are clean but age-tanned. We take care to describe our books individually and with accuracy, hoping that the personal touch will give you confidence that the cheaper volume sellers cannot offer. « if ( document.getElementById ) { document.writeln('Show less'); }
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
Fifteen-year-old Camilla gains new maturity through her relationship with her best friend's brother and the growing realization that her parents are fallible individuals.
|
Customer Reviews
|
Interesting family interactions
Rating  (4)
Date: 2010-08-19
I am a Madeline fan and always enjoy her books and own many of them. When I started reading this one it seemed to be a good one to share with my early teen granddaughters but as I read on I realized it is really for late teens or young adults. As Camilla learns more about life, love, friendship and family conflicts she grows in maturity and finding her place in the world. I loved the part where she realizes that she is really an individual and has her own place in the world and that others do also. This takes great insight at her age and certainly will help her as she matures.
|
|
decent
Rating (4)
Date: 2010-04-13
Camilla is a good read even if I hate the ending. I was never sure it had ended wrong until I read A House Like a Lotus and that book proved that Camilla did not end up with Frank, how anoying.
|
|
A personal favorite
Rating (4)
Date: 2010-03-14
"Camilla", or in some editions, "Camilla Dickinson", is obviously a very early Madeleine L'Engle novel, as it lacks the fantasy, allegorical, historical, and suspense elements that permeate her later work. It is a coming-of-age story about a young, well-to-do girl, Camilla, living in New York City in what appears to be the early 1950s. I found it in the adults' section of the library when I was about 14, and was curious about it because I had loved "A Wrinkle in Time" so much. At that age, I skipped over some of the heavy-duty philosophizing that Camilla and her friend Frank engage in (such discussions of life, the universe and everything being handled more skillfully in L'Engle's "The Moon by Night", in my opinion) but I enjoyed reading about their adventures in New York and the romantic moments of the story moved me to tears.
As the story begins, Camilla is a young teen living a life that is sheltered in some respects, but dysfunctional in others. Her parents are gorgeous and rich, but fight and cheat on each other. Her mother attempts suicide, which has the desired effect of bringing father rushing back to her side. Camilla, a quiet and thoughtful girl with none of the dramatis personae of her mother, escapes by gazing out her window at the stars, and by spending time with her friend Luisa. Luisa is the daughter of bohemian parents who have a similarly stormy marital relationship. Luisa also has a brother named Frank, who suddenly starts to take an interest in being friends with Camilla. Within a short span of time, and to Luisa's chagrin, Camilla and Frank become inseparable and explore New York City together, talking about all kinds of emotional and philosophical subjects, and along the way, falling into first love. Frank takes Camilla to places she normally wouldn't go, and to see people she normally wouldn't meet, such as a disabled war veteran who gives Camilla her first kiss - a little bit surprising as you'd think her first kiss would be Frank, the way things are going.
As it turns out, Camilla and Frank are unexpectedly and tragically parted before they even get a chance to do so much as kiss. This makes for a very sad ending, which seems even sadder upon discovering that Camilla and Frank turn up in other, later, L'Engle books, but are "just friends" and apparently don't continue their youthful romance. However, the descriptions of their short time together, interspersed with lovely descriptions of old New York, make for a very sweet and wistful read, until you get to the conclusion. I love this book in the same way as I love "Romeo and Juliet". Furthermore, I choose to set L'Engle's later works about these characters aside and believe, as I did when I was 14 (before L'Engle had written any sequels) that Cam and Frank did find each other again when they were old enough to have some control over their lives, and lived happily ever after.
|
|
Enthusiastically recommended for listeners of all ages
Rating  (5)
Date: 2009-12-12
Camilla is the unabridged audiobook adaptation of a novel by Madeleine L'Engle, the author of the widely beloved classic "A Wrinkle in Time". Fifteen-year-old Camilla Dickinson has long lived a sheltered life, but when her parents' marriage begins to fail, she's caught in the middle of emotional turmoil. She becomes close to Frank, her best friend's brother, and the one person she can really talk to about life, death, God, and her aspiration to become an astronomer. They travel the streets of New York City together, and Frank introduces her to a world of people she'd never met or known before - but will her first love end as badly as the dying love between her parents? Superbly narrated by Ann Marie Lee, who has appeared in numerous television shows including "ER", "Law & Order: Criminal Intent", and "Nip/Tuck", Camilla is enthusiastically recommended for listeners of all ages and public library audiobook collections. 6 CDs, 7 hours 36 minutes.
|
|
My favorite author
Rating (5)
Date: 2009-09-11
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Madeleine L'Engle was a master of the English language. It is a joy to read anything she has written.
|
|
|
|
|