ωραιο βιβλιο ξεκουραστη γραφη εφευγε σαν νερο.μην ψαχνετε κατι σουπερ λογοτεχνικο αλλα εχει ωραιο στορυ και θα περασετε ευχαριστα οσο το διαβαζετε!
30/1/2022
Σε δευτερη αναγνωση , λιγα χρονια μετα μιας και ήθελα να διαβάσω τη συνέχεια του αλλα δεν θυμούμουν μπορω να πω τίποτα , θα του παρω πισω ενα αστερακι.
ο κύριος λογος είναι ο ογκος του βιβλίου και το γεγονός οτι ενώ σε παρα πολλα σημεία πλάτειαζε με περιγραφες και σκηνές άνευ σημασίας, σε κάποια αλλα σημεία της ιστοριας προχωρούσε κάποια χρονια μπροστά και σε έφερνε μπροστά σε σημαντικά γεγονοτα που ειχαν συμβει και απλα τα ανακοίνωνε .

This is a story about a young woman Emma Harte told through the eyes of her and the characters around her. The penurious conditions in which she's born teaches her a lesson and she sets out on her journey to earn money and make it big in the world. The story revolves around revenge, love, loss, hatred and it's protagonist is someone you'll love or hate for her ideals. She's cunning, street smart and shrewd which are all necessary qualities to help her with her business plan. Even though she comes from working class, she's beautiful which makes other people think of her as gentry and she banks on this throughout the story.
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I love reading about strong women characters and boy was I not disappointed. This is a huge book with 800-900 pages but don't be cowed by its monstrous size. I didn't breeze my way through this book, but I completely enjoyed it.
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This was a hugee book and it took me more time than usual to complete due to my hectic work days plus due to the festival season! Nevertheless, I enjoyed each and every page. I read reviews of this book saying it has many descriptions which are not necessary to the story, but I disagree as each and every line helped me imagine the situation around Emma and I could see the scenes, places clearly through her eyes. There is a stark difference in her life when she was a young girl and when she grows up to be fearless and level headed businesswoman. The descriptive nature of the book helped me to vividly imagine and it felt intrinsic to the story! I loved how the writer depicted her whole journey through parts. The end was amazing and I felt like all the dots aligned perfectly.
I would definitely recommend this to all who like to read women centric books.

Super. I was taken away to a
much different time.

I first read A Woman Of Substance many years ago and enjoyed it then. I've enjoyed it even more this time around. Barbara Taylor Bradford really takes you into her characters so you feel you know them and love them. An excellent book.

Great series! one of the best novels in print...had to reread it a few times because it was that good,the storyline was well developed along with all the characters. The plotline showed emotional turmoil for its main character (Emma)because it was too much on her family...kudos to the movie also

This book consumed me when I read it aged 17. It's epic and drove me to read the series (though woman of substance was by far the best). A sweeping tale of Emma Harte journey from servant to company owner, as well as the lovers she meets on the way and a family of twists and 'nest of vipers'. I was very young when I read this but with life experience I wouldn't read it again . My tastes have changed remarkably. I don't think it would have the same impact after my A levels, degrees, children, marriage and grandchildren as it did then.

I actually tried reading this story many years ago (originally published in 1979) and was unsuccessful. When it came to my attention again recently, I decided to attempt it; this time I finished it.
I ended up liking it more than before but still think it was way too long. In soft cover large print it is 1240 pages.
Relatable it was not. Characters all seemed larger than life. Yet it worked. Glad when it was over.

I went to a barbeque when I was in high school and took the book Copper Beach by Maeve Binchy. A friend of my parents saw me reading and we had a great conversation about books. She gave me Woman of Substance, As the Crow Flies by Jeffrey Archer and Nora Roberts' Born in Trilogy. About two weeks later she died. We never got to talk about the books but I read them all and to this day (more years later than I care to admit) I still think of Leatha whenever I see one of these books.

It's probably been 40 years since I last read this book but it's just as good as it was the first few times.

4.5

Read this book several years ago, and still think about the characters at times. The main character begins life as a servant to a wealthy family, falls in love with one of the sons and becomes pregnant. While pregnant, she leaves that household and moves to a city to start life on her own with her new baby. Beginning with a small food market, she is able to build a large empire and becomes an extremely wealthy woman. Near the end of her life, she wishes for her granddaughter to take over the business and explains much of her life to the granddaughter. She met her lifelong friend, Blackie, while still a servant and they were good friends for many years through all of her successes and personal disappointments.

Finally finished reading this brick of a book today... I was starting to think I never would because it's unwieldy and very long (even for a lifelong reader like me).

I appreciate Barbara's description abilities but at the same time the descriptions got to be quite annoying because you can only read so many interior exolanations before you think "This is where she's using her words? Goddamn".

Another issue I had with this book is that its timing/spacing were a bit inconsistent (if that's the right word to use). What I mean by that is how there was a lot of time spent on particular events, and then out of nowhere it jumps a few years into the future and all of a sudden Emma's remarried to someone we barely know a thing about (just to pick one example). Thia got on my nerves a fair bit of the time.

And another thing that's coming to mind is some parts of it coming off as being quite sexist/homophobic/rape-y. It's partly possible that it could just be how I'm interpreting it, and I am aware that it was written in a different time and set even earlier, but it nagged at me all the same.

Plus Emma just seems like a reeking Mary Sue. we get it - she's ballsy, dnduring, intelligent, stoic, beautiful, etc... A little too perfect at times, though admittedly not entirely flawless, but it's still worth mentioning.

I will say that I'm glad I read this book, as it's undoubtedly very different to a lot of the books I normally read, and it had plenty of good/interesting/fun moments - but it's not my favourite. I am intrigued to read the rest of the books in the Emma Harte series but may not do so straight away as I've got a lot of other books that have been waiting quite patiently for me to attend to them. :P