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
    Glittering Images
    Unavailable
    Glittering Images
    Unavailable
    Glittering Images
    Ebook630 pages11 hours

    Glittering Images

    By Susan Howatch

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    The author’s most famous and well-loved work, the Starbridge series, six self-contained yet interconnected novels that explore the history of the Church of England through the 20th century.

    Beneath the smooth surface of an Episcopal palace lurks the salacious breath of scandal. Charles Ashworth is sent to untangle the web of self-delusion and corruption only to become embroiled in a strange ménage à trois that threatens to expose the secrets of his own past…

    In Glittering Images tension and drama combine in a compelling novel of people in high places, of desperate longings and the failure to resist them, of lies and evasions, of tarnished realities behind brilliant glittering images.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateJun 21, 2012
    ISBN9780007396399
    Unavailable
    Glittering Images
    Author

    Susan Howatch

    Susan Howatch was born in Surrey in 1940. After taking a degree in law she emigrated to America where she married, had a daughter and embarked on her career as a writer. When she eventually left the states, she lived in the Republic of Ireland for four years before returning to England. She spent time in Salisbury – the inspiration for her Starbridge sequence of novels – and now lives in London.

    Read more from Susan Howatch

    Related to Glittering Images

    Related ebooks

    Sagas For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Faith Healing

      Jun 19, 2023

      Faith Healing
      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Dec 28, 2021

      In Tracy Borman’s feature on Princess Charlotte of Wales, she refers to the whole of the kingdom going into deep mourning for several weeks after the death of the princess. Indeed, the impact was felt as far away as the small parish of Llanfihangel A

      3 min read

    • Article

      Readers' Letters

      Jul 26, 2023

      SIR: I have just celebrated my 80th birthday and been much acclaimed by my family and friends. Even the government has got in on the act, as it has increased my state pension by 25p a week. Unfortunately, my village shop has hardly anything to offer

      5 min read

    • Article

      Ten Ways to Change Your God

      Jul 1, 2019

      Conversion narratives are the most human of tales, for the drama of redemption is an internal one, played out between the protagonist and his demons. The post Ten Ways to Change Your God appeared first on The Millions.

      28 min read

    • Article

      Book of Uncommon Prayer

      May 3, 2023

      Book of Uncommon Prayer
      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Oct 8, 2020

      Thank you for making my life more joyful month after month. I can’t tell you how important to me the Fortean Times is. Kevin Hope By email Regarding Matt Salusbury’s Forum article on sunken bells [FT396:54-55], there is more to the bells of Aberdyfi

      14 min read

    • Article

      Bless You Father

      Jul 7, 2022

      Bless You Father
      10 min read

    • Article

      Bless You Father

      Jul 7, 2022

      Bless You Father
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Final Countdown

      Feb 12, 2022

      The Final Countdown
      8 min read

    • Article

      Epic Eulogies

      Feb 12, 2022

      Epic Eulogies
      8 min read

    • Article

      Hankering After Ghosts

      Dec 1, 2022

      It’s been 10 years since the publication of my book A Natural History of Ghosts (see FT296:42-45). I probably should have written more in it about the writer Charles Dickens. The truth is I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Dickens. I rea

      8 min read

    • Article

      Peace Comes With A Smile

      Nov 11, 2019

      Peace Comes With A Smile
      8 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Feb 9, 2022

      The Oldie, 23-31 Great Titchfield Street, London, W1W 7PA letters@theoldie.co.uk To sign up for our e-newsletter, go to www.theoldie.co.uk SIR: Like Gyles Brandreth, my husband and I are great fans of Bargain Hunt. As well as enjoying the banter betw

      6 min read

    • Article

      Readers' Letters

      Feb 8, 2023

      Readers' Letters
      4 min read

    • Article

      Read a (Love) Letter From Herman Melville to Nathaniel Hawthorne

      Mar 16, 2017

      167 years ago today, Ticknor, Reed & Fields published The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel of repentance and slut-shaming. But actually, this isn’t about The Scarlet Letter—it’s about one of the most fascinating friendships in lite

      5 min read

    • Article

      Q&A Elaine Pagels

      May 23, 2019

      Q&A Elaine Pagels
      5 min read

    • Article

      Shelf Life

      Sep 2, 2021

      Shelf Life
      4 min read

    • Article

      Past Times

      Oct 24, 2021

      Past Times
      5 min read

    • Article

      ‘Call yourself English?’

      Aug 21, 2019

      ‘Call yourself English?’
      19 min read

    • Article

      WRITING Lost Voices

      Nov 2, 2023

      WRITING Lost Voices
      8 min read

    • Article

      Chris Bohjalian

      Apr 12, 2021

      Chris Bohjalian
      12 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Glittering Images

    4/5

    172 ratings12 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      3.5 I picked this up because Jaqueline Winspear, an author I like a lot, said this series was one of her favorites. The book evolves around a vicar in the Church of England who is tormented by the discrepancies between his public persona and what he believes is his real self. The roll of sex is a theme in the book, and there was a bit too much of that for me. It wasn't gratuitous since it figured into the angst and downfall of some of the characters, but it could have toned down. I was interested in the main character and how he worked through an emotional breakdown to become more spiritually and mentally healthy, but in the end it felt a little too romancey for me to think I want to try another in the series.
    • 2/5
      Slow going in the beginning. This is a character study with not much action.
    • 4/5
      I very much enjoyed reading this book but it never seemed entirely real or entirely believable. I wanted to find out about the characters and was intrigued by the level of psychological depth the author was able to enter into but somehow it all seemed a bit contrived. The latter part of the book is the endless, lengthy unburdening of everyone's soul but they all do it with such readiness which whilst convenient for the reader seems so remote from reality. Sometimes it also feels very dated. Although the book is set in the 1930s it often betrays its 1980s heritage and it feels like someone trying to reflect 1980s sexual obsessions into a bygone age. It is never clear whether the sexual morality is that of the 1930s or the battle to fit Christianity into the morals of the 1980s. Nevertheless it is a jolly good story.
    • 4/5
      I have had this book for a while and glad that I finally got round to it. Charles Ashworth is a bishop in the CofE and is sent by the Archbishop of Canterbury to Starbridge to check out the bishop there. It forces him to confront what he really believes and what he wants out of live. In his quest he meets Jon Darrow the abbot of the Fordite monastery who seems to have a strange insight into those areound him.

      I really enjoyed this book which is the first in a series although at times I got confused by ther terminology. It seemed more Catholic than CofE at times. A good reminder that Christians have the same problems to face as everyone else.
    • 3/5
      I've seen Susan Howatch's ecclesiastical novels facetiously described as “surplice-rippers” - which is unfair, of course, but you can see why. There’s a late-Victorian earnestness about the way she deals with religious faith and a rather mid-twentieth-century lack of irony in her approach to sex and psycho-analysis. At one point in this book (the first in her Starbridge series), she seems to become aware of the difficulty and has two of her characters discuss whether they are caught up in a cross between Barchester Towers and Lady Chatterley’s lover. They decide that they aren't, of course. Perhaps a more apt comparison would have been with Zola’s Abbé Mouret’s sin, though, and as we worked towards the solution of the psychological mystery there was a kind of neat closure going on that seemed to come straight out of Agatha Christie (possibly deliberate - Roger Ackroyd is mentioned conspicuously early in the story). And the resolution does turn out to be the psychological equivalent of “the butler did it”. Which is all to say that this isn't the sort of thing I usually enjoy. But in all fairness I have to say that Howatch does it extremely well. Despite the high-flown emotions, her characters are never altogether implausible, and she manages to stay convincingly in period (1937, before she was born) without much apparent effort. She’s obviously done her research and got a feel for the way clergymen spoke in the thirties. And I'm fairly confident that, if I knew more about theology and psycho-analysis, that would all turn out to be correct for the period too.
    • 5/5
      First in the 'Starbridge' series about the Church of England.

      I love this book! It's an incredibly powerful novel, based in the early part of the 20th century. Charles, a young Anglican minister, is sent to see if a Bishop is committing 'indiscretions'. He gets caught up in the strange household he discovers, and various crises unravel from his own past and personality.

      While the book is somewhat rambling in places, with a great deal of conversation, I found, even reading it for the fourth time in fifteen years, that it was remarkably difficult to put down. I could remember the broad outline of the plot, of course, and the eventual resolution - but much of the detail intrigued me all over again.

      Perhaps Charles’ problems are caricatured and exaggerated. Perhaps the psychological investigation that follows is a bit too neat and tidy. But it makes exciting reading, and Charles’ advisor - the mystical monk Jon Darrow - is a most intriguing character.

      The writing is powerful, often quite terse and dramatic, with clever plotting. The book has been criticised as suggesting that Anglican ministers are as described in the book, but I don’t think that’s fair: Charles and the Bishop of Starbridge are contrasted with the majority of morally sound vicars around the country. My one reservation at recommending it widely is that there’s one somewhat explicit - and shocking - scene, and quite a lot of frank discussion about intimacies throughout the book. This is low-key compared to the majority of modern novels, but still I would hesitate to recommend this to anyone under the age of about 16.
    • 4/5
      A spiritual and Jungian thriller!
    • 4/5
      This is a captivating tale of the importance to be holistically connected (physically, spiritually, psychologically) to our selves, family, and friends. For Charles, it's a downward spiral, which doesn't stop until he is healed from his past psychologically and spiritually. I found myself put off at times by the British restraint toward emotions but reminded myself this is in league with the culture of the book and after awhile I warmed up it. Charles' passion in solving the mystery of Bishop Jardine and his own dark night mystery was like peaceful breeze. The book is truly worth a read to experience the grace and pastoral care of Jon Darrow. He's definitely an inspiration! Overall, I'd say a 4.5.
    • 3/5
      Really enjoyed this book and the rest of the series.I have an insight into how the church works and it is great to read a cracking story about issues and people who seem only to possibly real!
    • 5/5
      Brillantly written, compelling story set against a religious background, the first of a series of novels, howatchs characters live on long after the last page.
    • 2/5
      Maybe my expectations were too high because so many people recommended this book to me, but I was very disappointed in the quality of the writing. The story was OK, I guess--the conflict of the central character was believable and all--but seriously, reading it was like getting clunked on the head with a large-print Scofield Reference Bible with Maps and Concordance. I swear, if the author used the phrase "glittering images" once, she used it a kajillion times. I GET IT! Glittering images = bad. Can we move on now? Moving on.
    • 5/5
      This book just hit too close to home for me, but like all her books, holds out the hope for healing. Can we ever get past the "glittering Images" which trap us?