What readers think of The Story of Lucy Gault, plus links to write your own review.

This is a beautiful work about Ireland and its people, which is changing despite their wishes. It shows us how long-reaching our actions, or inactions, can be and how these people stayed long enough to feel their effects. What a beautifully written story - not a fast-paced novel, but one that can be reread in sections to more fully understand.

A very compelling story - hard to put down. The inevitability of Lucy's tragic life is very moving and ultimately logical. The depiction of the historical era and setting is brilliantly accurate. The formality of the family's relations among themselves and with the wider community, and the burden of living up to others' expectations is a universal theme. Highly recommended.

The Story of Lucy Gault , written in spare and yet evocative language, filled me with regret for what could have been.
I wanted to step into the pages and shout out a warning. And yet, what was, what could have been maybe matter less than we think. Lucy is content in an odd sort of way.
The writing is superb - I could taste and smell and hear Lucy's world. One review I read said the book was "slow". Maybe, but never boring. I hated to put it down for the demands made on me by my world.
I highly recommend this slim novel. And, I know this sounds tacky, but it would make an amazing movie!

An old-fashioned book that relies on a barely-credible plot and finely controlled evocative writing. I couldn't really swallow the plot line, and the writing moved me only in places...I began to think I was needlessly wasting my time with this book as Lucy was needlessly wasting her life away.

As I was reading the book, I found it difficult to believe its probability. In many books, the reader goes along quite easily with what the author has developed, but I found myself asking, "Would they really do that? I didn't find the actions of the main characters believable - I thought the author manipulated his characters too much in order to get across the message he wanted to relay. As an allegory, yes, I could accept it, but as a book where the actions of the characters were believable, I don't think so.

i felt that william trevor wanted me to believe too much, for his story to live.

In truth, this book was simply too vague. There was not enough motivation given, I felt, for a young girl to tie herself to a scabrous estate like Lahardane for life. I simply could not buy that one act of disobedience would make a child, no matter how young, feel that she ought to do such a life-effacing thing. Trevor lays out very little in the way of character development. It is clear to me that there are meant to be historical parallels, but because the book has so little plot or development, it is really quite hard to see what those might be. The reader has to resort to making guesses, and truth be told I would rather expend energy elsewhere than on such unfruitful soil.