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Madeleine L'Engle
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Title: Camilla A novel Hardcover – 1 Jan. 1981

by madeleine-l-engle (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 77 ratings
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  1. Print length
    278 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Delacorte Press
  4. Publication date
    1 Jan. 1981
  5. ISBN-10
    0440010209
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0440010203
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Delacorte Press; 1st Ed edition (1 Jan. 1981)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 278 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0440010209
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0440010203
  • Customer reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 77 ratings

About the author

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Madeleine L'Engle

Madeleine L'Engle

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Madeleine was born on November 29th, 1918, and spent her formative years in New York City. Instead of her school work, she found that she would much rather be writing stories, poems and journals for herself, which was reflected in her grades (not the best). However, she was not discouraged.

At age 12, she moved to the French Alps with her parents and went to an English boarding school where, thankfully, her passion for writing continued to grow. She flourished during her high school years back in the United States at Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, vacationing with her mother in a rambling old beach cottage on a beautiful stretch of Florida Beach.

She went to Smith College and studied English with some wonderful teachers as she read the classics and continued her own creative writing. She graduated with honors and moved into a Greenwich Village apartment in New York. She worked in the theater, where Equity union pay and a flexible schedule afforded her the time to write! She published her first two novels during these years—A Small Rain and Ilsa—before meeting Hugh Franklin, her future husband, when she was an understudy in Anton Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard. They married during The Joyous Season.

She had a baby girl and kept on writing, eventually moving to Connecticut to raise the family away from the city in a small dairy farm village with more cows than people. They bought a dead general store, and brought it to life for 9 years. They moved back to the city with three children, and Hugh revitalized his professional acting career.

As the years passed and the children grew, Madeleine continued to write and Hugh to act, and they to enjoy each other and life. Madeleine began her association with the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where she was the librarian and maintained an office for more than thirty years. After Hugh’s death in 1986, it was her writing and lecturing that kept her going. She lived through the 20th century and into the 21st and wrote over 60 books. She enjoyed being with her friends, her children, her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
77 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Sue
3.0 out of 5 stars Teenage coming-of-age novel
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 June 2016
This is told in the first person from the point of view of a fifteen-year-old teenage girl who lives in New York. Camilla has been quite sheltered from adult problems, but we meet her when she starts to realise that her parents may be fallible, and that she is no longer a little girl...

Essentially it’s a coming-of-age story, about teenage worries, and first love. It feels quite modern in the way it discusses relationships and marriage problems, despite being written in 1965. There is a moving subplot about a young man with a serious disability after being in the war, and many references to astronomy and the idea of God. These are not preachy in any way, but from the point of view of two teenagers trying to decide what they believe, and why, with some unusual theories.

The descriptive and narrative writing is good, and I thought the insights into a teenage mind felt realistic. However I found the dialogue a bit stilted, and the story sometimes a little slow-moving. I found the ending inconclusive, and a little depressing.

Still, it was a pleasant read that could be of interest to younger teens as well as nostalgic adults. Three and a half stars would be fairer.
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Top reviews from other countries

Maryan Staske
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting family interactions
Reviewed in the United States on 19 August 2010
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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.
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Barbara L. Terpstra
3.0 out of 5 stars Teen Angst Never Changes
Reviewed in the United States on 18 February 2013
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"Camilla" is actually between 3 and 4 stars for me. I had never heard of this L'Engle book before so I was interested to read it.

"Camilla" was different from the other L'Engle books I've read (ie: "Wrinkle in TIme" series). Not surprisingly the main character is named Camilla. The book deals with her emotions as she witnesses her mother's attraction to a man that's not her father, her friendship with her girlfriend, and her first attraction to a young man.

L'Engle did a good job describing the conflicting emotions that we all harbor when we are young. I don't know what it's like to live in a home where a marriage has been in trouble, but I had no problem relating to Camilla's thoughts and emotions as described in a book.

Although the book was first published in 1951, the feelings the characters in the book had are still relevant for today.

I have to say I loved the "Wrinkle in Time" series better than this book, but they really are entirely different.
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Anne Christofferson
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Author
Reviewed in the United States on 6 December 2023
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Great Author, well worth reading. Arrived quickly, just as described. Thanks!
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Anne with an e
5.0 out of 5 stars Early Realistic L'Engle
Reviewed in the United States on 4 February 2013
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This is one of L'Engle's earliest novels and is realism, rather than fantasy. As is characteristic of her, it focuses closely on the internal life of an adolescent girl going through emotional turmoil. It is very well done and also offers a glimpse of a particular kind of bourgeois life in New York in the 1940s.
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Jane Peranteau
3.0 out of 5 stars Unlike, Ms. L'Engle's other books, this one ...
Reviewed in the United States on 16 February 2016
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Unlike, Ms. L'Engle's other books, this one starts dark and stays dark. It felt as if it had less of a plot line, and it was more of an adult plot line, so not what I was expecting. It's well written and interesting, but I ultimately found it depressing.
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