The Cazalet Chronicles Book Summary

The Cazalet Chronicles series of wartime family sagas told in a five novels by celebrated British author Elizabeth Jane Howard. The charming yet thrilling series of novels tells the tale of the yearnings and secrets of the Cazalet family that lives in Home Place, Sussex over the course of 30 years. The first four novels in the series were published between 1990 and 1995 with the latest one All Change published in 2013. The Cazalets Chronicles are an exploration of the ambitions, passion, and affairs of the Cazalet family as they live their normal Middle Class lives starting in the prewar period up until about 15 years after the end of the war in the fifties. Writing with poignant observation and magnificent period detail, Elizabeth Jane Howard writes about the familial experience of loss, love, and ultimately life changing developments in the Cazalet family. The novels are centered on the adult children of the Duchy and the Brig:

The novel introduces three generations of a middle class English family as they are enjoying their summer holiday in Sussex in 1937 and 1938. It portrays the daily happenings of the Cazalet family including their children, grandchildren, servants, in laws and pets. Nothing is too huge as the story portrays the significant events to the downright mundane. The adults discuss the impending war; the chauffeur is driving too slowly; while the children rescue the family’s kitten stuck in a tree. The undertones of incest and adultery that persist throughout the novel hardly change the normal routine of the Cazalet household. While most of the minor characters are never developed fully, Howard very successfully develops her main characters and offers some great plot development with some insightful depiction of the period. The Light Years is one of the best books for any fan of a novel that is full of family sagas and a liberal does of cathartic