11 h 21 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens to friendship and ambition when the world beyond the drawing room begins to change?
In Robin Linnet, E. F. Benson turns his sharp, humane eye toward youth, friendship and the search for a place in English society. Set against Edwardian England and the shadow of war, the novel explores private lives under wider pressures. What people want for themselves sits alongside what they value in one another.
Benson watches people in company, where friendship is rarely simple and growing up means finding out what matters. His view of youth is clear-eyed: neither a golden dream nor a problem to solve. The appeal lies in witty observation and human relationships, with the world outside the drawing room never far away.
What you’ll discover
- Youth without illusions Meet a view of growing up that leaves room for both hope and uncertainty.
- Friendship under scrutiny Explore how friendship tests values and reveals what people truly want from one another.
- Ambition among friends Consider the pull of finding your own place while remaining close to others.
- Beyond the drawing room Feel the quiet pressure of a wider world that private lives cannot control.
- A humane social eye Enjoy Benson’s close attention to people in company, with wit and clear-eyed sympathy.
Who will love it
Readers who like witty drawing-room conversation, vivid portraits of Edwardian high society, close friendships between young men, and a mother-and-son bond that deepens when the world around them is thrown into upheaval.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two friends and a candle
- The dons guard the old Cambridge
- A house where Saturday never ends
- A Saturday party and a landing airplane
- The white room and the shadow in the garden
- A dinner in Curzon Street and a long night
- A letter at the stage door, and war
- A mother learns what she can give
- What the book is really about
Who’s who
- Robin LinnetA nineteen-year-old Cambridge undergraduate and cricketer, high-spirited and beautiful, who wants nothing more than to go on enjoying life with his friends.
- Jim LethbridgeRobin's closest friend, a year older, who is steady, humorous and quietly jealous, and who hopes their friendship will last always.
- Helen, Lady GroteRobin's mother, a forty-year-old hostess who adores people and success, and who dreads boredom more than anything else.
- Lord ThorleyA calm, analytical politician and old friend of Helen who does not believe the world is about to end.
- KuhlmannA gigantic German tenor at Covent Garden, adored by London and by Helen, who treats Englishwomen as playthings.
- Aline GurtnerA former governess, now a wealthy hostess, who longs to be accepted by high society and cannot admit where her loyalties lie.
- Sir Hermann GurtnerAline's German-born husband, a shrewd financier who knows how to turn news into money before anyone else hears it.
- JelfA shabby, long-haired Cambridge editor who loves to shock, argues against everything, and hides a good heart.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 11 h 21 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 15 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Robin Linnet in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Robin Linnet
by E. F. Benson · 1919
A carefree Cambridge cricketer and his dazzling, restless mother watch summer 1914 end and the war begin.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Robin Linnet is a novel by E. F. Benson, who died in 1940 and was best known for his comic social fiction. It is set in the last months of peace in 1914 and the first winter of the Great War.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two friends and a candle
The story opens in a Cambridge college room on a hot night in early May. Two undergraduates sit over Plato by the light of a stolen candle, because the electric light has failed. They are Jim Lethbridge, who is twenty, and Robin Linnet, who is nineteen. Their friends call Robin Birds, since he is a Robin and a Linnet in one body.
Robin drinks whisky and soda, screams for his nurse in the dark, and slips a lump of ice down Jim's collar. A wrestling match follows, and a third friend, Badsley, called Badders, wanders in and is tied up like a fowl. Robin teases Badders about his endless crushes on girls, and invents a dead grandmother just to watch him squirm.
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What is Robin Linnet about?
It follows Robin, a gifted young Cambridge cricketer, and his mother Lady Grote through the summer of 1914 and the first winter of the war. It mixes comedy of manners with the effect of war on a pleasure-loving society.
When is Robin Linnet set?
The story opens on a May night in 1914 and runs through the outbreak of the First World War into the following winter. Historical events such as the mobilization and the ultimatum stand behind the characters' private lives.
Who are Damon and Pythias in the first chapter?
Damon and Pythias are the nicknames the two friends give each other after the Greek pair famed for loyalty. They are Jim Lethbridge and Robin Linnet, who call themselves Day and Pie while they read Plato.
The author
E. F. Benson
1867–1940 · English novelist
Edward Frederic Benson (1867–1940) was an English novelist and short-story writer. He was born at Wellington College in Berkshire and later lived in Rye, Sussex. His books include The Room in the Tower, and Other Stories (1912), Miss Mapp (1922), and Visible and Invisible (1923). He died in London.
More by E. F. Benson
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