11 h 21 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 21 minPaperback · 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
You will love this book if you enjoy witty dialogue, country house weekends, close portraits of mothers and sons, and a carefree world that meets war.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Friendship anchors a carefree world
- Cambridge trusts that nothing will change
- Pleasure makes the present seem permanent
- Helen wants more than excitement
- War first threatens comfort and money
- Robin acts on a clear duty
- Helen turns toward useful service
- Feeling and love ask for action
Who’s who
- Robin LinnetCalled Birds, a nineteen-year-old Cambridge cricketer who loves his friends and his mother and meets every change with cheerful courage.
- Jim LethbridgeRobin's closest friend, a year older and steadier, who wants nothing more than to go on exactly as they are.
- Lady Grote (Helen)Robin's mother, a dazzling hostess who loves excitement and company and wants to be told she is still young.
- Lord ThorleyA calm politician and old friend who trusts theories and thinks England never really faces catastrophe.
- Aline GurtnerA former governess turned society hostess who wants every friend and every comfort and cannot choose between England and Germany.
- Sir Hermann GurtnerAline's husband, a German-born financier who reads the coming war as a chance to make money.
- KuhlmannA famous German tenor with purring manners who takes everything England offers him.
- JelfThe shabby, argumentative editor of Camouflage who mocks every convention and hides a kinder nature.
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Robin Linnet in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Robin Linnet
by E. F. Benson · 1919
Golden boy Robin Linnet plays cricket and pranks at Cambridge while Europe edges toward war.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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In short
Two friends sit in a candlelit room at St. Stephen's College, Cambridge, reading Socrates.
Robin Linnet at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 30 min5 h 10 min fast, 7 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 92,800 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1919by E. F. Benson
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two friends share a carefree Cambridge life
The book opens on a hot night in early May. Jim Lethbridge is twenty and Robin Linnet is nineteen, and they have known each other since Eton. They read Plato by one stolen candle, because the electric light has failed.
The Greek does not last. Robin drops a piece of ice down Jim's collar, and a wrestling match follows. A third friend, Badders, looks in and is tied up like a fowl while the others throw paper darts into his open mouth. Robin also dresses in cap and gown over bare skin and imitates his tutor.
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Details
- First published
- 1919
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 20 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Benson, E. F. Robin Linnet. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/robin-linnet.
Benson, E. F. (2026). Robin Linnet. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/robin-linnet (Original work published 1919)
Benson, E. F. Robin Linnet. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/robin-linnet.
@book{benson2026robin,
author = {Benson, E. F.},
title = {Robin Linnet},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/robin-linnet},
note = {First published 1919}
}
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What is Robin Linnet about?
It follows Robin Linnet, a young Cambridge cricketer, and his glamorous mother, Lady Grote, from carefree college pranks and society parties into the First World War, when each must decide what matters most.
Why is Robin called Birds?
His friends call him Birds because his name combines two birds, the robin and the linnet. The nickname shows the playful closeness between him and Jim Lethbridge at Cambridge.
When is Robin Linnet set?
The story begins in early May of the last summer before the First World War and runs through the first winter of the war. It mixes Cambridge life, London society, and a hospital.
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.
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