Marianne and Mark facts for kids
First edition
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| Author | Catherine Storr |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Faber and Faber |
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Publication date
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1960 |
| Preceded by | Marianne Dreams |
Marianne and Mark (1960) by Catherine Storr is a sequel to Marianne Dreams (1958). It and continues the story of the eponymous characters. The novel has far less basis in fantasy than the first book with Storr focusing on the trials of growing up rather than magical happenings, although there is arguably a fantastic subtext in Marianne and Mark.
Plot
Now aged fifteen Marianne returns to Brighton, where she recuperated from her illness at the end of Marianne Dreams, when she was ten. Much to her disappointment she finds Brighton a lonely and boring place, and she tags along with local girls Alice and Josie despite having little in common with them.
One evening Josie's friend Billie tells the girls of a visit to a local fortune teller who apparently gives remarkably accurate readings. Reluctantly, Marianne joins the girls on a trip to the fortune teller and there she is astonished at how much the woman guesses about her life, including details of her illness five years ago. The fortune teller assures Marianne that she will not be lonely for much longer and that soon she will experience romance.
Spurred on by this Marianne accepts a date with a boy called Alan, whom she doesn't realise is Billie's former boyfriend. This inadvertent betrayal alienates Marianne from the few friends she had, and after Alan also deserts her she is left on her own. It is then that she meets Mark, a boy from London who, it transpires, is the same boy with whom she shared a tutor but never met in Marianne Dreams. The two enjoy the last few days of the holiday together and promise to meet again in London.
Setting
Most of the settings in the novel are real places in Brighton and Eastbourne including: the West Pier and the Palace Pier, West Street, North Street and East Street (an area known as The Lanes), Brighton Station, Beachy Head and Belle Tout Lighthouse.
