The Rose of Sebastopol

Mar 05, 2009 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is the time of The Crimean War, and passionate though impetuous Rosa Barr abandons her stale London life to nurse the wounded. When Rosa vanishes, her cousin and our narrator, Mariella takes it upon herself to find her. Only Mariella is Rosa’s opposite; dutiful, loyal and dull. Mariella finds she is completely unprepared for life on the brink of battlefield. And as all the clues to Rosa’s disappearance point to Mariella’s fiancé, now mad with fever, Mariella is heartbroken. Forced to rise to...more

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Feb 03, 2008 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who like well-written historical fiction

This is an historical novel set during the Crimean War, about two women, cousins, one of whom goes to nurse at the front - I read the first chapter at the lovereading site and pre-ordered it from the library. I was especially interested to read a novel set in this period after reading Mary Seacole's autobiography.
I enjoyed the book but found the way it is written slightly confusing - it keeps jumping to and fro between several different periods in Mariella's life, so that you have to remember to...more

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Aug 05, 2011 Karen added it

Mcmahon's novel had many wonderful elements. I enjoyed reading about the time period - England in the 1850's, during the Crimean War. I also enjoyed the author's decision to focus on Mariella, a well-behaved, well-to-do young woman with a pleasant home life, rather than the more obvious choice -her independent, outrageous cousin Rosa. I liked the book's set-up, and continued to find it interesting even after too many of the characters turned up in the middle of the war under circumstances that d...more

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Aug 01, 2012 Helen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reading-group, historic

August's book club.
One of those books that a bit of a slow burner - took me several chapters of ploughing through to start to get into it. Jumps backwards & forwards between the present, 10 years ago and the recent past (if that makes sense). Tells of Mariella, a young girl who is very much a product of her upbringing in early 19C London. Father an engineer (of some description) while mother is involved in worthy causes - mainly a home for retired governesses. Mariella stitches. Lots. In the...more August's book club.
One of those books that a bit of a slow burner - took me several chapters of ploughing through to start to get into it. Jumps backwards & forwards between the present, 10 years ago and the recent past (if that makes sense). Tells of Mariella, a young girl who is very much a product of her upbringing in early 19C London. Father an engineer (of some description) while mother is involved in worthy causes - mainly a home for retired governesses. Mariella stitches. Lots. In the house is a second cousin type young man (Henry) it is telegraphed from early on that they are going to be an item. not necessarily due to any great passion (in fact he's a bit of a damp dishrag, if I'm honest)but because it's easy and sort of expected by both of them. And life is all very ordered (and frankly rather dull). However, Mariella has a cousin, Rose. And I can't say I like Rose any more than Mariella, as Rose is one of those people who are always full of ideas and enthusiasms that consume them. (I think I know a Rose - a conversation ends up being a bit like going 10 rounds with Frank Bruno)They're of an age and the flash backs to 10 years ago revolve around a visit to the home of Rose, her mother & step father & 2 step brothers. Rose is full of how she's going to change the world and how that means Mariella (and everyone else who gets in her way) has to bend over backwards to accommodate her. She strikes me as somewhat blinkered and selfish.
Rose's step father dies and Rose plus hypochondriac mother are turned out the house - turn up at Mariella's parent's house, expecting to stay. At the same time, Henry is making a name for himself as a surgeon while Rose conceives a desire to be a nurse. Then the Crimean war breaks out - and breaks into the ordered house in London. Henry goes off to solve the Cholera issue (single handedly, he's got such an inflated idea of himself) while Rose takes the first opportunity to head out as a Nurse. then silence. Rose vanishes, Henry falls ill & Mariella is dragged so far out of her comfort zone that she thinks she'll die as she heads out to find Henry, then Rose. As usual, you have no idea what you can do until pushed, and Mariella is pushed further than she ever expects, and has all sorts of squeamish fits over some of the things she has to do, but she does them, and her character becomes formed in this journey. She ends the book a very different person and in a very different situation than she starts it, or, indeed, from how she would have ended up, had the war not intervened.
Oddly, for a book where I spent a lot of it wanting to slap the lead characters, I actually quite enjoyed it! Mariella is a product of her age but comes on leaps and bounds as the book progresses. There is a completely believable cast of supporting characters to bolster the sometime quite claustrophobic relationship between Mariella and both Henry & Rose. Some nice touches of putting the fiction into a historical framework - although I suspect it is entirely a work of fiction in its details. I may well venture another of her books, based on this one. (less)

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May 26, 2012 Estibaliz79 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans de 'La Casa del Propósito Especial', por una cuestión de atmósfera... y a Francisca Muñoz Lara

Una novela de ficción histórica con el apasionante trasfondo de la Inglaterra Victoriana y la guerra de Crimea, las prácticas médicas en tiempos bélicos y los primeros esfuerzos de Nightingale y su cuerpo de enfermeras.

Bien escrita y absorbente, no es poco mérito el conseguir convertir a una mujer producto de la época, débil y pusilánime por definición, en la perfecta heroína; a tal punto que no es difícil preferirla por encima de la mujer fuerte que suele acaparar el protagonismo en estos casos...more

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Mar 09, 2012 S. J. Bolton rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mariella, a young Victorian lady, spends her days sewing and writing to her surgeon fiancé, Henry, who has left England to serve in the Crimean War. Rosa, (as unlike her cousin Mariella in character as she is similar in appearance) also has ambitions to serve, as one of Florence Nightingale’s new breed of nurses. Moustache twirling lothario, Max (Rosa’s step brother) is a soldier (probably leading the charge of the Light Brigade, I forget the details) and appears to despise the Victorian primnes...more

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Apr 06, 2011 Felice rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The setting is Victorian England and the Rose is cousin Rose. Is this impetuous young thing coming in between proper Mariella and her up and coming surgeon/dreamboat/fiance Henry Thewell? While Henry and Rose go off to be the hero doctor and valiant nurse in the Crimea, Mariella stays home and worries, sews, pays calls, listens to her parents, is the poster child for the well brought up Victorian young lady. After Henry becomes ill and is evacuated to Italy, Mariella takes her first step toward...more

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Nov 03, 2010 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked this book more than I thought I would, if I'm honest. Primarily I enjoyed the fact that the heroine, Mariella, is incredibly unlikeable. She is a perfect picture of someone who doesn't realize at all her own ignorance and so has no problem behaving appallingly and petulantly insisting that her position in society gives her a pass. I also thoroughly enjoyed that she is a stereotypically weak woman, or she has trained herself to be one (I think the latter is implied) in order to flatter me...more

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Feb 04, 2010 Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: nuanced histoical, historical mystery

Shelves: historical, mystery

"The Rose of Sebastopol" is a historical (with a bit of mystery) set mainly in 1844 and 1854-1855 in England, Italy, and the Crimea. If you like nuanced historical novels, you'll probably find this one a lovely read.

The historical details were expertly woven into the story background, bringing the society, setting, etc., vividly alive in my imagination. Yet the details served the story rather than being the point of the story. The level of detail given for the Crimea landscape made me wonder if...more "The Rose of Sebastopol" is a historical (with a bit of mystery) set mainly in 1844 and 1854-1855 in England, Italy, and the Crimea. If you like nuanced historical novels, you'll probably find this one a lovely read.

The historical details were expertly woven into the story background, bringing the society, setting, etc., vividly alive in my imagination. Yet the details served the story rather than being the point of the story. The level of detail given for the Crimea landscape made me wonder if the author had really been there (which, according to her website, she has). The settings varied widely, from higher-class home life to various hospitals to a lead mill to the war front, yet they all had depth.

The characters were complex and nuanced. I didn't particularly like any of the characters, but I understood why they acted the way they did and wanted to know what happened to them all. The novel maintained a nice level of suspense that kept me turning the pages.

The story switched between Mariella's childhood, events in 1854 leading up to Rosa going to the war hospitals, and what happened in 1855 after Henry turned up sick and Rosa went missing. I didn't find these different time lines difficult to keep track of, though, and this set-up kept the suspense up for me--how did all three time lines tie together to explain what had happened?

Though Mariella was the point of view character, the story was about Rosa--it started with Rosa ("what happened to Rosa?") and ended with Rosa (solving of what happened and why). Mariella's future wasn't neatly tied up for the reader, though it was clear where things were headed. I usually hate untidy endings for POV characters, yet I didn't feel like I was left hanging with things left unresolved. While I would have liked to know more, her ending fit what she learned in the novel--that unexpected, uncontrollable things happen so don't plan too firmly too far ahead. In a way, the story structure was that of a mystery, with the story ending when the mystery was solved.

There was a minor amount of swearing and a very minor amount of cussing. There was unmarried sex with a very small amount of explicit foreplay (removing clothes, kissing, upper body touching). There was a lot of sexual tension, but not really of the erotic type. Overall, I'd highly recommend this novel was well-written, fairly clean reading.

I received this book as a review copy from the publisher. (less)

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Sep 02, 2009 Alicia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have to admit I picked this book because I liked the cover. Not sure what that says about me. I loved the premise of the book. And of course, I'm a sucker for English 19th century books. I was quite pleased with this book. The characters are rich and I was eager to learn more about them as I devoured each chapter. I learned a lot about the Crimean war and as a result, I would like to do more reading on this time period and especially Florence Nightingale. I'm not a huge war book fan, but this...more

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Apr 15, 2009 Anne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, romance, borrowed

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Rose of Sebastopol proved to be a more interesting read than I initially thought it would be. The first couple hundred pages were slow, but things began to pick up as the questions multiplied.

At first, I didn't care for Mariella -- I thought her mindset was too narrow, and she was wasting a good bit of intellect by deliberately shutting out anything that she wasn't told by an older male, either a father or fiance. But as the Crimean conflict grew, and as her role in the conflict grew, I bega...more

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Aug 20, 2011 Abish rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Apparently this is a bestselling novel in the UK but it hasn't made it's mark here. For those of you who like 19th century romances, this is one for you. I was pleasantly surprised because there was a bit of mystery to it as well. I was a little disappointed in the ending because I wanted to see what happened to the characters afterward and felt like it ended pretty abruptly.

At a young age, main character Mariella, meets her cousin Rosa and quickly become best friends. Later, when they are olde...more

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Sep 18, 2011 Marguerite Kaye rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the second time I've read this and I enjoyed it even more than the first. At first, you have very little sympathy for the maleable Mariella, who seems to lack any personality or any desire other than to sew her way complacently through life. I wanted to give her a good shake. Her cousin Rosa by comparison is vibrant and instantly likeable. And yet very slowly and subtly your empathies switch. Rosa is selfish, overbearing, and Mariella is repressed, you wonder what she will do if she'll j...more

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May 20, 2010 Audra (Unabridged Chick) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mood-bittersweet, historicals, favorites

Title: The Rose of Sebastopol
Author: Katharine McMahon

Genre: Historical Fiction

Love/Hate?: Love, ohmygod, love.
Rating: 5/5
Did you finish?: Yes. I couldn't stop reading!

One-sentence summary: Proper English woman, Mariella, goes to Crimea in search of her missing cousin Rosa.

Why did you get this book?: Frankly, because it was available in e-book form from the library at a moment when I was between books.

Do you like the cover?: Yes, the cover just grabs me.

First line from book: We arrived in Narni...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Sarah Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I somehow managed to snag this at Dollar Tree so I didn't have to pay the $24.95 cover price. And this read was well worth $1!! I love historical fiction but it irks me that these novels typically portray adventurous young ladies, chafing against social convention, and biting at the bit to push the boundaries of polite society, because that's just not how all ladies behave. Instead, this novel is told from the perspective of Mariella, a sweet young lady who loves to sew and has always been in l...more I somehow managed to snag this at Dollar Tree so I didn't have to pay the $24.95 cover price. And this read was well worth $1!! I love historical fiction but it irks me that these novels typically portray adventurous young ladies, chafing against social convention, and biting at the bit to push the boundaries of polite society, because that's just not how all ladies behave. Instead, this novel is told from the perspective of Mariella, a sweet young lady who loves to sew and has always been in love with, and expects that she will marry, her adoptive brother, the surgeon Dr. Henry Thewell. However, that "chafing against social convention" is thrust upon her in the form of her spirited and philanthropic minded cousin, Rosa.

Although similar in age and appearance, Rosa is dissatisfied with the prospect of life as a wife and mother and longs to make a difference through joining Florence Nightingale's corps of nurses who are serving in the Crimean War (conveniently where Henry Thewell, Mariella's fiance is stationed). However, when Henry returns ill and raving for his "love" Rosa, and Rosa stops communicating or sending letters home, Mariella is forced to abandon her tranquil life of embroidery and travel to try to find her cousin, who may or may not have stolen her betrothed's heart. The crux of the novel is - what happened to Rosa?

As mentioned, I liked the characterization in this novel. I also enjoyed the slightly non-chronological story telling, as the novel jumped from 1844 and 1854, backwards and forwards throughout, so we get to see Mariella and Rosa as children side by side with their adult selves. I also enjoyed getting a glimpse of the Crimean War, which I haven't encountered in a novel before. I especially liked reading about medical care during this time period both from the perspectives of doctors and nurses and post-battlefield triage.

Another note - this isn't really a criticism, more of an observation - what the heck was going on between Rosa and Mariella? It's definitely hinted that Rosa only ever "loved one person" and that person was Mariella. And she pretty much demands that she share a bedroom with Mariella when she comes to live with her after her stepfather's death. And then things like this happen: "She lunged under the bedclothes, took hold of my bare foot, and pressed the sole with her fingertips so that I writhed. 'Or this?' and she clenched my thigh and tickled my stomach until I was howling with laughter and my legs were tangled with the sheets. 'Stop it. Stop. You'll wake the house.' After we'd recovered she stroked my hair and studied my face." ...Maybe there was another reason Rosa didn't want to get married/resented Mariella's love for Henry? Because that is just...intimate. (And, it's also hinted that Mariella had an inappropriate relationship as a child with a pedophile, Rosa's stepfather, although nothing specific is ever said, only alluded to.)

Just like the inconclusive allusions of inappropriate sexual liaisons in this novel, I was a bit frustrated by the conclusion, which leaves Mariella at the end of her mission but without resolving her future. Does she return home? Does she marry her Henry? What happens to Max? Tell me more! (less)

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Sep 09, 2009 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, england

Without going off into spoilers, I have to say that the main thing that kept me from giving this book five stars was the ending. It left me saying "And then what happened," because it was so anticlimactic.

The plot concerns Mariella Lingwood, a well-to-do and very proper Victorian English lady, who leaves her family home in England to go to the Crimea -- not as one of Florence Nightingale's nurses, but find her missing cousin Rosa. Rosa has gone to the Crimea to nurse, but disappears without a tr...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Jeffrey Otto rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

You probably don’t know too much about the rather obscure Crimean War, fought between a coalition of the British, French, Turks, and Sardinians, against the Russians from 1853 to 1856. You’re not alone. Between the Napoleonic Wars and the Great War a century later, western Europeans have generally been more fascinated, and their arts and literature reflect this fact, by internal convulsion rather than foreign conquests. Americans have enough of their own wars to fill their students’ history book...more You probably don’t know too much about the rather obscure Crimean War, fought between a coalition of the British, French, Turks, and Sardinians, against the Russians from 1853 to 1856. You’re not alone. Between the Napoleonic Wars and the Great War a century later, western Europeans have generally been more fascinated, and their arts and literature reflect this fact, by internal convulsion rather than foreign conquests. Americans have enough of their own wars to fill their students’ history books and Asian scholarship has little reason to devote much attention to a comparatively minor, far-away conflict. Even as regional wars go, the Crimean War would seem to have a marketing problem, roughly equivalent to that of the Spanish-American War in American history.

Just a little research, however, reveals that the Crimean War cast a comparatively long historical shadow in two specific ways. First, it ushered in the advent of modern tactical warfare. Advances in communications (the telegraph) and transportation (railroads and steamships) gave the war a distinctly modern form. Second, and more importantly, the war drew women into foreign theaters of operation on a nearly unprecedented scale. Florence Nightingale, who led a team of nurses to Turkey and Russia in 1854, permanently transformed the relationship between women and warfare. Her successes were shared; the result of women from across class lines—the daughters of the gentry, Irish domestic laborers, and even Roman Catholic clergy. So transformative was their role in the conflict, in fact, that it would not be too much of an exaggeration to suggest that nursing as a modern profession began on the battlefields of southern Russia.

Paradoxically, however, these dual shadows which would stretch across time were not dialectical in nature. It was not modern tactical warfare that pulled women across the European continent and under the bastions of Sebastopol; but its opposite, war sequenced by definitively pre-modern rules of engagement. Take for instance the Battle of the Tchernaya River (in which a young Leo Tolstoy fought), a particularly bloody episode during the yearlong British-led siege of Sebastopol. Immediately following the battle, with upwards of ten thousand men strewn dead or wounded across the battlefield, an armistice was agreed and each side poured across the terrain searching for survivors. Among those retrievers were the female nurses, orderlies, and custodians that had come in aid of the British army. The gentlemanly willingness to abide such terms, to make a landscape of decimation accessible for non-combatant women, is unimaginable by the indiscriminate standards of contemporary war.

Given the complexities of the Crimean War, along with its important historical legacy, it is surprising that it has not been put to better service in the work of literary fiction. It is also what makes The Rose of Sebastopol such a frustrating and disappointing effort. One cannot help but suspect that were Katherine McMahon’s story written by the hand of a more accomplished novelist, the inherent drama attendant in a tactically modern war being fought according to old-fashioned rules and presided over, in part, by Victorian society women, could have rose far above middling genre fiction and even, perhaps, made for a story as compelling as the sensationalistic reporting that contemporaneously framed the war. In fact, it is hard to imagine more built-in narrative possibilities ripe for description, moments which could turn up the heat in the middle of a cold Russian winter, than those present during the Siege of Sebastopol. Yet even from within the sub-genre of romantic historical fiction, The Rose of Sebastopol comes up far short of compelling.

Now, before you protest that I am demanding too much from a piece of mass market fiction, let me suggest that historical fiction has the ability to be something more than pot-boiler romance and history of the lowest common denominator. Hilary Mantel’s Tudor era fiction proves the point. McMahon, however, spends more than two hundred pages, or half her book, interweaving her characters with overdone descriptions of furniture, clothing, and landscape, the last of which is rendered so unconvincingly that the reader would not be faulted for questioning exactly where the novel is set. And if the estate landscapes were surprisingly indeterminate, the few urban scenes yielded even more woeful results. Though McMahon’s efforts at character development are earnest during this portion of the novel, they fall extremely flat and do not, contrary to the marketing of the novel, paint a rich portrait of London society. The same disappointing effort could have been done in far fewer words.

As the plot moves from London to the Crimea via central Italy, the book’s heroine, Mariella Lingwood, is dragged along quite unwillingly, searching for the truth about the relationship between her cousin, Rosa Barr, and her love interest, and fictive brother, Henry Thewell. While it is Mariella’s development as a character that will ultimately salvage some meaning from an otherwise uninspired story, it does not come quickly or easily. In fact, even in the concluding pages of the book, when Mariella has all but given up her flawed object of desire (which any brother-like character is bound to be), she stumbles into relations with an equally flawed object of desire. Considering Mariella’s reticence throughout the novel, a reader might be forgiven for hoping for a less reserved ending with nothing left to the imagination. For the most part, this wish is granted, and though needlessly sentimental, the ending brought more pleasure than expected.

McMahon is not a stylist. Her prose is uninspiring and I winced at more humorously overwrought sentences (“If I could have fought my way out of my body I would have done it and left my skin on the riverbank like a rag”) than I did admire those that were artfully constructed. Even scenes from the battlefield were sadly bland in description and never does the narrative rise to the level of making the reader feel like they are amidst the action. Characterization is also not a strong suit. Above I alluded to the extraneous prose devoted to thick character description, but in and of itself, thick description that unfolds over a substantial portion of the novel, if done right, does not detract. McMahon’s characters, however, remain stubbornly two-dimensional, even after all that attention in lieu of action.

If McMahon is due credit, then certainly it comes from her ability to pace the latter half of her novel through decent plot sequencing. As the action progresses, the flashbacks to Mariella’s childhood are neither obtrusive nor overly cumbersome. Some of the sub-plots, those which hint at sexual manipulation and explore issues of social justice during England’s rapid industrialization, are pleasurable to read and contemplate. As well, McMahon’s research into The Times’ reporting of the war is well done and uncanny in its evocation of the problems and limitations of contemporary foreign reportage. Still, even the arabesque plot of The Rose of Sebastopol is a function of chronological artifice (what the Russian Formalists called sjuzet) rather than the twists and turns that can be wrung from the straightforward events of the actual story.

With the scaffolding of the Crimean War as skeleton, McMahon erred grievously by not situating the heart of her novel, from the outset, resolutely in the middle of the Crimea. This is such a glaringly obvious mistake, that one assumes that she was just as reluctant as her protagonist Mariella to move outside of her comfort zone, that of describing Victorian London society. While, in the end, the reader will recognize the vague outlines of the war’s historical legacy, it sadly will never have been convincingly pulled out of the story in a meaningful or instructive way. In fact, the one image that this reader will take away from the book is that of a black rat, the size of a cat, perched across the breasts of the stricken Irish domestic turned nurse, Nora. It may seem a harsh judgment, but in the end, The Rose of Sebastopol feels a bit like that imposter rodent sitting squarely atop the buxom Crimean War. © Jeffrey L. Otto, December 9, 2012

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Jan 24, 2010 Lushbug rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book follows Mariella a typically demure and naive girl from England in the mid 19th century as she leaves her ordered world and enters the chaotic Crimea.

The novel touches on lots of different subjects including unrequited love, forbidden love, the futility of war and medicine in the 19th century.

Unlike a lot of others I really liked the characer of Mariella who matures throughout the novel.I also loved the passionate Rosa who wanted to right the wrongs of the world single handedly but wh...more

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May 01, 2009 Wanda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, historical-fiction, ebooks

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

Review is here: Please read with caution as it contains spoilers. I have tried to word my review so as not to provide a summary of the story (that's not what you want to read). I have tried to word it so you can decide whether or not this is a book which you want to read.

***SPOILER ALERT****

In the beginning, I thought Mariella was a pain in the rear. I admired Rosa for her fortitude and spunk. I did not care for Dr. Thewell at all - could see right through his false venee...more *****SPOILER ALERT*****

Review is here: Please read with caution as it contains spoilers. I have tried to word my review so as not to provide a summary of the story (that's not what you want to read). I have tried to word it so you can decide whether or not this is a book which you want to read.

***SPOILER ALERT****

In the beginning, I thought Mariella was a pain in the rear. I admired Rosa for her fortitude and spunk. I did not care for Dr. Thewell at all - could see right through his false veneer to his inner core of self-absorption and, he was a cad, too! (Does anyone still use that word? I think today he would be called a "dog" or something - really a "cheat!") And, while I was unsure of Max, I came to love him in the end.

I loved the way Mariella evolved from being a simpering young lady in the beginning to becoming a woman strengthened by her own sense of right and wrong. Her love for Rosa was her driving force even in the face of betrayal. And, believe me when I say this, wholeheartedly, whichever your love leans, Mariella's love for Rosa was undeniable and admirable, too.

I would re-read this book and will recommend this book to friends who want to learn about war in all its gory detail, Florence Nightingale, and the Crimean War and the deep affection of love, too.

Did I think this was a traditional romance? I do not think it was a traditional romance story either. At times, it was a love triangle and even a love square. Again, it was not any of these in the traditional or usual way; more sapphic, I thought.

I did learn a lot of history which I always appreciate. The Charge of the Light Brigade must have been a spectacular sight to witness. From the bits of information I picked up from the book and from Wikipedia, it was horrendous, too.

Portrayal of Life in the 1850s: As for life in the 1850s, I believe it was probably an accurate description. The women were subservient and the men overbearing and demanding. Although I am sure this was not accurate in every situation, as it was portrayed in this book, it was accurate. There were certainly women who were free-thinkers (Florence Nightingale was a good example to use in this book); but, most women were only beginning to come out from under their father's/husband's thumbs.(less)

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Mar 03, 2010 Lyn M (readinghearts) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: historical fiction readers

Recommended to Lyn M (readinghearts) by: random from library shelf

Shelves: 2010, ccclib, borrowed, historical-fiction

This book is set in both England and Russia during the time of the Crimean War. The central character is Mariella, a pampered English maiden from a "connected" family. This book caught my eye for a number of reasons. First, it is Historical Fiction, which is probably my favorite genre overall, second, it fit a category in a challenge that I was participating in (you had to pick a random HF book off of the library shelves) and third, the book jacket hinted the Miss Florence Nightingale made an ap...more This book is set in both England and Russia during the time of the Crimean War. The central character is Mariella, a pampered English maiden from a "connected" family. This book caught my eye for a number of reasons. First, it is Historical Fiction, which is probably my favorite genre overall, second, it fit a category in a challenge that I was participating in (you had to pick a random HF book off of the library shelves) and third, the book jacket hinted the Miss Florence Nightingale made an appearance in the book. She is an historical figure that has always intrigued me. What I found was an interesting tale of love and betrayal woven among the backdrop of Victorian England and the Crimean War. The two main characters, Mariella and her cousin Rosa, are as different as night and day. Mariella has always led a quiet existence, paying special attention to the social rules for women in the Victorian era. She is quiet, demur, shy, and spends her time sewing all manner of items for charity. Rosa, on the other hand, is headstrong, untraditional, artistic, wants to be a doctor, and considers Mariella the most important person in her life. Since women cannot become doctors, she is determined to become a nurse, like Miss Nightingale, and eventually follows her to the battlefields of the Crimean War to nurse the wounded. When she disappears, Mariella takes off for the same battlefields in an effort to find her.

I gave this book 4 stars. The story was really enjoyable, and kept me interested from the beginning. It was especially interesting to read about medical practices in the 1850s, which were actually more primitive than I expected. Although the book hinted at involving Florence Nightingale, I was disappointed to find that her character was only anecdotal in the story. My disappointment was offset, though, by the unconventional view of Miss Nightingale that the author presented. It made me want to study this historical figure more, to see what her personality was actually like. My only other disappointment came at about the halfway point in the story, where a potential love triangle appeared that I felt was not necessary to include. (less)

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Oct 29, 2011 Wwmrsweasleydo rated it 2 of 5 stars

This would have had three stars were it not for the unsatisfactory ending. The last of the five parts was, overall, my favourite, but it felt as though it was leading up to a revelation or realisation or even twist and in the end there was nothing.

The first few parts are rather twee and ladylike and unfortunately the main protagonist (first person narrator) isn't very likeable. It's not really feasible that other characters would fall in love with her. Luckily she develops over the last couple...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Adrienne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The author employs an interesting technique in having 3 different time periods (when Rosa and Mariella are children and first meet; right before the Crimean War, and then during the Crimean War), which in same cases probably could be really confusing but it worked well here (even with listening to the audiobook when I couldn't flip to the beginning of the chapter to double check the time period).
I liked Mariella as the narrator; Rosa, on the other hand, had the tendency to drive me up a wall, p...more

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Jun 09, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, borrow-it, historical-fiction, crimean-war

2.5 stars
I enjoyed the story that is woven through The Rose of Sebastopol. We get a sense of what people at home heard and thought of the war, but also what it was like living and working in the war zone. It is told in dual narrative, with the primary narrative told during the Crimean War, and the secondary narrative consists of Mariella's memories of past events. If you have trouble following multiple timelines, this book may give you difficulty. Part of Mariella's tale of past events can be of...more 2.5 stars
I enjoyed the story that is woven through The Rose of Sebastopol. We get a sense of what people at home heard and thought of the war, but also what it was like living and working in the war zone. It is told in dual narrative, with the primary narrative told during the Crimean War, and the secondary narrative consists of Mariella's memories of past events. If you have trouble following multiple timelines, this book may give you difficulty. Part of Mariella's tale of past events can be of her life just before she heads to Italy, from when she meets Henry, and later when she meets Rosa. Eventually the "present" timeline, and the rememberances of life just before she leaves for Italy catch up together, so there is one less time frame to keep track of. Since I had an audiobook, I missed having a printed copy that I could flip back and check at times.

One biggest problem with this audiobook how the chapters end. I would be sitting, listening happily along, and expect the chapter to continue, except it goes launching into a new one. I am not sure if the author wrote it that way, or if the narrator read it in a way where the phrasing sounded like the chapter should continue instead of stopping. This might not have bothered me much, except that I would say at least half of the chapters in the novel ended that way. The other major problem I had with the book is Mariella's voice. When she would get to thinking about how Henry is, or where Rosa was or some decision she has to make, she starts to sound whiny, weak and spoiled. I simply can't stand whiny, weak female lead characters, and this began to get to me. It may have been exaggerated, since I was listening to the book, but not seeing it in print, its hard to say how much. It may also be done to exaggerate the difference between Rosa and Mariella, since Rosa is decisive and fearless, but if this is the case, it could have been done so Mariella didn't sound so weak.

Some of the events covered in the last disk or two seemed hurried, and thrown in almost like an afterthought when compared to the long period in getting to the Crimea and looking for Rosa there. Some of these events would have made the story more interesting, in terms of the characters and their relationships with each other, but being hurried in near the end, they felt more contrived.(less)

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Mar 03, 2013 Annette rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It reads like a good "old" novel - in the same vein as early turn of the century novel ... a quiet, slow, yet readable novel. The characters start in England and end up experiencing the horrors of war in the Crimean. It would make a great romantic novel, with a twist... a family secret, romance, broken hearts, obsession, even reflections on war-time medical care and women's rights in aiding the injured.

It has all of this, yet there is something that just didn't make it likeable... I don't know...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Nick Phillips rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Set at the time of the Crimean War this is the story of four young(ish) cousins all drawn inexorably towards the battlefields of Balaklava and Inkerman and at heart it is a coming of age story, not just of the four main protagonists but also of the British Empire and the modern world. To a large extent the Crimean War is one of the forgotten wars, sandwiched almost equally in time between Waterloo and the Somme and yet as the first modern war it set the template for the horrors of the trenches s...more Set at the time of the Crimean War this is the story of four young(ish) cousins all drawn inexorably towards the battlefields of Balaklava and Inkerman and at heart it is a coming of age story, not just of the four main protagonists but also of the British Empire and the modern world. To a large extent the Crimean War is one of the forgotten wars, sandwiched almost equally in time between Waterloo and the Somme and yet as the first modern war it set the template for the horrors of the trenches so exactly that the Napoleonic conflict may as well have been in the middle ages by comparison.

Just as the Crimean War marks the moment when the technological wonders of The Great Exhibition turned to the mechanised death machines of World War One so the journeys undertaken by Mariella and her cousins changes them and their entitled belief in the old values beyond all recognition and mark the point at which the cosy and confident world of the Victorian British Empire is seriously challenged for the first time.

The question has been posed elsewhere as to whether Mariella and Rosa are two halves of the same person but I would argue that it actually takes all four of them, Mariella, Rosa, Max and Henry, to complete one whole, a whole that is analogous to the empire. Mariella represents tradition and propriety, the belief in an ordered and never changing society while Rosa is a representation of a new breed who are questioning their role in the world, a set of questions which will ultimately lead to the breakup of the empire almost completely within a hundred years. Max the soldier is the stiff upper lip representation of the empire's military might, unquestioning in its pursuit of honour and land while Henry shows us its scientific advances, resolute in pursuit of the truth even if others don't always share his vision.

Whether or not the novel is strictly feminist is up for debate but the female characters are certainly the dominant ones throughout. Each of the women in their own way shapes the world around them and each of them knows instinctively that they are the equal of the men even if this is not directly verbalised. This is most clearly shown when Henry is telling the family of advances in medical hygiene that are leading to lower infant mortality rates only to be told by Rosa that country midwives have known and practiced this for years. Early feminism of the kind shown by Rosa can be seen here as not as women wanting equality as this would have been an alien concept in the 1850s but of women wanting to be able to be themselves and to pursue their own interests and passions. Rosa is no more a feminist than Elizabeth Bennett, but then she is no less of one either.

It is easy to draw comparisons between The Rose of Sebastopol and Beryl Bainbridge's Master Georgie and I would say that it stands up to the comparison very well. Having said that the novel that it most reminds me of both stylistically and in some ways thematically is Eyeless in Gaza by Aldous Huxley, both have a disjointed narrative, both are essentially highlighting the horrors of war and both feature generations who are attempting to live with the end of the previous generation's certainties. Above all though The Rose of Sebastopol holds its own as a history novel that deals with a little visited period of our history and succeeds in bringing it wonderfully and vividly to life. (less)

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Dec 16, 2010 Karyl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I admit, it started somewhat slow, but once it picked up, I wanted to devour it. Two female cousins, constrained by the expectations of Victorian England, find themselves in the midst of the Crimean War, one (Rosa) in order to help, and the other (Mariella) to find Rosa when she goes missing. The story is told in flashbacks, so it can be difficult to figure out what's happening if you don't pay attention to the chapter headings, but I had no trouble following alon...more

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Sep 20, 2010 Anna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

stuff about medicine in Victorian England = awesome. how broken bones were treated & why, what the latest theories were, knowledge of diseases, how diseases are spread.
then there's industrial revolution stuff - understanding of pollution, labor practices, new ideas about plumbing.

oh - and GREAT job making the position of women clear wo/anachronistic feminist theory but with historically accurate emergence of the Fabians/socialists/"rational dress"/etc.

only thing not so hot = the plot.
which...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Zoella rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Rose of Sebastopol is a fantastic read. Don't be fooled by those who can't read between the lines. The protagonist, Mariella, is one of those great unreliable narrators (Lockwood in Wuthering Heights) that you just love to tut at whilst you are reading. Enjoy her transformation. What McMahon does is depict Mariella's coming of age in a convincing way. Mariella is the archetypal Victorian lady; who happens to be thrown into the Crimean war. It's so engrossing that you will feel like you've pa...more

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Jan 29, 2010 Lucyaliceann rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've really enjoyed reading this book over the last few weeks - the characters were interesting and the setting of the Crimean War was something I've not had a lot of experience with (beyond The Charge of the Light Brigade') The quest for Rosa and the changes in Mariella's character were insightful and well written. The disturbing relationship that built up between Mariella and Matthew Stukely was uncomfortable, but I suppose added an extra level to the story -reminding us that disturbing events...more

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Jun 13, 2009 Karin Bartimole rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an entertaining historical novel that takes place during the Crimean war. Situations of conflict are present on every page - from women choosing traditional roles, to the seeds of women's liberation; wealth vs poverty; soldier vs men of means; and all is told through the unlikely Mariella, our reluctant heroine! She isn't the adventurous spirit that her cousin Rosa is, but like the tortoise and the hare, perhaps what is learned is that true courage and lasting change rises from steady,...more

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