I like my historical romances to feel and read real. It is evident the author knows history. She describes the role of English women in India in the 1...moreI like my historical romances to feel and read real. It is evident the author knows history. She describes the role of English women in India in the 1800's very well, knows the sound and feel of a ship on the open ocean, knows the China trade. She puts it together in a book that flows.
Anson Saurage is the master of the Pearl Stallion, an East Indiaman that plies the one to two year route from India to Spanish Californa to Russian Alaska. Across the Pacific to the Sandwich Islands and on to China, back to India and possibly from there to England.
Dina Wilmount thinks by stowing away on the Pearl Stallion will get her back to England, but no such luck. During the next year she learns navigation, how to sew, teaches English to crew members, and falls in love with Saurage.
Saurage is an alienated man with possibly one friend, the ship's doctor. Without really knowing it, he uses Dina as a sounding board for his ideas and hopes by long talks with her that are really with himself. It is her presence that is important.
I sent in a card for 4 new Harliquin authors and this is the only one that I kept. I don't know if the author ever wrote anything else but this one I liked. (less)
The setting is Venice in the 12 years before Napoleon's army seized the city. This is the story of 12 years of a marriage, 2 years together, 4 years e...moreThe setting is Venice in the 12 years before Napoleon's army seized the city. This is the story of 12 years of a marriage, 2 years together, 4 years estranged and 6 sharing the same household but never speaking. Young Fosca married for love, but for her father and lover it was about politics. After 2 years of marriage, the death of a new-born and a miscarriage, she declares her independence and during Carnival she takes a lover. A revolutionary who takes her to Paris and gets her pregnant. Her husband claims her child as his own, takes her back but never speaks to her.
A change begins when, shortly after her 30th birthday, she exchanges places with her husband's mistress for her own reasons. The mistress, Lia, was also the lover of Rafaello Leopardi who impregnated Fosca Loredan and this the husband, Alessandro Loredan, knows. Amorality seems the order of the day.
Peters brings in all the elements at play in Venice at that time; impoverished nobility getting deeper into debt for display, life in the Ghetto, the dieing glory of Venice. The solution of the conflict between Fosca's husband and former lover is not very believable.
It is not an uplifting novel and a bit sordid, like Venice at the time, but I find it vastly re-readable and have done so in the many years I have owned it. Maybe it is the feeling a got at the end that at least these two people and their child have a future.(less)
This on of the few books from my teaching days that I have kept. Antonia Fraser gives a very through and detailed account of Mary Stewart from her ear...moreThis on of the few books from my teaching days that I have kept. Antonia Fraser gives a very through and detailed account of Mary Stewart from her earliest day the her death. Fraser draws conclusions on the reasons for the murder of Mary's secretary, the death of her second husband and her disastorous third marriage. She also goes into Mary's relationship with Elizabeth of England and Philip of Spain. Dry as dust? To the layman, yes. To we odd ones, no.(less)
By the time I got to this book I was a bit bored by the Bedwyn family. This is a book I picked up and put down. About now all I can tell of the book i...moreBy the time I got to this book I was a bit bored by the Bedwyn family. This is a book I picked up and put down. About now all I can tell of the book is that young Lady Morgan has gone to Brussels with Lady Caddick and family before the Battle of Waterloo and has attracted the attention of the somewhat older Earl of Rosthorn. The Earl was run out of England nine years before, a scandal involving missing jewelry. This was my second go at this book and had hoped it would improve. I have given it up for now and it is my "car book". My favorite in the series is A Summer to Remember.(less)
The Darcy's and the Bingley's starts well. Ms Altman fleshes out the last chapter or two of Jane Austin's book making the first two sections of the bo...moreThe Darcy's and the Bingley's starts well. Ms Altman fleshes out the last chapter or two of Jane Austin's book making the first two sections of the book a pleasure to read.
It is a delight when both Jane and Elizabeth are expecting their first child. She does well with the Bennett's although we see little of Kitty and nothing of Mary. Their time is coming I suspect, it's doubtful Jane Austin would not have liked making Mr Darcy a lush or that he would be so antagonistic towards Bingley whom she described as having an "easy nature".
If part three had continued along the line of the first two all would have been well. There is concern over Caroline Bingley's suitor, a good start. The problem of the proper man to marry is believable and so is a brother's concern about this Lord James Kincaid. Dr Maddox is a attractive character who takes care when Darcy is injured and Darcy's recovery is well done. Then the plot really gets pretty fanciful and degenerates.
It was really low comedy having four soused, supposedly dignified men sitting around a table among empty bottles singing "Hail the the Chief", particularly after the brother of one was just killed.
Her dialogue and grammar in the first two sections is good and pretty close to that of Austin's. Later in the book it degenerates along with the story line. I always cringe when an author uses Watergate Testimony English such as "that moment in time" and "that point in time'. It is a moment,a point, or time because they are all the same. Later in the novel she often uses "a lot of" and "okay". Oh, a Scot wears a Tam O'shanter and not a beret, and he has a laird or chieftain, not a chief. (less)
I first read this book in 1954 when I was in college. It did seem pretty far out, as we would, say at the time. Here is a man dedicated to distroying...moreI first read this book in 1954 when I was in college. It did seem pretty far out, as we would, say at the time. Here is a man dedicated to distroying books because print and literature is passe, his wife spends her days hooked up to sound and stareing at a room-sized screen oblivious to everything around her. How prophetic can you get? But something is lacking and he finds it in the very thing he distroys. It is not a long or particularly profound book but Bradbury has the knack of "seeing" thing about human nature and the world. It is a quick read.
I work in a library and see Bradbury's images every day. Patrons come in with their bluetooth device or headphones on to check-out dozens of DVD's. There is talk of e-book replacing the printed kind. We will see.(less)
Loading...
