Cynthia Sally Haggard's Blog: Cynthia Sally's Blog, page 59
May 21, 2020
Brigitte Hamann’s THE RELUCTANT EMPRESS
[image error]It is heartbreaking to read about the destruction of an attractive and lively personality. Yet that is what Brigitte Hamann’s biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria does. Titled THE RELUCTANT EMPRESS, Ms. Hamann’s book charts the downfall of Elisabeth (more commonly known by her nickname “Sisi”) from a carefree 15-year-old who caught the heart of the Emperor Franz-Joseph, to a teenager whose children were taken from her by her jealous mother-in-law, to a twenty-two year old who fled the Viennese court and her marriage because after six years of marriage, she became so ill, that people feared for her life.
Unable to live with a husband who was dominated by his mother, and kowtowed to a stifling regimented Spanish etiquette, Sisi tried to find something to do with her life.
In the 1860s, she agitated for the parity of the Hungarian crown with the Austrian. In 1867, her efforts were crowned with a coronation ceremony in Budapest.
In the 1870s, she dropped politics and moved onto horse-racing, becoming one of the most outstanding equestrians in the world.
In the 1880s, she focused on poetry, writing several hundred poems, most of which were not published until after her death (they were too subversive). She stopped writing poetry when her only son, the Archduke Rudolf, committed suicide in 1889.
In 1890, her youngest child married, giving her even less reason to stay in Vienna. And so she wandered, from place to place, never finding a home of her own.
For those of us who remember the trials and tribulations of Princess Diana this makes chilling reading. Like Diana, Elisabeth suffered from anorexia. Like Diana, she was a perfectionist who cultivated a cult based on her own extraordinary beauty. LIke Diana, she became an unhappy woman who never seemed to find her footing in the world. So when Elisabeth was assassinated in 1898, her death was a relief. Birgitte Hamann writes:
“This sensational act of violence in Geneva was a deliverance for a deeply unhappy, emotionally disturbed and physically debilitated woman whose parting hardly left a gap.”
What a tragedy for such a deeply gifted, and sensitive personality. Five stars.
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May 19, 2020
C. W. Gortner’s THE ROMANOV EMPRESS: A NOVEL OF TSARINA MARIA FEODOROVNA
[image error]When Princess Dagmar of Denmark comes to her new home in Russia at the age of 19, she loses her name, her home, everything she knows. But she comes to love Russia, her dead fiance’s brother (whom she is forced to marry) and makes a life for herself as the Empress Maria Feodorovna.
When I started this book, I imagined I was reading yet another story about Alix, the last empress of Russia, the wife of Nicholas II. Instead, this book is about Nicholas II’s mother.
C. W. Gortner has done a yeoman’s job with his research and this novel is utterly fascinating. I had no idea that even in 1866, when Maria Feodorovna appeared in Russia as a newly-wed 19-year-old, that there were already threats against the Royal family, so much so that they were obliged to be closely guarded even when they went for a walk.
As the pressure against the royals increased, it drove them indoors and away from the Russian people, so that they became even more insulated and unknowing. The scene where Maria’s father-in-law Alexander II of Russia is assassinated in 1881 is one of the most chilling I have ever read.
So one of the messages that comes across in this wonderful novel is that the Russian Royal family had plenty of notice – 50 years in fact – that they were unpopular, but they did nothing about it.
Highly recommended. 5 stars.
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May 17, 2020
Marjorie never did have much luck with husbands…(AMERICAN EMPRESS by Nancy Rubin)
It is odd to reflect now, here in the 21st century, how people used to rush into marriage. Mrs. Post was married four times. I could understand why she married Edward Close (she was only eighteen), E. F. Hutton (he was the love of her life) and Joe Davies (he was interesting), but I must say I didn’t see the point of her marriage to Herbert May. But then women were made to feel that they couldn’t go out if they didn’t have some sort of male companion, and although her daughters encouraged her not to marry her male escorts, she herself was of an era when rigid notions of male-female relations prevailed.
Marjorie never did have much luck with husbands. She divorced two of them for infidelity, and the other two because, in their different ways, they cramped her style. Many of her friends speculated about why she was never happy for long in her marriages.
One of her friends remarked, “Marjorie, you could run General Motors. You could run U.S. Steel. You could run anything. You’re the smartest woman I know. But why do you have so much trouble with husbands?”
“Clare, I honestly don’t know. Ain’t it hell?” Marjorie is reported to have replied.
But the answer of course is that from the fact that you have formidable organizational skills and a steel-trap mind – as Marjorie did – it doesn’t at all follow that you will have a happy marriage. Because what is needed is a totally different kind of intelligence, what we now refer to as EQ or emotional intelligence.
This is not to say that Marjorie didn’t have any EQ – she had good relationships with all three of her daughters – but she didn’t have enough of it to offset all of her millions.
Because those millions, in my opinion, lay at the heart of all of her problems with her husbands. Four stars.
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May 16, 2020
Reading Sundays: A SURPRISING CURE (Part 8) a short story by Cynthia Sally Haggard
[image error]I cleared my throat. I knew that what I was about to say would annoy her, but nevertheless it was my moral duty as her husband to tell her about the consequences of her actions.
“Miriam,” I said after a pause. “People are not going to understand. They will see you with a much younger man and they may draw the worst sort of inference.”
“Let them! I don’t care.”
“You should care, Miriam. People will not forgive moral lapses. You will not be received.”
“What you mean is that you’re afraid my friendship with Robert is going to cast doubt upon you.”
“Miriam! That’s unfair.”
“It’s true,” she shot back. “All you care about is being a high-class solicitor with a book full of well-heeled clients. You don’t want to help the poor because you’re terrified that your clients wouldn’t like it.”
Miriam had no idea that I took a great interest in helping the poor, because I made nearly all of my bequests anonymously. How could I make her understand? But before I could form a coherent sentence she had slammed the door, and rustled downstairs towards her friend. I stood there, my hands balled into fists, How could she be so cruel? [To be continued next week.]
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May 14, 2020
HERE BE DRAGONS (WELSH PRINCES #1) by Sharon Kay Penman
Readers of historical novels frequently complain about the large cast of characters that are typical of these novels, and how hard it is to remember everyone’s name.
Yet Sharon Kay Penman manages to make her characters memorable. She does it with a masterful use of point of view. In HERE BE DRAGONS, her fictionalized biography of Llewelyn the Great (c.1173-1240), Ms Penman allows the reader to spend a summer’s day with ten-year-old Llewelyn in Chapter One (it is July, 1183).
We do not meet the second protagonist, John, Count of Mortain (1167-1216) until Chapter Three, and then it is through the terrified eyes of a teenaged serving wench who has just been told she has to spend the night with him.
In Chapter Seven we meet the third protagonist, five-year-old Joanna, who is living in modest circumstances with her mother in Yorkshire. Ms. Penman deftly weaves the strands of her narrative together so that we gradually learn that Joanna is the bastard daughter of the Count of Mortain.
Upon Mortain’s accession to the throne of England in 1199, as King John, Joanna’s status rises. In 1206, at the age of fourteen, she is married off to Prince Llewelyn, the ten-year-old boy we met in Chapter One, now a seasoned fighter aged thirty-three. Ms. Penman uses these plot strands to explore the complex, torturous relationship between King John of England and Prince Llewelyn of Wales. Five stars.
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May 12, 2020
Ken Follett’s WORLD WITHOUT END
[image error]I had never heard of Ken Follett until a family member begged me to read him. I started with PILLARS OF THE EARTH and just loved it. WORLD WITHOUT END is just as strong. Interestingly, it DOESN’T pick up where PILLARS OF THE EARTH ended but jumps forward one hundred and fifty years. This requires a completely new cast of characters, and although some of the characters claim to be related to those in the earlier book, it really wasn’t necessary to have that connection. As in the previous book, WORLD WITHOUT END opened with a powerful image, and closed with another one, so that it had a satisfyingly resonant ending, something, I fear that is increasingly becoming as rare as hen’s teeth.
Despite complaints by some readers that the book was over-long, I found it completely absorbing up until the end. The characters were well-rounded and realistically portrayed, and the events that happened to them were well-grounded in their motivations. In short, I highly recommend this novel. If you love PILLARS OF THE EARTH, I don’t think you will be disappointed by WORLD WITHOUT END. Five stars.
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May 11, 2020
YSABEL by Guy Gavriel Kay, narrated by Kate Reading
[image error]YSABEL is a magical blend of history and fantasy, set in the ancient cathedral of Saint Sauveur in Aix-en-Provence. When teenaged Ned Marriner, son of a famous photographer, finds himself at loose ends, and begins to wander amongst the ancient stones, he finds that the place isn’t quite as empty as he believes.
This was my first Guy Gavriel Kay read, and so I cannot comment about his other work. What I loved about this novel was that the characters and situations of the present day were just as strong as those of the past, so I didn’t find myself distracted by dying to know what was going on in the past, while being forced to wade through uninspired material about the modern era.
But the most magical parts came, of course, from the past. The scene in which one of the female characters becomes Ysabel is etched onto my memory. Five stars.
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May 9, 2020
Reading Sundays: A SURPRISING CURE (Part 7) a short story by Cynthia Sally Haggard
[image error]She shook her head and turned away. For the rest of the conversation, I was talking to the back of her head.
“How did you meet him?”
“At the Women’s Liberal Association in Edinburgh. He was giving a speech. He’s so good with words.” There was a pause as she gazed out of the window for a moment. “Do you know,” she said softly, “I think he’s the most interesting person I’ve ever met.”
She seemed to have forgotten that her husband of eight years was in the room.
“How old is he?”
“About twenty.”
“Miriam! Don’t you worry about what people might think?
She turned to look at me, flashing a dimpled smile. “Of course I’ve considered that. But what he’s doing—what we’re doing is more important than that.”
What could I say? Miriam had always been strong-willed, but she’d become increasingly headstrong and unconventional as the years passed. She never did anything by halves. Her restless energy propelled her to grasp at one enthusiasm after another.
“I do not doubt your purity of motive, my dear, but you must have some idea of where these kinds of sentimental friendships may lead.”
She made an impatient gesture. “Oh you and your respectability! I never should have come back—”
“You’re not going away? Miriam, you’ve only just arrived. You don’t know how much I’ve missed you.”
Her eyes softened as she allowed her gaze to drift over me.
I cleared my throat. I knew that what I was about to say would annoy her, but nevertheless it was my moral duty as her husband to tell her about the consequences of her actions. [To be continued next week.]
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Alexis Marie Chute’s INSIDE THE SUN (THE 8TH ISLAND TRILOGY #3)
Today is time for something different! Please help me welcome Alexis Marie Chute,[image error] Artist Extraordinaire (as well as a funny, charming lady from Edmonton Alberta.)
I met Alexis when we were both studying for an MFA in Creative Writing at Lesley University’s lo-res program. She was such a joyous, upbeat person, a whirlwind of energy, a vivid-always-smiling-personality that I had no idea her life had been upended by tragedy. If you want to learn more, her memoir EXPECTING SUNSHINE is a must-read. It brought me to tears.
Now, despite COVID-19, despite the fact that the whole world has shut down and that civilization as we know it has disappeared, Alexis has determined to continue promoting her newest novel, [image error]INSIDE THE SUN, the third in her 8TH ISLAND TRILOGY.
So who is Alexis Marie? Here are 10 fun factoids about this very talented lady:
10. She wears many different hats, artist, mother, author, wife, curator…
9. She has degrees in both fine arts and creative writing.
8. She has always wanted to be a writer. She has always wanted to be an artist. So, why not do both??
7. Unlike most artists, she has an amazing talent for marketing!
6. Alexis loves Portal fantasies.
5. When writing, she cocoons herself with Mozart & candles, incense & Vivaldi.
4. Her response to COVID-19 was to found a group called “Authors Helping Authors” so that all of us Indie authors could rally around and help one another.
3. Her advice to writers enduring writer’s block is to NOT read what they have written. Instead, they should let their fingers fly as they free-write their way around it.
2. The theme of the 8TH ISLAND TRILOGY is resiliency. What could be more perfect today?
1. The characters of INSIDE THE SUN are full of secrets. They possess a power they do not realize.
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May 7, 2020
The way Ken Follett introduces his characters makes you want to know more…(PILLARS OF THE EARTH)
[image error]As everyone knows, PILLARS OF THE EARTH is a huge novel that takes place in England over a 50-year period from about 1121 to 1172. The novel begins and ends in violence: It begins with the hanging of a mysterious young man who sings a chanson before they string him up. It ends with the hanging of a thoroughly evil and despicable character, as if the author is telling us that this hanging atones for the first one. At the end, as a coda, one of the main characters punishes the King of England for his part in the murder of Thomas à Becket.
Ken Follett is a masterly writer, and the way he introduces each of the main characters makes the reader want to know more. ELLEN is the woman with striking eyes who curses the people responsible for the hanging of the young man in the prologue. PRIOR PHILIP is shown neatly outmaneuvering an opponent. TOM BUILDER carefully builds a house, and stands up for his rights when challenged by his lord and master. WILLIAM HAMLEIGH arrogantly rides his enormous warhorse into a building site, and nearly kills a seven-year-old girl. Sixteen-year-old ALIENA impetuously informs her suitor that she will never marry him, because all he does is talk about “his dogs, his horses and himself”.
I wasn’t expecting to find so much violence in the novel, so much murdering, pillaging, and raping. But it didn’t seem gratuitous. Anyone who has a feel for the history of the time, knows that the 1100s in England was a very stormy time, when the country was foundering in a civil war that went on for nineteen years. Needless to say, law and order broke down completely.
But you should not let the violence put you off. Follett has written a masterpiece, with vivid characters, and plot twists and turns that will make you stay up late into the night, (or nurse your insomnia at 5 am), and keep you entertained until the end. Five stars.
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