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Veronique
"Don't play at passion, Veronique."
Nothing in the richly comfortable and sheltered life of beautiful Veronique de Vaudraye could have prepared her for Gilles Marsan.
Veronique was welcome at the extravagantly opulent court of Marie Antoinette at Versailles. Gilles, on the other hand, was a radical political idealist. He was everything her noble French family despised. But he was everything she had always dreamed her lover would be.
Veronique and Gilles. They were convinced that no one in Paris had ever loved as they did. And they were sure they would go on loving forever - until a violent moment in history forced them to change their lives.
Nothing in the richly comfortable and sheltered life of beautiful Veronique de Vaudraye could have prepared her for Gilles Marsan.
Veronique was welcome at the extravagantly opulent court of Marie Antoinette at Versailles. Gilles, on the other hand, was a radical political idealist. He was everything her noble French family despised. But he was everything she had always dreamed her lover would be.
Veronique and Gilles. They were convinced that no one in Paris had ever loved as they did. And they were sure they would go on loving forever - until a violent moment in history forced them to change their lives.
383 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 12, 1976
About the author
Virginia Coffman
91 books44 followersVirginia Edith Coffman aka Jeanne Duval, Diana Saunders, Victor Cross, Ann Stanfield, Virginia C. Du Vaul, Kay Cameron.
A native of San Francisco, Coffman contributed movie reviews to the Oakland Tribune from 1933-40. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1938 and was a movie and television script writer for Columbia, RKO, and other Hollywood studios in her early writing career (1944-56). She had her first success with writing novels in 1959, when Crown Publishing decided to take a chance on Moura, and the novel was showcased by Library Journal. By the 1980s, Coffman was recognized as "the author largely responsible for setting off the Gothics craze of the 1960s, "earning her the reputation of "Queen of the Gothics."1
She quit her day job in Reno and became a full-time writer in 1965. While historical romance novels seldom find their way into the literary canon, Coffman, who was both prolific and dedicated, took her writing seriously. Her research for historical fiction was meticulous. She also drew upon personal experience as a world traveler when setting some of her novels in Hawaii, Paris, and other romantic locales. Several of her historical romances and gothic mystery novels were translated into other languages, and many have been published in large print and audio editions.
She was recognized by Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who in the West. She was a member of the Authors League of America and the Mystery Writers Guild of America. The Reno Gazette-Journal featured Virginia Coffman and her sister in a biographical story on April 4, 2002. In 2003, she donated a collection of her gothic mystery and historical romance novels to the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries.
A native of San Francisco, Coffman contributed movie reviews to the Oakland Tribune from 1933-40. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1938 and was a movie and television script writer for Columbia, RKO, and other Hollywood studios in her early writing career (1944-56). She had her first success with writing novels in 1959, when Crown Publishing decided to take a chance on Moura, and the novel was showcased by Library Journal. By the 1980s, Coffman was recognized as "the author largely responsible for setting off the Gothics craze of the 1960s, "earning her the reputation of "Queen of the Gothics."1
She quit her day job in Reno and became a full-time writer in 1965. While historical romance novels seldom find their way into the literary canon, Coffman, who was both prolific and dedicated, took her writing seriously. Her research for historical fiction was meticulous. She also drew upon personal experience as a world traveler when setting some of her novels in Hawaii, Paris, and other romantic locales. Several of her historical romances and gothic mystery novels were translated into other languages, and many have been published in large print and audio editions.
She was recognized by Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who in the West. She was a member of the Authors League of America and the Mystery Writers Guild of America. The Reno Gazette-Journal featured Virginia Coffman and her sister in a biographical story on April 4, 2002. In 2003, she donated a collection of her gothic mystery and historical romance novels to the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 28, 2022
Französische Revolution. Anfangs langweilig, später interessant und spannend
January 29, 2017
Dear Ms. Coffman,
There’s something uniquely disappointing about reading a bad book from a favorite author. I felt this way recently after reading your historical novel, Veronique, after years of reading your wonderful Gothic romances—Moura and The Alpine Coach are wonderful, but my favorite is The Dark Palazzo, a dreamy, atmospheric thriller set in late 1790s Venice where the hero is a French-Corsican revolutionary. It’s such a delightful book (Lazaraspaste wrote about it glowingly here.)
It’s one of the few romances I can think of that actually successfully conveyed a pro-revolutionary viewpoint. I was hungry for others, and I remembered I’d tried to read your French Revolution historical novel, Veronique. I vaguely remembered finishing it, and that I liked the hero, but I didn’t remember much else. This was twelve years ago, and my memory has never been the best.
So I just re-read Veronique… and it all came flooding back. There was a reason why it didn’t make a big impression on me. To be blunt, it’s not very good.
It pains me to say this, Ms. Coffman, because you are something of a personal hero to me. Even in Veronique, your prose is lovely, and in many ways you are a born storyteller. But I think the subject matter overwhelmed you—and possibly the weight of writing for the mainstream, middle-brow audience for historical fiction in 1974. Kirkus deigned to write a horribly sexist review of it, which you can read here. There’s even the condescending line—“but you know the audience–it reads while it knits.” Oh God, ugh.
The rest of my review can be read here on Dear Author (posted in 2018).
(I waffled between two and three stars, but I think this book is more of a 2 1/2 star read.)
There’s something uniquely disappointing about reading a bad book from a favorite author. I felt this way recently after reading your historical novel, Veronique, after years of reading your wonderful Gothic romances—Moura and The Alpine Coach are wonderful, but my favorite is The Dark Palazzo, a dreamy, atmospheric thriller set in late 1790s Venice where the hero is a French-Corsican revolutionary. It’s such a delightful book (Lazaraspaste wrote about it glowingly here.)
It’s one of the few romances I can think of that actually successfully conveyed a pro-revolutionary viewpoint. I was hungry for others, and I remembered I’d tried to read your French Revolution historical novel, Veronique. I vaguely remembered finishing it, and that I liked the hero, but I didn’t remember much else. This was twelve years ago, and my memory has never been the best.
So I just re-read Veronique… and it all came flooding back. There was a reason why it didn’t make a big impression on me. To be blunt, it’s not very good.
It pains me to say this, Ms. Coffman, because you are something of a personal hero to me. Even in Veronique, your prose is lovely, and in many ways you are a born storyteller. But I think the subject matter overwhelmed you—and possibly the weight of writing for the mainstream, middle-brow audience for historical fiction in 1974. Kirkus deigned to write a horribly sexist review of it, which you can read here. There’s even the condescending line—“but you know the audience–it reads while it knits.” Oh God, ugh.
The rest of my review can be read here on Dear Author (posted in 2018).
(I waffled between two and three stars, but I think this book is more of a 2 1/2 star read.)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews