BOOK REVIEW - THE EDGE OF DARK BY PAMELA HARTSHORNE

A dark, page-turning tale from Pamela Hartshorne, author of The Memory of Midnight and Time's Echo, and a perfect read for fans of Barbara Erskine and Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series.

Part of a trilogy 

This novel shares much with the previous two in the trilogy, Time’s Echo and The Memory of Midnight - which I both read and reviewed - but it is not a sequel, nor a prequel,  the three plots and the characters are not related any way.
The three novels share the geographical setting (York), the time-slip pattern (Elizabethan Age/present day), the presence of supernatural events and the fact of having two female protagonists.

In The Edge of Dark, the two heroines live in distant eras but share a great deal of tragicality in their respective lives. Roz Acclam is the only survivor to her family’s slaughter by fire and Jane Birkby faces the outcomes of her vow on  deathbed  and the hardship of being a woman in the 16th century. “Beware what you wish for” may well be the leit motiv for them both.

Book Blurb

Jane believes in keeping her promises but she’s caught on a twisting path of deceit and joy that takes her from the dark secrets of Holmwood House in York to the sign of the golden lily in London's Mincing Lane. Getting what you want, Jane discovers, comes at a price. For the child that she longed for, the child she promised to love and to keep safe, turns out to be a darker spirit than she could ever have imagined.

BOOK REVIEW - THE POLDARK SAGA, ROSS POLDARK (BOOK 1)

I blame Ross Poldark for ...

I hadn’t read any of the books from the Poldark saga before the new adaptation started on BBC1, though I had been totally smitten by the original series back in the 70s. I was just a kid who was beginning to learn English as a foreign language at school at that time and my love for everything British is,  for sure,  a result of Robin Ellis’s good looks and Ross Poldark’s charm as a character. My interest in Jane Austen's novels came soon after.

However, I bought the first 2 Poldark books when the remake was announced in the press. I decided I wanted to read them,  to compare them to their adaptation in the upcoming TV series.

You know, that’s one of my favourite passtimes! 

Synopsis of Book 1 - Ross Poldark

In the first novel in Winston Graham’s hit series, a weary Ross Poldark returns to England from war, looking forward to a joyful homecoming with his beloved Elizabeth. But instead he discovers his father has died, his home is overrun by livestock and drunken servants, and Elizabeth—believing Ross to be dead—is now engaged to his cousin. Ross has no choice but to start his life anew.

Thus begins the Poldark series, a heartwarming, gripping saga set in the windswept landscape of Cornwall. With an unforgettable cast of characters that spans loves, lives, and generations, this extraordinary masterwork from Winston Graham is a story you will never forget.

Go on reading at My Jane Austen Book Club

My review is part of The Ross Poldark Blog Tour promoted by Sourcebooks and it is linked to a great giveaway!

THE OUTLANDER SAGA BY DIANA GABALDON: DRAGONFLY IN AMBER (BOOK 2)

It took me quite a while to make up my mind and read on through Diana Gabaldon's Outlander saga. It took me time since I had decided to stop at the end of book 1 when I first read it (my review). I was quite sure that Jamie and Claire happy in France, sharing their passion in that cave under the Abbey, were an ideal finale to their story.

Then the TV series came and I reread Outlander. Once Jamie was Sam Heughan in the flesh, Claire had Caitriona Balfe spirited look and Frank/Jack Randall were both embodied by charming Tobias Menzies , I had at least 3 good reasons to enjoy this saga (more than enjoy!)

Like many other fans, I was quite sad hearing that the series would take a very long hiatus after the first 8 episodes and that we would have to wait until April 4th 2015 for the release of the second half of season 1. That's when I decided I had to go on reading.

That's why I've been reading Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager in the last weeks, (aka book 2 and book 3, aka 976 + 1,104 pages, packed with Jamie and Claire's adventures) and why I have just started Drums of Autumn.

I'm going to discuss book 2 in this post, so if you haven't read it yet, beware of inevitable spoilers ahead!

ASK JANE EYRE

"Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!--I have as much soul as you,--and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you"

If you are obscure, plain, poor and little,  life  may not be smooth and easy for you. Ask Jane Eyre. You may have to bite wicked older cousins who want to torture you,  defend yourself from a jealous aunt who wishes you were dead, you may have to survive long solitary hours locked in a scary red room, then to strive to keep yourself sane and alive in a bleak, heartless place like a school for poor girls,  you must accept to go on living without anybody caring for you or loving you ... but, in the end, you'll meet your hero, your Mr Rochester and have your own reward. He is not tender and handsome, maybe, but impetuous, fascinating, authoritative, mysterious, restless. Anyhow, he doesn't trample on you, he doesn't make you feel a nobody, he treats you as his equal and trusts you. Last but not least, he desires you passionately. What if you discover on your wedding day that he has a mad wife in the attic and can't marry you? No panic, hold on, you can make it. You'll have to endure the awesome shock, run away and give up your dreams for a while, live among strangers you'll  learn to love for about a year, but be sure,  at last,  you'll have your reward, you'll have your happy ending.

THE LADIES' PARADISE BY EMILE ZOLA - BOOK REVIEW

The Ladies' Paradise is a compelling story of ambition and love set against the backdrop of the spectacular rise of the department store in 1860s Paris. Octave Mouret is a business genius who transforms a modest draper's shop into a hugely successful retail enterprise, masterfully exploiting the desires of his female customers and ruining small competitors along the way. Through the eyes of trainee salesgirl Denise we see the inner workings of the store and the relations and intrigues among the staff, human dramas played out alongside the relentless pursuit of commercial supremacy. 

My review 
(beware of spoilers! ) I came to read this book after watching the BBC adaptation, The Paradise, which gave the story a British setting. The series  scriptwriters worked many changes on the original text, which usually disturb people fond of literary classics, but not me and not in this case. I think they quite  improved both plot and   characterization,  instead.

Zola's text aims to depict  the department store, The Ladies' Paradise, as an ambiguous symbol of progress:

"It helped women to establish themselves historically in the public sphere, and it may appear to have increased the customer's power and autonomy; but, as Zola shows, the new codes of social behaviour and social discourses which it entailed for the shopper simultaneously organized a powerful network of constraints, providing a mere illusion of freedom and fulfilment. The department store, in its embodiment of consumer culture, was - and is - a giant, precision-made dream-machine" (Brian Nelson)

The department store is a model of the new capitalism, designed to seduce more than to supply. The mechanisms of seduction described in the text are numerous: the policy of free entry, the establishment of fixed prices, the system of returns, the seduction of the eye with an almost "orgiastic" display. To create the need, to awake new desires is the main philosophy at The Ladies' Paradise.  

READING THE HOBBIT IN SEARCH FOR THORIN - PART IV

Richard Armitage as Thorin  smiling at his Lego alter ego

The hammering press campaign of these days, the several premieres all over the world, the many interviews and the huge amount of new pictures must have involved fans in an incredible  whirlpool of frenzy,  leading to the long-waited-for moment: the release of The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey,  film I in the new trilogy by Peter Jackson. It's time to close the book and get ready to watch the adaptation, the result of  almost two years  of detailed, talented, thoughtful,  creative work.

My reading of the book in search for Thorin must be completed, then,  in a couple of days, I too will see the film. 
I want to be clear again with any Tolkien fan  who might find themselves to drop by and read this: I undertook this journey through the book as a complete Tolkien newbie and only in order to follow the career of my favourite actor, Richard Armitage,  who is now  for many Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit, but will always remain Mr Thornton for me. 

This is my final post about the book, written leafing through chapters XI - XIX in  search for Thorin Oakenshield.  My previous posts are HERE, HERE and HERE. 
Time to get ready to compare the book with the movie. It's just a matter of hours for the majority of us now. 
For Thorin and his warrior dwarves it is instead time to meet the terrifying dragon Smaug. Is Bilbo ready to face him and steal the treasure Thorin claims back?

Warning!!! Huge spoilers ahead

PHILIPPA GREGORY, THE KINGMAKER'S DAUGHTER - MY REVIEW

Anne Neville and her sister Isabel are daughters of the most powerful magnate in 15th century England, the Earl of Warwick, nicknamed the "kingmaker". Ever ruthless, always plotting, in the absence of a son and heir. Warwick sets about using his daughters as pawns in his vicious political games.

Anne grows from a delightful child, brought up at the court of Edward IV and his beautiful queen, Elizabeth Woodville, in intimacy and friendship with the family of Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Her life is overturned when her father turns on his former allies, escapes England and invades with an enemy army. Widowed at fourteen, fatherless, with her mother locked in sanctuary and her sister a vengeful enemy, Anne faces the world alone.

But fortune's wheel  turns once again. Anne plots her escape from her sister's house, finds herself a husband in the handsome young Duke of Gloucester, and marries without permission, in secret. But danger still follows her. She finds that she has a mortal enemy in the most beautiful queen of England. Anne has to protect herself and her precious only son from the treacherous royal court, the deadly royal rival, and even from the driving ambition of her husband - Richard III.

This is not my first fictionalised Anne Neville's account of the facts which involved her in The Cousins' War , nor my first Richard III novel. However, I was totally absorbed in this new version of the story by Philippa Gregory and even often surprised by her choices. As much as I disliked her The White Queen, I really liked her latest The Kingmaker's Daughter. Especially the second half of the book.

READING THE HOBBIT IN SEARCH FOR THORIN - PART III & A NEW TRAILER!

Part III in the series “Reading the Hobbit in search for Thorin” focuses on chapters VII - X (Click HERE  for Part I and HERE for Part II).  I’m posting this third part on a very special day (the second magnificent trailer of the first movie has just been released - you can watch it at the end of the post) in a very special week, dedicated by Tolkien’s fans to the celebration of the 55th anniversary of the book (21st September 1937) and to Frodo and Bilbo’s birthday (22nd September). Here we go, then! 

TIME'S ECHO BY PAMELA HARTSHORNE - BOOK REVIEW

She reached out from the past, and whispered her name... 

York 1577: Hawise Aske smiles at a stranger in the market and sets in train a story of obsession and sibling jealousy, of love and hate and carpe desire. Drowned as a witch, Hawise pays a high price for that smile, but for a girl like her in Elizabethan York, there is nowhere to go and nowhere toh ide

Four and half centuries later,Grace Trewe, who has travelled the world, is trying to outrun the memories of being caught up in the Boxing Day tsunami. Her stay in York is meant to be a brief one.

But in York Grace discovers that time can twist and turn in ways she never imagined. Drawn inexorably into Hawise’s life, Grace finds that this time she cannot move on. Will she too be engulfed in the power of the past?

Time's Echo  opens with a nightmare,  so vivid and gripping that your are inexorably drawn into the story and can’t stop wondering what happened to poor Hawise Aske in 1577. So you  go on , page after page,  eagerly wishing  for the mystery to be solved.  Then you start doubting with the protagonist, Grace Trewe: was it all only a dream?

READING DANIEL DERONDA, GEORGE ELIOT'S MOST CONTROVERSIAL WORK

Hugh Dancy as Daniel Deronda - BBC 2002

I decided my more- than- 500-pages tome for this summer  would be Daniel Deronda and I successfully got through  its 675 pages + notes +  introduction slowly but enjoying every bit . Long didactic passages about Zionism included? Yes, I found them interesting if not exciting.

My first meeting with George Eliot’s last novel  was actually 10 years ago with its 2002 BBC adaptation , which soon became one of my best favourites ,  when I hadn’t even read a page from the book and only  just heard about it.

BBC drama was stunning and I found the story so original and brave  that I promised myself I would read the book sooner or later. I’ve  kept the promise though it wasn’t sooner.  You know, how is it that we usually complain? Too many books, too little time. That’s it. Now,   let’s start my musings giving some order to my thoughts , focusing on few important themes  and,  especially,   let’s introduce the book properly.

RICHARD III - SOME TOUCH OF PITY AND THE SEARCH FOR HIS RESTING PLACE IN LEICESTER

1. Rhoda Edwards, Some Touch of Pity. Book Review

“No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. But I know none, and therefore am no beast.”

(William Shakespeare, Richard III)

Another well written historical fiction novel about Richard III. Although this book is out of print  I managed to get  a used copy through Amazon.com and at a very special price. It is not my first Richard III novel since I started my quest for the real King. It is my fifth novel since, a couple of years ago,  I  joined the many loyal Ricardians who want to wipe off the stained reputation the Tudors stuck on Richard III after his defeat.

In 1976 Rhoda Edwards (author of another Ricardian novel, Fortune's Wheel)  won the Yorkshire Post’s Best First Work Award for this novel, Some Touch of Pity (The Broken Sword in the US edition) which was  her first work of historical fiction about King Richard III.

The peculiarity of Some Touch of Pity is that it  is  presented as a series of first person narrations of the key events in the last two years in the life of Richard III (March 1483 – August 1485)  We follow the compelling accounts of Lady Anne before and after becoming the Queen of England; King Richard himself; the King’s physician, Dr William Hobbes ; Sir Francis  Lovell, Richard’s best friend;   Robert Bolman a clerk in the Privy Seal Office; Lady Elizabeth, daughter of King Edward IV (King Richard’s niece and future wife to  Henry Tudor); George Stanley, Lord Strange; and finally a Squire of Sir William Stanley.

READING THE HOBBIT IN SEARCH FOR THORIN - PART II

Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit upcoming movie

This is my second post in the series “Reading the Hobbit in search for Thorin”.       (Click HERE for Part I)

The second part of my reading has been influenced by one of  Richard Armitage’s recent statements in  an interview related to the upcoming Hobbit movies. When asked how he tried to update a classical Lord figure like his Thorin Oakenshield  for  a contemporary audience, he answered:

I never really thought of updating it. I actually did the opposite. I thought of it as more kind of Greek tragedy. I looked at Shakespeare, a lot of my preparation I was looking at Henry V and bits of Richard III, just to find roots in British literature that were deeper. But I think making it feel contemporary the big themes of the story — loyalty and trust and camaraderie — I think those things are contemporary (transcript from http://io9.com/5929748/the-hobbits-thorin-oakenshield-tells-us-what-happens-when-you-get-a-tolkien-dwarf-drunk . See interview following the same link).

I  wonder  if  the bits Richard Armitage mentions are really of Shakespeare’s iconic wicked king or if he had  the ideal of the fair king,  which the Ricardian historians  rediscovered through documents,  in his mind. So I went on reading The Hobbit in search for Thorin and a bit also of  Richard III or Henry V.  I can anticipate I didn’t find much of them in Tolkien’s Thorin. So, as usual, this means that  Richard Armitage has been giving his own very personal interpretation to the character. Under the direction of Tolkien expert,  Peter Jackson, of course.

N.B. Don’t go on reading if you mind spoilers!

BOOK REVIEW - JAMES SHAPIRO, 1599 A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

I know one is not expected to tell the story of where her copy of the book comes from in a professional review but this is something I especially like in the books from my shelves. When I open one of them, on the first page available there’s always a pencil note (or an ex-libris sticker) reminding me where and when I got the copy, when I read it.  

As for this book, which is one of the latest ones I read, I bought it in London in December 2010, just outside the Old Vic, while I was trying to spend the few minutes left before entering the theatre and reaching my seat. It was too embarassing to stand there inside alone among the chattering crowd in the lounge, so I decided to go out again and got to the bookshop just across the road where I couldn't resist the charms books always have on me. I bought 3 ones. 

After that,  I went back to the theatre carrying a  little plastic bag  (not very elegant I know) containing my new treasures and felt less lonely among the crowd.

Time to write about the book, now! First of all, when I bought it, I thought it was a novel, I don't know why, but that was what I expected. The first sentence in the blurb misled me:

BOOK REVIEW: WOLF HALL - A TALE OF POWER, POLITICS & LUST

(from the blurb) "Lock Cromwell in a deep dungeon in the morning," says Thomas More, "and when you come back that night he'll be sitting on a plush cushion eating larks' tongues, and all the gaolers will owe him money." 

England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the Pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor. Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. 

Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages.

My musings

Thomas Cromwell was a man capable of writing a contract and taming a wild falcon, of drawing a map and settle a fight down, of furnishing a house and bribing a jury. He was the Machiavellian architect of Henry VIII's kingdom and master of the Tudors' destiny. 

Henry VIII

He is the protagonist Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall (the title refers to the name of the residence of the Seymours) and from his point of view we witness the well-known facts:  Cromwell  was the man King Henry VIII  trusted  to get to marry Anne Boleyn and get rid of Catherine of Aragon. We watch and take part in all the whims  of king and mistress from the smart, detached, strategic point of view of a power-hungry man. Cromwell is the emblem of a self - made man who thanks only to his incredible intellectual skills rose from very humble origins to be the politician who marked the new course of the English Church which led to the separation from the Church of Rome and from papal authority, the dissolution of the monasteries, and to the establishing of the king as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. 
Honestly, what still disturbs me is that all that was for ... a woman. Not for the love of a woman but in order to  accomplish  lusty wishes, which drove many others of Henry VIII's political decisions even later on. Mind you, I'm not a Puritan nor such a conservative but yet the fact disturbs me quite a lot.

FIRST GOOD READ OF THE NEW YEAR - LYNN SHEPHERD, TOM-ALL-ALONE'S

UK cover

This book is going to be released in less than a month, February 2nd,  as a homage to Charles Dickens in the year of his  birthday bicentenary (February  1812 – February  2012) (Official Site -Dickens 2012)

Tom-All-Alone’s was one of the poorest, dirtiest, most squalid slums in 19th century London. Tom- All- Alone’s  (The Solitary House in the US and Canada edition, May 1st 2012) is the title Lynn Shepherd has chosen for her second novel.

 It is  a gripping noir murder mystery set in foggy Victorian London, in which the characters of Dickens’s Bleak House and Lynn Shepherd’s own creatures come to interact . This is Lynn Shepherd’s second tribute to a great British  writer. Her succesful  debut book was set , in fact, in one of Jane Austen’s Regency novels and   titled, Murder at Mansfield Park (published in the UK, the US and in Spain). (My review on My Jane Austen Book Club)

WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY - FAVOURITE AUTHORS

Wonderful Wednesdays is a meme about spotlighting and recommending some of our most loved books, even if we haven't read them recently. Each week will have a different genre or theme. It is hosted on Tiny Library by lovely Sam.

This week's theme is Favourite Authors.

It's not a secret: English literature is my job and my passion. I also read different stuff, don't doubt, especially since I've started blogging and reviewing. However, if you ask me to choose my favourite authors, the first ones that come to my mind are those I've read and studied more. 

Have a look at this picture and let's see if you recognize them.

WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY - HISTORICAL FICTION

Wonderful Wednesdays is a meme about spotlighting and recommending some of our most loved books, even if we haven't read them recently.  Each week will have a different genre or theme. It is hosted on Tiny Library by lovely Sam. This week's theme is historical fiction.

I love classic literature so I love reading stories set in the past. I'm really fascinated by the past and would love to time travel not only in my fantasy. I long for a day - yes just one day - in Victorian England or one hour at one of Jane Austen's balls. If only I could ...

However, my fascination for the past is not only an appeal to 19th century England . It is a fondness for every past era and for many different geographical settings. 

The books I want to recommend today are  historical novels I've read in the last year and that I particularly liked.

THE WHITE QUEEN BY PHILIPPA GREGORY - "We have killed certainty in these cousins' wars and all that is left is mistrust"

Elizabeth Woodville, a young Lancastrian widow, armed only with her beauty and her steely determination, seduces and marries the charismatic warrior king, Edward IV of York.

Crowned Queen of England, surrounded by conflict, betrayal and murder, Elizabeth rises to the demands of her position, fighting tenaciously for her family's survival. Most of all she must defend her two sons, who become the central figures in a mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the missing Princes in the Tower.

Set in the tumult and intrigue of the Wars of the Roses, The White Queen is the first novel in a  series about the Plantagenets. In the same series, The Red Queen (Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII's mother) and the latest one, The Lady of the Rivers (Elizabeth's Woodville's mother) .

MORE THAN LOVE LETTERS BY ROSY THORNTON - MY REVIEW

Love comes in the most unexpected, mysterious ways. The more you plan, the least you obtain (Have you read Jennifer Ziegler's guestpost "Kismet and Kisses"?) When Richard Slater MP receives a series of letters of complaint from one of his female constituents, he's sure she is an insane old biddy who must be avoided at all costs. He really doesn't fancy meeting her face to face. But Margaret Hayton, twenty-something,  is not easily fobbed off, she's brave and stubborn,  and above all she's not afraid to stand up for her beliefs.
How does she figure Richard Slater out in her mind while insisting writing to him? Of course, as a stiff and stern, prim and proper, middle-aged politician who tends to snob ordinary people's little and big troubles. Do you sniff out love in the air? The game of first impressions? Yes, totally right. 

Against all reason, Richard invites Margaret to attend his next constituencey surgery and when he sets eyes on her dark ringlets and huge eyes, he risks losing his heart, his head and quite possibly his political career.

A THOUSAND GLASS FLOWERS BY PRUE BATTEN - MY REVIEW

“The island existed in a watery palette of colours, washed as if there was a veil of organza between the scene and the eye of the beholder. Often there were mists and at night it became hoary as a frost, in shimmering greys and silvers. But a profound harmony existed, with no care or trouble or very little that would disturb souls that had come.” (p 150)

I know it may  sound exaggerated,  but words can make fantasy true to our mind eye. Finely-chiselled, preciously embroidered words can materialize what we only dare fancy about. Prue Batten is very good with words, her talent to create characters and places and  to make them true to her readers is undeniable.

Imagine the magic,  exotic world of  “A Thousand and One Nights”.  Add a dark, damaged, doomed hero whose  attractiveness is magnified by his power to mesmer. Make him engaged in an adventurous quest to save not only his dear but the whole world from his wicked antagonist. Let him meet an extraordinarily beautiful,  brave young woman and join forces with her in his fight. Accept that they discover and face their fate,  united against their evil opponent. Enjoy their magic company of djinns, afrits, siofras. Prepare to a thrilling ride through bittersweet, romantic, gothic, tragic, funny, frightening, moving moments.  Do you think you can make all that?

A visual clue?