subgenres seem to come up, become insanely popular and then go out of style without leaving a trace, Anybody remember those huge thick historical novels, multigenerational sagas about a place, where generations go on and on and everybody dies, lots of tragedies and romances, lots of action and where the real main character is really the place or house James Michener and Susan Howatch wrote lots of those.
This was published perhaps a bit later than that, but fits precisely that subgenre, the story of a French Castle spawning some generations in thethth century.
And the publishers spoiled it all, by putting the family tree surely that has to be the plot and character list for all generations right at the start of the book.
How could I know Or resist looking And somehow the writing was not so brilliant to keep reading without that hope of surprise, Its an old fashioned genre, but the writing also felt old fashioned, but not in a cool way, An incredibly wellresearched historical fiction so powerfully written you will not put it down until the very last page, despite its length and a dense writing.
I only knew McCaughrean's children books, which I really enjoyed now I'll try and find some of her other "grownup" works, . . "He knew in that moment how God felt on Good Friday when He saw on what He had wasted Creation, "
Vainglory begins inas Victoire De Gloriole regains possession of the family castle GloriolesurSablois from the English, Victoire marries Englishwoman Ellen Talbot and begins building a family dynasty and bringing Gloriole to new heights, although like all noblemen their ups and downs are ruled by the whims of the current ruler kings come, kings go.
The twists of fate take several bizarre turns in the subsequent generations as Victoire finds himself without a legitimate heir and his daughter Verite is caught up in the machinations of their distant de Puy cousins can the family survive or will they succumb to madness and greed while building Gloriole to ever greater heights
And that's all I'm going to tell you, this is one of those books that you can't put into a brief review and I don't write book reports.
While history plays a second stage to the main story, I enjoyed the peeks at the historical events swirling in the background from Joan of Arc and the wars with the English through to Catherine de Medici ruling through her children after the death of Henri II.
Although the most gripping moments for me was the terrifying aftermath of the Conspiracy of Amboise as the Huguenots are slaughtered en masse,
With the exception of Victoire and Ellen and their son Fils, most of the rest of the Gloriole family are downright unlikable this is not your warm and fuzzy family.
What you will get is a story of a power hungry, greedy, grasping family that will do anything and everything to attain their vainglory and lord help anyone who gets in their way.
This book might be too slow paced to appeal to all readers, but the writing is lovely and very subtle one to sit back and savor slowly with a glass of red wine and chocolates.
A saga which traces the fortunes of four families inthcentury France, centering on the beautiful chateau Gloriole and spanning five turbulent generations, A rich feast of a story, Set inth century France, around the Chateau Gloriole and the turbulent fortunes of the family who own it, the family who think they should own it, and the family who simply crave it.
Fans of Dorothy Dunnett's style of writing will enjoy this, I've had this sitting on a shelf hiding for about a decade, believe it or not! Forgotten, but as I've been clearing my shelves, I found this, and it looked like a good book, so I started to read.
And from the first page to the last, I loved it! A story of a family who have lost their demesne in theyears war the one that actually lasted longer than a century, but lets not quibble, eh, they recover it during thecentury, and there the story begins with a man falling in love.
The story ends with another man going insane through losing love, but don't for one second believe only love features in the centuries covered here, there's questions of loyalty explored, concepts of kingship questioned, crusades to be undertaken, cruelties to be distributed, and plenty of doublecrossing and underhand dealings done and received! In my opinion, a firstrate book of historical fiction well worth reading! Such an interesting style/voice.
Really didn't enjoy this. It's the tale of a French family in the middle ages and spans several generations, They are all unpleasant characters and I found it very hard to find them at all sympathetic, I very rarely find a book that I can't find anything good about, but this was definitely one! I have a PB published by Arrow Books MayGeraldine McCaughrean was born inand brought up in North London.
She studied at Christ Church College of Education, Canterbury and worked in a London publishing house foryears before becoming a full time writer in.
She has written overbooks,short plays for schools, and a radio play, Her adult novels include Fires Astonishmentand The Ideal Wife, but she is best known for her childrens books, She writes for children of all ages, from first readers, picture books, and younger childrens books, to childrens novels, which include A Little Lower than the Angels, Gold Dustand Not the End of the World, each of which have won the Whitbread Childrens Book Award, making her the only write Geraldine McCaughrean was born inand brought up in North London.
She studied at Christ Church College of Education, Canterbury and worked in a London publishing house foryears before becoming a full time writer in.
She has written overbooks,short plays for schools, and a radio play, Her adult novels include Fires Astonishmentand The Ideal Wife, but she is best known for her childrens books, She writes for children of all ages, from first readers, picture books, and younger childrens books, to childrens novels, which include A Little Lower than the Angels, Gold Dustand Not the End of the World, each of which have won the Whitbread Childrens Book Award, making her the only writer to have won this award three times.
Geraldine McCaughrean has also written several collections of stories, including bible stories and fairy tales, She specialises in the retelling of classic tales such as The Canterbury Tales, The Odyssey, Moby Dickand El Cidand of myths and legends from around the world.
These books include The Orchard Book of Greek
Mythsand The Orchard Book of Roman Myths, Geraldine McCaughrean lives in Berkshire, Her book, Not the End of the World, is currently being adapted for the stage, White Darkness, was shortlisted for theWhitbread Children's Book Award, In, she was chosen to write the official sequel to J, M. Barrie's Peter Pan. Peter Pan in Scarlet was published in, sitelink.
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Geraldine McCaughrean