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Showing posts with label philippa gregory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label philippa gregory. Show all posts

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Book Review: Meridon by Philippa Gregory

The Wideacre Trilogy has three very unique heroines and Meridon, or Sarah Lacey, is no less formidable than her predecessors.

Raised as a Gypsy bareback rider, Meridon grows up ignorant of her Lacey blood, only sensing that she doesn’t belong in the rough life she leads with half-remembered dreams plaguing her. She remembers a copper haired girl and a place called Wide, but beyond that, she is a girl with only half a past.

Her skills with horses lands her and her sister, born on the same day to two very different mothers, in a circus act. But Meridon’s fears of heights and flying like an acrobat put her sister in the spotlight. When Meridon’s greatest fear is realized, her life changes forever. She washes up at Wideacre, realizing the past she should have had. But money is not all it appears to be, and Meridon learns, like her foremothers, that Wideacre and the Squires of Wideacre are not always of an accord.

Meridon concludes the Wideacre saga, a satisfying conclusion to the struggles of three generations of Lacey women.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Book Review: The Favored Child by Philippa Gregory

Picking up where Wideare left off, The Favored Child loses no momentum as is as amazing as the first installment of Philippa Gregory’s Lacey saga.

Julia Lacey, joint heir to the Wideacre estate, tells the story of her family, her aunt Beatrice who ruined Wideacre, and her and her cousin’s, Richard, attempts to revitalize the estate again. But things go horribly wrong with the tragic death of a horse and a hawk, which see what the adults should have seen all along.

Love, cruelty, unexpected family legacies, and the unique magic of Wideacre permeate the pages as the specter of the Lacey’s incest emerges from an idyllic past. Don’t miss this second installment, or the third and final book (review coming soon!), Meridon, which concludes the Wideacre series.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Review: Wideacre by Philippa Gregory


Beatrice Lacey refuses to conform to the constraints of eighteenth century society. Her father sets her on his horse at age four and so begins her love affair with the land her family has held since the Norman Conquest. She’s thorough in her passions and lives heartily and fast, until her scheming catches up with her. For Beatrice is in love with the Squire of Wideacre, whoever it may be, and she will stop at nothing to have Wideacre for her own, no matter who or what her love destroys in her passion to possess it. Rife with history, incest, and passion, Wideacre is a heady, break-neck read, especially for such a long novel (nearly six hundred and fifty pages), with addicting, complex characters and the vibrancy of Wideacre itself pulsating between its pages.

As in the video posted earlier, Philippa Gregory wrote Wideacre for fun, reading 200 eighteenth century novels in the course of her research. She says it was a wonderful experience, though it took nearly four years, because the eighteenth century saw the novel developed as a form and what better way to learn than looking at the template for the modern novel?

I made a list of popular eighteenth century writers and novels in class Monday night =) and here’s a few. Feel free to add to this list or comment on any of the items listed.
  • Moll Flanders
  • The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
  • Voltaire
  • Tristram Shandy by Lawrence Sterne
  • Rousseau
  • Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
  • Pamela by Richardson (after the first hundred pages you will want to smack her)
  • Ann Radcliffe
  • Jonathon Swift – Gulliver’s Travels and A Modest Proposal (eat the babies) http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1080
And because Jonathon Swift's humor in A Modest Proposal just cracks me up, you, dear reader, get a video to accompany it.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Philippa Gregory

I just finished Wideacre by Philippa Gregory (review forthcoming) and got curious about her process on such large books. WOW! Great information here: 
http://www.philippagregory.com/work/c18th/wideacre/historical-background-wideacre-the-favoured-child-and-meridon/
 And inspiring stuff in this video for writers.


More writerly stuff

This movie is quite long, but thought I'd post it as interesting all the same.