Review: The Victory, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Pages: 447
Originally published: 1989
My edition: 2006 )Time Warner)
Why I decided to read: I’ve been enjoying the Morland Dynasty series for about a year now
How I acquired my copy: bought online

#12: 1803-06. Covers the Battle of Trafalgar

In Manchester, James’s wife Mary Anne becomes embroiled in the plight of the working poor. Lucy, Lady Aylesbury, is most of the focus of the 12th book in the Morland Dynasty series. Her lover Weston is a captain in the Navy; her husband Chetwyn develops a friendship with a young man, and their relationship causes much scandal. Haworth, Mary’s husband, is also a captain in the Navy, and witnesses firsthand the Battle of Trafalgar. Lucy’s relationship with Weston sails along (pardon the pun), until…

This is a pretty decent addition to the series, although I felt that Lucy was a bit foolish at times and Chetwyn very hypocritical. Chetwyn is definitely not one of my favorite characters in this series, though I hope he improves with time. Nobody seems particularly happy or optimistic about the future, which can make for some pretty bleak reading a times. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles is especially adept at describing great historical moments; the Battle of Trafalgar is depicted with painstaking precision, significant considering that it is the lynchpin that holds this book in the series together. British naval history is not an area in which my knowledge or interest is strong, but there were several scenes that had me gripped! This entry in the Morland saga is a bit of a downer, but it’s still a good read.

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Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars...

Review: The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y.K. Lee

The Piano Teacher is a complicated novel. On the surface, it’s about a love affair between two British ex-patriots in Hong Kong in 1952-3. Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong with her husband Martin at a time when the world is still recovering from WWII; Claire takes up work as a piano teacher for the daughter of a wealthy Chinese family, where she meets Will Truesdale, the Chens’ enigmatic chauffeur. The book jumps back in time between the 1950s and the beginning of WWII, when Will is interned in Stanley, a Hong Kong camp for enemies of Japan. On “the outside” is Tudy Liang, Will’s beautiful Eurasian lover. There’s no doubt that Lee’s writing is beautiful. But there’s something lacking in this short, terse novel that I can’t quite put my finger on. First, I think it’s the tenses she uses when taking about each story: that which is set in the 1950s is in the past tense, while the war scenes are talked about in the present tense (confusing, no?) The interpersonal relationships of the m...

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