Dawn's Early Light by Elswyth Thane

[Michy]

I am always in search of a new author to love; unfortunately, most of the time when I try a new-to-me author I end up disappointed. But Dawn's Early Light was an immensely enjoyable book; if this is typical of Elswyth Thane's writing then I have struck gold!

Dawn's Early Light is set in Williamsburg, Virginia during the Revolutionary War. The book begins the day that Julian Day steps off the ship from England, and ends the day that the British surrender at Yorktown. In between is a delightful story of five young people whose lives and affections are crossed and intertwined.

Thane's writing is evocative; she is particularly effective at creating a sense of place. She can almost make you smell the roses in the hot, dusty Virginia summers, or see the fireflies in the twilight. Her battlefield scenes depict the sights and smells and the awful hardship that was war in 18th century America, especially for the ill-fed, ill-clothed and ill-armed Colonial forces. She also creates a strong sense of the feel of the times. One particular passage that stood out to me was early in the book, as Julian ponders the vast unknown wilderness of the American continent at that time. He is almost overwhelmed by the huge, wild unknown that lies just beyond the mountains. In this day and age it is hard for us to imagine that feeling, but Thane conveys it well. I like that her writing is poignant, but never sentimental or maudlin and never too deeply sad, either; there are places where the book brings a pang to your heart, but it doesn't make you cry.

The greatest strength of this book is the characterizations. Thane has created a cast of 5 young adults who occupy center stage throughout the story, and their personalities are distinct, well-drawn and engaging. She also weaves into the plot the famous people of the day -- Washington, Jefferson, Lafayette and others-- in a way that is perfectly seamless. She even gives her imagined characters numerous personal encounters with the great men, and manages to do it in a way that is absolutely plausible.

I highly recommend this book. I look forward to reading more by Elswyth Thane and am glad she was so prolific, and that her works are so easily available through Amazon and the library.

[Misfit]

This was good. Loved the loved Julianne and Tibby. Still waiting for *someone* to return Yankee Stranger to the library so I can read it :mad:

[Michy]

Thanks. I started to go into more depth about each of the characters -- Julian's endearing denseness, for example -- but decided that would make the review toooo long.

At the rate it's going, I just might end up reading Yankee Stranger before you do! :p

[traveldog]

Oh, I envy you! --- I have to wait for enough years to pass so I'm not practically reciting from memory as I go along before I can re-read the Williamsburg novels.

My girlfriends and I discovered them when we were 16 or thereabouts and the Day-Sprague families have been part of *our* families ever since. Pets have been named for various ones -- and a child's name or two seriously considered or championed. (I couldn't get my dad to agree to Tibby [Dawn's Early Light] for my much-younger sibling-to-be ... but fortunately turned out to be a boy so I was able to convince him to go for Jeff [Homing].)

I couldn't possibly give an impartial, adult assessment of these books -- they are just simply beloved. But I wish you half as much joy of them as we have had.

I enjoyed but never 'connected' with her other books quite as much, except for Tryst.

Hmm - it's been about 10 years since I read through the series -- it may be about time for another go. Thanks to the online book sources, I now have handsome hardbacks of all of them.

(She had a very interesting life also -- and I once read that she'd never been to Williamsburg when she wrote the books).

[Misfit]

Pets have been named for various ones -

Oh thanks for that. Tibby would be a wonderful name for a kitty, wouldn't it?

[traveldog]

Hmmm -- actually that's what my stepmother said when I suggested it for her expected child ..... and, sadly, she didn't like cats.

My cat, by the way, is a handsome, bright, brave but still thoughtful boy with a touch of sadness in his background named Bracken (Ever After, 3rd in the series).

[Misfit]

I will have to wait longer to find out about Bracken. Still waiting for Yankee Stranger which was due 7/21 and no sign of it yet on my hold list :mad:

[Michy]

I submitted my library request for Yankee Stranger over the weekend, and it is on its way to me now. :) I read somewhere that it starts when Tibby is 100, so that is disappointing already, since it means all the other characters from DEL are dead. :( I wish she would have written a book set in-between DEL and YS -- the War of 1812 would have been a good setting, I wonder why she didn't? Could have worked Dolly Madison and Andrew Jackson in somewhere, they were certainly interesting enough people!! Oh, well......

Traveldog, if I continue to enjoy the rest of the series as much as I did DEL, I just may purchase hard copies for keeps via Amazon. It looks like all of them are in stock new. Do you have all of her books, or just the Williamsburg series? I just read Riders of the Wind, which was her first book and quite different from DEL. I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much. I will probably still read the sequel, anyway, just to find out what happens to the characters.

[traveldog]

Interesting! Who is this Buccaneer Books who seems to have reprinted them in 1996?? They weren't out there when I discovered Amazon's used books and auction books (which, at the time, was made up private individuals with comparatively small numbers of books) and accumulated -- slowly -- my set of the Williamsburg series. No book looks like the other and a couple are library binding -- but they are MINE!!!! <g> Took the longest time to find Kissing Kin and The Light Heart, as I recall.

The other book of hers that I'd read several times (and now have in hardback) is Tryst. Back in the dark ages, when I was reading these, you didn't have many ways to get non-new books if your library didn't have them, so I don't think I read many. Never even saw the Riders of the Wind that you mention. I think I liked Queen's Folly but not as much as the Williamsburg ones. (Well, that's not hard - I've liked very few books as much as I did the Williamsburg series. I must have encountered them just when I 'needed' a family like that or something.)

And yes, Yankee Stranger begins when Tibby is 100. I wasn't prepared for that -- expected, as you say, the War of 1812 or thereabouts. I recall (remember, I'm 16 at this point, okay?), putting the book down, turning my back on it, and spending a few days of deep "mourning" because I was never going to get to 'spend time with' Julian or St. John or Dorothea again. I was so angry/disappointed that I almost didn't want to read Yankee Stranger .... but of course I did, eventually.

[Michy]

Fortunately, my library system has many of Elswyth Thane's books -- the entire Williamsburg series plus many more. Although I am thinking I may very well end up buying them, as I think these are going to be books I'll want to re-read. There are a select few books -- Jane Eyre, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and a couple of others -- that I re-read every few years. Comfort books, I guess. The Williamsburg books feel like they could become that for me.

I am really enjoying Yankee Stranger -- once I, too, got over the initial disappointment that everyone but Tibby from DEL was gone! I really like Thane's style -- understated, I would say. She manages to convey a strong sense of time and place and the subtleties of her characters, but without going into long descriptive passages. Just a few words, or a sentence or two, and you've got it. I love writers who can do that -- Anya Seton's style was similar, which is I think why I enjoyed her books so much, also. Thane's books are really easy for me to "settle into" -- which isn't always the case, since I tend to distract easily.

This copy of Yankee Stranger doesn't have the family tree on the endpapers. Which on the one hand is nice because it doesn't give anything away. But by now the Days and Spragues are so intermarried that I have a hard time keeping everyone straight and the family tree would be helpful!

[Michy]

I'm about 2/3 through Yankee Stranger and am enjoying it. I'll be curious to see your reaction, Misfit (when the person ahead of you finally gets back from their extended vacation and returns the book, that is!!). You didn't care much for the battlefield scenes in Dawn's Early Light, and Yankee Stranger has much more of that sort of thing....

[Michy]

My cat, by the way, is a handsome, bright, brave but still thoughtful boy with a touch of sadness in his background named Bracken (Ever After, 3rd in the series).

Now that I have met Bracken I have to say that, given your cat's personality, the name Bracken couldn't be more fitting!

I will have to wait longer to find out about Bracken.

You will love Bracken -- all the women do. ;) He is handsome, wealthy, smart, ambitious, and (best of all) so witty! I love this exchange between Bracken and his sister (never fear, this is no spoiler, since it is revealed at the very beginning that he has a wife from whom he is estranged):

For a few minutes they rode in silence. Then Bracken said --

"All right. I'll tell them."
"That you have a wife?"
"Mm-hm. It may be a trifle difficult to find an opening, of course. 'Speaking of cut-worms, I have been deserted in a most scandalous fashion by my lawfully wedded wife' -- would that be too abrupt, do you think?"

That one made me laugh out loud!

[Misfit]

**drums fingers on table**

Still waiting for my copy. Last check shows they've billed the previous borrower :mad:

[Michy]

I do hope you get the book soon -- I am enjoying this series, it would be fun to compare impressions with someone else who's reading it for the first time.

What impresses me about Thane's writing is her ability to create a never-ending supply of characters who are original and so engaging. There are some overlaps in characters from book to book, although characters from the previous book tend to stay more in the background in subsequent books, while she creates a whole new cast of characters to occupy center stage.

[traveldog]

>>>Now that I have met Bracken I have to say that, given your cat's personality, the name Bracken couldn't be more fitting!<<

Hah!! The name was given -- and the impression formed -- only a week or so after we adopted Bracken from a big city shelter just hours before he was scheduled to be euthanized. He was, we've since discovered, in pretty bad shape quite subdued by the experience - understandably so. At that time, however, he gave no hint as to the smug, attention-seeking, insistent, mischievous tyrant he would become!!! I think I owe Thane's Bracken an apology! I'm really thinking James Bond - or perhaps Atilla! -- might have been a more appropriate moniker...... (however, I do like 'Bracken' better).

It's so nice to hear someone discover and enjoy these books ..... I think I must be getting due for a re-read (something I seem to have to do about once every decade).

[LoobyG]

This afternoon I finished 'Dawn's Early Light' which I had been anticipating greatly since finishing 'Yankee Stranger' which I read first as I had a copy. And I'm glad to say it didn't disappoint, although I do wish I had read it first as I think I'd have appreciated more of Tibby's references and comparisons with her grandchildren to Julian and other characters from DEL. Julian was a great character and I felt that his loneliness on first arriving in Virginia, was really palpable. This is definitely a keeper and probably a re-read for me, Thane packed in such detail! :) It's stimulated my interest in reading more historical fiction set in the US.

[Michy]

I've just started book #4 -- The Light Heart -- and I really just have one complaint about Thane's family saga. That is, I really don't like the storyline she created for Susannah Day -- she makes her a sacrificial lamb who offers herself and any chance for happiness on the altar of forbidden love. It just rubs me the wrong way, especially since the object of Sue's love marries someone else and goes on to have a contented and happy family life. It really bugged me in book #3, and now that she's continuing it in book #4 it's bugging me even more. :mad: How do the rest of you feel about it?

[LoobyG]

I have to admit I thought that Sue's attitude towards the whole situation with Sedgewick, so many years later was unrealistic, especially as in Yankee Stranger she was so adamant that Sedgewick should marry and raise a family, and not spend his days moping after her. It's exactly like she's sacrificed herself and her happiness for an unfulfilled relationship. How can she have lived her life like that? It doesn't seem sustainable to me :) I'm at the bit in Ever After when Major Gratian is taking a big interest, I do hope she marries him! Even if it's just for his dress uniform hehe :D

[Michy]

I have to admit I thought that Sue's attitude towards the whole situation with Sedgewick, so many years later was unrealistic, especially as in Yankee Stranger she was so adamant that Sedgewick should marry and raise a family, and not spend his days moping after her. It's exactly like she's sacrificed herself and her happiness for an unfulfilled relationship. How can she have lived her life like that? It doesn't seem sustainable to me :) I'm at the bit in Ever After when Major Gratian is taking a big interest, I do hope she marries him! Even if it's just for his dress uniform hehe :D

That's exactly how I felt about it. I just can't see any self-respecting person (which Susannah definitely seems to be) behaving that way, even in fiction.

The Light Heart starts in 1902 and goes through WWI, so I'm looking forward to it -- that era interests me. That was part of my dissatisfaction with Ever After, was that I just couldn't muster up much interest in the Cuban war for independence, Teddy Roosevelt notwithstanding, :)

BTW -- have you read the Poldark series (I'm sure you have, I'm probably the last person on earth who hasn't :))? I just read the first one and really, really liked it. It reminds me quite a lot of the Williamsburg series, except that it's set in Cornwall rather than America.

[Misfit]

FYI, Dawn's Early Light and Yankee Stranger are both available on Kindle now. $3.99 I believe is the price I saw.

[bevgray]

This is a series I have loved all my life ever since my Mother introduced me to it in my teens. I'm in the act of re-reading it right now.

Of all of them, I found KISSING KIN (Book #5) the least appealing both in characters and narrative. Still, Thane at her weakest is always an enjoyable read. Fond as I am of Bracken, I'm a complete sucker for Oliver (but then, I have this attraction to uniforms, even British ones).

For those who like the series, don't overlook some of her other titles (which at the time they were written were considered contemporary fiction). My favorites after the Williamsburg books are FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, TRYST (a beautiful haunting ghost story), and RIDERS IN THE WIND (her first published in 1928 or 1929).