Post
by EC2 » Tue May 31st, 2011, 1:45 pm
I read it a while back. Paraphrased from my review elsewhere:
I loved the atmosphere and I felt the author had a strong feel for the atmosphere of the 1890's in terms of the country house moneyed faction. The clothes, the jewels, the manners, the judgemental and the often stultifying society with its dark underbelly of lust, envy, and wasteful greed was very well observed and protrayed. I thought the writing style was bright and elegant with a smooth, page-turning flow. The way the ambience of the times is captured is the novel's particular strong point.
On the down side, the leading characters of Cora and Ivo are never fully developed. Ivo remains a two dimensional person and I couldn't understand what Cora saw in him. Cora came over as bland and at time fairly nondescript except in terms of her physical attributes which were dwelt upon in detail. She would have occasional bursts of spirit, but the character never really came together as a whole. The conflict often pulls back from going the full distance and thus short changes the reader.
Still, this is an okay light novel that I enjoyed reading, albeit not a great one. Three and a half stars.
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard nI chasront
'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'
Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal
www.elizabethchadwick.com