ISBN: 0743272536
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 4
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Summary: Superb Author
I am a great fan of author Philippa Gregory, and she did not disappoint me in VIRGIN EARTH.
I had not realized that this novel is, in fact, a sequel; certainly, the story and the characters stand alone.
Though Gregory began her writing career in the 20th century and continues now, into the 21st, I am convinced that she somehow is living in England, c. 1600, so thoroughly is she steeped in the rhythms of that time.
Her hero here, John Tradescant, is a man of conflicted loyalties, loving England but excited by its American colony of Virginia, serving King Charles I as his gardener but not desiring to be his soldier, passionate about a Native American squaw in the Virginia colony while blessed with a wonderful wife at home in England.
Those were difficult times in which Gregory places this tale, and the great proof of her success as a storyteller is how engaged the reader becomes in her fictional characters, all the while knowing the ultimate outcome the conflict on which it hinges; to wit, Cromwell's Roundhead Revolution.
The part of the novel that deals with the earliest settlement of Virginia is fascinating. Gregory makes it clear that the United States is a country that was founded on turmoil, strife and cruelty. The suffering she describes, of both slaves and Native Americans, as well as the deathly struggles of the colonists, all are appalling--and these are issues that rarely are examined in full.
Philippa Gregory remains one of the finest authors in the English language. Her fans will be well-pleased by VIRGIN EARTH.
Summary: Great Background Setting for her Characters
This is historical fiction at its finest. It is the second volume in the two volume set on the Tradescant family. They live in post-Elizabeth England when the Civil War is about to break out.
While this story concerns the life of John Tradescant the Younger and his troubles observing the court of King Charles I. His observations convey to the reader what life as a low level observer must have been like during those times at that place.
John then leaves his wife in England while he travels to Virginia where he has another love in the form of an Indian girl.
I find the background of the book well researched and well written so that you indeed get a feeling for the way life was in those times. To a certain extent I did not like John. He was torn between two women and unfair to either. He was torn between two Governments and chose to switch his loyalties quickly when trouble appeared.
Summary: "When a man is ready to promise himself to us he finds in us a loyal master."
Gregory's sequel to Earthly Joys is a continuation of the Tradescant family saga, gardeners to the Kings of England for generations, John Tradescant, Jr. off to the New World to avoid political tensions and to gather fresh varieties of plants for the botanical collection at the Ark, where the family displays flora and fauna, treasures and curiosities from all over the world. After the death of his beloved wife from the plague, John leaves behind two children, Johnnie and Frances, in the care of his elderly father. It is 1642 and almost two decades of John's life will be riddled with indecision and controversy, a man who cannot find a home for his affections or his loyalties, both continents embroiled in territorial wars. In Virginia, the settlers cling tenaciously to their new land, unable to sustain themselves without goods delivered from English ships. Stubbornly they plant their crops, failing to learn the basic survival lessons of the indigenous people, determined that the English way become the law of the land.
In England, Charles I is fighting for his place in a changing society. Married to Marie Henriette, sister to the King of France, Charles' attentions to the Queen's papist beliefs are the cause of great unease in the Protestant country. Charles refuses to accept the authority of Parliament, spurred to injudicious alliances through his wife's advice, while his citizens rise up against a king who taxes them beyond reason, indulging his excesses and those of favored nobles, refusing to hear the will of the people. While in Virginia, John has met a young Powhatan, whom he plans to marry, but on returning to England, his intentions are forgotten in the chaos of civil war and his father's death. John accepts a marriage of convenience arranged by his father, Hester Pooks an exemplary stepmother and caretaker of the family treasures as John returns to Virginia to avoid service to Charles I. There he begins a double life, taking a Powhatan bride, accepted as one of the People, only to fail when he refuses to take up arms against the English.
For those who enjoyed Earthly Joys, filled with the same love of gardens and plants stewarded by the Tradescants, history dominates, the simple pleasures of dedication to service replaced by the need for each man to claim his own birthright, reshaping the beliefs of centuries. Social upheaval tears the fabric of the Tradescant family asunder, John particularly affected by the duality of his life and an inability to own either past or present. For this reason, Tradescant is as uncomfortable and uneasy as the mid-17th century he inhabits, his character fraught with conflict. He does service to no one, save his work, mired in contradictions. Aside from the noble Powhatans, none of these characters are particularly likeable, their lack of nobility reflecting their circumstances, shredded by the attrition of war and insecure political ideology. John and Hester face an uncertain future, having survived their marriage and civil war, mending the remnants of lives driven by expediency at the price of joy. Luan Gaines/ 2006.
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