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The Lantern
A modern gothic novel of love, secrets, and murder—set against the lush backdrop of Provence
Meeting Dom was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to me. When Eve falls for the secretive, charming Dom in Switzerland, their whirlwind relationship leads them to Les Genévriers, an abandoned house set among the fragrant lavender fields of the South of France. Each enchanting day delivers happy discoveries: hidden chambers, secret vaults, a beautiful wrought-iron lantern. Deeply in love and surrounded by music, books, and the heady summer scents of the French countryside, Eve has never felt more alive.
But with autumn’s arrival the days begin to cool, and so, too, does Dom. Though Eve knows he bears the emotional scars of a failed marriage—one he refuses to talk about—his silence arouses suspicion and uncertainty. The more reticent Dom is to explain, the more Eve becomes obsessed with finding answers—and with unraveling the mystery of his absent, beautiful ex-wife, Rachel.
Like its owner, Les Genévriers is also changing. Bright, warm rooms have turned cold and uninviting; shadows now fall unexpectedly; and Eve senses a presence moving through the garden. Is it a ghost from the past or a manifestation of her current troubles with Dom? Can she trust Dom, or could her life be in danger?
Eve does not know that Les Genévriers has been haunted before. Bénédicte Lincel, the house’s former owner, thrived as a young girl within the rich elements of the landscape: the violets hidden in the woodland, the warm wind through the almond trees. She knew the bitter taste of heartbreak and tragedy—long-buried family secrets and evil deeds that, once unearthed, will hold shocking and unexpected consequences for Eve.
Meeting Dom was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to me. When Eve falls for the secretive, charming Dom in Switzerland, their whirlwind relationship leads them to Les Genévriers, an abandoned house set among the fragrant lavender fields of the South of France. Each enchanting day delivers happy discoveries: hidden chambers, secret vaults, a beautiful wrought-iron lantern. Deeply in love and surrounded by music, books, and the heady summer scents of the French countryside, Eve has never felt more alive.
But with autumn’s arrival the days begin to cool, and so, too, does Dom. Though Eve knows he bears the emotional scars of a failed marriage—one he refuses to talk about—his silence arouses suspicion and uncertainty. The more reticent Dom is to explain, the more Eve becomes obsessed with finding answers—and with unraveling the mystery of his absent, beautiful ex-wife, Rachel.
Like its owner, Les Genévriers is also changing. Bright, warm rooms have turned cold and uninviting; shadows now fall unexpectedly; and Eve senses a presence moving through the garden. Is it a ghost from the past or a manifestation of her current troubles with Dom? Can she trust Dom, or could her life be in danger?
Eve does not know that Les Genévriers has been haunted before. Bénédicte Lincel, the house’s former owner, thrived as a young girl within the rich elements of the landscape: the violets hidden in the woodland, the warm wind through the almond trees. She knew the bitter taste of heartbreak and tragedy—long-buried family secrets and evil deeds that, once unearthed, will hold shocking and unexpected consequences for Eve.
386 pages, Hardcover
First published August 9, 2011
142 people are currently reading
5922 people want to read
About the author
Deborah Lawrenson
12 books164 followersAfter a childhood of constant moves around the world - my family lived at various times in Kuwait, China, Belgium, Luxembourg and Singapore - I read English at Trinity College, Cambridge. I trained as a journalist on a weekly South London newspaper, then worked on several national newspapers and magazines.
My first novel Hot Gossip (1994) was a satire based on my experiences working on Nigel Dempster's diary column, and was followed by a sequel, Idol Chatter (1995). The Moonbathers, a black comedy, followed in 1998.
The Art of Falling was a complete change of direction, which took five years to research and write. But trying to get it published was like starting from scratch again. In the end, after many false dawns and disappointments, I published it myself under the Stamp Publishing imprint in September 2003.
Almost immediately it became clear that the novel had struck a chord with booksellers and reading groups around my home in Kent. Ottakar's liked it enough to recommend it to their stores nationwide, and the rights were sold to Random House.
The Art of Falling was republished by Arrow in July 2005 and chosen as one of the books for the WHSmith Fresh Talent promotion that summer. It went on to sell more than all the others put together!
Songs of Blue and Gold is in a similar style: a story that grew out of my curiousity about past events and a love for the warmer shores and colours of southern Europe.
My latest novel, The Lantern, has been chosen for The TV Book Club Summer Reads 2011 on Channel4 and More4. I have also written a linked short story for Woman&Home magazine's 2011 summer reading supplement.
I currently divide my time between rural Kent and a crumbling hamlet in Provence, which is the atmospheric setting for The Lantern.
My first novel Hot Gossip (1994) was a satire based on my experiences working on Nigel Dempster's diary column, and was followed by a sequel, Idol Chatter (1995). The Moonbathers, a black comedy, followed in 1998.
The Art of Falling was a complete change of direction, which took five years to research and write. But trying to get it published was like starting from scratch again. In the end, after many false dawns and disappointments, I published it myself under the Stamp Publishing imprint in September 2003.
Almost immediately it became clear that the novel had struck a chord with booksellers and reading groups around my home in Kent. Ottakar's liked it enough to recommend it to their stores nationwide, and the rights were sold to Random House.
The Art of Falling was republished by Arrow in July 2005 and chosen as one of the books for the WHSmith Fresh Talent promotion that summer. It went on to sell more than all the others put together!
Songs of Blue and Gold is in a similar style: a story that grew out of my curiousity about past events and a love for the warmer shores and colours of southern Europe.
My latest novel, The Lantern, has been chosen for The TV Book Club Summer Reads 2011 on Channel4 and More4. I have also written a linked short story for Woman&Home magazine's 2011 summer reading supplement.
I currently divide my time between rural Kent and a crumbling hamlet in Provence, which is the atmospheric setting for The Lantern.
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July 19, 2011I just won this on Goodreads giveaway! Since I've never won anything in my life (true story), I'm really excited.
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April 7, 2014
Rating: 3.875* of five
The Publisher Says: A modern gothic novel of love, secrets, and murder—set against thelush backdrop of Provence
Meeting Dom was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to me. When Eve falls for the secretive, charming Dom in Switzerland, their whirlwind relationship leads them to Les Genévriers, an abandoned house set among the fragrant lavender fields of the South of France. Each enchanting day delivers happy discoveries: hidden chambers, secret vaults, a beautiful wrought-iron lantern. Deeply in love and surrounded by music, books, and the heady summer scents of the French countryside, Eve has never felt more alive.
But with autumn’s arrival the days begin to cool, and so, too, does Dom. Though Eve knows he bears the emotional scars of a failed marriage—one he refuses to talk about—his silence arouses suspicion and uncertainty. The more reticent Dom is to explain, the more Eve becomes obsessed with finding answers—and with unraveling the mystery of his absent, beautiful ex-wife, Rachel.
Like its owner, Les Genévriers is also changing. Bright, warm rooms have turned cold and uninviting; shadows now fall unexpectedly; and Eve senses a presence moving through the garden. Is it a ghost from the past or a manifestation of her current troubles with Dom? Can she trust Dom, or could her life be in danger?
Eve does not know that Les Genévriers has been haunted before. Bénédicte Lincel, the house’s former owner, thrived as a young girl within the rich elements of the landscape: the violets hidden in the woodland, the warm wind through the almond trees. She knew the bitter taste of heartbreak and tragedy—long-buried family secrets and evil deeds that, once unearthed, will hold shocking and unexpected consequences for Eve.
My Review: Nameless Narratrix tells us the tale of woe of loving a man who did Something Awful. She tells us this while living in his Provencal hameau, which is haunted by some dead French people as well as a few living ones. The hameau is crumbling, with plaster and masonry all falling at random times and in random places. The house gives the new couple a gift or two, including an old iron lantern that figures into the sad life story of the last French proprietrix of the hameau. (Have you gone and looked up hameau yet, so I can stop typing the itals?)
There's an absent, though not known to be dead, wife; there's a tale of Love Gone Wrong; there's a lot of carryins-on about people disappearin' right left and through the middle for at least 40 years; there's misunderstanding piled onto miscommunication via idiotic refusals to ask or answer simple, direct, interrogative English-language sentences.
It's Rebecca meets The Horseman on the Roof set in modern times. I found it unspooky in the extreme. I also found it lushly beautifully crafted, line by line. It's gloriously good at evoking Provence, its people, and its tourist-based economy that replaced actual work producing actual, tangible objects. And it should be read with a glass of young and hearty red wine, a plate of orange-butter-herbes-de-Provence Christmas cookies, and a lover of one's preferred configuration at the ready to sate the appetites the book will awake.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Publisher Says: A modern gothic novel of love, secrets, and murder—set against thelush backdrop of Provence
Meeting Dom was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to me. When Eve falls for the secretive, charming Dom in Switzerland, their whirlwind relationship leads them to Les Genévriers, an abandoned house set among the fragrant lavender fields of the South of France. Each enchanting day delivers happy discoveries: hidden chambers, secret vaults, a beautiful wrought-iron lantern. Deeply in love and surrounded by music, books, and the heady summer scents of the French countryside, Eve has never felt more alive.
But with autumn’s arrival the days begin to cool, and so, too, does Dom. Though Eve knows he bears the emotional scars of a failed marriage—one he refuses to talk about—his silence arouses suspicion and uncertainty. The more reticent Dom is to explain, the more Eve becomes obsessed with finding answers—and with unraveling the mystery of his absent, beautiful ex-wife, Rachel.
Like its owner, Les Genévriers is also changing. Bright, warm rooms have turned cold and uninviting; shadows now fall unexpectedly; and Eve senses a presence moving through the garden. Is it a ghost from the past or a manifestation of her current troubles with Dom? Can she trust Dom, or could her life be in danger?
Eve does not know that Les Genévriers has been haunted before. Bénédicte Lincel, the house’s former owner, thrived as a young girl within the rich elements of the landscape: the violets hidden in the woodland, the warm wind through the almond trees. She knew the bitter taste of heartbreak and tragedy—long-buried family secrets and evil deeds that, once unearthed, will hold shocking and unexpected consequences for Eve.
My Review: Nameless Narratrix tells us the tale of woe of loving a man who did Something Awful. She tells us this while living in his Provencal hameau, which is haunted by some dead French people as well as a few living ones. The hameau is crumbling, with plaster and masonry all falling at random times and in random places. The house gives the new couple a gift or two, including an old iron lantern that figures into the sad life story of the last French proprietrix of the hameau. (Have you gone and looked up hameau yet, so I can stop typing the itals?)
There's an absent, though not known to be dead, wife; there's a tale of Love Gone Wrong; there's a lot of carryins-on about people disappearin' right left and through the middle for at least 40 years; there's misunderstanding piled onto miscommunication via idiotic refusals to ask or answer simple, direct, interrogative English-language sentences.
It's Rebecca meets The Horseman on the Roof set in modern times. I found it unspooky in the extreme. I also found it lushly beautifully crafted, line by line. It's gloriously good at evoking Provence, its people, and its tourist-based economy that replaced actual work producing actual, tangible objects. And it should be read with a glass of young and hearty red wine, a plate of orange-butter-herbes-de-Provence Christmas cookies, and a lover of one's preferred configuration at the ready to sate the appetites the book will awake.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
September 4, 2011
There are two women controlling this book. I don’t mean the two female characters whose voices carry the narrative of the book, though perhaps they are an unwitting reflection of this phenomenon. I mean, the women who wrote this book. The first was the woman who opened the door to me, wearing perfectly fitted Lucky jeans and an enormous diamond ring, who ushered me quickly into her living room where the other members of the monthly book club awaited, and the second was a shy sister who I accidentally ran into in the kitchen trying to sneak some cookies without being seen before she ran back upstairs to curl up in baggy sweats and drink her tea.
I had absolutely no interest in the first woman, but unfortunately her voice controlled at least the first third of the novel. Our introduction to Eve, her romance with her brooding rich suitor, and her first encounters with her new house in France after they decide to run away together were rather pedestrian. Her fantasies seemed store-bought, like she’d just finished reading a Williams-Sonoma catalog, or just been released from those house porn-tastic Nancy Meyers movies from the last couple of years. She rushed through her exposition with shorthand borrowed from advertising, descriptions of men half-remembered from romance novels, and buzzwords out of ‘middlebrow’ domestic novels. That first chunk of pages felt like it rushed towards a goal- of you the reader identifying this book with Rebecca as quickly as possible (to the extent that if you don’t get it, Lawrenson tells you about it), and then consequently, safely identifying with Eve the same way you do with that unnamed narrator. Except that she didn’t properly do the work that du Maurier did. She mentioned her name and expected that to be enough for those of us excited by that connection.
For the rest who haven’t read it? She listed off as many identifiers as she could as fast as possible to get upper-middle class women from the US and the UK to see themselves, quickly- being overworked, feeling isolated and insecure, dreaming of escaping, specifically to the countryside of the ‘Old World’ where the likes of A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun has made ‘fixing up a cottage’ in a place where people Know How to Live a cure all for life’s problems, and of course marrying a sexy rich man who finally makes you happy and releases you from all your cares. This woman’s voice grated on me really quickly. I really don’t need to see Rebecca polished up so that Normal people can safely identify with it, because it now supports middle class values and reflects Your Life. The genre of the mysterious old house, the magical atmosphere of a place where it seems like every stone should be preserved because its earned it, the divine things that can be found in the everyday domestic is well trodden, and trodden by writers with far more gifts than Lawrenson, who don’t need a glossy magazine to tell them what magic looks like. Also, Lawrenson wants to explain the magic at the end- all of it. That is… not the point, and left me feeling like I do at the end of a Law and Order episode, not the way I do at the end of a good thriller. Also, just as a quick laundry list of other stuff I didn’t like: I felt like she forced in characters and elements from Rebecca that weren’t needed just to have them there, the Max character was nothing more than a cipher and their relationship therefore had none of the poignancy of the other book and none of the emotional impact at the end, the old woman narrator’s chapters were pretty inconsistent in quality, and the ‘modern’ translations of the plot from Rebecca felt a bit gimmicky- ‘Look! You know this is modern because I just made a topical reference!’. It also meant that she spent a lot of time talking about her avoidance of the modern for the majority of the book as well- because then she had to explain why she didn't do some things she could have with modern equipages. I’m not trying to solve your mystery! I want to experience the mystery! Stop trying to give me forensic evidence, and get back to the part where you tell me about the wind rustling through the trees in the courtyard, and haunting lights in the forest. Such a waste!
‘Cause that’s the thing. What saved this book for me was the shy other woman, who did talk about those things. She was very timid at the beginning, but found her voice in fits and starts throughout the course of the book. I liked this other woman quite a lot. I felt like Lawrenson was afraid to show her at the beginning, for fear of losing that mainstream audience she seemed to want to draw into the book. But she was really at her best when she forgot about her plot and just looked around her, describing the place she’s so in love with. She had a quiet power when writing about the names of the winds, the color of the lanterns on the stones in her courtyard, the sounds, sights, and smells of an overripe high summer in the country, or the seeming incongruity of her fantasy escape in the depths of winter. I kind of wish she had just written a lovely essay, or short travel book about walking through the French countryside, or one of those great first person inner exploration novels that the French are so good at. Her strength is clearly in her love for Place. I can totally see how this Dark Family Secrets plot would have occurred to her- living with the past sets one’s imagination on overdrive, and indeed that is part of the point the book makes. But it is hard not to see this book as at least a little bit of a waste of what seemed like her true passions. Still, there were enough of these breaths and pauses that she did eventually succeed in creating the atmosphere that I was looking for at the beginning- it just took a much longer time than I had hoped that it would. There was a chunk of the book towards the end where I finally got swept away… until the unnecessarily dry, unraveling ending, which, as I mentioned, took me out of the mood I should have had finishing this.
I should also mention that the sections with the old woman narrating were occasionally intriguing (when Lawrenson wasn’t focusing on just plot), and I thought she had a few moments that really did express true insight into why people do the things that they do. Her narrator’s Bluebeard moment and the motivations behind that were well done, and I absolutely loved the story of the blind girl and her world of smells and perfumes. The sense of smell is the foremost of the senses used and advocated in this book, and I think she was right to do it. It made her descriptions much more visceral and often easier to connect with. It was certainly a better examination of the power of smell than the weird use of it that has seemed to pop up everywhere since Edward’s weird smell thing with Bella in Twilight.
I think that ultimately if you’re already into this domestic Gothic novel business and eager to enjoy a Rebecca imitator, you’ll probably like this. Just give it some time to settle down, and a few pages for the shy other woman to come talk to you. When she stops being self-conscious for two seconds and relaxes enough to be honest about her passions, she has some lovely things to show you.
I had absolutely no interest in the first woman, but unfortunately her voice controlled at least the first third of the novel. Our introduction to Eve, her romance with her brooding rich suitor, and her first encounters with her new house in France after they decide to run away together were rather pedestrian. Her fantasies seemed store-bought, like she’d just finished reading a Williams-Sonoma catalog, or just been released from those house porn-tastic Nancy Meyers movies from the last couple of years. She rushed through her exposition with shorthand borrowed from advertising, descriptions of men half-remembered from romance novels, and buzzwords out of ‘middlebrow’ domestic novels. That first chunk of pages felt like it rushed towards a goal- of you the reader identifying this book with Rebecca as quickly as possible (to the extent that if you don’t get it, Lawrenson tells you about it), and then consequently, safely identifying with Eve the same way you do with that unnamed narrator. Except that she didn’t properly do the work that du Maurier did. She mentioned her name and expected that to be enough for those of us excited by that connection.
For the rest who haven’t read it? She listed off as many identifiers as she could as fast as possible to get upper-middle class women from the US and the UK to see themselves, quickly- being overworked, feeling isolated and insecure, dreaming of escaping, specifically to the countryside of the ‘Old World’ where the likes of A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun has made ‘fixing up a cottage’ in a place where people Know How to Live a cure all for life’s problems, and of course marrying a sexy rich man who finally makes you happy and releases you from all your cares. This woman’s voice grated on me really quickly. I really don’t need to see Rebecca polished up so that Normal people can safely identify with it, because it now supports middle class values and reflects Your Life. The genre of the mysterious old house, the magical atmosphere of a place where it seems like every stone should be preserved because its earned it, the divine things that can be found in the everyday domestic is well trodden, and trodden by writers with far more gifts than Lawrenson, who don’t need a glossy magazine to tell them what magic looks like. Also, Lawrenson wants to explain the magic at the end- all of it. That is… not the point, and left me feeling like I do at the end of a Law and Order episode, not the way I do at the end of a good thriller. Also, just as a quick laundry list of other stuff I didn’t like: I felt like she forced in characters and elements from Rebecca that weren’t needed just to have them there, the Max character was nothing more than a cipher and their relationship therefore had none of the poignancy of the other book and none of the emotional impact at the end, the old woman narrator’s chapters were pretty inconsistent in quality, and the ‘modern’ translations of the plot from Rebecca felt a bit gimmicky- ‘Look! You know this is modern because I just made a topical reference!’. It also meant that she spent a lot of time talking about her avoidance of the modern for the majority of the book as well- because then she had to explain why she didn't do some things she could have with modern equipages. I’m not trying to solve your mystery! I want to experience the mystery! Stop trying to give me forensic evidence, and get back to the part where you tell me about the wind rustling through the trees in the courtyard, and haunting lights in the forest. Such a waste!
‘Cause that’s the thing. What saved this book for me was the shy other woman, who did talk about those things. She was very timid at the beginning, but found her voice in fits and starts throughout the course of the book. I liked this other woman quite a lot. I felt like Lawrenson was afraid to show her at the beginning, for fear of losing that mainstream audience she seemed to want to draw into the book. But she was really at her best when she forgot about her plot and just looked around her, describing the place she’s so in love with. She had a quiet power when writing about the names of the winds, the color of the lanterns on the stones in her courtyard, the sounds, sights, and smells of an overripe high summer in the country, or the seeming incongruity of her fantasy escape in the depths of winter. I kind of wish she had just written a lovely essay, or short travel book about walking through the French countryside, or one of those great first person inner exploration novels that the French are so good at. Her strength is clearly in her love for Place. I can totally see how this Dark Family Secrets plot would have occurred to her- living with the past sets one’s imagination on overdrive, and indeed that is part of the point the book makes. But it is hard not to see this book as at least a little bit of a waste of what seemed like her true passions. Still, there were enough of these breaths and pauses that she did eventually succeed in creating the atmosphere that I was looking for at the beginning- it just took a much longer time than I had hoped that it would. There was a chunk of the book towards the end where I finally got swept away… until the unnecessarily dry, unraveling ending, which, as I mentioned, took me out of the mood I should have had finishing this.
I should also mention that the sections with the old woman narrating were occasionally intriguing (when Lawrenson wasn’t focusing on just plot), and I thought she had a few moments that really did express true insight into why people do the things that they do. Her narrator’s Bluebeard moment and the motivations behind that were well done, and I absolutely loved the story of the blind girl and her world of smells and perfumes. The sense of smell is the foremost of the senses used and advocated in this book, and I think she was right to do it. It made her descriptions much more visceral and often easier to connect with. It was certainly a better examination of the power of smell than the weird use of it that has seemed to pop up everywhere since Edward’s weird smell thing with Bella in Twilight.
I think that ultimately if you’re already into this domestic Gothic novel business and eager to enjoy a Rebecca imitator, you’ll probably like this. Just give it some time to settle down, and a few pages for the shy other woman to come talk to you. When she stops being self-conscious for two seconds and relaxes enough to be honest about her passions, she has some lovely things to show you.
March 9, 2017
From the blurb (written by the author...):a novel about perfume and blindness and the past life of houses, and also about books, reading and the imagination.
And while the story was all in my mind, the beauty of the Luberon region that provides the backdrop was just there to be captured in words…
Goth, murder, mystery, romance, travel diary, tourist guide. You can even find out how many hundreds of winds, with each wind blessed with several different names, blow in France. The history of the old house was not only told by the two narrators, Eve and Bénédicte, but also through scents, aromas and perfumes meandering, almost as a third narrator, through the gripping tale.
A talented writer was at work here. I would have preferred an original story(not based on someone else's), since all the elements were there to capture an original story as an original page-turner. Nevertheless, it became an interesting experience as all the secrets of the old home and the new inhabitants, finally were exposed to the bright sunshine of the French countryside.
The main character, one of the protagonists, clung like an unwanted odor to her importance in other people's lives. Insecure and searching for the truth, she almost lost the true quality of her own self and her new life in France through her actions. Eerily and ghostly, she was saved from herself.
I changed my review, after being annoyed at first with the entire plot. But in retrospect I decided to be more flexible myself! :-)) I could finally conclude that I actually loved this book!
And while the story was all in my mind, the beauty of the Luberon region that provides the backdrop was just there to be captured in words…
Goth, murder, mystery, romance, travel diary, tourist guide. You can even find out how many hundreds of winds, with each wind blessed with several different names, blow in France. The history of the old house was not only told by the two narrators, Eve and Bénédicte, but also through scents, aromas and perfumes meandering, almost as a third narrator, through the gripping tale.
A late bud has opened on the white rose I planted by the arch on the grassy terrace below the main house. Its perfume is exquisite: musky honey and spun-sugar and orange blossom, and its petals in bloom have the soft luster of baby skin...Characters: voices from the past who blend in with voices from the present in a contemporary version of Dahne Du Maurier's Rebecca.
...Madame showed me how to make a powder to perfume the house by taking lavender flowers, thyme flowers, and mint leaves, and letting them dry, then adding several cloves and pulverizing them before leaving out in open bowls.
...Sweet, pungent, woody, spicy, musky, astringent; none of these alone is capable of evoking the unique smell we all know so well.
... the family was cursed, and the tragedy foretold; spirits danced in the darkness and shared the rooms with the living; strangers materialized out of nothing; a mysterious and dreadful stench was emanating from the courtyard of the big house; lanterns flickered and died for no reason. An atmosphere of fear grew and took hold.On this side of the divide the reader can be found, trying to figure out who the deacons was the narrator in each segment of the book. It gets easier and much more fascinating as the story of a mansions unfolds.
All of which goes to show how dangerous it is to assume connections where there are none, to link events that have no link, to want tidy storytelling when real life is not like that, to draw too much on the imagination when it is so often misleading.Beautiful prose, atmospheric setting, slow-moving, but wonderful information on the Provence region of France. I love old houses, so I loved this one too. The mystery and stories floated from its history as the plaster fell down and the holes in the soil multiplied.
A talented writer was at work here. I would have preferred an original story(not based on someone else's), since all the elements were there to capture an original story as an original page-turner. Nevertheless, it became an interesting experience as all the secrets of the old home and the new inhabitants, finally were exposed to the bright sunshine of the French countryside.
The main character, one of the protagonists, clung like an unwanted odor to her importance in other people's lives. Insecure and searching for the truth, she almost lost the true quality of her own self and her new life in France through her actions. Eerily and ghostly, she was saved from herself.
I changed my review, after being annoyed at first with the entire plot. But in retrospect I decided to be more flexible myself! :-)) I could finally conclude that I actually loved this book!
September 13, 2011
Lush and as languid as the fig drunken wasps described in its pages, The Lanterns switches between the past and the present but the present day feels anachronistic and drugged by the atmosphere of the past. Although the lush imagery delighted my senses a quarter of the way through I still was looking for a plot. I was reminded of Harris' Five Quarters of the Orange.
Then disaster. I was assaulted by a scene of animal cruelty so intense it made me retch. Although I was eager to learn why a woman as seemingly intelligent as Eve would cast common sense aside to live with a man who she did not know, who would not discuss his past and who was so obviously hiding something terrible. I was waiting for the various threads to weave together but. I just can't handle incidents of violence against animals. Even when being used as a vehicle to develop a character there was no reason
here to graphically describe the murder of a kitten in such a fashion. I closed the book and did not open, cannot open it again. Maybe I am too weak, but lush description here went too far and was unnecessary.
As this was an ARC, I tried to contact the publisher to determine if the final copy came out with this scene intact. If I do hear back otherwise I would be happy to alter this review. I would also be happier if there had been some warning like "contains animal cruelty."
Did not finish.
If you like a review please, hit me with a Facebook Like or Google Plus One. And I hope you'll visit my blog at http://fangswandsandfairydust.com and http://www.wingeedeffigy.blogspot.com
Then disaster. I was assaulted by a scene of animal cruelty so intense it made me retch. Although I was eager to learn why a woman as seemingly intelligent as Eve would cast common sense aside to live with a man who she did not know, who would not discuss his past and who was so obviously hiding something terrible. I was waiting for the various threads to weave together but. I just can't handle incidents of violence against animals. Even when being used as a vehicle to develop a character there was no reason
here to graphically describe the murder of a kitten in such a fashion. I closed the book and did not open, cannot open it again. Maybe I am too weak, but lush description here went too far and was unnecessary.
As this was an ARC, I tried to contact the publisher to determine if the final copy came out with this scene intact. If I do hear back otherwise I would be happy to alter this review. I would also be happier if there had been some warning like "contains animal cruelty."
Did not finish.
If you like a review please, hit me with a Facebook Like or Google Plus One. And I hope you'll visit my blog at http://fangswandsandfairydust.com and http://www.wingeedeffigy.blogspot.com
October 5, 2011
I found this slow and dull the first 3/4. In the beginning the switching from past to present was a little hard to follow and understand though. The last 100 or so pages were good though!
May 13, 2012
Rating Clarificaion: 4.5 Stars
This richly descriptive novel borrows heavily from Daphne Du Maurier's classic gothic, Rebecca, with one of the storylines featuring the mysterious and omipotent wife, the older and secretive husband, and the young and naive narrator. If fact, author Lawrenson makes it quite clear to the reader that this is her intention when she has Eve, the present-time narrator reading Rebecca early on in the novel. Eve is called such by her lover Dom, even though that isn't her real name. We never know her real name, which is also a bow to the unnamed narrator from Rebecca fame.
But The Lantern is more then a modernized (and yes, inferior) update to Du Maurier's brilliant book. It also features an intertwining plotline from the past featuring a family that lived in Eve and Dom's decrepit Provencal farmhouse, and who may still exist there now...
There's a nice supernatural element that is displayed with creepy effect throughout both storylines, and a secondary plotline featuring missing girls and the possibility of a serial killer.
I was completely engrossed in this book after the first (for me) difficult 50 pages - I initially didn't know what to make of the alternating storyline chapters. Lawrenson is a master of descriptive prose, which is something I very much enjoy and admire in a writer, but if you're not a fan, you're going to be pulling your hair out by the roots! I felt very involved in the landscape of southern France the entire time I was reading this; the sights and sounds and colors were vividly captured on every page. The ramping up of tension was also subtle but effective as the story progressed, and there was a nice little twist at the end that I didn't expect (although to be fair I usually don't see them coming, so you may not be as surprised over it as I was).
There was only one brief scene that I would have preferred not to be included. Otherwise, there was no vulgarity or explicit sex scenes, only pages and pages of lovely writing, creepy atmosphere and mysteries to unravel.
I will definitely be on the lookout for more books by Lawrenson.
This richly descriptive novel borrows heavily from Daphne Du Maurier's classic gothic, Rebecca, with one of the storylines featuring the mysterious and omipotent wife, the older and secretive husband, and the young and naive narrator. If fact, author Lawrenson makes it quite clear to the reader that this is her intention when she has Eve, the present-time narrator reading Rebecca early on in the novel. Eve is called such by her lover Dom, even though that isn't her real name. We never know her real name, which is also a bow to the unnamed narrator from Rebecca fame.
But The Lantern is more then a modernized (and yes, inferior) update to Du Maurier's brilliant book. It also features an intertwining plotline from the past featuring a family that lived in Eve and Dom's decrepit Provencal farmhouse, and who may still exist there now...
There's a nice supernatural element that is displayed with creepy effect throughout both storylines, and a secondary plotline featuring missing girls and the possibility of a serial killer.
I was completely engrossed in this book after the first (for me) difficult 50 pages - I initially didn't know what to make of the alternating storyline chapters. Lawrenson is a master of descriptive prose, which is something I very much enjoy and admire in a writer, but if you're not a fan, you're going to be pulling your hair out by the roots! I felt very involved in the landscape of southern France the entire time I was reading this; the sights and sounds and colors were vividly captured on every page. The ramping up of tension was also subtle but effective as the story progressed, and there was a nice little twist at the end that I didn't expect (although to be fair I usually don't see them coming, so you may not be as surprised over it as I was).
There was only one brief scene that I would have preferred not to be included. Otherwise, there was no vulgarity or explicit sex scenes, only pages and pages of lovely writing, creepy atmosphere and mysteries to unravel.
I will definitely be on the lookout for more books by Lawrenson.
Read
September 28, 2013I couldn't finish this one. The overblown "lushness" of the language just turned me off. I felt like the author was trying too hard to make each sentence a work of art, and by the end of it I had no idea what she said. The other thing that bothered me was the blatant similarity to Du Maurier's Rebecca. There were other things I found wrong, but I won't belabor the point.
November 15, 2015
The Lantern was kindly provided to me by Netgalley for HarperCollins.
4.5 stars
The Lantern is a superbly written and beautiful story that is completely enthralling. I found it hard to put down because the mystery of the story is so fascinating. I found the author’s writing style to be quite wordy at first, but each description causes the scene to unfold as if you were actually experiencing it. I’ve incorporated several lines from the story itself to add some of that descriptiveness to my review and because they were some of my favorite quotes.
The story is about the relationship between Eve and Dom and the life they build together. From the beginning of the story you’re involved in their troubled relationship and the internal conflict that Eve is currently having. Not all is revealed, you’re only given bits and pieces, but it’s quite captivating.
”Until it happens to you, you don’t know how it will feel to stay with a man who has done a terrible thing. Not to know whether the worst has happened or is yet to come; wanting so badly to trust him now.”
The couple purchases a rural house in the south of France and immediately feels that this was all meant to be somehow.
”The property drew us in immediately. Not love at first sight, exactly, not as explosive as that: more a
deep, promising undertow, as if it had been waiting for us, and we for it.”
As much as they love the property, the more time they spend there the more the uneasiness begins to set in.
”The longer we stayed, the less it seemed to belong to us.”
When Eve sees an apparition of a woman on the property, her mind is unable to fully comprehend what she had just seen.
”Everyone wants answers and tidy conclusions, but in life they don’t always materialize. You settle for the best outcome you can manage, and accept that you can’t explain everything. The subconscious mind sometimes makes surreal connections, like the ones in dreams. Tricks of the light were all around.
As the story continues, the story begins switching back and forth between the past and the present, between Eve and Bénédicte. Bénédicte is a young woman who in the past used to live in the same house that Eve and Dom currently reside at. The past and the present ultimately collide and the revelation behind all the constant mystery is quite intriguing.
Throughout the story the author constantly keeps your interest as she’ll throw you a tid bit here and there about what may be potentially going on, but will leave it at that, a simple sentence. This is a great novel to do as a read along (speaking from personal experience as I read this with another) because there is an enormous amount of information that is easier to sort out if you’re able to discuss with someone.
The books ending wrapped all the questions culminated throughout reading this book quite nicely even though it ended up being not quite what I had originally thought.
”All of which goes to show how dangerous it is to assume connections where there are none, to link events that have no link, to want tidy storytelling when real life is not like that, to draw too much on the imagination when it is so often misleading.”
Lovely novel.
Interested in more of my reviews? Visit my blog!
4.5 stars
The Lantern is a superbly written and beautiful story that is completely enthralling. I found it hard to put down because the mystery of the story is so fascinating. I found the author’s writing style to be quite wordy at first, but each description causes the scene to unfold as if you were actually experiencing it. I’ve incorporated several lines from the story itself to add some of that descriptiveness to my review and because they were some of my favorite quotes.
The story is about the relationship between Eve and Dom and the life they build together. From the beginning of the story you’re involved in their troubled relationship and the internal conflict that Eve is currently having. Not all is revealed, you’re only given bits and pieces, but it’s quite captivating.
”Until it happens to you, you don’t know how it will feel to stay with a man who has done a terrible thing. Not to know whether the worst has happened or is yet to come; wanting so badly to trust him now.”
The couple purchases a rural house in the south of France and immediately feels that this was all meant to be somehow.
”The property drew us in immediately. Not love at first sight, exactly, not as explosive as that: more a
deep, promising undertow, as if it had been waiting for us, and we for it.”
As much as they love the property, the more time they spend there the more the uneasiness begins to set in.
”The longer we stayed, the less it seemed to belong to us.”
When Eve sees an apparition of a woman on the property, her mind is unable to fully comprehend what she had just seen.
”Everyone wants answers and tidy conclusions, but in life they don’t always materialize. You settle for the best outcome you can manage, and accept that you can’t explain everything. The subconscious mind sometimes makes surreal connections, like the ones in dreams. Tricks of the light were all around.
As the story continues, the story begins switching back and forth between the past and the present, between Eve and Bénédicte. Bénédicte is a young woman who in the past used to live in the same house that Eve and Dom currently reside at. The past and the present ultimately collide and the revelation behind all the constant mystery is quite intriguing.
Throughout the story the author constantly keeps your interest as she’ll throw you a tid bit here and there about what may be potentially going on, but will leave it at that, a simple sentence. This is a great novel to do as a read along (speaking from personal experience as I read this with another) because there is an enormous amount of information that is easier to sort out if you’re able to discuss with someone.
The books ending wrapped all the questions culminated throughout reading this book quite nicely even though it ended up being not quite what I had originally thought.
”All of which goes to show how dangerous it is to assume connections where there are none, to link events that have no link, to want tidy storytelling when real life is not like that, to draw too much on the imagination when it is so often misleading.”
Lovely novel.
Interested in more of my reviews? Visit my blog!
November 26, 2011
"The Lantern" by Deborah Lawrenson ~ Far Cry from Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca"
The Dame's Impression's :
I’m having such a difficult time with this book. I’ve wanted to love it after all the hype, but it’s difficult. First, I’m turned off by the author’s trying so hard to be cultured and elegant, or making much of it. Maybe it’s our American up-bringing, but isn’t understatement preferable? So much seems contrived and overdone. It made the book move very slowly.
The scents seem to permeate the story too much–no pun intended, and they often don’t make sense; the combinations she expresses are improbable. That's giving lenience for the symbolic, even! I grew so tired of hearing about them in every other paragraph. Fragrances need to be dabbed here and there to have the right impact, don’t you think? Just so in literature; they would have a bigger impact sparingly used.
It’s also a cardinal rule in literature that when an author focuses too much on description and not enough on characterization, the book will not be a good one. Is it me, or is there just too much description here? For instance, we can’t possibly know or understand Dom, the primary male protagonist, because there’s been very little character development.
What may be the biggest issue is that the author spent a great deal of time describing what I believe she sees out the window and inside of her “crumbling hamlet in Provence, France.” (From her bio. on the book cover we find that she lives there as much as possible.) In the novel, you can really see that she's inspired by her surroundings, but the story she's telling seems adjunct to that. This makes for a painfully slow and uninteresting story with tension and suspense that is much too drawn out.
A true story about her love of Provence, her hamlet, gardens and lower cellar would have been ever so much more exotic and interesting. It's the trying to create a story around those descriptions that makes this novel fail, to me. Provence, her hamlet, it's rennovations and discoveries would make a fascinating non-fiction account.
I’m worried that Ms Lawrenson has tried so hard to write a modern version of “Rebecca” that it’s fallen flat. I’m sad about it. I’m struggling to want to read this novel. I struggling to finish it because I don't like giving up. It's difficult. It would be great to have a contemporary novel in the vein of "Rebecca," but sometimes one simply can't compete with the classics. Those who hyped a comparison weren't helping Ms Lawrenson.
So far, 3 struggling stars scented by woodland violets in apple wine infusion with a hint of ash from a long-awaited crackling fire, dripping with lasting notes of a salamander's foot crossing the moss that once laid lightly on mist-drenched, mountain wood.
Deborah/TheBookishDame :[
The Dame's Impression's :
I’m having such a difficult time with this book. I’ve wanted to love it after all the hype, but it’s difficult. First, I’m turned off by the author’s trying so hard to be cultured and elegant, or making much of it. Maybe it’s our American up-bringing, but isn’t understatement preferable? So much seems contrived and overdone. It made the book move very slowly.
The scents seem to permeate the story too much–no pun intended, and they often don’t make sense; the combinations she expresses are improbable. That's giving lenience for the symbolic, even! I grew so tired of hearing about them in every other paragraph. Fragrances need to be dabbed here and there to have the right impact, don’t you think? Just so in literature; they would have a bigger impact sparingly used.
It’s also a cardinal rule in literature that when an author focuses too much on description and not enough on characterization, the book will not be a good one. Is it me, or is there just too much description here? For instance, we can’t possibly know or understand Dom, the primary male protagonist, because there’s been very little character development.
What may be the biggest issue is that the author spent a great deal of time describing what I believe she sees out the window and inside of her “crumbling hamlet in Provence, France.” (From her bio. on the book cover we find that she lives there as much as possible.) In the novel, you can really see that she's inspired by her surroundings, but the story she's telling seems adjunct to that. This makes for a painfully slow and uninteresting story with tension and suspense that is much too drawn out.
A true story about her love of Provence, her hamlet, gardens and lower cellar would have been ever so much more exotic and interesting. It's the trying to create a story around those descriptions that makes this novel fail, to me. Provence, her hamlet, it's rennovations and discoveries would make a fascinating non-fiction account.
I’m worried that Ms Lawrenson has tried so hard to write a modern version of “Rebecca” that it’s fallen flat. I’m sad about it. I’m struggling to want to read this novel. I struggling to finish it because I don't like giving up. It's difficult. It would be great to have a contemporary novel in the vein of "Rebecca," but sometimes one simply can't compete with the classics. Those who hyped a comparison weren't helping Ms Lawrenson.
So far, 3 struggling stars scented by woodland violets in apple wine infusion with a hint of ash from a long-awaited crackling fire, dripping with lasting notes of a salamander's foot crossing the moss that once laid lightly on mist-drenched, mountain wood.
Deborah/TheBookishDame :[
April 24, 2017
Eve falls in love with Dom, a wealthy man, and they make an impulsive move to beautiful Provence. She starts to realize that Dom is holding secrets about his past, especially about his ex-wife Rachel. Strange things around the old farmhouse make Eve wonder if there is an intruder, a haunting, or if she is becoming unhinged dealing with her suspicions about Dom's past.
In alternating chapters, we meet the Lincel family, former owners of the farmhouse. Benedicte Lincel tells her story about the difficult years during World War II, the conflicts among her siblings, working on a lavender farm, and the development of perfumes by her sister. I found the historical part of the book fascinating, and never knew the many benefits of lavender. Benedicte was a resilient, well-developed character. The two stories intersect later in the book.
The story about Eve and Dom seems to be partially a modern version of du Maurier's Rebecca--the inexperienced woman who gets swept off her feet by an older man, finds she really doesn't know him very well, and has thoughts about the former wife fill her mind. The book got off to a slow start because it contained so much description at the beginning. On a positive note, the gothic descriptions did set the mood, and brought the reader right into the crumbling, possibly haunted, property in Provence. I enjoyed it more as the plot picked up, and would rate this book 3.5 stars.
In alternating chapters, we meet the Lincel family, former owners of the farmhouse. Benedicte Lincel tells her story about the difficult years during World War II, the conflicts among her siblings, working on a lavender farm, and the development of perfumes by her sister. I found the historical part of the book fascinating, and never knew the many benefits of lavender. Benedicte was a resilient, well-developed character. The two stories intersect later in the book.
The story about Eve and Dom seems to be partially a modern version of du Maurier's Rebecca--the inexperienced woman who gets swept off her feet by an older man, finds she really doesn't know him very well, and has thoughts about the former wife fill her mind. The book got off to a slow start because it contained so much description at the beginning. On a positive note, the gothic descriptions did set the mood, and brought the reader right into the crumbling, possibly haunted, property in Provence. I enjoyed it more as the plot picked up, and would rate this book 3.5 stars.
dnf
June 28, 2011Couldn't stand this... I personally feel it's nothing but description after description... and it felt as though it was going nowhere and at a very slow pace.
dnf-did-not-finish
November 23, 2011Wow. It's been a while since I have DNF'd something so quickly, but wow. There may be folks who really like this book, but within the first few pages I knew I would not be able to read an entire book written by this author.
The author attempts to recreate a scene in Provence. She uses vivid adjectives and nouns, but it feels like she swallowed a thesarus. I can't remember the last time I've had to look up that many words in a single book, let alone the first chapter of the book. (sybarites, susurration, etc., etc.) And way too many adverbs. It felt overwritten to me. (The stifling sultriness . . . ).
What pushed me over the edge, however, was the contrast between the adjective and adverb use and the verb use. There would be a paragraph of this lush rich description, and then the verb phrases were flat and tedious.
Readers who enjoy lush descriptive language may like this book, but when the writing style of an author is driving me crazy this early on it's DNF time. I know myself enough to know I'll be focusing on what annoys me and not letting myself enjoy the story.
The author attempts to recreate a scene in Provence. She uses vivid adjectives and nouns, but it feels like she swallowed a thesarus. I can't remember the last time I've had to look up that many words in a single book, let alone the first chapter of the book. (sybarites, susurration, etc., etc.) And way too many adverbs. It felt overwritten to me. (The stifling sultriness . . . ).
What pushed me over the edge, however, was the contrast between the adjective and adverb use and the verb use. There would be a paragraph of this lush rich description, and then the verb phrases were flat and tedious.
Readers who enjoy lush descriptive language may like this book, but when the writing style of an author is driving me crazy this early on it's DNF time. I know myself enough to know I'll be focusing on what annoys me and not letting myself enjoy the story.
September 8, 2011
While the language in this book was beautiful and the premise of the story was a good one, there just was not much to it. I really didn't see the threads of the various storylines come together until the last 50 or so pages and the build up didn't lead to anything overly exciting.
September 5, 2011
I won this book from the Goodreads First Reads program.
This book is a gothic suspense of the highest calibre, one that challenges the reader to decipher between what your mind and eyes want you to see and what is actually happening. The reader has to wonder what connections the mind is joining and what connections are occuring in reality, and it isn't always easy to guess right.
When Eve meets Dom in a garden labrynth by Lake Geneva she cannot believe her good fortune. She has been feeling bored and unmoored from her current job and life and has been wondering what she was really supposed to be doing with her life. Dom is older, rich and at free to do as he wishes when he sold his business for a great profit. He is kind and seems to really enjoy spending his time with Eve. When he alerts her that he is moving to the French countryside in Province she feels it is the right thing to do to go with him. After all, it will be so exciting renovating and repairing the derelict hamlet called Les Genevriers Dom as purchased and it will give her the chance to work on her dream project: translating some little known French gem of a text into English.
One point seems to be quite a thorn in Dom and Eve's relationship, however: Dom's ex-wife Rachel. He refuses to speak about her beyond saying that thier relationship ended badly and demands that Eve drop her from all conversations. When Dom lets slip that Rachel had been to Les Genevriers a black shadow seems to slowly begin to fall over them. Why has Dom brought her to this isolated but lovely hamlet? Where is Rachel and what happened between her and Dom?
As Eve and Dom's story unfolds and as their fresh beginnings of the summer begin to chill into the wintery landscape, Even begins to feel that she doesn't really know Dom at all. A local Provencal business woman, Sabine, seems intent on leading Eve down a path towards what happened to Rachel. But who is Eve to trust, when she is stuck out in a lonely countryside and not sure that she truly knows the man lying next to her? And what of the strange occurences that seem to be happening just outside of Eve's understanding? Are they not alone at Les Genevriers?
Interspered with Eve's story is the story of Benedicte Lincel, former occupant of Les Genevriers. Her family had owned the house and land for many generations, but a dark cloud hung over them as well. With a psychotic brother and a loving but sometimes distrant blind sister, Benedicte is left to try to keep Les Genevriers and her family from destruction. But when her brother demands that the farm and land be sold after the death of their parents and neither sister wishes to do so, how far will he go to get what he wants? Will Benedicte ever be able to forgive herself for her believed part in the destruction of their family?
I cannot recommend this book enough for anyone who loves a good mystery into what goes bump in the night and what our mind deciphers of the darkness in each corner. The descriptions of the landscape and the history of the harsh hillside life of France was simply breathtaking. If you don't smell the lavendar and feel the sharp stones underfoot than you aren't reading the same book. I cannot wait to see what Deborah Lawrenson has next to offer!
This book is a gothic suspense of the highest calibre, one that challenges the reader to decipher between what your mind and eyes want you to see and what is actually happening. The reader has to wonder what connections the mind is joining and what connections are occuring in reality, and it isn't always easy to guess right.
When Eve meets Dom in a garden labrynth by Lake Geneva she cannot believe her good fortune. She has been feeling bored and unmoored from her current job and life and has been wondering what she was really supposed to be doing with her life. Dom is older, rich and at free to do as he wishes when he sold his business for a great profit. He is kind and seems to really enjoy spending his time with Eve. When he alerts her that he is moving to the French countryside in Province she feels it is the right thing to do to go with him. After all, it will be so exciting renovating and repairing the derelict hamlet called Les Genevriers Dom as purchased and it will give her the chance to work on her dream project: translating some little known French gem of a text into English.
One point seems to be quite a thorn in Dom and Eve's relationship, however: Dom's ex-wife Rachel. He refuses to speak about her beyond saying that thier relationship ended badly and demands that Eve drop her from all conversations. When Dom lets slip that Rachel had been to Les Genevriers a black shadow seems to slowly begin to fall over them. Why has Dom brought her to this isolated but lovely hamlet? Where is Rachel and what happened between her and Dom?
As Eve and Dom's story unfolds and as their fresh beginnings of the summer begin to chill into the wintery landscape, Even begins to feel that she doesn't really know Dom at all. A local Provencal business woman, Sabine, seems intent on leading Eve down a path towards what happened to Rachel. But who is Eve to trust, when she is stuck out in a lonely countryside and not sure that she truly knows the man lying next to her? And what of the strange occurences that seem to be happening just outside of Eve's understanding? Are they not alone at Les Genevriers?
Interspered with Eve's story is the story of Benedicte Lincel, former occupant of Les Genevriers. Her family had owned the house and land for many generations, but a dark cloud hung over them as well. With a psychotic brother and a loving but sometimes distrant blind sister, Benedicte is left to try to keep Les Genevriers and her family from destruction. But when her brother demands that the farm and land be sold after the death of their parents and neither sister wishes to do so, how far will he go to get what he wants? Will Benedicte ever be able to forgive herself for her believed part in the destruction of their family?
I cannot recommend this book enough for anyone who loves a good mystery into what goes bump in the night and what our mind deciphers of the darkness in each corner. The descriptions of the landscape and the history of the harsh hillside life of France was simply breathtaking. If you don't smell the lavendar and feel the sharp stones underfoot than you aren't reading the same book. I cannot wait to see what Deborah Lawrenson has next to offer!
July 9, 2011
The past and the present are woven together when Eve and her new love Dominic buy a crumbling old estate in France. Eve has left her home, friends and work to be with Dom but the more time that passes the more bothered she becomes by his inability to discuss his ex-wife Rachel. Dom's dark moods are upsetting and Eve begins to wonder how well she really knows him. As they focus on renovating the estate they discover objects and hidden rooms that hold dark memories for the former owner Benedicte Lincel who takes us into the past and reveals her own dark mystery.
After I finished reading this book I felt better about it as a whole but while I was reading I was distracted by several factors in its delivery.
Writing a novel in alternating chapters from two different narrators seems the norm rather than the exception these days. In general I don't mind this technique, however there are novels where it feels like a cheap ploy used to keep the reader interested and give the story a greater sense of suspense, this was one of those times. In fact there was one chapter that ended in the middle of a conversation between the contemporary characters and was followed by a chapter from the past and then the conversation was completed it the subsequent chapter. I found that a bit irritating.
The chapters were also very short sometimes as few as two full pages of text and within the chapters there was a line that broke up the text. I'm not really sure why this was used at first I thought it was used to show a change in scene or location but I didn't find any rhyme or reason to its insertion.
I also found it distracting that there wasn't an obvious way to know which time period you were in at the beginning of a chapter, sometimes you would have to read a fair amount into the chapter before the characters and the time period were revealed. It would have been more enjoyable for me to know ahead of time where I was, a different typeface would have done the trick.
But aside from these irritations I did enjoy the stories the author wove together, I liked the way she described the countryside, the smells, and the seasons. I especially liked the way she brought the story around in the end and sifted out the mystery of the events that unfolded. I think the story and writing are strong enough to stand on their own without the forced suspense of alternating chapters in an attempt to keep the pages turning. I would read another novel by Deborah Lawrenson in the future and I think fans of the Gothic would enjoy this one.
After I finished reading this book I felt better about it as a whole but while I was reading I was distracted by several factors in its delivery.
Writing a novel in alternating chapters from two different narrators seems the norm rather than the exception these days. In general I don't mind this technique, however there are novels where it feels like a cheap ploy used to keep the reader interested and give the story a greater sense of suspense, this was one of those times. In fact there was one chapter that ended in the middle of a conversation between the contemporary characters and was followed by a chapter from the past and then the conversation was completed it the subsequent chapter. I found that a bit irritating.
The chapters were also very short sometimes as few as two full pages of text and within the chapters there was a line that broke up the text. I'm not really sure why this was used at first I thought it was used to show a change in scene or location but I didn't find any rhyme or reason to its insertion.
I also found it distracting that there wasn't an obvious way to know which time period you were in at the beginning of a chapter, sometimes you would have to read a fair amount into the chapter before the characters and the time period were revealed. It would have been more enjoyable for me to know ahead of time where I was, a different typeface would have done the trick.
But aside from these irritations I did enjoy the stories the author wove together, I liked the way she described the countryside, the smells, and the seasons. I especially liked the way she brought the story around in the end and sifted out the mystery of the events that unfolded. I think the story and writing are strong enough to stand on their own without the forced suspense of alternating chapters in an attempt to keep the pages turning. I would read another novel by Deborah Lawrenson in the future and I think fans of the Gothic would enjoy this one.
June 4, 2011
It came wrapped much like a present, in rich green , heavy paper; filigreed, deckle edged, fastened with a silver seal; this special treasure of a book, The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson. My fingers carefully opened my gift from the publisher, Harper, imprint of Harper Collins and I read the first page. I was captured immediately by its lyrical language, its setting of a crumbling cottage in Provence, whispering hints of scent that tickled my nose and grew, and an intense, suspenseful story; part ghost, part love, part haunting tale of evil with murky shadows everywhere. Parallel narrators roaming the farmland of Les Genévriers carried me along and kept me reading past my bedtime to see how their journey would end. The Lantern wrapped up satisfyingly, both figuratively and in plot. That it is compared to du Maurier's, Rebecca and Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale seems a good fit. I'd also suggest The Lantern to fans of Joss's, Half Broken Things and Waters's, Little Stranger. Though the finished copy will not be gift wrapped, unfolding the story should be gift enough.
Je vous remercie de tout cœur Deborah Lawrenson.
Je vous remercie de tout cœur Deborah Lawrenson.
May 28, 2011
Rebecca for 2011. A young woman meets an older man, falls in love, and moves with him to a ramshackle manor in the south of France. A neighbor begins asking pesky questions. Suspictions arise. The Lantern is not quite a ghost story nor a murder mystery, though it toys with both genres.
Not much suspense and slow moving but if you want long, languorous descriptions of Provence and the lavender industry, this is your book.
Not much suspense and slow moving but if you want long, languorous descriptions of Provence and the lavender industry, this is your book.
November 19, 2011
Upset I wasted time reading this book...
August 22, 2011
I am rating The Lantern 2 of 5 stars, which means that I feel pretty neutral about this book. This was definitely not a bad book, but it was not the best fit for me. The pacing was very slow in this book, I was fifty percent into the book before it started to get more interesting. The point-of-view changes regularly, and in the beginning I was often confused. Also with the point-of-view change, timing was also confusing at times. In one chapter, a character would be speaking in present tense, and in the next, they would be looking back. It really did take me awhile before I understood the structure of the book, and combined with the pacing, I just was not very into the story.
The characters themselves were interesting, as was the setting. Les Genevriers is a lovely setting, the imagery and descriptions in the book are beautiful. There is a gothic, ghost element to this story, and I did enjoy that aspect, even though it created some confusion for me in the beginning. I did not feel a lot of emotional depth with the characters, and I was disappointed with that. The Lantern is not a story that is heavy on the action, and for the emotionality to be lacking I felt that it was missing something.
The writing itself was flowing and descriptive, but I felt that it made the story drag through the novel. I found myself skimming through pages to get to the meat of the story. Really, this book just was not my style, it was just too slow. I like books that are a bit more direct, or with a little bit more action. The story in the Lantern was interesting, but I just did not love it. Despite my opinion, I believe that readers who like books that slowly build and have beautiful, descriptive language will enjoy The Lantern.
The characters themselves were interesting, as was the setting. Les Genevriers is a lovely setting, the imagery and descriptions in the book are beautiful. There is a gothic, ghost element to this story, and I did enjoy that aspect, even though it created some confusion for me in the beginning. I did not feel a lot of emotional depth with the characters, and I was disappointed with that. The Lantern is not a story that is heavy on the action, and for the emotionality to be lacking I felt that it was missing something.
The writing itself was flowing and descriptive, but I felt that it made the story drag through the novel. I found myself skimming through pages to get to the meat of the story. Really, this book just was not my style, it was just too slow. I like books that are a bit more direct, or with a little bit more action. The story in the Lantern was interesting, but I just did not love it. Despite my opinion, I believe that readers who like books that slowly build and have beautiful, descriptive language will enjoy The Lantern.
August 19, 2011
Original review posted here
I finished reading this book a few hours ago and I am still battling the chills it brought to life. Holy smokes, this one blew me away.
I’m a huge fan of Kate Morton, I loved Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and so it was inevitable that I’d pick up The Lantern, gothic romantic mystery? Yes please!
I have to say, I was intrigued enough for the first half of the book to keep reading. I, like Eve, needed to know the secrets. I was confused by the narrative but quickly got used to it and appreciated that I didn’t have to read long before going back to the other story.
Then, something magical happened. I started jumping at every little noise, looking over my shoulder at the slightest breeze of air touching it and whimpering with needing to know exactly what was going on.
I’ve read a lot of books with psychological torture, but I have to say - I think an event in this book about takes the cake. I won’t say anymore about it, but .. yeah, you’ll know when you read it.
If you love books that just tingle with mystery, sweeping, beautiful descriptions of homes fallen into disrepair and ruin, filled with mystery, ghosts and more then The Lantern is a must-read.
I finished reading this book a few hours ago and I am still battling the chills it brought to life. Holy smokes, this one blew me away.
I’m a huge fan of Kate Morton, I loved Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and so it was inevitable that I’d pick up The Lantern, gothic romantic mystery? Yes please!
I have to say, I was intrigued enough for the first half of the book to keep reading. I, like Eve, needed to know the secrets. I was confused by the narrative but quickly got used to it and appreciated that I didn’t have to read long before going back to the other story.
Then, something magical happened. I started jumping at every little noise, looking over my shoulder at the slightest breeze of air touching it and whimpering with needing to know exactly what was going on.
I’ve read a lot of books with psychological torture, but I have to say - I think an event in this book about takes the cake. I won’t say anymore about it, but .. yeah, you’ll know when you read it.
If you love books that just tingle with mystery, sweeping, beautiful descriptions of homes fallen into disrepair and ruin, filled with mystery, ghosts and more then The Lantern is a must-read.
February 13, 2020
Nakoniec to bolo fajn čítanie. Úplne úžasná atmosféra. Provensálsko so všetkým, čo k nemu patrí. Horúci vzduch v lete, v zime sneh, bolo tam také "naše počasie", možno až na ten neustály vietor; fascinovali ma rôzne typy a názvy vetra, zakaždým fúkal nejaký iný.
Hlavná hrdinka sa presťahuje do Francúzska, do pomaly sa rozpadávajúcej usadlosti v horách, kde žije s milovaným mužom. Nie sú zobratí, ale tá ich vzájomná potreba byť s tým druhým určuje, že nepotrebujú nikoho iného. Momentálne si môžu dovoliť nepracovať (majú úspory) a bývanie si zariaďujú starými vecami, z ktorých dýcha čas. No akoby sa s nimi začali objavovať prízraky... postupne sa vynára Domova minulosť. Dom už bol raz ženatý, no nikdy svoju manželku nespomínal. Eva je znepokojená, keď sa dozvedá o manželke, o jej zmiznutí a tak začne pátrať. Vlastne si popritom výskume pripravuje svoju prekladateľskú prácu o osudoch známej miestnej voňavkárky, ale keď Doma konfrontuje, čo sa stalo s manželkou, on o tom nechce hovoriť, je uzavretý a občas zmizne. A v okolí sa strácajú mladé dievčatá.
A potom sa nájdu v záhrade, kde chceli mať bazén, ľudské pozostatky.
Pocit, že sú tam duchovia, sa znásobuje.
Takže neprezradím koniec, ale len to, že to nie je krimi román.
Hlavná hrdinka sa presťahuje do Francúzska, do pomaly sa rozpadávajúcej usadlosti v horách, kde žije s milovaným mužom. Nie sú zobratí, ale tá ich vzájomná potreba byť s tým druhým určuje, že nepotrebujú nikoho iného. Momentálne si môžu dovoliť nepracovať (majú úspory) a bývanie si zariaďujú starými vecami, z ktorých dýcha čas. No akoby sa s nimi začali objavovať prízraky... postupne sa vynára Domova minulosť. Dom už bol raz ženatý, no nikdy svoju manželku nespomínal. Eva je znepokojená, keď sa dozvedá o manželke, o jej zmiznutí a tak začne pátrať. Vlastne si popritom výskume pripravuje svoju prekladateľskú prácu o osudoch známej miestnej voňavkárky, ale keď Doma konfrontuje, čo sa stalo s manželkou, on o tom nechce hovoriť, je uzavretý a občas zmizne. A v okolí sa strácajú mladé dievčatá.
A potom sa nájdu v záhrade, kde chceli mať bazén, ľudské pozostatky.
Pocit, že sú tam duchovia, sa znásobuje.
Takže neprezradím koniec, ale len to, že to nie je krimi román.
August 12, 2011
I had a hard time entering the story. It didn't completely grab me in the beginning. I had to warm up to it. I had to put a little thought into it, because Lawrenson doesn't spell everything out for the reader. Instead, she dares the reader to apply a bit of introspection, which is the underlying theme that I took away from this book.
The dual plot line was intriguing, but it was the process that left an impression. Both girls/women are happy to live on the surface of things initially. They are careful not to look too deeply into much of anything. Yet as startling events in both stories move closer to a shared culmination, the women become both more self-aware and less naive. They make peace with the things they can not change and come away richer for it.
The dual plot line was intriguing, but it was the process that left an impression. Both girls/women are happy to live on the surface of things initially. They are careful not to look too deeply into much of anything. Yet as startling events in both stories move closer to a shared culmination, the women become both more self-aware and less naive. They make peace with the things they can not change and come away richer for it.
September 6, 2011
Liked this book very very much. I could hardly put it down. There were countless passages that were so exquisitely written they took my breath away. Highly recommend this book.
April 24, 2023
This suspenseful, lush novel expertly transports the reader to the Provençal countryside, where mysteries aplenty await in brief, alternating chapters. Who is lying? Everyone. What can the ghosts tell you? Everything. Will history repeat itself? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Breathe in the lavender, walk in the sun, open the shutters…and don’t trust anyone. Highly recommended!
September 14, 2011
While trolling the aisles of the bookstore with a birthday gift card singeing my pocketbook, I came across The Lantern just when I was about to give up finding a book to suit my mood. What was I in the mood for? Something mysterious, romantic, Gothic even, with a beautiful setting and a crumbling old house, preferably in Europe, but with no vampires. Ta da! - this was it; and it delivered on all those counts. Deborah Lawrenson writes beautifully, and I savored this book, rolling her words through my mind like tastes on the tongue. She engages all the senses, but writes most vividly of scents, which are elusive and impossible to convey with words, as she lyrically imparts when asking how does one describe the smell of lavender. This book is set in rural Provence, where fields of lavender and its production into perfume and toiletries serve as a backdrop. The story centers on two women, one in the present, the other in the recent past, and the narration switches back and forth, short chapter by short chapter. At first this was disconcerting, and I wanted to stay more with the present day character, who I felt was more sympathetic. I never totally warmed up to the woman in the past, Benedicte, whose life is certainly more traumatic and haunted. Yes, there's a lot of haunting in this novel. It is more atmospheric than spine-tingling, but it does create that deliciously Gothic mood. The contemporary narrator 'Eve', though that is not her real name and we never learn what it is, falls in love with Dom, a handsome and wealthy older man with a mysterious past. After a whirlwind courtship they leave England for Provence and he buys a crumbling old farmhouse, just like you see wealthy foreigners do on House Hunters International. Their early days there are idyllic, but he will not speak of his first wife Rachel and angrily implores Eve to leave the subject alone. Well of course that's like waving a red flag in front of a bull, and Eve, though at first she accedes to his wishes, tries to find out what she can about Rachel. But being out in the wilds of Provence without internet makes this harder than normal. Lawrenson leads the reader on to suspect that there's some connection there in the crumbling old house between Benedicte's and Rachel's pasts. In this, I think, she disappoints. There is a connection, but it is removed and distant. I was also let down a bit by the depiction of Dom. He is not really fleshed out, and though the narrator said they talked and talked, we rarely had any dialogue at all to go on. He seems either loving and sensuous or distant, moody, angry, depressed and despairing, and, like Eve, we're given no clues as to why except that it seems to center around his former wife Rachel. The similarities to Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca are obvious and even alluded to by the author who has Eve reading it. The denouement about Rachel, therefore, doesn't come off nearly as surprising as her counterpart Rebecca's. I think the author could have been less obliging to her inspiration, for when the truth about Rachel is revealed, it falls a little flat and seems hurried at the end. As for endings, Lawrenson can't quite seem to let the end resonate; she has to tie up every little possible thread explaining away the mysteries, then changing her mind and putting the ghost back in. Despite these few criticisms, I enjoyed the book. It delivered what I was hoping for, and it kept me spellbound. I can still conjure the feeling of the warm Provencal sun on stone, the smells of lavender and heliotrope, and the vision of purple fields fading into blue mountains. It's a journey worth taking.
March 10, 2013
This week, I read The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson. The story reminds me of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, but instead of a Cornish setting, The Lantern is set in Provence.
The Lantern is a feast for the senses. In her acknowledgements, Lawrenson said her idea for the story about a blind perfumer came from from the French cosmetic comapany L'Occitane en Provence. The company's products have strips of Braille on their packaging because in 1997, the company started a foundation, Provence Dans Tous les Sens (All the Senses of Provence), to introduce children to perfume creation. The blind perfumer's storyline is one of two in the book. It is set before, during, and a few years after World War II. Marthe Lincel, the perfumer, is a secondary character to her sister, Benedicte, who tells the story of their family from her point of view.
Parallel to Marthe and Benedict's tale is Eve and Dom's love story, which is set in the present. Eve and Dom have bought Les Genevriers, an abandoned hamlet with a large house and several small cottages and out buildings. The hamlet is surrounded by the beauty of Provence, including lavender fields and orchards. Les Genevriers is also the Lincel's family home. The parallel gothic stories are creepy, and I appreciate how expertly Lawrenson weaves the plots together. Both plots build, and the suspense kept me completely engaged throughout the stories.
When Eve and Dom arrive at Les Genevriers, they are in love, happy and optimistic about pursuing their individual interests in their new home: Dom is interested in composing music, and Eve wants to collect and translate traditional Provencal folk tales into English. But as winter approaches, odd happenings and doubt haunts Eve. She realizes that she does not really know much about Dom, and she knows next to nothing about Dom's ex-wife, Rachel. Ghosts, missing college co-eds, several mysteries, and skeletons found in Les Genevriers' garden threaten their already fragile relationship. Eve begins to doubt Dom's actions and motivations because he will not open-up to her; he is evasive, secretive, and distracted. Before there is any hope for a future together, they must reconcile the past.
I enjoyed The Lantern, and could hardly put it down. The hype surrounding this book is warranted, and Lawrenson's gorgeous descriptions of Provence will take your breath away.
The Lantern is a feast for the senses. In her acknowledgements, Lawrenson said her idea for the story about a blind perfumer came from from the French cosmetic comapany L'Occitane en Provence. The company's products have strips of Braille on their packaging because in 1997, the company started a foundation, Provence Dans Tous les Sens (All the Senses of Provence), to introduce children to perfume creation. The blind perfumer's storyline is one of two in the book. It is set before, during, and a few years after World War II. Marthe Lincel, the perfumer, is a secondary character to her sister, Benedicte, who tells the story of their family from her point of view.
Parallel to Marthe and Benedict's tale is Eve and Dom's love story, which is set in the present. Eve and Dom have bought Les Genevriers, an abandoned hamlet with a large house and several small cottages and out buildings. The hamlet is surrounded by the beauty of Provence, including lavender fields and orchards. Les Genevriers is also the Lincel's family home. The parallel gothic stories are creepy, and I appreciate how expertly Lawrenson weaves the plots together. Both plots build, and the suspense kept me completely engaged throughout the stories.
When Eve and Dom arrive at Les Genevriers, they are in love, happy and optimistic about pursuing their individual interests in their new home: Dom is interested in composing music, and Eve wants to collect and translate traditional Provencal folk tales into English. But as winter approaches, odd happenings and doubt haunts Eve. She realizes that she does not really know much about Dom, and she knows next to nothing about Dom's ex-wife, Rachel. Ghosts, missing college co-eds, several mysteries, and skeletons found in Les Genevriers' garden threaten their already fragile relationship. Eve begins to doubt Dom's actions and motivations because he will not open-up to her; he is evasive, secretive, and distracted. Before there is any hope for a future together, they must reconcile the past.
I enjoyed The Lantern, and could hardly put it down. The hype surrounding this book is warranted, and Lawrenson's gorgeous descriptions of Provence will take your breath away.
January 26, 2012
Tales inspired by literary classics can be interesting, fresh, and original. Sadly, I don't think Lawrenson's US debut lived up to this potential, though I can see where some readers would enjoy her tale. It took two attempts before I could get into the book enough to read it all the way through, largely because I felt from page one that it was trying far too hard and was essentially rewriting "Rebecca" (a fact not helped by how many times that novel was mentioned in the description and promotional materials).
The story opens with a whirlwind romance between the main character who tells her story in first person and a man named Dom before they eventually settle in an estate on the French countryside. Every other chapter was then told from the first person of one of the home's previous tenants. It could be confusing going back and forth, but both stories are nicely intertwined in the end.
Personally, my biggest problem with the book was that it largely hinges on description, and while I appreciate some, I enjoy dialogue and "action" passages. It didn't help that the description was trying to be clever, beautiful, and old-fashioned, which made it even less appealing. Flowery is nowhere near strong enough a descriptor. The main character was frustrating and almost whiny at times, but her actions at least seemed like those a real person could take. However, character development comes in at almost none. Another huge strike for me.
Overall, despite its rehashing of du Maurier's wonderful book, there was something about this one that did keep me reading and wanting to read. I usually hate when chapters are so short and then broken up into needless sections, but I think this one would have been unbearable without those features. I would recommend the book only to those who love books heavy on description, with a dash of history and a mystery thrown in for good measure.
(My copy of this book was provided for free through Goodreads First Reads.)
The story opens with a whirlwind romance between the main character who tells her story in first person and a man named Dom before they eventually settle in an estate on the French countryside. Every other chapter was then told from the first person of one of the home's previous tenants. It could be confusing going back and forth, but both stories are nicely intertwined in the end.
Personally, my biggest problem with the book was that it largely hinges on description, and while I appreciate some, I enjoy dialogue and "action" passages. It didn't help that the description was trying to be clever, beautiful, and old-fashioned, which made it even less appealing. Flowery is nowhere near strong enough a descriptor. The main character was frustrating and almost whiny at times, but her actions at least seemed like those a real person could take. However, character development comes in at almost none. Another huge strike for me.
Overall, despite its rehashing of du Maurier's wonderful book, there was something about this one that did keep me reading and wanting to read. I usually hate when chapters are so short and then broken up into needless sections, but I think this one would have been unbearable without those features. I would recommend the book only to those who love books heavy on description, with a dash of history and a mystery thrown in for good measure.
(My copy of this book was provided for free through Goodreads First Reads.)
August 21, 2011
Deborah Lawrenson’s first novel to be published in the US should come with a warning label: this book is highly addictive, be prepared to do nothing else but read until the last page is tuned. Granted it does take about fifty pages or so to get a feel for the style and to learn that there are two stories being told; one of a modern day couple, the other a story of the family that last inhabited the county house in Provence where the novel is set. Evocative of the classic Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, The Lantern us mysterious yet extremely insightful as the two narrators unravel the mysteries that surround them as well as examine themselves and their own actions and motivations. Part gothic romance, part murder mystery The Lantern explores trust and deceit, reality and imagination, as well as past and present. The novel is written in short three to five page chapters, alternating between narrators, and yet is highly descriptive; it is a true feast of the sense and readers will be bombarded with images and scents that firmly place them in story. Lawrenson is sure to find a devoted fan base here in the US, and I for one eagerly await the next American release of her work.
August 15, 2011
I won this book as a first reads give away and I was extremely excited when it arrived. After reading the first few chapters I had high hopes for the remainder of the book. Sadly, now that I'm finished with the book I feel a little let down.
This book is beautifully written and so descriptive you can’t help but feel transported to Provence. You can smell what the characters smell and see what they see; it’s utterly beautiful at times. However, you need more than beautiful writing to have a great book.
It’s been a few days since I finished the book and I’m having a hard time pinpointing exactly what I disliked about it. There's mystery and enough suspense to keep you turning the page, but for me everything just fell flat. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and after reading some of the major events in the book I found myself thinking “that’s it?” The plot seemed to be overshadowed by the scenery which was disappointing because this book had the potential to be amazing.
The Lantern turned out to be an OK read, but I probably wouldn’t recommend it.
This book is beautifully written and so descriptive you can’t help but feel transported to Provence. You can smell what the characters smell and see what they see; it’s utterly beautiful at times. However, you need more than beautiful writing to have a great book.
It’s been a few days since I finished the book and I’m having a hard time pinpointing exactly what I disliked about it. There's mystery and enough suspense to keep you turning the page, but for me everything just fell flat. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and after reading some of the major events in the book I found myself thinking “that’s it?” The plot seemed to be overshadowed by the scenery which was disappointing because this book had the potential to be amazing.
The Lantern turned out to be an OK read, but I probably wouldn’t recommend it.
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