Song for Eloise

by Leigh Sauerwein

This colorful tale of love and loss is set in France at the end of the 12th century. It is the time of the troubadours and of the Sixth Crusade. Young Eloise is given in marriage to a loyal vassal and has gone to live in his castle. Her uncle, John, just back from the fifth crusade, seeks penance in an abbey where he illuminates manuscripts and longs to fresco the altars. Thomas, the troubadour, and his companion, Babel, the juggler, make their way from village to village, from tavern to castle, singing and entertaining. While peasants work the fields, knights hunt and fight and joust, monks pray the hours of the day, and the seasons turn, Lady Eloise and Thomas, devoted friends separated as children, reunite across an inseparable divide. Song for Eloise conveys all the pageantry of medieval life, evoking the mystery and wonder of that long ago time, imbuing it with the passion of timeless romance.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Medieval, France, Historical

133 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Leigh Sauerwein, a native of the United States, has lived for the last thirty years in France. She is a professional writer and translator and has published extensively for children. Her first book in English, The Way Home, received considerable acclaim.

Reviews

[Samir Rawas Sarayji · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started out interesting enough and just went steadily downhill. What a shame! The premise of the young girl destined to marry a friend of her father—disturbing yet intriguing—had potential. It’s 120 pages and classified as children's lit, yet there is nothing here I find appropriate for children, and at 120 pages the story tries to cover the whole lifespan of several characters. The results are jumping back and forth in time, seeing the views and backstories of different characters, and an unclear plot. What a mess. Dumped it 75% through.

[Lady Knight · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up on the recommendation of a colleague who, generally speaking, has good taste in literature and who is typically "on the same page" as me. Unfortunatly this book was a real disappointment. Although many secular reviewers have loved this book and praised it for its writing style, I found the book to be a less than stellar read. I hated the plot (what plot?!), the ponderous writing style (there were a few sparks of brillance, but overall felt like the author was trying too hard to imitate a medieval manuscript), and I just wanted to slap the characters. Marketed for teens, but I don't see even all that many adults attempting this one.

Eloise is the youngest daughter of a baron in 12th c. France. At the age of 15 she is married to Robert, one of her fathers under-barons, who is in his thirties. Robert has loved her since she was a small child, and fell in love with her infectious laugh and her enjoyment of life. After marriage Eloise shows none of the joy he fell in love with. While she doesn't hate her husband, Eloise finds marriage difficult and longs for home.

After the birth of their first child, Robert decides to bring a troubador and a juggler to the castle to celebrate the birth and try to bring some joy back into his wife. What he doesn't count on was that the troubador would be an old friend of his wife. Nor does he realize that their meeting again after so long would turn into a scandalous affair conducted behind Robert's back. Good thing he's got his mother, Merle, to look after his interests and bring some sense to Eloise.

[Zoë]

i found this book in a little free library in a box in a churchyard in Clerkenwell. it was an interesting read. im going to put it back in the box.

[Rosie · Rating 2 out of 5]

so in 12th century france, people actually break into songs for no apparent reason? like disney movies? seriously? this book, i actually found this book in the children's section.just because there was a drawing in the cover.okay bookstore staff, this book is about a fifteen year old girl being forced to marry a man twice her age (which, on second thought, not that old. i mean 30 is not very old is it?), there is a also a chapter dedicated to their wedding night, wherein they had sex and the girl's mother displayed the bedsheet with the girl's blood for all to see, the girl also cheats on her husband while he was away at war, and yes, there is bloody war going on with all the, er, blood.so believe me when i say that this book is not intended to the innocent mind of the children.if it wouldnt be so much of a bother,can you just transfer this kind of book to the section for, hmmmm..let's see, 12-year-olds?yes, i think 12-year-olds can handle this book.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this would be a really great book about 12th Century life. It was so boring, and I didn't really understand why certain parts were in the book. I read it in about a day and a 1/2. I also didn't think it was appropriate for children. There is no way I would allow my children to read it. It had some very "grown-up" moments and situations that I was surprised it had been in the children's section in my library. I actually skimmed the majority of the book because I just wanted to find the plot! The author is native to the US, but has lived in France for like 20+ years, I think. I wondered if this was standard for a French novel. Anyway. It was not a favorite of mine, and unless I was analyzing it for a Lit. class would probably not understand 1/2 of the things involved in the book. It was a deep book -- albeit boring.

[Kenesha · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it'd be a little more exciting and worth reading more than onece. Lets just say that I was so bored with it I stopped reading it.

[Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was stunning - one of those rare times when a book truly falls into the category of 'like nothing else I've ever read.'

A lyrical patchwork of prose poems more than a story, it perfectly captures the way that lives are created from moments - perhaps seemingly meaningless moments - which stitch together to create a lived experience.

I treasured the time I spend reading this, carried away through the dream-vision-style writing to 12th century France. I'm already looking forward to reading it again in a few years' time.

[Sandra Shabaka · Rating 1 out of 5]

Extremely boring with many redundant passages. The story takes you nowhere and the characters are very dull; impossible to empathize with. Took me forever to finish. I definitely do not recommend it.

[Depressed April · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish for nothing but to get back the time I wasted reading this book. AWFUL.

[lilly · Rating 2 out of 5]

yet another case of "i have no clue wtf i just read"

[Nada Said · Rating 1 out of 5]

OK, this book...is really bad. And this is me being nice to it. I can't get through it, made it to 70% and I've been struggling. I was not a fan of the writing, or the whole plot, if there is one. Definitely not a book for children either! Just bleh.

[Kieran Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a kind of odd book, but it had undertones of a kind of mysterious, mythic feel. It seemed a little like the events changed with the seasons, and that the writing encompassed the nature of the time very well, which was that many things happened, some sad, some happier, many like they do today, but they all connected in some way and were reflected by the surroundings, for nature played a larger part in ife back then. So this reminds me, a little, of The Mists of Avalon, but only slightly.

My only real problem with this book is that it jumped around so much and so quickly from character to character that it was hard to get attached to the characters, and at the end, extremely hard to make out what was going on. There should have been more space between the change in characters, or each part should have been in a different chapter. And I still don't understand why they had the parts about the hours and what people were doing, those parts in Italics randomly splitting the text, which confused me to no end at the beginning of the book.

Nevertheless, the plot was very different than things I've read before, though there was no explanation for the sudden pilgrimage of Eloise, only of John's wish for this. Merle was a particularly interesting character to read about--I would have been interested to read more about her life.

[Monda · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the very beginning I was taken by the writing style. It's breath taking, simple and very emphasizing to the nature of the time of the tale. I enjoyed how the author managed to move simple between the past, the present and the future through the thoughts of many of the novel's characters.
I liked the idea of switching between the characters frequently making you become attached with every single one of them so you can't be prejudiced to certain one of them.
But what I didn't enjoy and almost hated is the sudden speed in the events that started in the second half of the novel. All of the sudden there were too many unexplained events and I became furious as I couldn't see why the hell this happened.
The plot twist is very weak, the affections between Eloise and Thomas are done totally wrong, it could have been so much better only if you managed to feed them with the right motives but it felt like the cheating part was forced in the story.
The ending was kinda good where you leave every messy thing behind and start over again far away from every thing.
But forever I'll be haunted by my hatred of the parts that was written in Italics coz I literally didn't understand any single part of it or how it is related to the whole thing in the first place.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

New book at our library that I grabbed for a quick read and I really liked it. Because of the sparse writing I had to slow down and pay attention to every word which I loved. Nothing in depth, just a little tale that was perfect to curl up with by the fire.

[Tori]

2007

[Salma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't make it to the end. Yup,It's that awful.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 4 out of 5]

An arranged marriage in 12th century France.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, fun summer book.