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Imperial Winds
Daisy Pelham, caring for the children of the noble Dubelsky family in Moscow, finds her world torn apart by war and revolution and suffers through the death of one man she loves and the long absence of another
- GenresRussiaHistorical Fiction
606 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
57 people want to read
About the author
Priscilla Hayter Napier
2 booksPriscilla Napier was born in 1908 in Oxford and spent her childhood in Egypt, where her father, Sir William Hayter, was financial adviser to the Egyptian government. She holds an honors degree in history from Oxford. Her husband, Trevylyan Napier, a naval officer, was killed in action in 1940. Mrs. Napier, who has a son and two daughters, published a book of poetry in the early forties and, in 1966, A Late Beginner, an account of her childhood.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 6, 2015
Minister's daughter Daisy Pelham is nursing a broken heart and heads to Russia in hopes of working as a governess teaching the children to speak English (it's all the rage for the upper crusts to have an English governess just for this, there are nurses and other governesses for all the other day-to-day stuff of raising children). Daisy lands a cushy one in the household Prince Andrei Dubelsky, and she has her hands full with his four young children by his second wife (loved the twins!). There are two older sons from the first marriage, but they are in the military and only make sporadic visits home. Daisy is treated almost like a member of the family and happy where she's at, but when the political situation starts getting dicey she puts off her family's request to come home until it's too late...
OK, so this is 1914 and I guess most of you have an idea what kind of stuff is going to happen - WWI and the Russian Revolution. If you don't, then this review is going to get a wee bit spoilerish. I also had some issues with sections of the story that I am going to discuss below in detail and might be deemed by some to be giving out more of the story than necessary. Enter at your own risk.
I'm finding this novel very hard to rate, and there are some parts I enjoyed that may not appeal to other readers. The Dubelskys are a very tightly knit family, and the parents are not of the absentee type off partying in town while leaving the kids dumped in the country. While I enjoyed Daisy's interaction with the family and exposure to such different cultures and lifestyles, other readers may find all that time in the country to be a bore. YMMV.
With the focus on Daisy and the Dubelsky children, once the war breaks out, there isn't a practical way to inform the reader of events on the front, or the political dealings in St. Pete and Moscow without a bit of info dumping. I thought it was well done, with some character interaction in the narrative, but other readers well versed on this set of events might be bored and/or be tempted to skim (I hereby give you permission to skim).
Once the Revolution hits full swing and the Imperial family is taken, things really heat up and all I'll hint at is how does an Englishwoman get herself and four children out of danger with the Reds just hours away from the Dubelsky home?
"Bands of Red soldiers were on the rampage, destroying property and killing all professional men. But particularly killing landowners and aristocrats."
Nail biting stuff, I couldn't put the book down at this point. And then --- Daisy I suspect this was dragged on so as to put Daisy front and center with a (I think it happened, but I'm not having luck finding much details online), but without author's notes that's just a guess on my part. From reading up on the author, it appears she's a bit of a historian, and I think she was trying to impress her readers with her historical knowledge. The was fascinating, but I didn't need recaps leading up to it via lengthy letters home from the captain detailing the current political situations - info dump warning (I give you permission to skim).
Oh, as for those two strapping older sons of Prince Andrei and is there a romantic element to this story? Yes, there is one, but I caution you - it takes a long, long time to even start (say 2/3 of the way in), and the final resolution and whether or not you get a HEA goes on way too long (I was skimming again). Sooooo, how to rate this? The first third was a solid four stars, the middle an unputdownable five stars, and three for the latter third of the novel - so I'm rounding it at four stars.
Recommended for history geeks, but don't go and pick this one up for the romance - there just isn't enough of it there.
Apologies for going into tl;dr territory, but I did find some interesting stuff on this author. Wiki page, looks like her brother spent some time in Russia as ambassador. It also seems she married into a family of some note (haven't read too far), Trevylyan Michael Napier of the Merchiston Napiers. I think this is the only fictional book she wrote, but from looking at the listings from the Clan Napier website and the Amazon listings, it looks like she's written a few about her husband's forebears.
OK, so this is 1914 and I guess most of you have an idea what kind of stuff is going to happen - WWI and the Russian Revolution. If you don't, then this review is going to get a wee bit spoilerish. I also had some issues with sections of the story that I am going to discuss below in detail and might be deemed by some to be giving out more of the story than necessary. Enter at your own risk.
I'm finding this novel very hard to rate, and there are some parts I enjoyed that may not appeal to other readers. The Dubelskys are a very tightly knit family, and the parents are not of the absentee type off partying in town while leaving the kids dumped in the country. While I enjoyed Daisy's interaction with the family and exposure to such different cultures and lifestyles, other readers may find all that time in the country to be a bore. YMMV.
With the focus on Daisy and the Dubelsky children, once the war breaks out, there isn't a practical way to inform the reader of events on the front, or the political dealings in St. Pete and Moscow without a bit of info dumping. I thought it was well done, with some character interaction in the narrative, but other readers well versed on this set of events might be bored and/or be tempted to skim (I hereby give you permission to skim).
Once the Revolution hits full swing and the Imperial family is taken, things really heat up and all I'll hint at is how does an Englishwoman get herself and four children out of danger with the Reds just hours away from the Dubelsky home?
"Bands of Red soldiers were on the rampage, destroying property and killing all professional men. But particularly killing landowners and aristocrats."
Nail biting stuff, I couldn't put the book down at this point. And then --- Daisy I suspect this was dragged on so as to put Daisy front and center with a (I think it happened, but I'm not having luck finding much details online), but without author's notes that's just a guess on my part. From reading up on the author, it appears she's a bit of a historian, and I think she was trying to impress her readers with her historical knowledge. The was fascinating, but I didn't need recaps leading up to it via lengthy letters home from the captain detailing the current political situations - info dump warning (I give you permission to skim).
Oh, as for those two strapping older sons of Prince Andrei and is there a romantic element to this story? Yes, there is one, but I caution you - it takes a long, long time to even start (say 2/3 of the way in), and the final resolution and whether or not you get a HEA goes on way too long (I was skimming again). Sooooo, how to rate this? The first third was a solid four stars, the middle an unputdownable five stars, and three for the latter third of the novel - so I'm rounding it at four stars.
Recommended for history geeks, but don't go and pick this one up for the romance - there just isn't enough of it there.
Apologies for going into tl;dr territory, but I did find some interesting stuff on this author. Wiki page, looks like her brother spent some time in Russia as ambassador. It also seems she married into a family of some note (haven't read too far), Trevylyan Michael Napier of the Merchiston Napiers. I think this is the only fictional book she wrote, but from looking at the listings from the Clan Napier website and the Amazon listings, it looks like she's written a few about her husband's forebears.
Displaying 1 of 1 review