Vainglory

by Geraldine McCaughrean

Hardcover

Genres: Historical, Historical Fiction, Fiction, France

596 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Geraldine McCaughrean is a British children's novelist. She has written more than 170 books, including Peter Pan in Scarlet (2004), the official sequel to Peter Pan commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital, the holder of Peter Pan's copyright. Her work has been translated into 44 languages worldwide. She has received the Carnegie Medal twice and the Michael L. Printz Award among others.

Reviews

[Misfit · Rating 4 out of 5]

"He knew in that moment how God felt on Good Friday when He saw on what He had wasted Creation."

Vainglory begins in 1429 as Victoire De Gloriole regains possession of the family castle Gloriole-sur-Sablois from the English. Victoire marries Englishwoman Ellen Talbot and begins building a family dynasty and bringing Gloriole to new heights, although like all noblemen their ups and downs are ruled by the whims of the current ruler - kings come, kings go. The twists of fate take several bizarre turns in the subsequent generations as Victoire finds himself without a legitimate heir and his daughter Verite is caught up in the machinations of their distant de Puy cousins - can the family survive or will they succumb to madness and greed while building Gloriole to ever greater heights?

And that's all I'm going to tell you, this is one of those books that you can't put into a brief review and I don't write book reports. While history plays a second stage to the main story, I enjoyed the peeks at the historical events swirling in the background - from Joan of Arc and the wars with the English through to Catherine de Medici ruling through her children after the death of Henri II. Although the most gripping moments for me was the terrifying aftermath of the Conspiracy of Amboise as the Huguenots are slaughtered en masse.

With the exception of Victoire and Ellen and their son Fils, most of the rest of the Gloriole family are downright unlikable - this is not your warm and fuzzy family. What you will get is a story of a power hungry, greedy, grasping family that will do anything and everything to attain their vainglory and lord help anyone who gets in their way. This book might be too slow paced to appeal to all readers, but the writing is lovely and very subtle - one to sit back and savor slowly with a glass of red wine and chocolates.

[Bettie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Hirondelle (not getting notifications) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some subgenres seem to come up, become insanely popular and then go out of style without leaving a trace. Anybody remember those huge thick historical novels, multigenerational sagas about a place, where generations go on and on and everybody dies, lots of tragedies and romances, lots of action and where the real main character is really the place or house? James Michener and Susan Howatch wrote lots of those. This was published perhaps a bit later than that, but fits precisely that subgenre, the story of a French Castle spawning some generations in the 15th-16th century. And the publishers spoiled it all, by putting the family tree (surely that has to be the plot) and character list ( for all generations) right at the start of the book. How could I know? Or resist looking? And somehow the writing was not so brilliant to keep reading without that hope of surprise. It´s an old fashioned genre, but the writing also felt old fashioned, but not in a cool way.

[Ruth Harwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this sitting on a shelf hiding for about a decade, believe it or not! Forgotten, but as I've been clearing my shelves, I found this, and it looked like a good book, so I started to read. And from the first page to the last, I loved it! A story of a family who have lost their demesne in the 100 years war (the one that actually lasted longer than a century, but lets not quibble, eh?), they recover it during the 15 century, and there the story begins with a man falling in love. The story ends with another man going insane through losing love, but don't for one second believe only love features in the centuries covered here, there's questions of loyalty explored, concepts of kingship questioned, crusades to be undertaken, cruelties to be distributed, and plenty of double-crossing and underhand dealings done and received! In my opinion, a first-rate book of historical fiction well worth reading!

[Velislava Stoyanova · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF'd this one because of the historical inaccuracies right at the start, in the very base of this HISTORIC romance/epic. You're better off reading Timeline by Crichton.. The story begins during the Hundred years' war yet the narrative fails to acknowledge that the conflict wasn't England v France - the countries, but between FRENCH royal houses. Not to mention that EVERYONE noble spoke FRENCH (middle French I guess) because that was the official language of the two warring houses. So any conflict/dialogue deriving from the English v French opposition is null and void. And this is literally how the book starts - a French noble meets an English noble lady and they keep pointing out his Frenchness and her Englishness... *sigh*
The prose I read was well written, however, so I'm still giving it 2 stars. I only wish the author dispensed with the pop culture stuff.

[Flapidouille · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly well-researched historical fiction; so powerfully written you will not put it down until the very last page, despite its length and a dense writing.
I only knew McCaughrean's children books, which I really enjoyed; now I'll try and find some of her other "grown-up" works...

[Carole-Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a PB published by Arrow Books May 1992

[Susan]

1429-1550 France story of a Loire chateau

[K.L. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really didn't enjoy this. It's the tale of a French family in the middle ages and spans several generations. They are all unpleasant characters and I found it very hard to find them at all sympathetic. I very rarely find a book that I can't find anything good about, but this was definitely one!

[Dee Weaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rich feast of a story. Set in 15th century France, around the Chateau Gloriole and the turbulent fortunes of the family who own it, the family who think they should own it, and the family who simply crave it. Fans of Dorothy Dunnett's style of writing will enjoy this.

[Gigi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an interesting style/voice.