Victorine

by Frances Parkinson Keyes

Book by Francis parkinson keyes

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Historical

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Frances Parkinson Keyes was an American author who wrote about her life as the wife of a U.S. Senator and novels set in New England, Louisiana, and Europe. A convert to Roman Catholicism, her later works frequently featured Catholic themes and beliefs. Her last name rhymes with "skies," not "keys."

Reviews

[Tamara D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found a website that listed the top ten bestsellers for every year from way back when until now, so I started reading some. This one was from 1958, the year I was born!
It was entertaining enough, not great literature and dated. But then, I guess I am dated, too, right? It’s a story of murder and intrigue and romance and wealth in Louisiana that ends up all wrapped up in a nice sweet package, like things seemed to be in the 50s.

It was a fun read and gave me a glimpse of the world I was born into.

[Jamie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not finish this book; I read 200 pages of it and decided I could return it to the library without knowing the end. I really liked Frances Parkinson Keyes' other book (Dinner at Antoine's). This book is not nearly as good. It has one of those terrible romances in which the two parties hate each other and then overnight love each other for no reason at all. They then share ridiculously over the top pronouncements of love in the face of adversity. It's all just a little too much. And by a little, I mean a lot.

[Carrie Dalby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent Southern Gothic family saga. It continues the story began in BLUE CAMELLIA. It's been over a year since I've read that one so I didn't recall everything, but enough was hinted at in this to remind me--and be enough explanation for those who haven't read the other. Keyes is a masterful storyteller.

[Lisa James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love, murder, & long held family secrets in the rice country bayous of Louisiana. Very well done, & a really good story :) I really liked the fact that the author, in doing the dialogue, stayed true to the native patois & way of speaking for the time as well :)

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar to Dinner at Antoine's, not as good. It was very easy to guess whodunnit.
Excellent mindless entertainment on a rainy day. I read it in one day.

It contains all of Keyes' tropes on marriage, weddings, sex, pregnancy, housekeeping.

It isn't really a sequel to Blue Camellia. More like an additional novel using the same characters. (Keyes liked to re-use characters. After all, Louisiana aristocracy is a small world, it makes sense.)
Blue Camellia is a better novel.

[Victoria]

This is a sequel to 'Blue Camilla' although it is completely different. Rather than weaving a family story into the history of an area and an industry, this emphasizes romance and a murder mystery. I still enjoyed it and couldn't wait to find out who did it. I don't know why this is recorded as having been read twice, I only read it once.

[Nan · Rating 4 out of 5]

a little dated perhaps, but a good story. May help to have an appreciation of southern Louisiana.

[Allison Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't necessarily a sequel to Blue Camellia, but it does use the same characters. I actually found this book to be much more interesting and engaging than Blue Camellia.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I was done with Frances Parkinson Keyes bestsellers after completing my 1957 reading list, but it turns out there was one more to go. She went on writing novels until 1970 but Victorine, at #10 in 1958, was her final bestseller. She is not too bad but not good enough to add to my list of authors to follow.

Victorine is a sequel to Blue Camellia which you can find in my list of books from 1957. It was one of her better novels and is set in Louisiana during the time when rice was first developed as a crop there. In that novel Lavinia, the heroine, had two children who in Victorine are grown and ready to get married. Prosper, the son, falls in love with Victorine, an impossibly perfect woman. But Proper's fling with a Creole dancer at the local tavern involves him as a suspect when the dancer is murdered.

The solving of the murder mystery keeps the story going and saves it from being another dull romance novel.

[Rosemary Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Victorine by Frances Parkinson Keyes

The sequel to Blue Camelia, Victorine, is set in Louisiana during the 1st and 2nd World Wars.

When Prosper Villac a rice miller, bought a pair of Gold Slippers for Titine, a singer in a night club, he could neither have foreseen her murder nor that he would become a suspect. On the verge of his engagement to Victorine, whose grandfather brought her to his house in Louisiana after many years in Europe, Prosper curses himself for his brief involvement with Titine.

Victorine ends with a satisfying twist in the tale which takes the reader by surprise.

Parkinson Keyes novels always sweep me back into the past with their vibrant characters and the interesting descriptions of the Southern States in the U.S.A in times gone by.

Re-reading Victorine after many years has inspired me to re-read Parkinson Keyes other novels, including old favourites such as The River Road and Larry Vincent.

[Katrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this paperback while visiting my grampa in Escondido. Loved it! There is nothing like an old romance novel to suck you in. Just turn off your literary critique button before opening this book and take it for what it is: "Hypnotic," Chicago Tribune and "...permeated with an element of mystery," Burlington Free Press.

[CLM]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/art...

I have never read this one!

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Up until I read this, I thought all of the works by Keyes were wonderful. This one was a disappointment. Not much to it. A soap opera in book form.