The Light Heart

Williamsburg #4

by Elswyth Thane

Volume 4 of The Williamsburg Series.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Romance, Historical, Historical Romance, World War I, Adult Fiction

341 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Thane is most famous for her "Williamsburg" series of historical fiction. The books cover several generations of a single family from the American Revolutionary War up to World War II. The action moves from Williamsburg in later books to England, New York City and Richmond, Virginia.

Reviews

[CLM · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://tinyurl.com/55y44h97

This is one of my favorite Thanes: Phoebe is an easy heroine to like as she is travels to England to make her "come out": she is honest and loyal to a fault, an aspiring writer, agonizes over decisions (and makes the wrong ones almost every time!), and falls for a devastating hero. Has anyone else visited the Tate and thought about her while there?

Note: these books should be read in order!

[Mallory · Rating 5 out of 5]

7/10/17: One more thing... I forgot to mention that the real thrill of this story is how Thane can describe an emotion like love. She has an uncanny ability to get the riotous storm down on paper and not make it sappy.
Rating: 5 stars
Update: Still my favorite. Some slight issues, but I was more willing to overlook them and be forgiving because of how caught up I was in Phoebe and Oliver's star-crossed story. So many different chords were struck for me re-reading. Various themes had more meaning for me this time around. I loved Phoebe completely. She is flawed in such identifiable, relatable ways. I love how we watch her grow and mature throughout the book, yet she is still apt to make some impulsive and stupid decisions even toward the end. Sometimes Thane's female characters have been a little too angelic, helpless, perfect for me, but Phoebe is just human.
Some complaints: There is never a concern about money. Everyone is conveniently taken care of, whether through income or inheritance. The family seems abnormally prescient about a coming conflict with Germany, even as early as 1902. I know they are full of newspapermen and journalists and political connections, so they are bound to know some things and perhaps that explains it, but it still felt hard to believe their foreknowledge at times. Less racial tension/overtones in this one, but it's still present in some shocking sentences.

Favorite quotes: "I was thinking you didn't know me very well. And I was wondering how it is that someone who is practically a stranger could matter to you very much." - Phoebe Sprague "Know you? I was born knowing you!" - Oliver Campion

"'England always wins her wars,' Phoebe rallied. 'Except one.' 'Except one,' [Charles] agreed, and they laughed together over Yorktown, Virginia, 1781."

"Don't ever let anybody talk you into it just because it's time. Wait till you just can't help yourself." - Phoebe

Rating: 5 stars
This is my favorite so far of the Williamsburg series. Phoebe Sprague is young, somewhat naïve, and newly engaged to her cousin Miles Day when she heads off on a surprise trip to England to visit relatives and gain some worldly exposure to help enhance the stories she writes. When she ends up meeting her true soul mate, Oliver Campion (also engaged to another), her entire world is thrown into question. They allow themselves that summer together, knowing full well the lives they must return to at the end. By breaking her engagement with Miles even though she can’t have Oliver, Phoebe develops into a strong, confident, successful single woman, living in New York and writing well-received novels. But her heart often yearns for her one true love. Phoebe experiences the sinking of the Lusitania and the fears and horrors of The Great War as she tries to find out what has happened to her English friend Rosalind, who had married a German prince soon after that 1902 summer. This book covers quite a span of time (1902-1917) and places and has so many memorable characters. The rapid changes in ways and customs, as well as the methods of war, in these years after the turn of the century are seen through their eyes. This is one reason why I like Thane’s books so much. She can write a terrific romance, but there’s wonderful history and period detail as well. She truly recreates the time and fills it with a great story.

Favorite quotes: “A woman who marries a professional soldier ought to be the sort to fling herself into love headfirst and not care if it drowns her.” – Virginia Campion

“Isn’t it strange what can go on inside of people you see every day and you never suspect a thing! It makes you despair of ever knowing what anyone is really like, inside.” – Phoebe Sprague

“Men didn’t change much between twenty-one and thirty, but women grew up, and sometimes they even grew old.”

“The world does not end while one is still alive.” – Aunt Sally

[Gaile · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is just something about books written in the '30s and '40s that really draw me. This one continues the saga of the American Williamburg family. In this one, Phoebe Sprague travels to England to be presented to the King and there she meets and falls in love with Oliver Campion. She also meets Rosalind who is forced by her ambitious mother to marry a German Count. Rosalind is actually in love with a man named Charles.
With this stage set, we watch Phoebe come of age, find her calling and make her life in New York City in the years of the early twentieth century while Oliver goes ahead with his own arranged marriage.
As Europe edges toward war, Charles becomes an espionage agent while Rosalind struggles to become a good German wife.
Phoebe gets a chance to go to Germany to see Rosalind. Afterwards she decides to marry herself only to have her new husband die on her a few months later. War breaks out and worried about Rosalind, she decides to try to find out what happened to her. While in America, President Wilson edges his bets, Phoebe is kept busy in Europe. She and Oliver find they are still in love. Charles and Rosalind have a reunion. All comes right again in spite of all the danger, sad yearnings and escapades in this novel, especially after President Wilson gets tired of Germany torpedoing peace going American ships. After all Germany doesn't own the Atlantic Ocean!

[Mary-Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oliver Campion. Sigh. Thane wrote him so well and he's been my hero since I first read these back in high school.

This is my favorite book in the series and if you were a Downtown Abbey fan you will appreciate the English country house parties, clothing descriptions and the tale of star crossed lovers. Fans of this series frequently wish it could have come to life on the screen, so at least we have a family friend from Masterpiece Theater.

[Carolynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Serious Phoebe meets lively Oliver (light-hearted, get it?), Dinah Campion's brother. Neither one is free, but they shamelessly fall in love. Fate keeps them both entangled with each other and hopelessly apart. Phoebe is a strong, compassionate, loyal woman, one of Thane's best characters.

[Lilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite of the Thane books, and I loved them all!

[Anne Wise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was on the edge of my seat

For most of the book. Even though I’d read it before all I could remember was that I liked it. I wasn’t quite sure that my favorite characters were going to follow their hearts at the end UNTIL the end. And tbh I didn’t exactly feel that I could quite trust the author after Sue and Sedgewick in Yankee Stranger. All’s well that ends well.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was not only my favorite of the Williamsburg series, but has remained one of my favorite books of all time! My copy of the book has places that just fall open from where I've read and re-read favorite portions.
Young Phoebe always tries to do the right thing--even accepting a proposal from a man she knows the family expects her to marry. When she travels to England to visit some relatives, she meets dashing Oliver who is also engaged to be married. The two of them fall instantly in love but don't want to hurt the others involved, so Phoebe returns home. Yet she and Oliver are what we call soulmates and can never forget each other. The only thing I didn't quite understand about the character of Phoebe was her inability to truly love her own son and how she basically dismissed him; however, after I realized that Ms. Thane never had children and pretty much chose writing over everything, I realized she probably did not understand deep maternal feelings. Still, this kind of romance is why we love stories like THE NOTEBOOK.

[Misfit · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most terrible story the world had ever seen was being enacted in France and England, and Phoebe Sprague was three thousand miles away."

This is the fourth book in an ongoing series about the Day/Sprague families of Williamsburg Virginia. This volume opens in 1902 and finishes off towards the end of WWI, and even puts one character right on the Lusitania. I've left too much time lapse between finishing and trying to write a review, and I don't think I can recap it properly, but there are two couples who were meant to be together, but events intervene and the wrong marriages are made, and it's a long road to see if they get a HEA or not.

I really liked the relationship between Phoebe and Oliver (sigh), and Thane really kept me on pins and needles until the very last page. Well worth a read, but be advised this should be read in series order, and I would not recommend as a standalone. Even with the family tree at the front, the Sprague/Day families and all those cousins marrying do make it difficult to keep track of it all.

[Robbin Stokes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read and re-read the Williamsburg series by Elswyth Thane. I greatly enjoy the stories of intertwined families through generations; generations involving wars from the Revolutionary War to World War II. The families are American and British; young Phoebe while visiting from America has met Oliver and realizes the bland affection she felt for staid Miles at home is no match for the feeling for strong Oliver. Set during the WWI era there are anti-German pronouncements, views that were no doubt prompted by the author's experience in Britain between the two World Wars. The Light Heart was written in another time and some views that would be considered incorrect in writing now. The story line itself has good characterization, historic details of home and military life of that time and a naive charm.

[Tweety · Rating 3 out of 5]

I seem to be in the minority here. So many are saying this is their favorite Thane book in the series. I'm not feeling it for some reason.

I'll try to write a review that makes sense.

[Jane Irish Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another old favorite. Once again, it really helps to read the earlier books in the series, especially the one right before this one Ever After, as this volume begins very shortly after the previous one ends. Therefore, remainder of review is hidden, other than to say that I highly recommend this book, along with the rest of the series.


This is Phoebe Sprague's story. She always expected to marry her cousin, Miles Day, and live a pleasant, unexciting life with him in some university town, where he would be teaching. But all of that changes when Cousin Sue arranges for her to accompany her (Sue's) sister Eden, on her annual trip to England. It is 1902, and Coronation Year, so while Phoebe won't be presented at Court, there will plenty of other festivities to enjoy. Staying with Eden's daughter, Virginia, and Virginia's English husband, Archie Campion, Phoebe meets Archie's brother Oliver, and nothing is ever the same. Follow in Phoebe's footsteps as they fight this attraction during the years leading up to the Great Way.

[Susan Lundberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fourth in a series, this book brings us from the turn of the 20th century to the beginning of World War I. They focus on one main character in this book, and she's one of the most fully realized characters in the series. Some of the situations seem VERY far-fetched to me, but if you suspend belief that they couldn't have settled this before the war started, it's a good story. A secondary character is nearly as fully realized, but she's not the focus and spends a good amount of time out of the picture.

There was a couple in an earlier part of the series that were not allowed to marry because they were first cousins. In this book, there's a relationship between second cousins that no one seems to be worried about. One of the characters in particular seems to prefer his cousins to any other women, which doesn't get creepy until later in the series. Some of the racism in this made me uncomfortable as two characters joke about how their servants chose names for their own children, but it seemed to be more of the author trying to be whimsical and falling flat.

It was a good re-read, and I'll probably read it again.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't like this book as well as #3, but it was still interesting. This time around Mrs. Thane writes about the time period 1902-1917 with settings in Virginia, New York, London, Farthingale, Germany, France, and Switzerland. Once more, the settings and wardrobes are very detailed.
The same families are represented but added are a German prince, marriages, births, and love lost. What I found silly was that a few of the characters married for convenience and dropped their true loves. One of those was Rosalind who married a German prince who she didn't love but wanted a lofty life.
World War I begins, and most of the men go off to fight or spy or write for their newspapers. The women become nurses usually. Even the sinking of the Lusitania is written about, conveniently featuring one of the books heroines.
Finally, a couple gest together after years of yearning for each other, someone escapes an unhappy marriage, but others do not reconcile.

[MrsWhiteLibrary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have very mixed feelings about The Light Heart. I was hooked from the get-go, and couldn’t put it down. It was full of history. However, I hated the multiple emotional affairs, and the justification of them. I was expecting one situation to be tied up easily with a death, which unfortunately didn’t happen. The other I would’ve preferred resolved another way, as there were plenty of options, yet it got tied up neat and tidy with a death. And the result is several characters were just never heard from again. For me, a miss if you’re here for a well-done story, but worth it if you enjoy the history.

[Sherry Hession · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phoebe has always been in love with her cousin, but he has not been romantically interested in her. However, just before she goes to England for a visit, he proposes marriage and she accepts. When she arrives in England, one of the first people she meets and immediately falls in love with is the brother of her cousin's husband. Unfortunately, Oliver is also betrothed. Neither can see a way to be together. World War I intervenes and both of their lives are impacted by it. Through everything, they remain in love.

[Svetlana Stocks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is number four in the Williamsburg Series and was worth the effort to search for it and find it among the online Used Books offers. Most of the story takes place in England just prior and during the beginning of World War I. It’s a lovely romantic story of star crossed lovers. Phoebe is the beautiful heroine, a descendant of the original Sprague family of Williamsburg .

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loving this series. I know the writing and attitudes are old fashioned, but the writer tells a story well, and her description of the sinking of a ship was well done.

[Gerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quality of the writing, historical background, story telling, and multiple characters are all top notch. However, I could never warm up to Phoebe, one of the two main female protagonists, and didn't much like her. That detracted from this otherwise superb book for me.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Book that you will want to read again. Romance, adventure, and historical.

[Dan Hutchison · Rating 4 out of 5]

For romantics, a very rich - and real - romance of American Edwardians.

[Pamg Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful series

This was the first Williamsburg I read back in 1975, and I'm still addicted to the series. Hoping her publishers will release some of her other books on Kindle.

[Morning Glory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exciting plot and interesting to learn about prewar Germany.
The blackface part did not age well.

[TechMom]

Have read Elswyth Thane's Williamsburg series through many times. These characters make an entertaining book family and I love to live in them, rereading every so often.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 4th of the novels in Elswyth Thane's Williamsburg septet, which follows the fortunes of the Sprague & Day families from the American Revolution to World War II, is a favorite I discovered in high school. Widowed American romance novelist Phoebe Sprague Day, who renounced her true love as a young debutante, survives the sinking of the Lusitania to be reunited with him.

[Sarah Hearn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Number 5 in the Williamsburg series, this is easily my favourite of them all. It focuses on Phoebe Sprague, the sister of Fitz, and her life between her 21st birthday in1902 and 1917 when the US finally declares war on Germany in World War I. Like her cousin, Susannah Day, Phoebe wants to write books so she travels to England with her Murray cousins in the summer of 1902 to experience the coronation of King Edward VII. There she meets the rest of the Campion family (we already met Archie and Dinah in Ever After) and most importantly, she meets Oliver, who is the Light Heart of the title. She also meets Rosalind Norton-Leigh who becomes her BFF and who marries a German Prince and ends up in living in Germany during WWI. This book and the ones that follow are paeans to England in Wartime and the overall dastardlyness of Germans writ large. Ms Thane, having lived in New York and England, during the years of WWII is full of the wonderfulness of the English who always triumph over evil and win their wars "except once" as Phoebe tells Oliver (referring the English loss of America after the Revolution). Again, we get lots of views of the privileged life of the wealthy in England, a time that has now gone for ever.

[Lynn Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read bittersweet at times due to the separation through duty and commitment of the main characters.
Synopsis:
Lovely Phoebe Sprague, of Williamsburg, Virginia, became engaged to her childhood sweetheart just before she set sail for England - where she fell headlong in love with Captain Oliver Campion. But in 1902 a betrothal was almost as binding as marriage, and Phoebe, who meant to abide by her promise, changed her mind too late. There was noting that either Phoebe or Oliver could do about it; separated initially be convention, they were soon to be whirled apart by the tumultuous events of history itself. In telling this fascinating story of two great loves, Miss Thane presents the reader with a brilliant and crowded panorama of the carefree days in England and Europe before 1914. The saga which she unfolded in Ever After, Yankee Stranger and Dawn's Early Light is here carried forwarded more ably than ever in the recreation of a glowing, unforgettable era, when Europe still danced, society was still glamorous, and tragedy wore a smiling mask.

[Trine · Rating 4 out of 5]

After having watched the tv-series Downton Abbey I felt like reading another version of life in England during WW1. Surprisingly, this book turned out better than I remembered. I have always found this one to be one of the weaker of the series but dispite the somewhat primitive writing style - or perhaps it was the translation - it was a nice read. I suppose the story line with duty versus love and marriages of convenience is a more adult topic that is hard to grasp for a teenager.
DK: Lykkelige dage

[Shana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book years ago and liked it so much better then. The writing is still great and the build up events around history is excellent but where I used to love the characters, I found myself kind of annoyed with them. The theme of this book seems to be bad love-life decisions. I also really didn't like the flatness of some of the side characters. I know they weren't meant to be likable but still, their flatness made things a little less realistic.
Mixed feelings about this book-definitely not one of my favorites in the series.

[Margaret Boling · Rating 4 out of 5]

12/2012 ** Originally written in the 1940s, this book covers the Williamsburg/England family in the years leading up to WW I. Captures the tension in Europe and England and among informed Americans as people anticipated the war. Though I re-read this series this month, I first read it while in middle & high school. This was my first exposure to the events leading to WW I and the combination of romance and history proved unforgettable.