Whiteoak Heritage

Jalna #5

by Mazo de la Roche

When Renny Whiteoak came home from the war he discovered many strange things at Jalna. Not least among them was his young brother Eden's romantic affair with an attractive widow. Renny determined to put a stop to it. But when he met the infamous Mrs. Stroud, Renny found himself reluctantly entangled in her dangerous web.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Family Saga, Historical Fiction, Historical, Classics

325 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

Mazo de la Roche, born Mazo Louise Roche, was the author of the Jalna novels, one of the most popular series of books of her time.

The Jalna series consists of sixteen novels that tell the story of the Canadian Whiteoak family from 1854 to 1954, although each of the novels can also be enjoyed as an independent story. In the world of the Whiteoaks, as in real life, people live and die, find success and fall to ruin. For the Whiteoaks, there remains something solid and unchanging in the midst of life's transience--the manor house and its rich surrounding farmland known as "Jalna." The author, Mazo de la Roche, gave the members of her fictitious family names from gravestones in Ontario's New Market cemetery, and the story itself balances somewhere between fact and fiction. Critics think events in the novels reflect de la Roche's dreams, moods, and life experiences. As the daughter of a traveling businessman, she may have seen the Jalna estate as the roots she never had, while the character Finch, from Finch's Fortune, is thought to be a reflection of herself.

Reviews

[Elinor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The traumatic years of the First World War are skipped over in this series, and Book Five finds Renny Whiteoak home at last, sadder but wiser, and more committed than ever to ruling the roost at his sprawling home called Jalna, filled with interesting characters.

[Craig Rowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whiteoak Heritage by Mazo de la Roche was published in 1940, right after Whiteoak Harvest yet in the Jalna chronology the action follows Young Renny. De la Roche wrote sixteen stand-alone Jalna novels, going back and forth in time. It took me a while to get used to the situations of each character, as I had recently read Whiteoak Harvest, which took place in 1934. In this novel, however, Renny and Maurice return to Jalna immediately after World War I, and they are young unmarried men. I had to take myself back in time and forget everything from the novel I had just read. I wonder how de la Roche herself managed to keep track of her characters and events. So far I have not noticed any anachronisms or people appearing in the past when they hadn’t even been born yet. Still, the idea of jumping back and forth in time with prequels and sequels seems a daunting task, but obviously not to de la Roche.

De la Roche delivers her usual modus operandi: secret extra-marital affairs (and multi-generational at that) and financial crises. Renny gets himself tangled up with two women, one who is married and one who already has two boyfriends–one young enough to be her son and the other old enough to be her father. No hanky-panky occurs between any of the couples yet the passion is steamy. This is a tribute to de la Roche, who can still convey the intensity of emotions between the couples by writing only of a caress against a cheek or the conversation shared over tea. I read this book in four days because I could not put it down. By the time I picked it up, I had four de la Roche novels under my belt and knew who these characters were. I was a sponge, wanting to absorb all about their early years and learn how they evolved into what I know about them from novels that take place later.

The author writes some evocative imagery and I loved how she portrayed the sounds of a choir by a concert of birdsong:

“A jolly jargon of untutored sweetness rose to them from the ravine. Baritone and tenor, soprano and alto, stretched their breasts to make their own part the solo. The very branches shook with the passion of their singing.”

And she always has a knack for dropping an unexpected but most humorous line at the end of a series, such as:

“In summer, when Mrs. Clinch had carried her rocking chair into the open and rocked and fanned to keep the mosquitoes off, Pheasant knelt on the warm grass beside her and they talked of droughts, floods, northern lights, thunderbolts, and people struck and burnt black by lightning.”

A woman of the name of Amy (or is it Aimee) Stroud lives close to Jalna and she has subdivided her house to rent out, in order to raise additional income. Mrs. Stroud, as she is often referred to, has developed a romantic liaison with young Eden, who is eighteen. Unfortunately the couple and baby who now share Mrs. Stroud’s house are noisy and untidy, and often disturb Mrs. Stroud’s times with her gentleman callers. The second half of the novel involves Mrs. Stroud’s schemes to get her tenants out of the house. I laughed when I read this passage, complaining about her noisy renters:

“She was angry with herself for having hampered the builder who had made the alterations. He had wanted a more solid dividing wall. But she had insisted on cheap materials. Now, in her most cherished moments, Dayborn’s voice would penetrate the partition, complaining of the hardness of his work or Chris’s cooking. Once Chris herself had shrieked that the sausages were burning and an hour with Eden had been spoilt. Eden had insisted on shouting back–‘Bring them here! I like burnt sausages!'”

I noticed a curious overuse of the words insolent and insolence, whereas in Young Renny, I remarked that de la Roche used indolent and indolence to excess.

This is my fifth de la Roche novel and all five have been recent reprints. It puzzles me how there could be so many typos in these editions, and of the five novels I have read so far, I found more errors in Whiteoak Heritage than in all the other four combined. Why would there be any typos–and curious inconsistencies–in the first place? I made a list of them, naturally. The most puzzling is the dual spelling of Mrs. Stroud’s first name. On one page (p. 164) it’s Amy, and on the next page it’s Aimee, then it flipflops between the two. Up until page 164 the name was consistent as Amy. Even Uncle Nicholas finds his name misspelled as Nicolas on one occasion (p. 21). The other errors are just sloppy: “it had been shut out to long” instead of “…too long” (p. 33); “The he hurled the bicycle to the ground.” instead of “Then he…” (p. 61); “the voices of the bids” instead of “…the birds” (p. 66) and four other gaffes which I will mercifully not reveal. Was the entire text retyped when it was reset? There’s no way the original text was tainted by so many errors. The reprinting of the entire Jalna oeuvre is an attractive project with the new cover artwork and large page formatting but the typos within sully the work of one of Canada’s most brilliant writers.

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whiteoak Inheritance is the fifth chronological book of the series. Published in 1940, the novel is set in 1919. The Great War is over and Renny Whiteoak returns from France with his batman, Wraggs. Maurice Vaughn also returns with a crippled hand.

Two more Whiteoak siblings have been born: Finch, aged 11 and Wakefield, aged 4. Augusta, Lady Buckley is a widow. Uncles Nick and Ernest are now making their home at Jalna. Philip II and Mary Whiteoak are deceased. We never really know how and when Phillip and Mary die, although Wakefield is often referred to as a posthumous child born with a “weak heart.”

The story focuses on the arrival of Jim Drayborn and his sister Chris Cummings. Renny and Chris fall madly in love with each other, but it is not to be, although there are consequences from their affair. Eden is attracted to an older woman, Amy Stroud, but as with almost every woman in the books she is attracted to Renny, who spurns her attentions.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourites in the Jalna series, so a Jalna five star rating from me. It had all the usual characteristics, but seemed even better than the last couple of novels. Maybe it's because I had a bit of a break from the series and was so pleased to get back to the family and all their naughtiness.

[Jean Carlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+ I may as well cut and paste my review of the previous Jalna series books. So far I have enjoyed them all for the same reasons...great writing, interesting characters, galloping pace. ( in this one a horse is featured) :)
on to #6

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series! I take a break after each one and then come back to the next one a couple of books later; I don't want to get burnt out on them 🙂 This wasn't my favorite in the series but still a good story.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tad melodramatic at the end and really not fair on the horse.

[Senga Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

Który z braci przejmie Jalnę? Młode pokolenie jeszcze niedoświadczone życiowo ma trudności by ogarnąć całość.
Czy scheda ich nie skłóci?

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Jalna novel set in 1919. Renny Whiteoak returns from the Great War to find many changes at the family homestead. His father and stepmother have both died, leaving behind four orphaned young half-brothers. Renny becomes, overnight, an instant "father," in a manner of speaking, but the role doesn't suit him well at first. Our hero is arrogant and domineering by nature, and the young brothers don't take too kindly to his rule. Most of the conflict comes from his struggle to control their vagaries.

Brother Eden is a precocious teenager, carrying on a scandalous and most unsuitable love affair. Brother Piers is a disobedient brat, Finch is a hobbledehoy, while baby Wakefield is just plain spoiled. There's also mention of young Pheasant, their next-door neighbor's "love child," who has her own part to play in the storyline. Renny takes charge of all these kids but not always successfully. And he's also unable to reconcile sister Meg with Pheasant's father, Maurice, who has waited these many long years for Meg's forgiveness...

A major romance develops between horse trainer Christine Dayborn and Renny. Chris is an English girl, unhappily married, who has come to Ontario in search of work. She and Renny soon become lovers. They are training a magnificent horse, Launceton, to run in the next Grand National. However, there's a real villainess here who portends tragedy for all of them...and far-reaching, devastating consequences to the Renny-Chris affair...

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jalna #5 chronicles Renny's return from WWI and his reinstatement as head of the Whiteoaks, with his older sister and four younger brothers as well as the older generation of uncles and the irrepressible Adeline, his grandmother, to which add sister Meg's former love and his daughter, Eden's "older woman" and her tenants, and horses, dogs, and some ancillary characters. Canada is getting crowded, but it's all a pleasant, nicely written and plotted read.

De La Roche discusses hardly at all WWI, but perhaps Canada didn't fell its effects as much, or perhaps it just didn't fit her story. But that's okay; it's a series of novels, not a history.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whiteoak Heritage is #5 in the Jalna series. This is another charming entry in this Canadian family saga. As Renny returns home from WWI, two new people also settle in the area. One is a mysterious widow with an interest in Renny's much younger brother, Eden, and the other is a woman who is a horse trainer, newly arrived from England with her brother and her young son. I enjoyed this novel, and continue to enjoy my summer re-read. I have not read this series since my 20's but remember scenes and characters here and there as I go along.

[Zéro Janvier · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'avais dévoré tout Jalna quand j'étais adolescent, et si je suis incapable aujourd'hui de me souvenir de chacun des tomes qui composent cette saga gigantesque, je me souviens tout de même que j'avais pris beaucoup de plaisir à découvrir cette famille et ce domaine familial que l'on suit pendant presque un siècle.

[Meg Ulmes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is so much better than the one that preceded it. It has more depth and substance and an absolute villainess that I truly hated by the end of the book. The plot is interesting and takes some twists that I didn't expect. I have chosen my favoritecharacter so far--Renny.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here we see Renny becoming head of the family. Eden is becoming his irresponsible self absorbed self, and Finch, who has a masters degree in self involvement himself, is the awkward overlooked child he will remain.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than the last ones, more structure and a good ending.

[Amma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Same as previous Jalna books.