As America plunges headlong into the Civil War, Lizzie Desmond and Adam Thorpe finds that the lessons they learned in love and honor on the Yorkshire moors are put to the test. Reprint. LJ. PW. K.
American popular novelist, several of whose books were filmed.
Stewart came to be best known for his intercontinental sagas. Year in, year out, the 600-page mark didn't daunt him, a far cry as this was from early hopes as life as a concert pianist, something which had inspired his 1st novel The Mephisto Waltz (1968) which also began his lucrative connection with the film industry. Born in Anderson, IN, he was the son of a banker &, after the Lawrenceville school, near Princeton, NJ, he studied history at Princeton University & later piano at the Juilliard School in Manhattan. By the 1960s, he realised he wasn't going to succeed as a pianist & with marriage to a literary agent, Joan Richardson, in 1967, he began to write, & found immediate success with The Mephisto Waltz.
With The Methuselah Enzyme, Stewart showed wit, but it was clear that it wasn't Henry James. There was, however, a certain charm to Six Weeks (1976), told by a married aspirant for a Democratic senatorial nomination who becomes infatuated with a cold-cream heiress, largely at the behest of her 11-year-old, would-be nymphet daughter who, beset by cancer, has less than two months to live. Nabokov it isn't, but certainly better than the 1982 film with Dudley Moore & Mary Tyler Moore.
Lizzie Desmond and Adam Thorpe have always been in love (he's her knight in shining armor) and planned to marry when they were old enough, but an 'accident' puts Adam front and center as the heir to an earldom and a huge fortune. Unfortunately, a minister's daughter is not going to be an appropriate spouse for Adam and it's a bit of a pickle when she finds herself pregnant and oh, boy do things great crazy when her upright, uptight minister father finds out and she's wanted by the police and has to flee the country. Oh my.
Adam finds a bride of the right sort, but he still moons over the lost Lizzie. Events and family secrets happen that take him to India right at the height of the Sepoy rebellion. Adam's escapades win him honors as a great hero of the British Empire, and...well...life just keeps getting crazier and crazier with more twists and turns than there are hours in the day to recount them all.
"What he couldn't know was that by assassinating the greatest villain in the British Empire, he was going to become its greatest hero."
The story begins prior to the start of the US Civil War and along with the India setting events also take place in the deep south, New York, and even an English workhouse (cue Adam to be the hero again). Now, how to rate this pile of cray-cray? I'm at a loss, as I found I enjoyed it much more than I should have, but I do caution potential readers, there's a lot of non-PC language, with plenty of 'n' words used, both in the deep south and in India. Lots. There's a close call with the KKK at the very end and what almost happened is going to be very offensive to some readers. Readers who find themselves offended at how the slaves are treated in Gone With the Wind are really going to be offended at how slaves are treated in this book.
Still, I couldn't stop reading to see what craziness Adam and Lizzie's adventures were going to take them next.
I enjoy an occassional historical fiction (romance if we must). This one took place in England, India, the United States (both North and South), and France during the mid to late 1800's. On a higher level, we examine the racial injustices of the North/South and England/India as well as the class distinctions in England and America.
This was a good historical novel, and I would have given it four stars if I hadn't felt that it went on for a bit too long and stretched out some scenes and events that could have been more concise. I'd say the book could have been about 100 pages less.
Putting that aside, this book gives a good historical background of Civil War days, the too often brutal treatment of slaves, abolitionism and high finance (the not always scrupulous Jim Fisk makes an appearance, as do a few other historical figures). There's also the political situation in England and India, with details of the Sepoy Rebellion.
As to the personal relationships, they sure do get into a jumble! This not being a HR book, there's no guarantee the H and h will end up together, and in this case, I was happy, because I much preferred the OW, who happened to be the H's wife. Also, the h's multiple marriages (though she was widowed twice, but all three had self-centered motives on her part) really got annoying.
Adam and Lizzie grew up together and considered themselves soulmates, though fate seemed determined to keep them apart. first, his social status wasn't deemed good enough, then (after he inherited a title) hers was considered inferior. Lizzie's falling pregnant while unmarried causes a confrontation that leads to her father's death, and she being accused of his murder. Adam. meanwhile, is pressured to make a proper marriage to Sybil, who truly loves him, but soon discovers he can't stop thinking about Lizzie. (Lizzie, meanwhile, escaped to France to avoid murder charges, starts a modeling career, and soon meets Jack, a southern plantation owner, who'll become her first husband. (She doesn't love him, but wants a father for her baby, as well as respectability, and a chance to get far away from her troubles.) He's willing to accept the baby as his own.
Normally, I don't condone adultery and when it happens I tend to stop reading, but in the case of Adam and Sybil I make an exception. Their marriage got off to a rocky start, and soon Adam was in India, and had an affair with a young woman there. Left alone, and knowing of his love for Lizzie, a lonely (as well as resentful) Sybil got involved with her childhood friend, Edgar and when Adam returned shortly after, she honestly didn't know who fathered her unborn baby. While I don't approve of dishonesty, in these circumstances I give them both a break for their broken vows, and for Sybil (who still loved him) not being able to tell Adam about the baby (though she did admit the affair). Later, when the boy, Henry strongly resembles Edgar, Adam figures out the truth that Sybil already guessed. He accepts Henry as his own. (I have less of a problem with adultery if both parties cheat, kind of evens the score, like in this case, though the situation with Henry was unfortunate.)
Meanwhile, Adam had reconnected with Lizzie, now a widow helping slaves (in part to make up for Jack's treatment of them, which led to the death of one, Matthew, who became her friend. (Later, she looked out for his son.) With the murder charges clear, Lizzie had returned to England and soon she and Adam were lovers again, while he got acquainted with his daughter, Amanda. For a time Adam led a double life, with two families, until Lizzie and Sybil had a long talk, and Lizzie put an end to her affair with Adam, returning to America.
More children enter the picture later, as Lizzie makes another loveless marriage, to Alex, a businessman who adores her, while she just likes him. (It seems men are always falling for Lizzie, while she can't love any man but Adam, though she basks in the attention.) They have a son, Somerset but, despite being only in his early 30's, Alex has a stroke. Lizzie has to cope with both this and business decisions, investing unwisely with Jim Fisk, and ending up wiped out, and once again a widow. To make ends meet, she becomes an actress, (not a very good one, but her good looks keep men flocking to the theatre) and also becomes the mistress of a German millionaire named Otto, and later his wife. (This time, she was marrying for money, though she found Otto attractive.)
In a very silly scene, Lizzie and Adam meet again (no affair this time), and he gets angry when he finds out she's Otto's mistress, calling her a trollop, or some such thing. He proudly proclaims that he's been a model husband to Sybil, hasn't cheated since he last slept with Lizzie, and is disgusted that she hasn't been as respectable, setting a bad example for their daughter. (My, aren't we smug!) Then, he gets even sillier and starts saying how he still loves her, never stopped, etc., sounding like a lovesick ninny. (Since they had agreed years ago that it was over between them, except for co-parenting, it was foolish for Adam to act like a jealous, betrayed lover, especially since he was now happy with Sybil.) Otto soon arrives on the scene and isn't pleased to see Lizzie's former lover. Soon, everyone's arguing and trading insults, and acting ridiculous. Anyway, it resulted in Lizzie accepting Otto's proposal and Adam realizing that he had to let her go emotionally as well as physically. (About time, too.)
The book ends with the budding romance of Henry and Amanda (now young adults) who luckily aren't blood related, and you get the impression that they'll have the HEA that Adam and Lizzie didn't. Hopefully, they won't screw it up.
Είχε ένα καλό κορμό που τον κατάστρεψε η γραφή του. Ξύλινοι ήρωες που αψυχολόγητες αντιδράσεις. Ιστορικό μυθιστορία την περίοδο των σκλαβων που για κακή μου τύχη μετά της 120 σελίδες του άλλαξε τα φώτα.
I read this book 30 years ago, and do not remember the plot. I must have loved it as I saved it, and it sits, in perfect condition in hardback, on one of my many bookshelves. I will reread it someday and, hopefully, still enjoy what I once did.
I might have to edit my ratings, because I think I try to rate higher if I recently finished a book. And seeing as I am remembering the bad more than the good, I might have to lower this rating. My one objection to this book: why do the main characters always have to be the most beautiful/handsome while all the other characters are only average? Even if the main character has a flaw, fear or greed, for example, s/he can always win the reader over with ravishing looks. And this book is not the first nor the last... It is just when I happened to notice this phenomenon and get annoyed.
I don't usually read historical romance novels, but this was given to me by a friend who was so distraught (unusual for her) by the outcome that I was driven by curiosity to give it a read.
It spans continents, ponders relationships, denigrates slavery and child labor, but doesn't offer the reader a lot of depth. The author did an outstanding job of dialect.
Interesting to note, Fred Mustard Stewart was a concert pianist.
This is a HUGE story that spans the globe from England to India to Civil War America. Romance, murder, religious war, slavery in two lands; this book has it all and I love it! Now I have to find more Fred Mustard Stewart books to read.
This was an interesting if not really predictable read. The ending was a bit of a shocker but it all seemed so rushed and the author was just trying to finish it up. I wouldn't recommend this book.