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Fortune's Rocks #1
Fortune's Rocks
Hester Prynne never had it so good! The year is 1899, and Olympia Biddeford, the headstrong daughter of a Boston Brahmin family, has decided to test the limits of her cloistered world. Spending the summer at her father's New Hampshire estate, the teenage heroine of Fortune's Rocks is entranced with the visiting salon of artists, writers, and lawyers. She's especially captivated, however, by John Haskell, a charismatic physician who ministers to the blue-collar community in the nearby mill towns. This middle-aged Good Samaritan hires Olympia to assist him as a nurse, and their collaboration soon evolves into a fiery love affair. Alas, it's only a matter of weeks before this passionate exercise in managed care is exposed--with disastrous consequences for the young, impregnated heroine. Even her adoring father now considers her "an overplump sixteen-year-old girl whose judgment can no longer be trusted," and insists that she break off her relationship:
"There is nothing more to be said on this subject," he says. She bites her lip to keep from crying out further. She holds the arms of her chair so tightly she later will have cramps in her fingers. She will refuse to obey him, she thinks. She will accept his implied challenge and set off on her own. But in the next moment, she asks herself: How will she be able to do that? Without her father's support, she cannot hope to survive. And if she herself does not survive, then a child cannot live." In the end, Anita Shreve's seventh novel is a polished, supremely entertaining variation on Wuthering Heights, with Olympia and Haskell sitting in for Catherine and Heathcliff. The author did some meticulous research for her New England background, which gives this study of one particular wayward woman some extra historical heft. Some readers may find the plot twists a bit pat. And despite Olympia's efforts to be an independent woman, she overcomes her trials largely as a result of her family's wealth and station, which takes the edge off Shreve's feminist message. Still, Fortune's Rocks is a romance in the classic sense of the word, and should be enjoyed as such, unless the reader is absolutely allergic to happy endings. --Ted Leventhal
Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
About the author
Anita Shreve
123 books4,641 followersAnita Hale Shreve was an American writer, chiefly known for her novels. One of her first published stories, Past the Island, Drifting (published 1975), was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 1976.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,718 reviews
May 23, 2008
I have read and re-read this book literally dozens of times. Every time I take away from it something new. It's a coming-of-age story in the loosest sense of the word, because it's so much more than that.
Shreve's writing just sings in this book. The opening scene, in which the 15-year-old main character makes her way across a beach as men gawk at her, is simply stunning. I can hear lines from this book in my head, they're so well written. Perhaps this book resonates particularly strongly because I could identify so well with Olivia for various reasons. In any case, this is one of those books that I wish every one of my friends would read.
Shreve's writing just sings in this book. The opening scene, in which the 15-year-old main character makes her way across a beach as men gawk at her, is simply stunning. I can hear lines from this book in my head, they're so well written. Perhaps this book resonates particularly strongly because I could identify so well with Olivia for various reasons. In any case, this is one of those books that I wish every one of my friends would read.
July 24, 2007
I like to read Anita Shreve when I am tired out on "literary" novels but am not quite at the point where something by, say, Sophie Kinesella sounds appealing. Shreve's novels are usually romances of two kinds; ones that build to a tragic emotional climax, or ones that are centered around lost love or an event in the protagonist's past that gets revealed over the course of the novel. I like to call them "trashy reads," but in truth, I think Shreve usually brings quite a bit of quality to her work.
I say all this because, in my opinion, Fortune's Rocks is what Shreve intended to be her "masterpiece," the culmination of her various tricks and flourishes she had developed in other books. Is it my favorite of hers? No (that would be Sea Glass). Is it the most accomplished thing she's done? By far.
The novel is structured like a three act play. The first act centers around the blossoming of a romance; the second act on the fallout it creates; and the third (and best) act on the attempt of the protagonist to rebuild her life through (misguided?) means. Shreve paces her plot flawlessly to suit this pattern, and I say that the third act is the best because, for once, Shreve tackles the moral dilemmas she usually skirts that are created by the romances in her novels. Here we are confronted with the consequences that an affair has created, and whether or not its participants have the right to try to reconstruct their lives, and if so, how far they should be allowed to go to do it. It's tremendous, especially because Shreve hides any sort of bias she might have, causing the eventual resolution to feel both earned, and true.
The only reason I'm giving this book four stars is that the "romance" in the book is of a highly questionable nature. Shreve does her best to make you accept it as a given, but it never lost its disturbing air for me, and it somewhat tainted everything else the book sought to accomplish. But otherwise, a fine novel, and well worth checking out.
I say all this because, in my opinion, Fortune's Rocks is what Shreve intended to be her "masterpiece," the culmination of her various tricks and flourishes she had developed in other books. Is it my favorite of hers? No (that would be Sea Glass). Is it the most accomplished thing she's done? By far.
The novel is structured like a three act play. The first act centers around the blossoming of a romance; the second act on the fallout it creates; and the third (and best) act on the attempt of the protagonist to rebuild her life through (misguided?) means. Shreve paces her plot flawlessly to suit this pattern, and I say that the third act is the best because, for once, Shreve tackles the moral dilemmas she usually skirts that are created by the romances in her novels. Here we are confronted with the consequences that an affair has created, and whether or not its participants have the right to try to reconstruct their lives, and if so, how far they should be allowed to go to do it. It's tremendous, especially because Shreve hides any sort of bias she might have, causing the eventual resolution to feel both earned, and true.
The only reason I'm giving this book four stars is that the "romance" in the book is of a highly questionable nature. Shreve does her best to make you accept it as a given, but it never lost its disturbing air for me, and it somewhat tainted everything else the book sought to accomplish. But otherwise, a fine novel, and well worth checking out.
May 22, 2007
Ok friends, I know Shreve's books can be a little questionable which is why I've only read one other, but this one is the winner. She got it together this time.
I love this book...a reluctant admittance. The story of forbidden love is wrong, right, sad, joyful, and just utterly romantic even in its sheer destruction. I think my feelings for this book may also be biased by things in my personal life around the time that really made me feel and understand all of the characters quite deeply. Anyway, this book probably won't change the world, but if you are looking for a page-turner, raw emotion, and no apologies then this is it. It is truly an EPIC love story!
I love this book...a reluctant admittance. The story of forbidden love is wrong, right, sad, joyful, and just utterly romantic even in its sheer destruction. I think my feelings for this book may also be biased by things in my personal life around the time that really made me feel and understand all of the characters quite deeply. Anyway, this book probably won't change the world, but if you are looking for a page-turner, raw emotion, and no apologies then this is it. It is truly an EPIC love story!
August 13, 2010
Guess what happens when a 15-year-old girl "falls in love" with a 41-year-old married man who can't keep his "passion" in his pants ? Hmmm. Basically, this is a nicely written Victorian-era romance novel, telling the age-old story of a grown man who can't control his impulses and desires, and a teenage girl who feels that she's a grown woman. Bad choices all around, but hey, I guess we've all either seen or heard it before, or done it ourselves. It's a good "beach book" with some troubling themes. Personally, I didn't find it particularly romantic -- I was more irritated by both main characters' inability to think straight. But that's just me. I'm not really a "romance novel" kind of gal, I guess. It's not my intention to demean those readers who love this type of story, but as I read along, I found myself blurting, "You idiot!" and "What a jerk!" as Haskell (the man) continued to accept and respond to Olympia's naïve and innocent approaches.
In my eyes, he was a creepy pederast grooming his starry-eyed victim, knowing full well the destruction his decision would lead to.
In my eyes, he was a creepy pederast grooming his starry-eyed victim, knowing full well the destruction his decision would lead to.
September 27, 2010
Open the pages of Fortune’s Rocks by Anita Shreve and you’ll think you’ve stepped into the world of Edith Wharton, Kate Chopin or any number of other turn-of-the-century women writers whose novels were set in refined, confining Victorian society.
Do not be fooled for an instant. Shreve’s novel is a pale imitation of those Grande Dames of Literature.
Oh sure, Fortune’s Rocks—much like Wharton’s The Age of Innocence—is filled with scenes that would startle modern readers with their conservatism. An exposed ankle in 1899 was akin to Julia Roberts flinging off her clothes and running out on the 50-yard line during the Super Bowl. It was just not good manners. Turn-of-the-century society was polite, discreet and above all sexless. At least on the surface. But beneath the corsets, my how those bosoms heaved with passion!
Edith Wharton certainly knew how to capture all that restrained eroticism. Kate Chopin (in The Awakening) founded a literary reputation with her tale of unbridled sexuality. And now, nearly a century later, Anita Shreve (author of The Pilot’s Wife) tries to follow in their buttoned-up bootsteps.
She fails miserably.
Fortune’s Rocks has all the appearance of a Wharton wannabe with scenes of oh-so-proper dinner parties, an independent-spirited heroine and a foul set of circumstances that would do Charles Dickens proud. What Shreve doesn’t realize is that there is no longer a market for this type of narrative. One of the reasons I find Wharton so engaging is because I knew she was trying to write her way out of the very culture she was describing. Novels like The Age of Innocence and Summer are good precisely because they are like time capsules of early 19th-century New York with all of its stiff, upper-class prejudices. Not to mention the fact that Wharton’s prose has a depth that resonates off the page.
By comparison, Shreve is splashing around in the shallow end of the wading pool.
To be fair, Shreve does show she’s done a lot of research into the manners and customs of the era. Her descriptions of dinner parties and afternoon teas and sensuous strolls along the beach are complete to the nth degree. They’re also very dull.
Fortune’s Rocks starts on what seems to be a promising first sentence:
"In the time it takes for her to walk from the bathhouse at the seawall of Fortune’s Rocks, where she has left her boots and has discreetly pulled off her stockings, to the waterline along which the sea continually licks the pink and silver sand, she learns about desire. Desire that slows the breath, that causes a preoccupied pause in the midst of uttering a sentence, that focuses the gaze absolutely on the progress of naked feet walking toward the water."
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Olympia Biddeford. She’s fifteen years old and, as she walks along the New Hampshire beach, "she has passed from being a girl, with a child’s pent-up and nearly frenzied need to sweep away the rooms and cobwebs of her winter, to being a woman."
Now, if you’ve enjoyed those two brief passages I’ve quoted, then I suggest you stop reading right now and go buy yourself a copy of this bodice-ripper. If, however, those cucumber sandwiches you ate at the ladies’ society tea are starting to rise in your gorge, then you’ll know what I mean when I say there is nothing to recommend this book.
The story, which at times reads like a feminized Lolita, tells how Olympia discovers her womanhood (at fifteen!) by seducing a married man twenty-six years her senior. The resulting adulterous scandal brings plenty of misfortune to those who live at Fortune’s Rocks, the seaside resort where Olympia lives. The rest of the novel is too maudlin for words. Suffice to say, there’s plenty of back-of-the-hand-to-the-forehead scenes and long stretches of stilted dialogue. For good measure—just to wake us from our torpor, I suppose—Shreve throws in a couple of grittily-detailed childbirth scenes which read like a cross between ER and a midwife’s handbook.
The whole book is written in a faux Victorian prose style, making the already unbearable unreadable.
Do not be fooled for an instant. Shreve’s novel is a pale imitation of those Grande Dames of Literature.
Oh sure, Fortune’s Rocks—much like Wharton’s The Age of Innocence—is filled with scenes that would startle modern readers with their conservatism. An exposed ankle in 1899 was akin to Julia Roberts flinging off her clothes and running out on the 50-yard line during the Super Bowl. It was just not good manners. Turn-of-the-century society was polite, discreet and above all sexless. At least on the surface. But beneath the corsets, my how those bosoms heaved with passion!
Edith Wharton certainly knew how to capture all that restrained eroticism. Kate Chopin (in The Awakening) founded a literary reputation with her tale of unbridled sexuality. And now, nearly a century later, Anita Shreve (author of The Pilot’s Wife) tries to follow in their buttoned-up bootsteps.
She fails miserably.
Fortune’s Rocks has all the appearance of a Wharton wannabe with scenes of oh-so-proper dinner parties, an independent-spirited heroine and a foul set of circumstances that would do Charles Dickens proud. What Shreve doesn’t realize is that there is no longer a market for this type of narrative. One of the reasons I find Wharton so engaging is because I knew she was trying to write her way out of the very culture she was describing. Novels like The Age of Innocence and Summer are good precisely because they are like time capsules of early 19th-century New York with all of its stiff, upper-class prejudices. Not to mention the fact that Wharton’s prose has a depth that resonates off the page.
By comparison, Shreve is splashing around in the shallow end of the wading pool.
To be fair, Shreve does show she’s done a lot of research into the manners and customs of the era. Her descriptions of dinner parties and afternoon teas and sensuous strolls along the beach are complete to the nth degree. They’re also very dull.
Fortune’s Rocks starts on what seems to be a promising first sentence:
"In the time it takes for her to walk from the bathhouse at the seawall of Fortune’s Rocks, where she has left her boots and has discreetly pulled off her stockings, to the waterline along which the sea continually licks the pink and silver sand, she learns about desire. Desire that slows the breath, that causes a preoccupied pause in the midst of uttering a sentence, that focuses the gaze absolutely on the progress of naked feet walking toward the water."
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Olympia Biddeford. She’s fifteen years old and, as she walks along the New Hampshire beach, "she has passed from being a girl, with a child’s pent-up and nearly frenzied need to sweep away the rooms and cobwebs of her winter, to being a woman."
Now, if you’ve enjoyed those two brief passages I’ve quoted, then I suggest you stop reading right now and go buy yourself a copy of this bodice-ripper. If, however, those cucumber sandwiches you ate at the ladies’ society tea are starting to rise in your gorge, then you’ll know what I mean when I say there is nothing to recommend this book.
The story, which at times reads like a feminized Lolita, tells how Olympia discovers her womanhood (at fifteen!) by seducing a married man twenty-six years her senior. The resulting adulterous scandal brings plenty of misfortune to those who live at Fortune’s Rocks, the seaside resort where Olympia lives. The rest of the novel is too maudlin for words. Suffice to say, there’s plenty of back-of-the-hand-to-the-forehead scenes and long stretches of stilted dialogue. For good measure—just to wake us from our torpor, I suppose—Shreve throws in a couple of grittily-detailed childbirth scenes which read like a cross between ER and a midwife’s handbook.
The whole book is written in a faux Victorian prose style, making the already unbearable unreadable.
November 5, 2008
I think I'm one of the ones in the minority here. I had a difficult time getting into the book at first -- perhaps if Olympia had been a couple of years older at least. A 40+ year old man and a 15 year old girl. Ew. That said, I just didn't see any real chemistry between the two, outside of the sexual attraction for this life long supposed great love. I almost gave up when they started writing those long letters to each other, then it picked up around page 200 into her exile and attempt to regain her son.
The writing style was a little different than most I've seen, an unusual tense to take, but the prose was pleasant and lyrical. Nothing that had me so taken with the book that I lost sleep over, but I didn't end up throwing it against the wall either.
The writing style was a little different than most I've seen, an unusual tense to take, but the prose was pleasant and lyrical. Nothing that had me so taken with the book that I lost sleep over, but I didn't end up throwing it against the wall either.
April 1, 2018
This is definitely the best Shreve book I've read so far. From the first page, writing in the literary style of the Victorians, you have no doubt that this story is not a modern one. In 1899, Olympia Biddeford is nearing 16 years of age and vacationing at the family cottage at Fortune's Rocks. She lives a privileged, educated existence; an only child who seems rather lonely but quite mature for her years. There she meets a married man with 4 children, a friend of her father's nearly 3 times her age, and the two fall madly in love, with tragic consequences. The age difference really bothered me; but as the years progressed, they still had the same feelings for each other. And Shreve was diligent about ensuring the reader that this was not rape (that word was never used but often in my mind); that Olympia was mature enough to be the pursuer, not the pursuee. And it was 1899, when girls married at a very young age. The background story, that of the deplorable working conditions in the mills of the nearby town of Ely Falls, NH, becomes more relevant as the book progresses, and is almost as fascinating as the love story.
January 8, 2009
This is on my list of top 3 hated books. It is about an affair between a 16 year old girl and a 40-something married man. Shreve tries to make this sound like a romance, but I just thought that this man was a child predator/molester/rapist and the whole thing turned my stomach. It is surprising that a woman would write this sort of garbage--it seems like some man writing his perverted fantasy.
July 7, 2008
I can't really say that I liked this book, but I was interested enough in what happens to Olympia to finish. The story seemed to spend to much time on one period in Olympias life and felt jumpy when it skipped to the next. The setting and storyline was intriging enough right off the bat but it soon began to feel like a dime store romance. Had I ever read a dime store romance, I would guess that the authors use of language was somewhat better, but the smutiness was the same. I think that Olympia is a very silly girl whom I had a very hard time identifing with. I guess I learned what it would have been like to be a young woman, as far as not having control over one's own life. However, Olympia and the story it self was just not very believable. A very important aspect of any novel is the readers ability to sypathize with the protagonist, in this case I found myself more on the edge of being glad when bad things happened to her. Once again, I find myself feeling negative and unable to sympathize with a woman who has had everything handed to her on a silver platter and screws it up.
August 5, 2008
Anita Shreve is one of my favorite authors, and this is an older book of hers that I've just now gotten around to reading. I usually like her books because they are very romantic, but also very literate. FORTUNE'S ROCKS may be my absolute favorite. I LOVED it. I read it in less than two days. Of course, the whole idea of a 15 year old girl and a 40+ man is pretty repulsive, but Shreve somehow makes it all work. You end up rooting for Olympia and Haskell even though you know you shouldn't. Olympia is such a strong girl, and she never wavers in her belief that what she feels is not wrong. I wish I could find more books like this one!
August 19, 2024
This novel is described by many as a Romance, but I feel that is oversimplifying its contents. Anita Shreve has skillfully penned a sharply analytical story which is the meditation of the actions of a intelligent, yet youthful, young lady. Although the premise of a romance between a nearly sixteen year old and a 40-something year old man is rather difficult to conceive, the author was able to develop this relationship with aplomb and sensitivity. Her narrative was powerful, probing and profound.
Shreve conveyed much of the thinking of the early 20th century relevant to mores, societal attitudes toward women and class distinctions. Many issues relating to medical care during this period were also shown, along with early development of transportation and educational trends. Historical mill towns, with their mills and poorly constructed living quarters and the plight of the workers were painfully observed.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the ocean, sand, the shore, the sea birds and shells along the New Hampshire coast. The images of the weather there, along with the powerful storm were palpable. I could almost taste and relish the succulent gifts of the sea- the lobsters, clams and oysters!
The author, for the most part, did not hint at the outcomes of many of the concerns related in her story. I found myself totally immersed in this tale and viewed much of it as quite suspenseful.
Shreve conveyed much of the thinking of the early 20th century relevant to mores, societal attitudes toward women and class distinctions. Many issues relating to medical care during this period were also shown, along with early development of transportation and educational trends. Historical mill towns, with their mills and poorly constructed living quarters and the plight of the workers were painfully observed.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the ocean, sand, the shore, the sea birds and shells along the New Hampshire coast. The images of the weather there, along with the powerful storm were palpable. I could almost taste and relish the succulent gifts of the sea- the lobsters, clams and oysters!
The author, for the most part, did not hint at the outcomes of many of the concerns related in her story. I found myself totally immersed in this tale and viewed much of it as quite suspenseful.
August 19, 2007
An unbelievable tale of love and lose. I couldn't put this book down! I was up until 3am reading. My husband thought I was nuts. It is a tear jerker for any mother.
August 23, 2013
GRRR. AAAGH. GAH. BLECH. WTF?!
That's an approximation of the sound effects I made in my car (on repeat) while listening to this book. The decisions made by Olympia Biddeford continually frustrated me to the point of audibly expressing myself in the car. I tried to get on board with the relationship between Olympia & Haskell. It was 1900! Women got married younger! This could be love? But then every bone in my body would be like: NO! She is 15! He is 41! I don't care what year it is - he is a predator! And also LOVE? This is lust and lust alone.
This is going to be hard for me to review without spoilers, so here we go:
I really enjoyed listening to this book. I hated A LOT of the decisions made by the characters but only because I was so invested in them as people. I am also intrigued that apparently 4 of Shreve's books have taken place with the house at Fortune's Rocks as a backdrop. I don't remember The Pilot's Wife taking place there as well but apparently it does. It's an interesting concept to have 4 totally unrelated books take place in the same house. I wonder if she references any of the books within the books. I will have to look for that next time.
That's an approximation of the sound effects I made in my car (on repeat) while listening to this book. The decisions made by Olympia Biddeford continually frustrated me to the point of audibly expressing myself in the car. I tried to get on board with the relationship between Olympia & Haskell. It was 1900! Women got married younger! This could be love? But then every bone in my body would be like: NO! She is 15! He is 41! I don't care what year it is - he is a predator! And also LOVE? This is lust and lust alone.
This is going to be hard for me to review without spoilers, so here we go:
I really enjoyed listening to this book. I hated A LOT of the decisions made by the characters but only because I was so invested in them as people. I am also intrigued that apparently 4 of Shreve's books have taken place with the house at Fortune's Rocks as a backdrop. I don't remember The Pilot's Wife taking place there as well but apparently it does. It's an interesting concept to have 4 totally unrelated books take place in the same house. I wonder if she references any of the books within the books. I will have to look for that next time.
November 11, 2014
It's probably not fair for me to rate this book since I am not a fan of bodice ripping romances and don't generally read them. But I read this for a book club so I am now qualified to comment. I had a really hard time getting through the first half of the book. I was bothered by the initial, overwrought paragraph about Olympia morphing from a child to an adult by a walk across the beach when she somehow realizes everyone is lusting after her - stupid. The the 15 to 41 ages aside - I get really irritated by characters who make crucial choices based on "love" when it clearly is not and then absolve themselves of all responsibility of those choices by saying they couldn't help themselves. It's just cheap and lazy and unrealistic. The book became more interesting once the annoying love affair ended and we got to the custody battle for the child. But everything in this book was so predictable. When the affair was going on, you were thinking - when will the pregnancy happen. When the custody battle was going on, you were thinking - when will the foster parents die. And as soon as Olympia goes back to FR - when will Haskell show up. The ending was just so neat and contrived. I like books that have some credibility and this story really had none. I gave it 2 stars because I liked Mr. Philbrick.
July 25, 2009
The plot was intriguing, the characters mildly interesting and the scene was stunning, but this book fell short for me. A period piece, I enjoyed reading about the turn of century along the New England coastline, and the life of a young girl, Olympia Biddeford, who is fifteen and being educated by her doting father. Unfortunately, the book went south for me when Olympia caught the eye of a married doctor, old enough to be her father and they began a furious love affair. No thought was given to the doctor's wife, his young children nor to Olympia's own parents, who would be ruined by the scandal. The doctor, Haskell, keeps telling Olympia it's wrong, but can't seem to keep his pants zipped (or was it buttoned back then?) and meanwhile many lives are destroyed. I guess I keep coming back to the basic fact--I just don't like books that romanticize adultery. No matter how pretty the prose.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 7, 2026
Disliked how the relationship between a 15 year old and a 40 year old was treated as healthy and normal, rather than clearly exploitative. Nor the resolution at the end.
October 21, 2025
Lately (past year or so) I've been reaching deep into my shelves of unread books that have been sitting there for decades. This book was one of them. Despite the length of the book it was a fairly quick read, and I suspect I would have enjoyed this book more back when I got it.
This is a fictional book very slightly based on historical fact. It takes place in the early 1900s when social mores were different than today. The main character, Olympia Biddeford is 15 and comes from a wealthy family who are summering at the seaside coast of Fortune’s Rocks. This summer Olympia turns quickly from a girl to a woman and falls in love with a much older man. Unfortunately, he is married and has several children, and very unfortunately he also falls for this teenager. Thus a love affair begins.
The age difference is more astonishing for today’s standards, and although it was an issue then it wasn't the main cause for scandal and ruin, which was being an unmarried woman and a married man. Of course, their secret love affair gets found out and ends in disaster.
The result of this is a baby born out of wedlock. Later in the book a court case is over the custody of this baby. This section is what is pulled from history, or at least the basis, as the case where a ruling was decided based on “the best interests of the child”.
The writing style was good, although the sections of the court case were a little stiff.
This is a fictional book very slightly based on historical fact. It takes place in the early 1900s when social mores were different than today. The main character, Olympia Biddeford is 15 and comes from a wealthy family who are summering at the seaside coast of Fortune’s Rocks. This summer Olympia turns quickly from a girl to a woman and falls in love with a much older man. Unfortunately, he is married and has several children, and very unfortunately he also falls for this teenager. Thus a love affair begins.
The age difference is more astonishing for today’s standards, and although it was an issue then it wasn't the main cause for scandal and ruin, which was being an unmarried woman and a married man. Of course, their secret love affair gets found out and ends in disaster.
The result of this is a baby born out of wedlock. Later in the book a court case is over the custody of this baby. This section is what is pulled from history, or at least the basis, as the case where a ruling was decided based on “the best interests of the child”.
The writing style was good, although the sections of the court case were a little stiff.
November 19, 2019
A Praia do Destino foi o primeiro livro que comprei, em 2004. Foi um presente da avó pelo meu 15º aniversário, que se avizinhava. Essa é, precisamente, a idade de Olympia Biddeford, a personagem principal deste romance. Essa proximidade entre as duas levou-me a adorar o livro de paixão e, como consequência, contribuiu para me motivar a ler mais e a dar oportunidade a autores desconhecidos (até aí só tinha lido um espectro muito reduzido de escritores).
Apaixonei-me pelo livro quando o li aos quinze anos. Verbalizava muitos pensamentos que eu própria tinha, coisas mais ou menos óbvias que nunca tinha partilhado com ninguém, e que de repente eram minhas e da Olympia. Li o livro mais tarde, numas férias de verão, e voltei a adorá-lo, embora com muito receio de que não fosse a mesma coisa, e de que eu estivesse apenas impressionada com os primeiros passos num romance histórico, com referências desconhecidas e uma realidade distante.
E por último li-o agora. E amei. Amei uma vez mais a subtileza dos sentimentos, a humanidade das personagens, a pertinência do cenário, as ondas e a areia de Fortune's Rocks, o fim do século XIX e os pés pálidos, descalços à beira-mar, diante de um naufrágio de emigrantes ilegais noruegueses. Como o mundo mudou! Noruegueses a tentar entrar ilegalmente em Nova Inglaterra! Franco-americanos, empregados em fiações, a defender o francês como la langue!, gritos de sobrevivência operários, hinos de uma nação desigual, segregada, os estratos sociais e as convenções tão bem retratadas pela autora.
Vemos Olympia Biddeford passar de filha - a menina que atravessa o areal de Fortune's Rocks no primeiro capítulo - a mulher (a que é beijada pela primeira vez na cozinha de casa) - a mãe. Uma evolução notável da personagem, que evidencia o talento desta autora americana que faleceu em 2018, aos 71 anos.
Hei de voltar a lê-lo pela vida fora, e a emocionar-me sempre a cada nova leitura.
Apaixonei-me pelo livro quando o li aos quinze anos. Verbalizava muitos pensamentos que eu própria tinha, coisas mais ou menos óbvias que nunca tinha partilhado com ninguém, e que de repente eram minhas e da Olympia. Li o livro mais tarde, numas férias de verão, e voltei a adorá-lo, embora com muito receio de que não fosse a mesma coisa, e de que eu estivesse apenas impressionada com os primeiros passos num romance histórico, com referências desconhecidas e uma realidade distante.
E por último li-o agora. E amei. Amei uma vez mais a subtileza dos sentimentos, a humanidade das personagens, a pertinência do cenário, as ondas e a areia de Fortune's Rocks, o fim do século XIX e os pés pálidos, descalços à beira-mar, diante de um naufrágio de emigrantes ilegais noruegueses. Como o mundo mudou! Noruegueses a tentar entrar ilegalmente em Nova Inglaterra! Franco-americanos, empregados em fiações, a defender o francês como la langue!, gritos de sobrevivência operários, hinos de uma nação desigual, segregada, os estratos sociais e as convenções tão bem retratadas pela autora.
Vemos Olympia Biddeford passar de filha - a menina que atravessa o areal de Fortune's Rocks no primeiro capítulo - a mulher (a que é beijada pela primeira vez na cozinha de casa) - a mãe. Uma evolução notável da personagem, que evidencia o talento desta autora americana que faleceu em 2018, aos 71 anos.
Hei de voltar a lê-lo pela vida fora, e a emocionar-me sempre a cada nova leitura.
December 20, 2013
I started this book with trepidation. I had recently read Stella Bain which was a bust for me, I was not a fan. Having read a bunch of other Shreve books and enjoying most of them, I decided to give this one a try as it had been sitting on my shelf now for several years and it was time to move it along. What I didn't realize before starting this one was that the story involved a romance between a 15 yo girl and a 41 yo man! I reluctantly started. I am not a fan of romance and I was sure this love story would be bad. I'm glad I tried it. Shreve does an excellent job with this story. The romance was very believable and not dirty or ridiculous as I expected. There is so much more to this story and it was compulsively readable. The reason I read Shreve when her books are good. The attention to period detail was wonderful too. She has been a hit or miss author for me and this one I say is a hit.
August 29, 2016
Very well written. Kept me interested all the way to the end. If there were half stars I would give it 4.5.
October 1, 2021
About a 15yr old girl and a 41 yr old married man falling in love. This is a historical fiction. I went in thinking I would hate this book, but I didn’t. Liked it because they seemed like they were soulmates, they were destined to be. It also helped knowing that Brooke Shield was only 14 yrs old when she made Blue Lagoon.
With that said, if this was a true real life story, I would be appalled.
Spoilers
-If you’re used to romance novels, this is not a romance novel, it’s a historical fiction that’s super wordy and draggy, but it has a HEA for the couple, although it is bittersweet because of his kids.
-love scenes are open door but it’s vague…they’re not very descriptive. As a romance reader, they sucked, but I read this book for the angst.
Safety
They cheat with each other, he is married, but it does not say whether he was intimate with his wife at the same time. His wife lived in another town and only came around during the weekends with their kids.
During their separation, 5 yrs, she was celibate, and he said he tried to be with others but couldn’t. The entire book is told in her POV.
“ He draws her toward him, burying her face. He weeps like a child himself, hiccuping with the weeping, with no shame, with no thought of hiding this from her. She is speechless with the relief his body offers her.
He holds her head in his hands. He kisses her, and she remembers the softness of his mouth, his taste.
“I shall never believe that this is wrong,” he says.
“
With that said, if this was a true real life story, I would be appalled.
Spoilers
-If you’re used to romance novels, this is not a romance novel, it’s a historical fiction that’s super wordy and draggy, but it has a HEA for the couple, although it is bittersweet because of his kids.
-love scenes are open door but it’s vague…they’re not very descriptive. As a romance reader, they sucked, but I read this book for the angst.
Safety
They cheat with each other, he is married, but it does not say whether he was intimate with his wife at the same time. His wife lived in another town and only came around during the weekends with their kids.
During their separation, 5 yrs, she was celibate, and he said he tried to be with others but couldn’t. The entire book is told in her POV.
“ He draws her toward him, burying her face. He weeps like a child himself, hiccuping with the weeping, with no shame, with no thought of hiding this from her. She is speechless with the relief his body offers her.
He holds her head in his hands. He kisses her, and she remembers the softness of his mouth, his taste.
“I shall never believe that this is wrong,” he says.
“
October 22, 2009
I can't believe I was actually bored enough to read this shit. In my defense, it was free at a yard sale.
Ok, let me elaborate. This book is in every way the literary counterpart to the Lifetime channel. I loathe Lifetime and am utterly insulted that they actually call the channel "television for women."
Ok, let me elaborate. This book is in every way the literary counterpart to the Lifetime channel. I loathe Lifetime and am utterly insulted that they actually call the channel "television for women."
October 1, 2014
When a book keeps me up at night and I become obsessed with it and can't do anything else until I finish it, then I know it's a good one. This was a good one!
July 7, 2012
Epic!! I thought this book was so very good!! The first half made my upper lip sweat and I was reminded what it was like to be young and in love for the first time. The author describes the feelings, the thought process, the intensity so well that you are really remembering it all. Shreve does not smut love up nor does she describe the sexual act. She hints at it thereby also keeping true to the time period...early 1900s. The entire book is a love story but one so layered, involved, and all encompassing that I truly did not want to put the book down.
This is the 2nd Shreve book I've read. The first book, Sea Glass, was lent to me by my daughter. I think she picked up the book because of the title. It was good but not at all like this. This book does focus on the upper Atlantic coast (New Hampshire). There is one reference to beach glass in it (p. 144). The setting is a beach house, the characters walk & fall in love on the beach, the house and clothes are perpetually moist from the sea spray, and the setting is exhiliarating. Olympia's life is told so that I felt I had a little better understanding of what it must have been like to be a woman in the early 1900s. I had worn the clothes, lived the customs, and dealt with the oppression. I also was in love again.
Olympia Biddeford and John Haskell are the main characters, although Olympia's mother and father are also a large part of the first half of the book. Catherine Haskell and children are also important characters. I really like this book! I'm now going to make sure I read another--probably "The Pilot's Wife".
This is the 2nd Shreve book I've read. The first book, Sea Glass, was lent to me by my daughter. I think she picked up the book because of the title. It was good but not at all like this. This book does focus on the upper Atlantic coast (New Hampshire). There is one reference to beach glass in it (p. 144). The setting is a beach house, the characters walk & fall in love on the beach, the house and clothes are perpetually moist from the sea spray, and the setting is exhiliarating. Olympia's life is told so that I felt I had a little better understanding of what it must have been like to be a woman in the early 1900s. I had worn the clothes, lived the customs, and dealt with the oppression. I also was in love again.
Olympia Biddeford and John Haskell are the main characters, although Olympia's mother and father are also a large part of the first half of the book. Catherine Haskell and children are also important characters. I really like this book! I'm now going to make sure I read another--probably "The Pilot's Wife".
February 5, 2021
Ohhh-kayyyy. Where do I start? This is not my typical novel (Victorian-era romance and all) but it was on a reading list with several titles I enjoyed and was hungry for more of the same. This was not the same.
The first half of Fortune’s Rocks explores the relationship between 15 year old Olympia and 40-something John Haskell. If that isn’t saucy enough, he is also “happily” married with four young children (the oldest being 12). But what really turned me off was the fact that Shreve focuses on the latter rather than the age difference as their core dilemma. The second half of this novel navigates through the many consequences of this relationship.
I would’ve DNF’d this if I wasn’t already 200 pages deep in Olympia’s story. The 3 stars are for the pleasant and lyrical prose, mini history lesson, and spectacular ending. That said, I don’t know anyone I would recommend this to.
The first half of Fortune’s Rocks explores the relationship between 15 year old Olympia and 40-something John Haskell. If that isn’t saucy enough, he is also “happily” married with four young children (the oldest being 12). But what really turned me off was the fact that Shreve focuses on the latter rather than the age difference as their core dilemma. The second half of this novel navigates through the many consequences of this relationship.
I would’ve DNF’d this if I wasn’t already 200 pages deep in Olympia’s story. The 3 stars are for the pleasant and lyrical prose, mini history lesson, and spectacular ending. That said, I don’t know anyone I would recommend this to.
November 21, 2008
I love everything written by Anita Shreve before 2004. Great relationship books, great mystery about them, complex characters, unpredictable....not necessarily happy.
November 24, 2018
I loved this story. I loved her writing, I loved the characters, I just loved everything about this book.
June 15, 2026
“On a warm June day in 1899, Olympia Biddleford, soon to turn 16, walks out along the beach at the New Hampshire community called Fortune’s Rocks after the offshore hazard on which so many ships have foundered. She does so forbidden during the men’s bathing hour and senses for the first time in her young life the nature of desire.”
In Fortune’s Rocks, this is a foreshadowing of what is to come in Olympia's young life. Her Boston Brahmin father, a man of letters and the third-generation from the fortune made by the Brockton shoe manufacturing fortune has visions of her future. And Olympia’s father’s hopes for her are so high that he has taken it upon himself to educate her at home in preparation for Wellesley College. Their summer home in Fortune’s Rocks was a former convent set in the lovely hillside with expansive views to the sea, an architectural delight.
A friend of his, John Haskell, a doctor and an essayist who does volunteer work in a medical clinic serving one of the nearby mill towns. And young Olympia, after accompanying young Dr. Haskell on his rounds, including the delivery of a breech birth, begins a passionate love affair with the young doctor in spite of the fact that he is married and the father of four young children. It soon all comes to a tragic end for all involved as they are found out and mercilessly shamed. The family’s reputation is ruined, Haskell’s marriage falls apart and Olympia finds herself pregnant as she is wisked away to their home in Boston. After giving birth to a baby boy, he is taken from her almost immediately to be placed for adoption without her knowledge or consent. Olympia is then sent to western Massachusetts where she is to be trained as a teacher at the Hastings Seminary for Females. But eventually as Olympia tries to put the pieces together, she tries to reclaim her child. This narrative piques in a stirring custody trial resulting in a series of unexpected reversals. The trial scenes with all the attendant moral dilemmas are among the best portrayed in literature.
I loved this book. The writing was beautiful with some of the most glorious descriptions of the sea and the changing of the seasons at Fortune’s Rock. In reflection, Olympia realizes that the books Olympia’s father assigned her to read, she remembers in particular “A Tale of Two Cities” and “The Scarlet Letter,” because they are works written in one century about another century. Olympia continued to hold the notion that Charles Dickens and Nathaniel Hawthorne may have been drawn to the richer color of an earlier era. And in this Anita Shreve was very comfortable in her writing of the beginning of the nineteenth century with all it social issues, including child labor laws, mill safety issues, women’s rights and sexual mores. This is an atmospheric novel of sweeping historical fiction. I am now looking forward to reading the next three books comprising Fortune’s Rocks tetralogy, including The Pilot’s Wife.”
November 22, 2019
3.5 stars. I seem to be on an Anita Shreve run of books lately. Fortune’s Rocks is unique in that it’s setting is the same house that her book The Pilot’s Wife takes place. However, this story is set in 1899, as the century is about to turn. The wealthy Biddeford family is central in this story. Olympia Biddeford, only child and daughter meets John Haskell, physician and married man. They soon begin an illicit and daring affair. Shreve writes with her signature style of elegant prose and tense laden plot. At times I felt it to be on the slow side, but overall an excellent story. I’m so glad that I took this one on!
September 20, 2008
I'm not sure how to review this book. First of all, I didn't like it being written from the third person view. The author missed an amazing opportunity to delve into the intense feelings that must have been going on inside or Olympia. Maybe she couldn't write about them because she's never experienced them to the level Olympia did. I have been there,so I know what the writer couldn't express.
Let's see, what else? Haskell and Olympia are two people who experience that "connection" so many people seem to discount or refuse to believe exists. He is 41 and she is 15!! I know, I know!!! I don't approve either, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen. Haskell should have definitely stayed away, but maybe he couldn't. All his self chastisement, ect. was not as powerful as the love he had for Olympia. Were they meant to live their lives denying each other or did what happen be the only way they could survive?? Questions???
To love from a distance and not be able to touch is not always an easy thing to do no matter how right that decision is.
Let's see, what else? Haskell and Olympia are two people who experience that "connection" so many people seem to discount or refuse to believe exists. He is 41 and she is 15!! I know, I know!!! I don't approve either, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen. Haskell should have definitely stayed away, but maybe he couldn't. All his self chastisement, ect. was not as powerful as the love he had for Olympia. Were they meant to live their lives denying each other or did what happen be the only way they could survive?? Questions???
To love from a distance and not be able to touch is not always an easy thing to do no matter how right that decision is.
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