The Virgin Blue

by Tracy Chevalier | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0007108273 Global Overview for this book
Registered by nyassa-ici on 6/21/2006
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by nyassa-ici on Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Synopsis
Tracy Chevalier has established an enormous and loyal fanbase with her much loved Girl With a Pearl Earring and Falling Angels. This is a reissue of her first novel, which was first published in 1996 and has been out of print for 4 years. The compelling story of two women, born four centuries apart, and the ancestral legacy that binds them. Ella Turner does her best to fit in to the small, close-knit community of Lisle-sur-Tarn. She even changes her name back to Tournier, and knocks the rust off her high school French. In vain. Isolated and lonely, she is drawn to investigate her Tournier ancestry, which leads to her encounter with the town's wolfish librarian. Isabelle du Moulin, known as Le Rousse due to her fiery red hair, is tormented and shunned in the village -- suspected of witchcraft and reviled for her association with the Virgin Mary. Falling pregnant, she is forced to marry into the ruling family: the Tourniers. Tormentor becomes husband, and a shocking fate awaits her. Plagued by the colour blue, Ella is haunted by parallels with the past, and by her recurring dream. Then one morning she wakes up to discover that her hair is turning inexplicably red...

Journal Entry 2 by nyassa from Deal, Kent United Kingdom on Monday, July 31, 2006
Excellent! I really enjoyed this book.

In some ways it is reminiscent of Labyrinth by Kate Mosse - set in France, two linked heroines distanced in time by hundreds of years. I found Labyrinth over-complex and too long but The Virgin Blue was perhaps the opposite.

I do have one or two quibbles - I didn't think there was enough reason to ditch poor Rick (perhaps there never is a real reason); and, connected I suppose, I felt Jean Paul the librarian wasn't portrayed as sufficiently attractive to cause Ella to fall for him, in fact I found him arrogant.

In the end I think it was Isabelle's story that gripped me more, but this may be because I know less about the era and therefore wouldn't realise if something didn't ring true. I actually knew nothing about that time in France, and had no idea there was such a Protestant following.

This will be sent on to neverbelilith in the next few days.

Journal Entry 3 by perditaxknit from Sheffield, South Yorkshire United Kingdom on Saturday, August 26, 2006
Waiting for me when I returned back from holiday. Thank you very much! x

Journal Entry 4 by perditaxknit at Sheffield, South Yorkshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Pruning Mt TBR and taking this to the Off the Shelf swap on Saturday.

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