Merry Wanderer of the Night:
historical fiction

An Italian Carmelite monk, Fra Filippo Lippi, prays through painting in The Miracles of Prato

. He became a monk by chance, but he is an artist in every way. When the beautiful nun Lucrezia Buti enters his life he sees her as the only model he can use to create the Madonna in a very important painting he is struggling with. Lucrezia is also a nun by chance and hates the idea of giving up beautiful silks and dresses simply because she is a nun. Through a shared love of beauty Filippo and Lucrezia bond, but their love is forbidden because they have made a vow to serve God. Both are willing to break this vow, but there are other people and incidents that make the situation that much more difficult.

From the author's note I gather that not much is actually known about Lucrezia Buti or her relationship with Fra Filippo Lippi, but Laurie Albaenese and Laura Morowitz make a very convincing, romantic story about a man and a woman. It was really interesting for me to see how important religion was in art during the Renaissance. Fra Filippo Lippi was a successful artist because he created religious paintings and was a religious man. When Fra Filippo Lippi and Lucrezia move forward with their relationship, Lucrezia is shunned by the people in the town because their relationship is considered to be sinful. The world they lived in was so different from the one that I live in, which gave the story a lot of dimension. The book showed some views of women from the time period, and how a woman's sexual desires were frowned upon while a man's were accepted or ignored, even if he was supposed to abstain from sex.

While I really enjoyed reading about the trials of their relationship and Lucrezia's struggles as a female, I never really felt a strong connection to Lucrezia. When she is forced to become a nun all see is upset about is not having beautiful silks anymore (and the loss of her father, which is why she became a nun, but that isn't gone into with as much thought). It seemed like she wasn't taking control of her life for the majority of the book, although towards the end I felt like she got stronger. I really felt like all I knew about her was that she was beautiful and liked beautiful things. That wasn't enough for me to sympathize with her character, and I struggled with the first half of the book because of that. The second half of the book she begins to grow stronger, and the plot picks up several new strands which make the book more enticing to read. The struggle with Lucrezia's character during the first half of the book was worth the ending for me.

I give this book a C.

For more thoughts about The Miracles of Prato check out the other stops on this tour!

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog. Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and Harper Collins for providing me a review copy of this book.

I remember in elementary school my art teacher told my class about an artist named Vincent Van Gogh. She said he cut his ear off and everyone in my class squealed and squirmed and some of us (including me) asked why. I still remember very clearly that my teacher said he did it because he was in love. Later in high school one of my art teachers told me that he was in love with a prostitute. And now in college I took an art history class where my professor told us he cut his ear off, that he was in love with a prostitute, and that he was extremely depressed. I've always been attracted to Van Gogh's painting and curious about his story, so when I saw Sunflowers

by Sheramy Bundrick I knew I had to give it a try. This is the story of Van Gogh, or at least what Bundrick thinks might be the story of Van Gogh. Here's the rub: there is really no information about this prostitute he was in love with, and we don't really know how in love with her he was. So most of this book is just Bundrick's musings.

But I was still glad I read it. There are some beautiful moments where Bundrick tries to recreate what she thinks (from research) is Van Gogh's spirit; "You have years ahead, but one day you'll wake-up and wonder where they went. Don't let the things you want escape you" (39). I just thought that was a fantastic line, and whether Van Gogh said half the things she writes him saying or not, it's still great writing. She does an amazing job of recreating his total obsession with art as well; "But I can't stop. I can do without everything else- money, people, even God- but I can't do without my painting. Even if someday it kills me" (113). But there is something else to that quotation too and it has a lot more to do with Rachel, the prostitute, the main character really, than anything with Van Gogh. We're seeing Van Gogh through Rachel's eyes and in this quotation we can see how in love with painting Van Gogh is, but we can also see that Rachel clearly does not come first in his life. And how must that feel? To love an artistic genius so much you would do anything and everything for him, but to know you will never come first in his life. I think this is something Bundrick really considered when writing this novel and it really shows in the conversations between Rachel and Van Gogh and even the characterization of Rachel herself. What kind of woman is that selfless?

Historically, I also found this novel interesting just because of the way Rachel talks about her job. She talks about how she is regarded as a piece of meat and how she has to pay to have her name removed from a list before she can get another job. But money is too precious and everyone knows she is a prostitute anyway. So she feels very stuck. I also thought it was interesting how she viewed sex in two different ways. Vincent is her lover and she wants to love him just because of that, but the man that come and visit her are just "jobs" she has to do for money. I just think that would be such a strange way to experience sex and love and really even just to live your life.

This is great writing, and lovely characterization, but I still wasn't completely satisfied. The ending wasn't as good as I had hoped for, although I won't go into great detail about that. When I look at this book from a fiction perspective I think it was awesome even though the ending wasn't quite right for me, but from a historical standpoint... the fact that the majority of the book is almost entirely a fabrication makes me a little uncomfortable. But then at the same time that is where Bundrick can really bring her creativity in, and she follows the outline of Van Gogh's life fairly well. Honestly, this is an argument you can make over any historical fiction novel, so I won't dwell on it anymore.

This novel earned a B, if you are interested in art or just like historical fiction I think you will enjoy it.

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I was incredibly lucky to have Lynn Cullen's new novel, The Creation of Eve for my first TLC Book Tour experience. The novel is about Sofonisba Anguissola, a female painter in Spain during the Renaissance. A student of Michelangelo, she becomes one of the first famed female painters of the time. When I originally picked up the book I thought it was going to be more about Michelangelo since that is what stuck in my mind after the description. I was thrilled when I began the book to find it was not really about him a tall, but rather about Sofonisba's experience not only a painter but a woman during this time period.

Cullen does an amazing job of placing the reader in the time period and really feeling what Sofonisba is feeling. In many other historical novels I find myself asking stupid questions, like Why is she afraid of showing affection to that man? Cullen doesn't even allow you to do that. She weaves historical information so well into that story that you know exactly why Sofonisba or the Queen of Spain or any other person in the novel feels the way they do. Before reading this novel I knew nothing about Spain or Sofonisba, and I really didn't know much about the Renaissance beyond what I've learned in my art history class. This book was an amazingly fun way to immerse myself in a historical time period I'm fairly unfamiliar with.

And I got so immersed. The novel has a few things pushing you to read to the end, but I'm not sure if I even needed them. The experience of reading The Creation of Eve was similar to my experience of reading Jane Eyre (the ultimate compliment). I was interested in the storyline, but I was more intensely interested in Sofonisba's voice. I felt like I was getting to know her and seeing the world around her through her eyes. She was incredibly interesting because she was an active participant in her time period, but in other ways she was acting out against it. Simply becoming a painter is extreme, but the beginning of the novel shows how she acts out sexually against her peers. What I loved about the way Cullen portrayed the sexuality of Sofonisba was that she was honest about it. She didn't romanticize it and she showed the fears women experienced at the time dealing with sex.

This novel earned an A.

This novel counts for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog. I received this novel through TLC Book Tours in exchange for my review.

I started reading this book because it was a suggestion from someone else, but I was thrilled to find out as I read that the book was about Elizabeth I, or the end of the Tudor bloodline. Since I was totally obsessed with the show Tudors at the time I was reading this I had a little bit of extra information that helped me with the book. In Ella March Chase's The Virgin Queen's Daughter the main character is Nell de Lacy, a young woman obsessed with knowledge. As a child she meets (then) Princess Elizabeth and has a very profound impact on her future. What Nell doesn't know is how closely Elizabeth is related to her.

Nell hears many stories about Queen Elizabeth's ladies. They are said to be intelligent women who give the men in their circle a lot to discuss. Since Nell has always been encouraged by her father to learn more she thinks she will fit in with these women perfectly. Nell's mother, however, is not keen on Nell's desires to join Elizabeth's court. Her mother was a lady-in-waiting to Katherine Parr and claims that Nell does not know what she is getting into. She believes the court is dangerous and she prefers Nell to stay with her. When Queen Elizabeth summons Nell though, her mother is left with little choice.

Once Nell becomes a lady-in-waiting the story becomes more of a mystery. This was fine, but I would have liked to hear more about the women in Queen Elizabeth's court. I got a great sense of who Elizabeth was and how she acted, but not really in relation to other women. I will also say that this novel is taking a great deal of liberties with Queen Elizabeth's life. You can read more about that at the end of the novel should you choose to read it. It is by no means a blow by blow historical account.

Still, I liked this book. Quite a bit. In fact, I think it is one of my favorite historical fiction novels. True I liked the beginning more than the end, and some of the story is sketch. But... this is the first historical fiction book I have underlined in. It was so well done in respect to the meanings of motherhood and womanhood during the Tudor reign. And Nell, even though she is a little different, represents of lot of concerns for women at the time. Such as unwanted children, the inability to have children, marriage, love, romance. Can we have it all?

This novel earned a B.

Pub. Date: December 2009
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Format: Paperback, 368 pp

I read this book as part of the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

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This book all started as a game between Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. They each took one character and wrote letters back and forth to each other with no intention on publishing, but here it is, published. Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot is the story of two cousins spending their coming out apart. They live in a different world during 1817 London; a world where magic works. Kate is away in London and Cecy (or Cecelia) is in Essex. They each come out into society with a bigger bang than anyone expected, and solve a magical mystery along the way.

I really liked the idea of this book. Magic, London, history, and letters. I tend to really enjoy books where the narration changes, but I could tell that this started as a game and not as an attempt to write a novel. Since each author obviously had a certain plot in mind that they had to intertwine in the end there wasn't a lot of direction with the plot. I enjoy a lot of novels that aren't wrapped up in plot, but this was quite anti-climactic. I kind of got the feeling that they had to remove a few things that weren't part of the story, but I think a few things should have been added to keep the book moving. It was a short book, and sometimes I felt like I was dragging myself through it.

There really wasn't enough character description either. I had a hard time figuring out what the differences between Kate and Cecy were. Cecy is much more magical and Kate is a bit more practical, but other than that I had a hard time differentiating between the two. This was especially annoying in the beginning since there was now exposition and I was thrown directly into the exchange of these letters. One reason for the lack of character description could be that the letters were written between two women who already knew each other. The authors might have assumed their traits were coming through, but I didn't feel there was enough.

I've been kind of hard on this book so far, but compared to the other YA books I've read this past month this one wasn't as intriguing. As I've said the idea of the book is excellent, and there were some things I did enjoy. I particularly liked how well developed the magic in this book was. Cecy makes charm bags that protect others from bad magic. The books does a great job of describing these bags and how they are used. I also really enjoyed the male characters in this book. Kate and Cecy each have a love interest (James and Thomas respectively). If the female characters were more well developed, I might have enjoyed their relationships even more.

This novel earned a C.

Pub. Date: September 2004/1988
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Format: Paperback, 336 pp

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Instead of working on my homework like a responsible college student I've been distracting myself by signing up for lots of reading challenges! I have posted about this one yet and now seems like as good a time as ever because I'm right in the middle of writing a paper (you should know that my brain has deteriorated to such a point that I first wrote that I was "write in the middle of righting a paper").

Anyway... Royal Reviews is hosting a Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. If you've been reading my blog then you know this is right up my alley since I love historical fiction. I will be doing the Addicted level which means I'm planning on reading twelve historical fiction books from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. I'll probably end up at the Obsessed Level, which is 20 books, but who knows. Maybe I'll fall out of love with historical fiction in 2010. To make things a little more interesting on myself I have come up with a list of historical fiction genres I have yet to explore. I mostly just read historical fiction about 18th and 19th Century Britain but there a lot of other books I want to read out there. I'm not going to come up with a definite list of books, but I would like to read one book from each of the following sub-genres or time periods or places:

1. The Civil War
2. Something about Mary, Queen of Scots
3. A Historical Romance Novel (wooo)
4. The Great Depression
5. Japan
6. A Western Historical Novel

Sandra Gulland's The Last Great Dance on Earth is the last book in a series about Josephine Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte's beloved wife. I haven't read the first two books in the series, but that didn't prevent me from understanding anything in the novel. It is written as a diary from Josephine's point of view with the inclusion of a variety of letters that were edited by Gulland. The story begins in 1800, before Napoleon is declared Emperor, and ends in 1814 with Josephine's death.

The relationship between Josephine's children, Hortense and Eugene, and Napoleon was interesting. The children call him papa even though he is not truly their father and it is obvious that the four of them are very close. Napoleon declares his love for Josephine in many ways, but she still has to live with his constant affairs and sexual conquests. She wants to be only his but everyone tells her it is her responsibility to turn her nose to the affairs. This was beautifully documented through Napoleon's letters which rotate in signatures. When he is not with another woman he signs them with All thine, N but when he is with another woman he simply writes N. This drives Josephine into obsessions and causes her to do things that are frowned upon, especially by Napoleon. She even walks in on him with a woman at one point. Her attitude proves to be dangerous because there are many people in the court that want Josephine gone, by divorce or death.

The character that interested me most was actually Napoleon's sister, Caroline. She is completely evil and really has it out for Josephine. Caroline is not afraid to use any means, including sexuality, to get what she wants; she is ruthless. Throughout the whole novel I kept thinking I want to read more about her!.

This novel for me was up and down. The time span is quite long which bothered me. Even though the diary entries are dated I still wasn't realizing how much time was passing until I stopped to really look. Josephine's character was well developed, but I wanted to see more of other characters (specifically Caroline). This, obviously, is impossible since the entire novel is from Josephine's point of view so everything we learn about other people is through her. It's not a bad read, but it definitely wasn't a spectacular one.

Pub. Date: November 2000
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Format: Paperback, 384pp

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The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte

by Syrie James is a fictional account of the life of Charlotte Bronte. Charlotte grew up with two sisters and a brother under the supervision of her parson father. The book mainly focuses on the love interests of Charlotte Bronte, her teacher Monsieur Heger and her father's curate Arthur Nicholls. It is a brutally honest account of Charlotte's life, including descriptive scenes of Branwell's drunken crazes. James allows Bronte to explore her feelings on every subject, alcohol, love, sex, and family. It also documents the writing of her four novels as well as the writing practices shared between her and her two sisters, Emily and Anne. After the death of Emily and Anne, Charlotte experienced a drastic change in her writing ability and habits. While the novel doesn't come out and say it directly, it is pretty clear that the absence of her sisters contributed to the lower success level of her final two novels.

Since Charlotte Bronte wrote my favorite book I had high expectations to for this novel. It met those expectations, for the most part. I have to admit that I couldn't put this book down. I saw a lot of my own experiences in Charlotte's, even though she lived in a very different world from mine. James does an amazing job making Bronte into a character we can empathize with and understand. Just a few days ago I was telling a friend of mine that if Charlotte Bronte haunted me I would be terrified. I said she would probably be really mean. After reading this book, my entire view of Bronte has changed.

As much as I loved it, I did have a few problems with this novel. Some of the footnotes were annoying and unnecessary, of course I'm assuming that anyone who would read this book would have some prior knowledge about Charlotte Bronte. There were also some language choices that felt a little too contemporary for me. When I came across them I became annoyed, really. James makes up for it with her frequently asked questions section in the back of the book, as well as the inclusion of sections of Bronte's letters. I was pleased that she came out and said what was true and what was false, and also that she mostly stuck to the story of Bronte's life.

This book evoked every emotion from me. I laughed at Bronte's humor, empathized with her foibles, and cried in grief and joy with her. A must read for any Bronte fan. And if you are a Bronte fan then you should join Laura's Reviews All About the Bronte Challenge. It starts in January and I will be participating in it as well!

Pub. Date: June 2009
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Paperback, 512pp

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For those of you that missed it I found out about Emma: Volume 1

last week, the post is here. It is a manga, or graphic novel, by Kaoru Mori.

The story takes place in London during the 19th Century. Emma is a maid for an old widow who used to work as a governess. The widow appears somewhat classless in the story, which allows her to encourage Emma's interest in her old student, William Jones. William Jones is a member of the gentry whose father is set on him marrying a higher class woman, but William wants to marry for love and he loves Emma. It's a little cheesy, love at first sight, but the rest of the story is so great that I didn't think much about it.

Willliam Jones is very extreme in how much he cares for Emma, which I feel is more characteristic of a manga than of a Victorian romance novel. He will do anything to please her and buys her glasses because she cannot see out of hers. When he is walking in London he is always looking out for Emma, and since it is a manga he always sees her.

What I love most about this graphic novel is not the romance story though, it is the attention to traits of the Victorian society. In chapter three William Jones has a friend visit. His name is Hakim and he is Indian royalty. His entrance is a little eccentric, he arrives with a herd of elephants and belly dancers, later taking William on an elephant ride. While I felt that was a little extreme I did like how much it showed the interest of British people in the East. I think Mori made Hakim's entrance so extreme to show how the Victorian people had exotic ideas of the East.

In another scene Hakim and William are at the library and they find a book with photographs of scantily clad women. Hakim is not impressed and William makes a comment about the people in India not wearing clothes. Things like this made it interesting for me, it is very different from a Victorian novel but deals with a lot of the same issues. If I had to compare it to a none graphic novel, it kind of reminded me of Leonard Woolf.

To William's surprise, Hakim is also falling in love with Emma. Actually, everyone is falling in love with Emma (because it's manga). William goes to get a note to send to her and the girl at the counter says that several people have come to send a note to the exact same girl. Since it is a series there was no resolution left at the end, so if I want to find out more about the Hakim, William, Emma love triangle I suppose I will have to snag the second volume! Overall a good read if you're interested in Victorian history but are looking for something different. There is also a television show called Emma - A Victorian Romance Season 1

based on the manga.

Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: CMX (September 20, 2006)
Language: English

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This was my first Tasha Alexander book and I am certain it will not be my last. The main character is Lady Emily Ashton, a young woman living in England, year 1888. She is uninterested in marriage and is a little rebellious. She marries only to escape the nagging of her crazy mother and spends her short married life not knowing her husband. When he dies, however, she begins to read his journals and this is when she falls in love with him. She finds out that her husband, Phillip, was actually more than the wealthy hunter she thought he was. In fact, he was very literary and artistic and very much in love with her. This of course causes her a great amount of grief because she realizes her marriage was a lost opportunity.

The book started out a little bit slow for me, it took me about three chapters to really get into it. Once I did get into it though, I became very interested. Alexander does an amazing job of really shaping the characters. Emily is very lovable. She becomes obsessed with drinking port and is really quite scandalous for her time. The mystery of her husband's death doesn't really arrive until halfway through the novel, but there is enough substance in the first half that I did not feel bored. There were some points that I laughed because they were just not realistic at all, like Emily's plan to go to Africa to find her husband, but Alexander made up for it in other parts and a highly realistic story for the most part. Overall a good read, I'll be sure to check out some of her other stuff.

Pub. Date: October 2006
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Paperback, 336pp

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