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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Romance > Historical
Madeleine, a beautiful peasant girl, cannot resist the charms of
Jean, a handsome champion of the upper class. She surrenders to her
heart's desires, and their love sweetens into something amazing.
But when her father is murdered, her dreams of marriage collapse
before the impenetrable wall of class prejudice. With her grim new
prospects restricted to life as a beggar or a whore, Madeleine
grasps at the only escape she can: a new life in the New World. She
signs a contract to emigrate to Quebec-where she'll marry a
stranger and bear many children to help populate the New France
colony.
Madeleine's experience quickly turns bitter as she struggles to
overcome the frigid Canadian winters, the constant threat of
Iroquois attack, wild animals, and the soul-eroding abuse of her
husband. Isolation and crushing homesickness set in.
Worse, just as she comes to feel she cannot go on, the real
nightmare begins: she discovers that the very man who murdered her
father is living on her farm.
Her struggle for survival of body and soul are set against the
expansive panorama of colonial Quebec, a place of awesome beauty
and lethal danger. As Madeleine's extraordinary love story unfolds,
real historical characters and authentic cultural details weave
seamlessly into a rich tapestry of courageous pursuit of love and
dreams.
Can her spirit resist defeat under extreme tribulation and
deprivation of emotional support?
In India in the mid-nineteenth century, Reggie Fitzsimmons is a
young, virile, smart businessman. He sees no reason why he can't be
a merchant trader and act as a part-time sergeant in the military-
unaware that a completely different destiny awaits him.
Feeling compelled to fulfill his military commitment and in need
of extra income, Reggie joins the East India Company militia that
supports the Royal British Army during the 1857 Indian Mutiny. He
feels he is not only serving the Queen but saving the British
Empire from a terrible tragedy. Without reservation, he becomes
engaged in the Siege of Delhi, one of the most ruthless and bloody
battles of the uprising.
In the midst of war, he succumbs to a forbidden love affair with
Manju, a servant girl, and forsakes his wife, Mary, who hastily
returns to London. But Reggie and Manju face many obstacles in
their relationship. Nevi Qureshi, an unsavory Indian patriot, vows
that Manju will be his, and he will do whatever it takes to make
this so. Reggie, determined to stop Qureshi, must also survive the
challenges and dangers of war in order for the two lovers to become
one.
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Devil's Elbow
(Hardcover)
Brainard Cheney; Edited by Stephen Whigham
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R805
Discovery Miles 8 050
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Ships in 18 - 22 working days
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Marcellus Hightower, the young boy in the novel, THIS IS ADAM,
returns to his hometown as a grown man in DEVIL'S ELBOW. He seeks
answers, turning for help to Adam Atwell, his surrogate father.
Adam, a black man in the segregated South, shares with Marcellus
the haunting memory of David Ransom's murder on the mighty Ocmulgee
River. The memories interweave with a quarter century of Marcellus
Hightower's quest for love and redemption, through his developing
character, economic calamity and the turmoil of war. With Adam's
sage guidance, he finds a way to "cleanse his heart" and face life
anew. "DEVIL'S ELBOW is a powerful novel indeed. The old verities-a
man's troubles with women, with himself, with love and guilt-are
all treated as freshly as if Cheney had discovered them." Walker
Percy (1969)
On the border of the English counties of Devon and Somerset,
John Ridd's father is a yeoman farmer murdered in cold blood by a
member of the notorious Doone family. John is besotted with Lorna,
the granddaughter of the head of the Doone clan, who is to be
forced to marry the evil Carver Doone. John helps Lorna escape, but
circumstances lead to the discovery that she is not a Doone after
all, and the newfound heiress moves. But the Monmouth Rebellion
finds John wrongly accused of treason and he has to clear his name
in London, where he finds Lorna once more and where their love is
rekindled. He is granted a royal pardon, and later Lorna is allowed
to join him at his Exmoor farm. Just as they are married in Oare
church, Carver Doone shoots Lorna at the altar and John, believing
her dead, pursues and kills him. But is his love really dead?
Although Lorna Doone is perceived as a romance, it is set in the
1600s, when writings about sexual life at the court and personal
diaries such as those of Pepys could be incredibly graphic, even by
today's standards. They were especially scandalous in the prudish
Victorian times of the author. Had Blackmore written it in the
seventeenth century, or in modern times, he probably would have
done so similarly to this updated version and built on the existing
innuendo.
"Sensuality Level: Spicy"
On the border of the English counties of Devon and Somerset,
John Ridd's father is a yeoman farmer murdered in cold blood by a
member of the notorious Doone family. John is besotted with Lorna,
the granddaughter of the head of the Doone clan, who is to be
forced to marry the evil Carver Doone. John helps Lorna escape, but
circumstances lead to the discovery that she is not a Doone after
all, and the newfound heiress moves. But the Monmouth Rebellion
finds John wrongly accused of treason and he has to clear his name
in London, where he finds Lorna once more and where their love is
rekindled. He is granted a royal pardon, and later Lorna is allowed
to join him at his Exmoor farm. Just as they are married in Oare
church, Carver Doone shoots Lorna at the altar and John, believing
her dead, pursues and kills him. But is his love really dead?
Although Lorna Doone is perceived as a romance, it is set in the
1600s, when writings about sexual life at the court and personal
diaries such as those of Pepys could be incredibly graphic, even by
today's standards. They were especially scandalous in the prudish
Victorian times of the author. Had Blackmore written it in the
seventeenth century, or in modern times, he probably would have
done so similarly to this updated version and built on the existing
innuendo.
"Sensuality Level: Spicy"
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