Author: Victoria Holt
After coming across a copy of Judith McKnaught's 'Kingdom of Dreams' in the local Gurun Popular bookstore (a rare sight indeed!) and not buying it, I was sort of hankering for a bit of historical romance. I borrowed this book (along with about 7 chick lit titles) from a friend as part of my 'confinement' reading list. It's an old book, written in 1984, so I assumed it would be a la Barbara Cartland.
Well, I have never read Barbara Cartland either, and if that Grand old Dame wrote anything like this, I would probably give it a miss.
Don't get me wrong. The plot was exciting, with lots of events, but the narrative I felt was a bit clumsy and amateur. Here's the story in my words.
Written in the voice of the ahead-of-her-time heroine, Caroline Tressidor, the story starts when she is fourteen, just before Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee celebrations. Caroline lives in London with her philanthropic father Robert Ellis Tressidor, beautiful socialite mother and timid older sister Olivia. The siblings get very little attention from their parents, spending most of their time under the watchful tutelage of a governess.
A scandalous discovery about Caroline's true parentage sees her being sent off to live with Cousin Mary 'the harpy' in Tressidor Manor in Cornwall. Caroline finds Cousin Mary gruffly affectionate, an independent spinster managing the large Tressidor estate better than one expected of a woman in those times. She also meets and forms a friendship with Jago Landower and a crush on the older Paul, sons of the Tressidors' neighbourhood rival. She finds out that where Tressidor prospered, the much older Landower mansion is literally falling into ruin, and the brothers face the unwanted prospect of selling their ancestral home to the highest bidder.
After some time she is called back to London, reunites with her sister and discovers that her mother has also left with her real father, a handsome and dashing Captain Carmichael. With the help of their parlourmaid Rosie Rundall (who later disappears from the household), Caroline manages to attend a masked ball with Olivia. There she meets and falls in love with Jeremy, they get engaged and start house-hunting, only to be jilted by him when she is disinherited by the wealthy Robert Tressidor, who dies after mysteriously suffering a stroke. Bitter and heartbroken, Caroline travels to the South of France to visit her mother, who is missing the glamour and glitter of London more than her now-dead lover Carmichael.
This is where Caroline once again meets Paul Landower, who is visiting France 'on business'. Paul has managed to regain Landower. Her childhood infatuation grows into a more adult desire for him, and the feeling appears to be reciprocated, but Paul is hiding something. When Caroline's mother remarries a French perfumier and is happily thrust back into fashionable society, Caroline decides to go back to the only place she really felt at home - with Cousin Mary who of course isn't really related to her but still loves her dearly.
She finds out that Paul had gone to France upon Cousin Mary's request to look for her, and that he had acquired Landower by marrying Gwennie, the daughter of Landower's erstwhile new owner. Although they have a son, the marriage is an unhappy one, as Gwennie keeps reminding the Landower brothers that it was 'Pa's pretty pennies that saved the old house'. While Jago takes it in his happy-go-lucky Lothario stride, Paul suffers both his nagging wife and also the new resentment from Caroline, who becomes even more embittered that Paul was willing to enter into such a bargain.
Meanwhile, Jeremy manages to land his hands on the Tressidor wealth by marrying Olivia, who apparently had always had a thing for him. They have a daughter, and Caroline travels to London to attend the christening as the child's godmother. Jago decides to surprise Caroline by travelling with her to London, and here I began to assume that he was going to pursue her more earnestly, but on their return to Cornwall that did not seem to be the case.
The plot has some dark moments, with a mysterious mine shaft becoming a recurring feature, and the odd lodgekeeper Jamie McGill's prophecy that 'death always comes in threes'. Of course, they come in quick succession (does a stillborn baby count?). Then the story diverts from being a historical romance into a sort of whodunit murder/missing person/split personality thriller, and Caroline realises that she truly does love Paul no matter what he did, athough it turns out that he wasn't the one who did it.
And so the book ends with the Diamond Jubilee celebration of Queen Victoria's reign, with Caroline now happily united with Paul (but of course!) and foreseeing that her goddaughter will grow up to marry her stepson Julian. Jago also conveniently ends up with Rosie - have to admit I didn't see that one coming.
Well, there. That's most of the plot (there's an interesting bit about Rosie and Robert Tressidor that I left out). Rather inspired, yes, but at what cost?
As I said before, the narrative was lacking. Holt started off well, building the background of the Tressidor sisters and family, and she does quite a good job describing the houses and scenery of the different localities. The story is eventful enough to keep me hooked. But she's pretty lousy at describing feelings and events. Except for the childhood excitement and adolescent fantasies, there was almost nothing about her feelings for Paul, and you could hardly detect the shift from schoolgirl crush into full-blown love.
The ending was also too convenient. The whole missing person/split personality angle was done in very few words so felt a bit rushed. Almost as if the author was thinking, "Oh my, look at the time and the size of this manuscript! I'd better get my protagonists together in a jiffy and tie everything up nicely before my publishers scream at me for the twentieth time!" I would also have liked to know more about how her mother hooked up with Captain Carmichael. Maybe there's a prequel.
Well, I don't think I'll bother finding out too soon. Maybe I should have just bought Judith McKnaught after all.
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