PAULA READS: MARGUERITE

Marguerite (Book I in The Merencourt Saga) by Carol Edgerley

Review by Paula Lofting

This review is written in conjunction with our Facebook event for the official release of Carol Edgerley's books Marguerite and Claire. Please click here to read a review for Claire.

Please note that the giveaway is no longer valid for Marguerite.

How often do women take for granted our relative equality and freedom to live as an independent citizens without a man to sustain us? Today there are still some who demand more liberty from society-- not that I would begrudge them, as I too often believe that as emancipated as we are we still have a long way to go; however, if we dare to look back across the span of more than a hundred years, we would be hard pushed to find many women able to stand on their own two feet, totally dependent on themselves. Times have changed and attitudes to women in the West have also. We no longer are beholden to men for our food, comfort and emotional needs. Women today are unbound from the constraints that women of the fifties had to endure, for whom advice was given such as this website proclaims, on how to be the perfect housewife. And if you think that was rich, imagine what it was like to be a woman of the Edwardian era.

Marguerite is a recipient of the
B.R.A.G. Medallion

But for the memories that live on in these women's  daughters and granddaughters, we may know very little about the emotions of women, how they truly felt, how they viewed life as it was for them then, and how they might have longed to be free, throw away their corsets and ride a great steed with their long hair blowing freely in the wind. And thanks to author Carol Edgerley, we learn of one such woman who did this very thing - Edgerley's very own great grandmother - whose remarkable journey across two continents we follow in Marguerite, the book she wrote for her. It is worth knowing that Marguerite and its sister book Claire were written many years after their tales had been told to Edgerley by  kindly old Aunt Christina. She kept them in her head for generations before she was encouraged to write them down in the form of a fictionalised account of their lives. Nonetheless, Edgerley informs us that she has portrayed the stories of both women as accurately as possible, although there are some details conjectured and fleshed out with the use of her own imagination.

Marguerite's story begins at the very beginning of her existence. We first meet her as a newborn in her noble family's beautiful chateau in the Dordogne, the very day she is birthed into the world. Her mother, the Marquise de Merencourt, takes an immediate dislike to her baby daughter and sadly from then on it is all downhill for the little girl whom her mother, Francine, refers to as 'it'.

"Take it away! I said take it away!" screeched the woman on the bed, shrinking away from the infant lying beside her. "Oh I cannot bear it! How can something so ... so hideous be mine? Oh, someone just take the horrid thing away!"

The reason for this intense dislike of a tiny human being who cannot possibly have done any ill to the woman is a mystery, though there are hints throughout the book as to the reason why Francine favours her boys over her little daughter. Perhaps one of them is that Marguerite, whom her father refers to as Minette, becomes the apple of her father's eye. Unloved by her mother, but favoured by her doting father, whom she resembles in far more ways than she does her mother, Minette grows into a wonderful but headstrong young lady despite the absence of a caring, loving maman. Sadly too, her elder brother Jerome also becomes her mother's accomplice and torments her day and night, playing a huge part in pushing her away from her family.

The beautiful Dordogne

This story is written as a semi-biography of the author, Carol Edgerley's great grandmother, who cleverly puts together for us a wonderfully engaging story about a rich young girl's journey into a world of love, hardship and abuse. From noble beginnings, she chooses a path that sees her become disinherited and banished from French high society, all for the love of a charming Irish doctor, a love that conversely becomes an anathema for Minette. But things don't go smoothly for our headstrong heroine and we see her grow from the naive young 17-year-old into a mother of five children who meets tragedy and loss with great courage and fortitude. As I followed Marguerite's story, I was gripped as I swam through the tides of time with her, experiencing her emotions of love, despair and loathing, and of excitement and adventure as she embarks on a life that she believes will save her from a fate worse than death. All in all, I was enamoured by our tres chic blue-eyed heroine, with her black tresses and olive-skinned beauty. I was aghast when she cast her eyes against taking the path that might have led her to a better life and infuriated by her refusal to marry the man who adored her. Such is Edgerley's gift to us, that we are  imbued with her spirit, and we desire to shout across the pages at her and warn her of danger, such is the emotion it invokes in us.

A French family on a day out in 1880s

Thank Heaven for little girls

Minette, as she is mostly referred to throughout the book, was born in 1875. At this time in France it was the wonderful era known later as La Belle Epoque - the beautiful era. A gay time, full of sanguinity and hopefulness, when the arts flourished and certain creations of literature and music were upheld as magnificent masterpieces. It was also a time when science and technology came into its own and for those women living in the heady decadent quarters of Paris, were most likely to have experienced a world of liberality - a stark contrast to the kind of world that Minette was to be brought up in. For her world, though indeed she was able to enjoy such liberties of riding astride a horse with her hair flowing free in the wind, was one of restriction and containment. But the free spirit that she possessed within her soul was to be horribly and unfairly mistaken for unruliness, harlotry and selfishness.

How Minette should have ridden

Sadly unbeknownst to her awful mother, who could see no good in her daughter whatsoever, no matter how hard the girl tried to please her, Minette's innocence was in her so-called 'wildness'. Her ability to treat people with respect, whatever their station in life, was seen by those rich enough to view life through the splendour of money and titles, as vulgar, improper mixing with those below her station as we see those spiteful snobs belittling her and her children both in India and Ireland. Minette's ability to rise above such treatment and denigration takes force within her from her innocence which  has been tainted by the cruelty of the world as she passes through it, surging from one disastrous encounter to another, none of which her fault. It is just the world as it is. The world that she longs to be no part of. The following passage shows us just the sort of attitude that Marguerite was expected to put up with from the other officers' wives in India:

"Mrs O'Hara, most reluctantly I am taking it upon myself to warn you about  over -familiarity with servants," the lady began with all due pomposity. "You are seen laughing and conversing with your ayah, just as though you considered her your equal. I'm afraid it simply will not do, Mrs O'Hara! Especially in your condition..."

Minette, who was heavily pregnant at the time, is not deterred and she gives the woman a very large piece of her mind. This is just one example of the type of harassment and snide remarks Minette has to put up with, not just in India, but from her husband's Irish relations also.

Marguerite is not just a victim of such disgraceful attitudes; she suffers many tragedies throughout her young life before she reaches thirty. But her spirit never fails her, although time and time, she will doubt herself and long to turn back the clock to a safer time when she was young and without the confines of adult life. Though she learns very harshly that going back to her home in France is not an option, she knows she must do what she can to give her children a chance in life that will enable them to be secure, loved and wanted. After encountering one final life changing tragedy, and having been badly let down by her husband, the man she threw all caution to the wind for, she knows that she must summon that indomitable inner strength of hers to take charge of her destiny and make hard decisions that will have a great impact on her relationship with her children.

How Marguerite and her family may have looked when they visited Scotland

The narrative has many elements to the story and the author has written a beautiful tale that breathtakingly sweeps you to many different destinations: from the hot summers of the sumptous Dordogne chateau in France, where Minette grew up, hated by her mother, but secure in her doting father's protection and her love for horses, to the stark contrasting confines of a Dublin convent school, where she was made to sleep in a cold cell with the door open and no light. Then we are breezed across the sea again to the quintessential English village of Wimbledon where she is forced to hide from her brother and father as they pursue her to bring her home before she can marry her 'kidnapper', the Irish doctor, Patrick O'Hara. The couple race to Gretna Green in Scotland where they may marry under Scottish law without the permission of another and later Marguerite will return to Scotland to study nursing and midwifery. From Scotland the young couple return, married and free, or so they think, to Wimbledon, where they decide to go to India, as far away from the revenge of Marguerite's family as they possibly can. There they settle in Lucknow, among the heat, the flies and the mosquitoes.  It might not be a paradise, but Marguerite eventually comes to see it as home.

Minette loved her horses and even rode in
point to point races in India. This Gymkhana is from
Karachi but could well be like the one in
Darjeeling where Minette rode.

Marguerite is a story of a young girl who was born into a life with values that were way ahead of her time. It is a tale that has will touch your life as irrevocably as it has mine, and will absorb you into the world as it was throughout the late 19th century and early 1900s. It will astonish you, amaze you, and you will be left wondering just how much can the human spirit take and still continue on in hope.

You cannot fail to be moved by this book which is so well written with wonderful prose and a rich narrative that flows effortlessly throughout. 

Marguerite can be found on Amazon in the UK and Amazon.com

and Claire Amazon.com and Amazon.uk

About the Author

Born in India, educated in France and later in England, Carol has returned to live in France with her husband amid a multitude of much-loved animals. A wide circle of friends of varying nationalities provides plenty of spice to her life! 

Something of a connoisseur of the Far East, Carol ran a tutorial in Hong Kong teaching English and French to a great many children, some of whom remain in contact with her. Bilingual, she also retains a smattering of "kitchen" Hindi from years spent in Delhi and Calcutta. 

No longer riding these days due to her two beloved but ancient horses going to heaven, Carol is currently fully occupied writing Susanna, third in The Merencourt Saga series..

An avid reader herself, Carol's favourite authors are David Starkey, Margaret George, Alison Weir and Phillipa Gregory. She also loves cooking for friends in several "languages," and planning out her garden for the following year. (Weeding, however, is quite another story.)

Carol can be found at her website located here. 

If you would like to win a signed copy of Marguerite, please leave a comment on the blog post here or, if you prefer to use Facebook, comment on this review's thread located here.

Lisl Reviews: Claire

Claire (Book II in The Merencourt Saga) by Carol Edgerley
Review by Lisl

Please note that the giveaway is no long valid

The 19^th and early 20^th centuries contain not a few accounts of resolute women, females who pushed back or laid claim to their slice of the world, many meeting success and motivating others to aspire to greater goals. Marguerite de Merencourt was one such woman, and although the legacy she passed to her children and grandchildren contained mixed blessings—for Marguerite’s obstinate streak, so admirable in her younger years, often worked against her favor as she grew older—she remains a draw for readers precisely because some of her efforts yielded less than absolute success.

The beautiful new cover for Claire

Marguerite’s eldest daughter Claire, introduced to readers in the final pages of her mother's story, possesses Minette’s striking beauty as well as indomitable spirit, and from an early age mesmerizes those around her, though not always for the better. Her father’s bullying nature softens to smiles, but upon a long-time-coming visit to her maternal grandparents’ home in France, the teen is viciously rejected by the same woman who pushed away her own infant—Marguerite as a baby. As Claire is coming into her own, she often clashes with her mother and the failure of both to choose their battles widens the already substantial chasm between them.

Claire opens to a scene of the girl celebrating—or trying to—her first grown-up birthday at the end of the new century’s debut decade. While the mores of the time have not drastically altered since her mother was 17, Claire recognizes the changes dawning in the world—cars and telephones make their appearances in the novel—as well as within herself, and like most teenaged girls, resents her mother’s strictures as much as she is mortified by her working status as a Calcutta business owner.

Unfortunately for Claire, she doesn’t seem to learn from her mother’s mistakes, nor does Minette—to the detriment of both. Eager to escape the house as well as the hanging cloud of a family secret, Claire enters into a marriage arranged by her mother, only to find that her once-charming fiancé has little feeling for her other than as sexual release in the absence of the married woman he had conducted an affair with during their engagement. Betrayed by her partner in life and humiliated in the public forum, Claire directs her energies and considerable organizational skills on lavish entertaining and a posh lifestyle.

Picknicking at Diamond Harbour near Calcutta
Photo courtesy Carol Edgerley

Before readers get very far into the story, Minette and Claire have already bickered over so many and such petty grievances, one wonders if they spend copious amounts of time nursing exhaustion, for indeed it takes a great deal of energy to be angry. Edgerley’s dialogue, however, always fresh and sharp, combines with the narrative and clearly shows characters’ perspectives as well as the larger picture. Family members frequently engage in heated rows and these strong and well-spoken women are rarely short of intelligently articulated deliveries.  

At the racecourse, near Calcutta
Photo courtesy Carol Edgerley

Having said that, there is indeed more to 

the characters than smartly-chosen words delivered for maximum effect. Readers are permitted to witness the ambitious Claire as she at times struggles to maintain her footing or determine the next step. Troublemaker Sonia is not always able clearly to see her sister’s secrets in order to exploit them, and Christina, with a tendency towards submission and desire just to keep the peace, develops a strength enabling her to speak out against Claire’s less desirable behaviors and actions.

Though Minette has kept most details of her unhappy childhood from her children, some eventually learn the most significant details, such as when Claire’s grandmother verbally assaults her—for being Minette’s daughter, of course, but also because she is so startlingly like her. “That unnatural mother,” as Minette considers the Marquise, nevertheless has exerted some sort of influence as we later see Claire repeat some of her grandmother’s acts and treat her own children with a contempt shocking to modern readers.

Claire’s life does, however, have its happy moments, and Edgerley’s descriptive prowess of them and other scenes is as powerfully true to reality as it is scrumptiously absorbing. Scenes of both ordinary and grand wrap around readers as if they are part of them, and as they move though seamless transitions, investment in those they read about deepens. Appreciation for Claire and others develops despite—or perhaps because of—her flaws and obstinate inability to move past some of them.

“The young woman had never looked more beautiful, her dark hair drawn up into a loose knot encircled by strands of jasmine. In her hands, she held a bouquet of the same delicate white blooms encircled by green foliage. The elegant bodice of her soft taffeta gown was scattered with seed pearls that proceeded in swathes over the flowing skirts. Only her hands were seen to tremble…wedding nerves, it was said.”

Claire, aged about 48 in France
Photo courtesy Carol Edgerley

When still becoming acquainted with Claire and how she endures living in a pressurized society under the seal of a loveless marriage, this reviewer had at first mused she might be a character readers “love to hate.” It soon becomes clear that such stylization shortchanges Claire, her story and readers themselves. Multi-faceted, Claire’s dreams, disappointments, loves, losses, sins and attempts at atonement could be any of ours, and reflect the reality she once lived.

How Claire goes on to make a satisfying life for herself and her family is nothing short of astounding; with her perseverance in the face of unforgiving setbacks as well as unmitigated joy, she carries on amidst global as well as local changes, community and personal. Like India herself as midnight, the new day of an opening era, approaches, Claire must acknowledge the past as she aims to settle into her future, one that will certainly contain agonizing choices alongside the promise beckoned by the birth of a new era. Having grown attached to her, both despite and because of her lapses, readers will long with and for her, and wish for more.

*********

Carol Edgerley has so graciously donated a FREE COPY of Claire for one lucky reader! For your chance to win, simply comment below OR at this review's Facebook thread, located here.

For Paula's review and to comment on Marguerite (and also get your name in the hat for a FREE COPY of that one!), please follow this link. 

*********

Author Carol Edgerley can be found at her website and Twitter, and you can check out Louise's fabulous interview from earlier this week as well! Claire may also be purchased at Amazon and Amazon UK. 

*********

Note: This review originally appeared at The Review in January 2014. It has been altered for the reading of the new edition and to reflect the lovely updated cover. 

Update: A link to Paula's review for Marguerite has been added. 

Richard Reviews: Kurinji Flowers

Kurinji Flowers by Clare Flynn
Review by Richard Abbott

Please see below for details about the FREE COPY we have available to gift one lucky winner!

I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened Kurinji Flowers, by Clare Flynn. The cover image gives little away, and my main reason for selecting it was the synchronicity of hearing of the book while I was in India. To my delight it turned out to be exactly the kind of story I like. Although set in a time of turbulent affairs of state – including the last years of the British Empire, the Second World War, and Indian independence – the focus is firmly on individual lives and relationships. The central characters, particularly Ginny who we follow throughout, are not the prime movers in any of these events, but are caught up in the eddies and backwash of them. 

The book explores, and exposes, the emotional lives of these people, and the long-lasting sorrow of men and women bound up in habits and attitudes that divide them from one another. People here are occasionally selfish and cruel, but – more often, and more destructively – are simply uncaring, and unable to empathise with each other. This ambivalence is particularly highlighted in attitudes to marital relationships, where authentically loving ones are derided, but abusive or empty ones are normative.

Ginny, meanwhile, struggles with her own experiences of sex and relationships. Along with this, she is alternately drawn towards, and repelled by, the Indian culture of Kerala, and cannot decide whether to continue to please her social compatriots, or pursue the inclinations of her artistic soul.

It would be quiet up there, and I'd be alone to paint undisturbed on the terrace outside…I worked away, content in my solitude and heedless of the passage of time, until my concentration was broken by a voice I recognized.

'Not the most beautiful of vistas, Mrs. Tilman? Why should this merit your artistic endeavours? Just a dirty river and a lot of shabby dwellings.'

The book addresses this state of affairs in a compelling way which invokes grief in the reader rather than repugnance. The kurinji flowers of the title bloom in an extraordinary way only every twelve years, covering the mountain sides in a short but splendid spectacle. In a way which poignantly mirrors this natural wonder, Ginny experiences brief moments of joy in an otherwise barren life. The waste of human potential is sobering, and must have afflicted so many others of that generation. This waste is seen in Ginny's own life, in the expatriate colonial culture she is part of and yet despises, and indeed in much of the interaction between Britain and India through these years. Occasionally individuals do succeed in lighting up the narrative of the lives around them, but all too fleetingly. 

The resolution of Ginny's own situation, not unlike that of India herself, can partly be anticipated by the reader, but partly also comes without warning. Circumstances force her to carry out a profound reappraisal of the events of her life. The experience is both painful and liberating. From time to time in the past she has had to discard initial, often prejudicial impressions in the light of further information. However, the scale of the adjustment she needs at the end of the book dwarfs all of the others.

I dropped the letter on the table as though it was contaminated. My heart was hammering and I was afraid to open the enclosed folded paper…When my brain had at last processed the contents, I passed it to Hector and slumped forward on the table, head on arms.

Truly, it is well worth waiting for the flowers to bloom.

 
You would enjoy Kurinji Flowers if you are drawn – as I am – to stories of individual human relationships, and if you appreciate an invitation to walk alongside people trying to find a better answer to life than unmitigated loss and disappointment.

If you would like a chance to win a FREE COPY of Kurinji Flowers, simply comment below OR at this review's Facebook thread, located here. 

About the author:
After a career in consumer marketing, working on brands from nappies to tinned tuna and living in Paris, Milan, Brussels and Sydney, she is now happily settled in West London. Co-founder of the popular website, Make it and Mend It and co-author of the 2012 book of the same name, she is hard at work on her third novel as well as a book on fresh thinking.

You can find Clare Flynn at her website, Twitter, Facebook, her Amazon author page, Goodreads and Pinterest. 

*********

Richard Abbott is the author of In a Milk and Honeyed Land and Scenes From a Life and can be found on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads and Google. You can also find more about Abbott and his books at his blog and website. If you would like Richard to review your book, please see our submissions tab above.

Photos courtesy Richard Abbott