Customer Reviews

St. Bartholomew's Eve, A Tale of the Huguenot Wars (Works of G. A. Henty)

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3 star:		(1)
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This book is COOL! I've read several Henty books, but this is my favorite so far. It's about a boy and his cousin who are helping to fight the Catholics, who are opressing the Huguenots in France in the 1500's. The boys are very courageous, so they get into a lot of exciting situations! There are sword fights, lots of battles, sieges of towns, daring escapes, and at the end, St. Bartholomew's Eve: the night the French Catholics began their horrible massacre of thousands of innocent Huguenots. Will the boys and their friend Claire survive? You'll have to read it and find out!

This is the first book by Henty I've read, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. I suppose I judge a book by its cover a little to much, and I was putting off reading this book because I wasn't too excited about reading a book written a really long time ago. But after I started, I had a tough time putting it down. Sure, the plot was simplistic, but there was plenty of action to keep me occupied. Be forewarned, however - I'm a high school student, and there were a lot of words in that book that I didn't know the meaning of. Unless your command of old english is pretty good, you will probably have some trouble with some of those words. But don't let that stop you - read the book with a dictionary close at hand. It isn't often that you get to read an exciting book and learn a pile of new words while you do it! Overall, this is a great book for any kid or kid at heart who has the patience to consult the dictionary every now and then.

I've read fifteen or so of Henty's books and I have to say this is my favorite, along with Beric the Briton or maybe By Pike and Dike.
The main character is Phillip Fletcher, whose father is an English farmer and whose mother is a Huguenot refugee and the sister of a French Countess. When he is old enough, Phillip goes to France to join his relatives in fighting for freedom of worship for the Huguenots. He meets the famous Huguenot leaders and goes on a secret mission behind enemy lines. In the end he narrowly escapes the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve.
Some reasons I like this one: Henty seems to give a little more time to the side characters; developing them better than his usual. And there are more small, realism-adding side notes; the comment by the passerby, the parent's word to the child, and a false alarm or two.
~ I like the illustrations in this one, too!

Henty, as always, manages to find a young, strong, and healthy lad that attains high connections in the army and court. I would say that this book would probably be interesting to people under the age of 13. It might be good if you want your kids to get into history. Henty actually has done a fair amount of research, it seems. I read this when I was still young, so it didn't seem that bad. However, this is NOT recommended to adults, or people who think they are.