Beauty from Ashes [Hardcover]

Eugenia Price (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1995

Eugenia Price, one of America's most treasured  writers, is back with Beauty From  Ashes, the long-awaited final volume in her  popular Georgia Trilogy. Eugenia Price is America's  first lady of storytelling. For thirty years she has  captivated millions of readers with her sweeping  historical novels of the antebellum South. Now,  with Beauty From Ashes, the final  installment of her Georgia Trilogy (which includes  The New York Times best-seller  Bright Captivity and Where  Shadows Go ), Ms. Price returns to her  beloved South, but it's the South of heartbreak and  Civil War. It is 1852. After recovering from the  death of her husband and her parents, Anne Couper  Fraser is devastated to learn that she has also  lost her home on St. Simons Island. Seeking refuge in  Marietta, Georgia, some three hundred miles from  the solace of her home on the Georgia coast, Anne  finds the perfect house -- a place she can again  call "home." As she is adjusting to this  new life the chill of war sweeps in. And as  happened to so many Southern families, the Frasers split  when Anne's son and grandson, who are loathe to  turn against their Southern roots, enlist in the  Confederate Army. Anne, who sympathizes with the  Unionists, finds her loyalties torn. Then, facing her  own mortality, and befriended by a young Union  doctor, Anne rediscovers the depth of her faith, and  learns that even the cruelest misfortune does not  mean defeat for the human spirit. Filled with  characters drawn from history, lore, and Ms. Price's  own fertile imagination, Beauty From  Ashes is a touching, inspirational story of  courage, love, and friendship that is guaranteed to  capture the hearts and minds of new and devoted  readers alike.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The conclusion to Price's Georgia Trilogy (Bright Captivity; Where Shadows Go) will please her fans but will probably underwhelm those new to her work. As the story reopens in 1845, Anne Couper Fraser is living with her four children at Lawrence, their beloved home on St. Simons Island. Still mourning her late husband, Anne finds comfort only in an unlikely friendship with Eve, a family slave. When her precarious finances force her to give up Lawrence, she is brokenhearted. Though she moves with her children into her brother's household, she never abandons hope that she will again have a home of her own. Finally, she manages to buy a house in Marietta, a small town outside Atlanta. These are years of great change for Anne and her family. On a visit to Florida, her tomboy daughter, Rebecca, now in her 30s, meets a young doctor who follows her back to Marietta. And Anne finds that not all her children share her strong abolitionist views?daughters Fanny and Selina fall in love with men favoring secession, while her son and her grandson join the Confederate Army when the Civil War breaks out. Anne nobly weathers the many tragedies that war brings (even the occupation of her home by Sherman's troops), but her gentility as a sheltered flower of the Old South may leave many longing for a bit of Scarlett O'Hara's fire. Literary Guild, Doubleday Bookclub, Crossings selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Rounding out her "Georgia Trilogy," Price relates the tale of a widowed Southern woman who rediscovers life with the help of a Union doctor.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 627 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385267037
• ISBN-13: 978-0385267038
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #294,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a nice change, October 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Beauty from Ashes (Hardcover)

It was nice to read something that doesn't have me trying to skip over curse words two and three times a page! I consider the entire Georgia Trilogy worth reading. The Christian background is inspiring; plus, the novels were based on the life of a very real woman (supported by indicating places of burial and names of decendants in the Afterword of each book). The Christian theme and romanticized diction may seem boring to some, but read with an open mind and I'm sure everyone will find a point to enjoy.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Rate this book a 3 -- but, Price's St Simons and Fla triologies are all 5's, March 16, 2009

By 

Alba4me (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beauty from Ashes (Hardcover)

This particular book is a little slow, but still romantic and based on a real personality which makes it worth a read -- when we read about a person depressed/self-absorbed today (the way they are dealing with losing nearly everyone in life in a short time span...and reality check -- some people do go through great periods of personal loss in their life) I don't think we'd be quite so judgemental as many folks in these reviews. It's important when reading historical fiction to keep a perspective for timeframe the book is taking place, life is not a bed roses and not everyone in a book/history is happy all the time. I find it refreshing to read truthful books, historically based and well researched -- while this one isn't Eugenia Price's best work, do yourself a favor and try the St Simon's Triology or the Fla triology -- all six well-written, historically based, well researched and well written.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars not this time, February 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Beauty from Ashes (Georgia Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

If you've read more than a few Price books, it becomes visibly apparent here that she's losing her touch. Her characters become messy, half-done, overly sentimental, and downright cheesy. Please, give her a chance and get out of these newer ones. Check out the old ones. The St Simons Trilogy: Lighthouse, New Moon Rising, and The Beloved Invader; The Florida Trilogy: Maria, Don Juan McQueen, and Margaret's Story; and the first three of the Savannah Quartet: Savannah, To See Your Face Again, and Before the Darkness Falls (I can't personally recommend Stranger in Savannah, I didn't care for it). I had the pleasure of interviewing Miss Price back in the 80's, and she was a delightful lady with great talent, but with her latter books she took a spill. Don't waste your time. READ THE OLD ONES!!!!