A Candle for d'Artagnan [Paperback]

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 1994 | Series: Atta Olivia Clemens

Olivia Atta Clemens, immortal vampire, Roman noblewoman, beloved of the Count Saint-Germain-has come to Paris seeking only peace. But the year is 1637, and there is no peace to be found in the Court of Louis XIII, where Cardinal Richelieu maneuvers to control the throne.

Caught up in the intrigue against her will, Olivia seeks and wins the protection of a young guardsman named d'Artagnan-a man destined to become one of the greatest heroes of all time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this conclusion to the trilogy chronicling the life of vampire Atta Olivia Clemens, Yarbro depicts the reigns of Louis XIII and young Louis XIV and the battles waged by Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin to uphold the power of the monarchy. Living quietly on her estate in Italy, Olivia, now a wealthy widow, agrees to join Mazarin's retinue and move to France where she can serve as his agent and provide a place for him to hold informal meetings. Once there, she meets and falls in love with Charles D'Artagnan of the King's Musqueteerssp ok , uncovers treachery and is dogged by a secret enemy. The story often advances obliquely, with much of the action taking place offstage and reported to the reader through letters or later commentary. This often boring approach is here a brilliant device, illuminating motivation and providing the necessary compression for tumultuous events that span more than a decade. Yarbro writes sympathetically about the loneliness and perils of near-immortality.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Compuslive reading."--Kirkus Reviews

"This is romantic suspense with a few intellectual vampires stirred into the ploy....a gentler kind of 'horror'."--Booklist

"Yarbro's vampires are benign, rational, civilazed beings more worthy of the term 'humanity' than many of the mortal they encounter."--Locus

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Orb Books (July 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312890192
• ISBN-13: 978-0312890193
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,139,321 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Vampire Heroine Meets Red-Blooded Hero, February 17, 1999

By 

Louann Miller (TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Candle for d'Artagnan (Paperback)

Probably the best entry in Yarbro's two intertwined vampire series. After a while, the long-suffering St. Germain and his endless procession of misunderstood mortal girlfriends becomes a little dull. Yarbro's Roman vampire heroine, Olivia, has a much better excuse; she's living in centuries when a woman without a male protector is one step away from being a social outcast. Behavior that would be maddeningly passive from St. Germain is pleasantly assertive in Olivia. Charles D'Artagnan, who falls in both love and lust with Olivia, gives the book a breath of fresh air. In a series where most male characters are either eunuchs or evil sadists, it's nice to see a testosterone-driven character who is nonetheless honorable and likeable. As in all these books, Yarbro has done her historical homework. Charles is definitely based on the real historical figure, not the book or movie D'Artagnan of the Three Musketeers. Readers who are expecting Dumas will be disappointed (the historical Athos, already dead when the book opens, is dismissed in a sentence) but Charles has much the same energy and enthusiasm you'd expect from a movie D'Artagnan. A fun novel even if you've never read the series; although it's the last book of a trilogy, it reads well on its own.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ninth in the Saint-Germain series., October 26, 2002

By 

James Yanni (Bellefontaine Neighbors, Mo. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Candle for d'Artagnan (Paperback)

Or third in the Olivia series, depending on how you look at it.

For those unfamiliar with the series, the Saint-Germain series is a series of historical "horror" novels (although the horror element is tenuous at best, based purely on the fact that the main characters are vampires, and "vampire fiction" is considered a subgenre of "horror fiction"; actually, "historical romance" is closer to accurate) in which the main character is the vampire Saint-Germain, who has lived as a vampire since roughly 1500-2000 BCE. In this book, however, as in the previous two, the main character is Atta Olivia Clemens, who as a lover of Saint-Germain's became a vampire when she died, back in the Rome of the Emperor Nero (in the third book of the series, "Blood Games".)

This book is set in France during the reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV, which is the period during and slightly after the time of Cardinal Richelieu of "The Three Musketeers" fame. The "d'Artagnan" of the title is based on the historical Charles d'Artagnan on whom Dumas based his hero, not on the fictional hero himself.

In some ways, this book is better than the two previous books focusing on Olivia; my major complaint about them, that Olivia's vampiric powers were downplayed too severely, does not apply to this book. But I have a very major problem with EXTREMELY major plot points happening offstage, and the reader being informed of them after the fact and given an insufficient description of events to follow the action. This was badly done, and is a major part of my failure to rate this book more highly. Also, the editing did not seem as tight as in the previous entries; far too many typos and incorrect word usage (being "adverse" to something, rather than "averse", etc) managed to slip through. I hope this trend doesn't continue into the later books in the series.

This is an enjoyable read, better than some in the series, certainly not as good as "Tempting Fate", the fifth book in the series.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The BEST of the "Olivia" stories... wonderful and sad., April 1, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: A Candle for d'Artagnan (Paperback)

"A Candle for d'Artagnan" brought the world of Paris durring the times of Louis XIII and Louis XIV to life.... the intrigue, plotting and politics of the time are facsinating.... and the chivalry and honor of the Musqueteers was well depicted. As always, Ms. Yarbro paints a wonderful picture of the time she is writing about.... it is as if you are there, along with the characters.

The love and devotion of d'Artagnan for Olivia is profound.... the kind of love we all search for.

A must read for all fans of Ms. Yarbro's books.... or anyone who loves a good vampire story!