Circle of Pearls (G K Hall Large Print Book Series) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Rosalind Laker (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As British writer Laker's To Dance with Kings illuminated court life in Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV, her latest work strikingly depicts 17th- and 18th-century England during the Cromwell interregnum and the Restoration. And as her earlier heroine was a practitioner of the art of fan-making, the protagonist of this engaging historical novel starts a cottage industry of ribbon embroidery after Cromwell and his Puritan regime are succeeded by luxury-loving Charles II. Through her account of the fortunes of a Royalist family, the Pallisters of Sotherleigh manor in Sussex, Laker animates the civil strife that set Cavaliers versus Roundheads, neighbor against neighbor. Julia Pallister is fated to love two men: her brother's Oxford friend Christopher Wren, and Adam Warrender, the Puritan scion of the adjoining estate. Hot-tempered, impetuous Julia, whose traits betray her into regrettable situations, is an appealing character. If her plotting is cliched and overly sentimental, Laker's well-integrated research (details of political turmoil and domestic customs, of the Great Plague and the Fire of London) make up for the sometimes cloying love story.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

A real gem. Julia, daughter in a Cavalier family, is charged to keep the only remaining Elizabethan gown and the family estate safe in Puritan England. This becomes especially difficult when the home is officially owned by a Roundhead fanatic. Julia is in love with the family friend, Christopher Wren, whose career grows from astronomer to architect. Laker presents the lifestyles of the rich and the lower class in detail. The entertaining plot unfolds realistically and logically, but with surprises, too. The reading level is not difficult; new vocabulary can be defined in context. There are relatively few characters, so readers come to know them well. The novel continues through the Restoration, the plague, and the great fire. The epilogue occurs 60 years later and ties up loose ends as Julia visits Wren's tomb at St. Paul's and then charges a daughter of the future to keep the circle unbroken, the present learning from the past through a beautiful gown of pearls. --Claudia Moore, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 825 pages
• Publisher: G K Hall & Co (April 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816150982
• ISBN-13: 978-0816150984
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,881,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful and informatvie Restoration-era romance, December 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Circle of Pearls (Hardcover)

This was my second book by Rosalind Laker and I liked it almost as much as the first, "To Dance With Kings". Historically, this novel is extremely accurate and vividly described. You can feel the atmosphere and clearly imagine how everything was at that time. My problem with this novel is the same as in "To Dance With Kings" -- Ms. Laker changes her pace in the last third of the novel and hurries through events and characters to reach a happy ending. In "Circle of Pearls", Ms. Laker takes her time to describe the Cromwell years and the state of Sotherleigh during the time Makepeace Walker lived there. But after he leaves, she manages to draw everything to a close, including Charles II's restoration and coronation, the plague and the fire of London, in half the space she allotted to the preceding events. Her characters suffer as a result. Although Christopher and Julia continue to be well-realized, Adam is only briefly sketched. Sophie is not given room to show what she is about but the author just tells us what state she is in and how other characters perceive her. There is no mention of what happened to Patience. Certain characters, such as Nell, abrutly exit until a hint of what happened to them appears in the epilogue. Other characters, such as Katy, are added only with a purpose to enhance certain people's personality. I would have also appreciated more detail about the life of Jean-Robert. Another problem in "Circle of Pearls" is that Julia and Christopher, although interesting characters, are not that lovable and I felt more invested in the character of Adam but Ms. Laker did not focus on him enough. I liked Mary and wished that Ms. Laker would have transferred some of the enterprising spirit that Julia possessed onto her. Anne's plight was especially poignant and tragic and Katherine's past could have made up a book in itself. Basically, my problem is that Ms. Laker did not double the size of this book so that the story would have been more complete. I understand that the novel could only be a certain size, but if Ms. Laker spent so much time on Julia's childhood, she should have spent as much time on her adulthood.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of her best!, May 7, 2004

By 

R. Koehn "compulsive shopper" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Circle of Pearls (Hardcover)

This was the first Laker book I read and, I have to say, it is amazing! The details about the house, the era, the dress, everything is just superb. After reading this I was really into furniture with hidden compartments and, of course, reading more Rosalind Laker novels. Her books will never go out of style!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Circle of Pearls, December 2, 1999

By 

Karen (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Circle of Pearls (Hardcover)

This was the first book that I ever read that I literally could not put down. The characters are so vivid and the inspired weaving together of fact and fiction was a real pleasure to experience.