City of Glory: A Novel of War and Desire in Old Manhattan [Hardcover]

Beverly Swerling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 2007

Set against the dramatic backdrop of America's second war for independence, Beverly Swerling's gripping and intricately plotted sequel to the much-loved City of Dreams plunges deep into the crowded streets of old New York.

Poised between the Manhattan woods and the sea that is her gateway to the world, the city of 1812 is vibrant but raw, a cauldron where the French accents of Creole pirates mingle with the brogues of Irish seamen, and shipments of rare teas and silks from Canton are sold at raucous Pearl Street auctions. Allegiances are more changeable than the tides, love and lust often indistinguishable, the bonds of country weak compared to the temptation of fabulous riches from the East, and only a few farseeing patriots recognize the need not only to protect the city from the redcoats, but to preserve the fragile Constitutional union forged in 1787.

Joyful Patrick Turner, dashing war hero and brilliant surgeon, loses his hand to a British shell, retreats to private life, and hopes to make his fortune in the China trade. To succeed he must run the British blockade; if he fails, he will lose not only a livelihood, but the beautiful Manon, daughter of a Huguenot jeweler who will not accept a pauper as a son-in-law. When stories of a lost treasure and a mysterious diamond draw him into a treacherous maze of deceit and double-cross, and the British set Washington ablaze, Joyful realizes that more than his personal future is at stake. His adversary, Gornt Blakeman, has a lust for power that will not be sated until he claims Joyful's fiancée as his wife and half a nation as his personal fiefdom. Like the Turners before him, Joyful must choose: his dreams or his country.

Swerling's vividly drawn characters illuminate every aspect of the teeming metropolis: John Jacob Astor, the wealthiest man in America, brings the city's first Chinese to staff his palatial Broadway mansion; Lucretia Carter, wife of a respectable craftsman, makes ends meet as an abortionist serving New York's brothels; Thumbless Wu, a mysterious Cantonese stowaway, slinks about on a secret mission; and the bewitching Delight Higgins, proprietress of the town's finest gambling club, lives in terror of the blackbirding gangs who prey on runaway slaves. They are all here, the butchers and shipwrights, the doctors and scriv-eners, the slum dwellers of Five Points and the money men of the infant stock exchange...conspiring by day and carousing by night, while the women must hide their loyalties and ambitions, their very wills, behind pretty sighs and silken skirts.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Swerling sets her enthralling follow-up to City of Dreams against the backdrop of the War of 1812, when New Yorkers are suffering the dire economic effects of a British blockade of American ports, and talk of secession is rife. In Manhattan, the wealthy and unscrupulous trader Gornt Blakeman is the leader of the secessionist schemers. Blakeman's nemesis, and Swerling's larger-than-life hero, is surgeon and patriot Joyful Patrick Turner. Having lost a hand to a British cannonball earlier in the war, Joyful returns to Manhattan to start over as a "Canton trader." When Blakeman tries to rally New Yorkers to secede and kidnaps Joyful's sweetheart, the comely and headstrong Manon Vionne, Joyful races to expose Blakeman's treachery and rescue Manon from his clutches. Swerling's swashbuckling tale brings old Manhattan vividly to life, throbbing with restless energy and populated with a diverse and intriguing cast of characters: both real (John Jacob Astor) and richly imagined. Fans of historical fiction and those interested in the early history of Manhattan will enjoy this evocative and entertaining saga. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In this smartly executed, highly entertaining sequel to City of Dreams (2001), Swerling continues tracing the physical, social, and moral development of Manhattan through the stories of the fictional Turner and Devrey families. Nearly all the action occurs over 10 days in mid-August 1814, a critical period during America's "second war of independence." The numerous characters, all fascinating and distinct, include a mulatto brothel owner, a sly merchant prince, an Irish ship's captain, and a devious young widow, not to mention John Jacob Astor himself. At their center is Joyful Patrick Turner, a multilingual trader, businessman, and ex-surgeon who sets out to preserve the family shipping company, save his country from secessionists, and win the hand of Manon Vionne, a jeweler's lovely daughter, in the bargain. As the characters scheme among themselves, hoping to leave their mark on the growing city, the plot fairly gallops along, and historical-novel fans will relish the bountiful period details of old New York. The perfect antidote for readers who mistakenly believe American history is either boring or unromantic. Sarah Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (January 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743269209
• ISBN-13: 978-0743269209
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #934,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in a Boston suburb, went to school there and in Kansas City (don't ask),and have lived all over the world, including England's Isle of Wight, and a Spanish Island just off the coast of Africa.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vivid history and wonderfully believable characters, February 26, 2007

By 

Shymala Dason - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: City of Glory: A Novel of War and Desire in Old Manhattan (Hardcover)

I enjoyed City of Dreams, but this book, City of Glory, is simply amazing; the writing is as smooth as silk. The opening sections are brief and do make rapid jumps but I was never lost. All the threads kept moving forward and weaving into one single story, one vivid picture of the time.
I liked very much that Ms. Swerling tries to touch on many of the major currents of the time and place - many writers of fiction, historical and otherwise, make their lives easier by limiting the scope of their books to only those elements that work towards the point they're trying to make - and I liked that she shows us all kinds and classes of people. It's a wonderfully honest perspective. I found myself sympathizing with people very different than myself - I've never run a whorehouse or had to be afraid of slavers, I certainly can't imagine wanting to make money out of pushing other people into slavery, like another of the characters (no name mentioned here, to not give away the story) but the pride and desperation that pushed the person into making this choice is shown as clearly as the ugliness of the slave trade. It's a brave thing for a writer to do.
All the people in this book are vividly human. The lesser characters engage as immediately as the major. Reverend Fish's congregation faces black-birders (people who capture and sell blacks, free or otherwise, into slavery) as well as violence and poverty, but there are ministers and leaders of small, threatened communities today, of all colors, who would empathize with his spirit. And though not a lot of time is spent on the Chinese characters, I laughed out loud when I hit the place where the rice cookers the first Chinese brought to New York are mentioned - I grew up in a country with a large Chinese population, and I remember that my Chinese girlfriend's mother sent her off to University with a rice-cooker. I would have enjoyed seeing more of the Chinese (maybe the next book?) but with this many characters I can see why the author couldn't give equal time to all. And I loved that even the characters who spend the least time onscreen are fully understandable - Dolly Madison insisting on being a competent housewife and packing the plate and drawing room curtains before evacuating the White House is endearing or irritating, depending on one's own point of view, but certainly believable, as is the goldsmith who bumbles into plots he doesn't understand in a way that is perfectly on par with his inability to cope with a daughter much brighter than he is. I also love the detail note that Jacob Astor, a man of national and international importance, certainly great business savvy, is blind to a simple, homely fact that his much less successful brother immediately notices. A book, for me, doesn't work unless the little things are done as well as the big, and City of Glory is full of tiny, wonderful details.
City of Dreams ended with a foretaste of the conflicts that haunt America today that was so strong it was almost eerie. City of Glory similarly shows the tension between North and South, coastal city and rural hinterland - some of the seeds that produce those frighteningly divided red and blue electoral maps. It would take a magician, not a novelist, to have an answer to this problem, but if the novelist's job is to hold up a mirror to society and help us understand ourselves a little better, Ms. Swerling has certainly done it - and of course, most importantly, done it in a very entertaining way. This is a grand yarn.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Tantalizing & Turbulent Ten Days in New York, February 19, 2007

By 

Kristen "historical fiction junkie" (Central Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: City of Glory: A Novel of War and Desire in Old Manhattan (Hardcover)

Beverly Swerling's third novel continues the story of the DeVrey and Turner family feud into the early 19th Century against the backdrop of the British Blockade of American ports and the attack on Washington DC toward the end of the War of 1812. This book is chock full of action - it is a wonder that Joyful Patrick Turner, the hero of her latest installment, was able to accomplish so much in these ten days during which he seemingly had so little sleep!

The pluses: this book has all of the ingredients for the making of a wonderful historical novel - pirates, political schemes, war, treason, brothels, slave trading, the largest diamond ever, true love, Irish gangs, the wealthiest man in America, and plenty of characters with missing limbs & digits...

Despite these perks, the sub-stories in this novel are a bit blurry, rushed and littered with extra characters who play insignificant roles. (For instance, why the Chinese Opium side line? It adds little other than to provide opportunities for Joyful to keep his Cantonese in use!) Politics, business, love, intrigue, war and lust are just thrown into the pot and brought to an immediate boil rather than being added one at a time and simmering until the perfect flavor is attained. This seems such a shame as Ms. Swerling's other two books are magnificently written historical epics - perhaps their brilliance casts a bit of a shadow on this one.

However, please do not let these flaws dissuade you from reading City of Glory! It is a fun, fast-paced book full of well researched (and little known) history told through archetypal characters, and quite enjoyable!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another look at old Manhattan, February 17, 2007

By 

Aeryn Scott "Scollar" (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: City of Glory: A Novel of War and Desire in Old Manhattan (Hardcover)

This is a riveting story wonderfully told with all kinds of interesting stuff I'd never have guessed...like slavery in New York? Along with pirates and Chinese and too much to attempt saying here. All superbly researched and relayed with such a masterful touch it's a huge pleasure to read. This is my idea of historical fiction at its very best. Perfect for a snowy afternoon before a fireplace!