19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chadwick's best work was stolen by Dan Brown!, November 20, 2005
I maintain that Dan Brown, who wrote the Da Vinci Code, got all his ideas from this book. Not that's bad, since this a great book with many intriguing ideas. I just wish everyone who was so thrilled with the Da Vinci Code would read this for comperason...
This book tells the story of Bridget, who is a descendent of Mary Magdalene and Jesus's brother, and is living in southern France in the 1200's. Because she is constantly being sought and attacked by the Catholic Church she hides out with Templar nights and Cathers, a religious sect of the time who believe in a god of light. Bridget is a pagan worshiper of the goddess, but she believes in Cather ideals of being kind to one another.
Bridget knows she must have a daughter to carry on her line. She chooses a man, Raoul de Montvallant, who is all ready married to father her child. They have one night of passion and Bridget moves on to give birth to a girl, Magda. Meanwhile, Raoul's wife Claire is captured by Simon De Montfort (the elder, not the one who lived in England and rebelled against Henry III) and raped by him. She gives birth to a young boy who is raised by Montfort's spiteful wife and monks. He is named Dominic.
Dominic and Bridget's daughter Magda are meant to be together. But as the Crusade against the Cathers gathers strength and traps hundreds of faithful, among them Raoul, Clair, Bridget, Magda and Raoul's and Clair's son (from before she was raped) in a mountain stronghold. It's up to Dominic to save his beloved...and the bloodline that is the Holy Grail.
This book is thrilling, romantic, very intelligent and informative and by far the best of Chadwick's novels I have read to date. It is out of print, but not difficult to find at all and well worth the effort to locate.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An exciting mix of adventure, history and mysticism, September 10, 2008
It was a new month, and that means I got to pick out another title of Elizabeth Chadwick's to read. (I am trying very hard to pace out my enjoyment of her novels so that I neither get burnout, nor run out of something new of hers to read.) This month's selection was her novel about the Albigensian Crusades of the early thirteenth century, Daughters of the Grail.
And I'll freely admit it, I tend to be rather skeptical of stories that blend the whole 'holy grail' bit in with history. I've read so much on the topic over the years that the subject holds absolutely no interest for me whatsoever. Still, the novel was by Elizabeth Chadwick, and happy experience have taught me that she's a damn fine writer, and knows her craft very well.
When the novel opens, young Bridget is with her dying mother Magda in a cave high up in the Pyrennes mountains of France. Southern France at this time is being ravaged by religious controversy between the Catholic Church and the breakaway Cathars. The Cathars are pacifists, with beliefs that diverge wildly from the norm -- they believe in equality, that women could preach, that the world was in reality sinful and ruled by the Rex Mundi, a spirit of evil. But the secret that Bridgt and her mother have, that would rock all of Christianity to its very origins -- if they remain alive to carry it into the future. Madga makes Bridget promise to remain alive and bear a child, and to seek help from the Cathars who will aid her.
Wandering with two Cathar companions, Bridget meets Raoul de Montvallant, a young knight, on his wedding day to the beautiful Claire. They notice one another, and while Bridget is aware of both his strength and beauty, she does not act on her own desire. And Raoul is very much in love with his young wife. Beyond the happy events, a larger storm is about to descend, where the Catholic church is about to declare war on fellow Christians, and unleash a time of brutal barbarism.
The third player in this drama is a baron in northern France. He is a brutal man, rigid in his beliefs and behaviour, and skilled in warfare. Simon de Montfort is an ambitious man, wanting more power and lands under his control and determined to win fame for himself and his liniage. When the word comes that the Church is to hunt out Catharism and crush it out, he gladly goes to war.
Raoul and Claire, despite their love for each other, find themselves separated by fate and coping with devastating losses. Bridget is able to continue on. And the Cathars are facing death and terrible retribution for their beliefs. In the next generation, we see their children carry on their story, culminating in the tragedies of Montsegur.
In all honesty, I tend to avoid novels that try to blend mysticism and history, finding them much too overwrought for me to suspend my rather skeptical nature. But as I read, I found this story actually enjoyable. Bridget is a woman of great sensitivity, using her gifts for healing with compassion, even when it may mean future danger for herself and others. And Chadwick's presentation of the Cathars has them make sense, and shows quite a bit of their customs and lifestyle, both of which would have been outright heresy to most of the medieval world. But most compelling was the story about Simon de Montfort -- to modern minds he is a vicious, barbaric man, and I found him to be one of the more loathsome villans in history.
As always with Chadwick, her writing style is vivid and flows well, carrying the reader quickly along as the lives of these four people intertwine, along with a healthy dose of the mystical world. While I'm not a big fan of the entire controversy about Mary Magdalene, this is one of the better versions of the story.
Along with the novel, Chadwick discusses some of her ideas in an afterword, and reveals some of the facts behind the story as well as giving a list of further books to read on the subject of the Cathars and religious dissent in thirteenth century France. I would also suggest Zoe Oldenbourg's novels about the same time period and topic, especially Destiny of Fire.
Four stars. Recommended.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding!, December 10, 2007
This is really one of the best books I have ever read. It's not Gone With the Wind or the Far Pavilions, but it's pretty darn close. So much of the historical fiction I read is centered in England, Scotland and Wales, and I enjoyed reading about this period in history in southern France and about a religion I knew nothing about (having not yet read The DaVinci Code).
This was an exciting tale of Cathars, Knights Templar, evil priests, Bridget and her daughter Magda - descended from Mary Magdelene, all battling the Roman Catholic Church that is bent on destroying them, and finishes with a heart-stopping page turning, can't put it down until it's done finish. It always astounds me the evil that men will do in the name of "god", and that it continues to this day.
I had found this book used in the US last year, and the first time I read it I knew nothing about Simon DeMontfort (the second) and what he tried to accomplish for England before his tragic end. Although I know the part he plays in this novel, with his illegitimate half brother Dominic, is just a story, it was nice to see some glimpses of him in a minor role as a young boy and then a young man. To learn more about this incredible man, please read Sharon Kay Penman's
Falls the Shadow.
As always with Chadwick's books, the way she brings the medieval period to life in such a graceful and effortless way, be it the sights, sounds, smells, food, clothes and battles is just awesome. Five stars.
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