Customer Reviews

Deep Summer

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I discovered Gwen Bristow in Junior High. I know I've read all of her books at least 3 times since then. The Plantation Trilogy is her best. This one of the three. Too bad it's out of print. Also Calico Palace. I cannot visit San Fransisco without seeing the early days through Gwen's writing. She was one of the best historical fiction writers.

Deep Summer is only the first of 3 books to complete the Plantation Trilogy. The book starts out with a family of 4 heading down from New England in the mid 1700's to start a new life in the Deep South. You will follow this family and many other families all the way to the early 1900's. It is amazing to read and imagine how these people felt during all the ups and downs the Plantation life has to offer them, good and bad!! I reccommend this book to everyone who is at all interested in history or just a good ole love story.

This is the first Gwen Bristow novel I've ever read. Her historical fiction is wonderful. This is the first of her plantation trilogy, set in what becomes Louisiana, prior to the American Revolution. It follows the Larne and Sheramy families, telling how they carved their empires out of the forests. It's a great love story, a great historical novel, and my favorite of the trilogy.

A very interesting novel about how the Louisiana plantation life got started in the first place. Through the life of Judith, a girl originally from Connecticut, the reader sees first hand how the Southern plantations got their start, how slavery became an entrenched part of the Southern economy, what the phrase "Poor White Trash" means, how and why the cotton gin changed the Southern life style and what the Louisiana territory was like under English, Spanish, French & American domination with its grand mix of cultures. The story will take you from the late 1700's to the early 1800's. Be sure to read the author's preface and epilogue!

I recently decided to go back and reread some books that I had enjoyed as a teenager. I started with author Gwen Bristow's DEEP SUMMER. Reading this again as a mature adult was wonderful. Even though, the characters are fictional, the time period was a very important part of our history. I came away with a much deeper understanding of how the South was settled and how it grew economically.

This is the first in a trilogy of books that Bristow wrote about the South. It's the story of several families who started with land grants on the Mississippi River and told how their properties grew into the great plantations. The land grants were given by King George the Third of England. Men who had served in the French and Indian Wars were given grants for their service. The Sheramy family came down from Connecticut and Philip Larne came from South Carolina. The main female character is Judith Sheramy who married Philip Larne and their families became the wealthy land owners.

DEEP SUMMER has a strong human element. This story will always be a part of my memory when I think of the Louisiana territory and the people who settled there.

Judith Miller

This is a wonderful tale of two families settling into Louisiana while it was still a wilderness, carving out their homes, crops, subsequent plantations and family dynasties, along with their dependence on slaves to maintain those plantations.

The author has a nice way of making you feel and see the realities of life in the south, including the bugs and the oppresive heat. It was wonderful learning about the early settlers in Louisiana, up to it's entrance into the US as a territory. Prior to that, sometimes they were governed by the French, sometimes by the Spanish, etc.

Well worth taking the time to read, this is the start of Bristow's Plantation Trilogy, the next being during the time of the Civil War. While the price of the used book is more than a bit over the top for me, I readily found it at my local library.

Although hard to find a copy of this book, it is well worth the hunt. Excellant for all ages and very romantic. You'll turn the pages fast, laugh, gringe, cry...my all time favorite read and based on history of LA as well.

This is a beautifully written book, the first in Gwen Bristow's "Plantation Trilogy." I first read the books when I was a teenager and I recently decided to re-read them. The main character in "Deep Summer" is Judith Sheramy, who at the age of 15, moved from Connecticut with her family to the Louisiana territory in the late 1700s. Judith's father had received a land grant as a reward for having fought in the French and Indian War, and the family travels down the Mississippi River to settle in a small town a few hours north of New Orleans. Everyone's world is turned upside-down as they get settled in--especially Judith's. Instead of marrying a staid young man, as her parents expected her to, she falls in love with Philip Larne, a handsome rogue from South Carolina who also has a land grand (his land adjoins Judith's parent's), and the two elope in the middle of the night. As the years go on, they build a dynasty and a grand plantation from what had been a jungle.

Judith and Philip's relationship has lots of twists and turns, and ups and downs along the way, but it's a true love story. There are a lot of characters in this book--all are richly drawn and the dialogue is always believable and true to life. And the author obviously did a lot of historical research. I also think that Judith and Philip have a surprisingly modern marriage. My only criticism is that in the second-half of the book, the focus turns more to Judith and Philip's children, who are not nearly as interesting as their parents. Nonetheless, Ms. Bristow was a very, very talented writer--one of the best writers I'm familiar with.

If you're looking for history and romance and great characters, I highly recommend this novel. In my opinion, it's the best book in the trilogy (although the other two are good, they really can't compare with "Deep Summer"). Unfortunately, this book is now out of print and it's very hard to find a copy of it. That's really a shame, because "Deep Summer" will always remain one of my all-time favorite novels.

Gwen Bristow's Plantation Series is a series for all lovers of Historical Romance! "Two abiding passions held them together--their love and their dream of an empire in the Louisiana jungle." Deep Summer is the first book in the Plantation Series and it is the best one of all three, the other two are fantastic, but Deep Summer is the best, highly recommended!!

This was the first book of Gwen Bristow's I read...an excellant story about the American Revoluntary War viewed through a young girl's eye. A real pager turner for all ages.