The Distant Lands: A Novel of the Antebellum South [Hardcover]

Julian Green (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1991

Set in the American South just before the Civil War, this is a family saga of love, political intrigue and, above all, extravagant living. It has at its centre a modern psychological portrait of the heroine, a complex, sensitive and wilful personality.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Elizabeth Escridge, a winsome blond English orphan of 16, comes to live with her slave-holding kin at Dimwood, their Georgia plantation, in this hefty, slow-building, floridly written novel of the antebellum South by noted French academician Green ( Adrienne Mesurat ), who as a child imbibed tales of his mother's Savannah girlhood. Elizabeth, developing from a pious innocent into an impassioned woman, drunk on moonlight and magnolias, is driven to casting occult spells in the Wood of the Damned in hopes of luring Jonathan Armstrong. Scapegrace Jonathan--seductive, mocking, diabolical--threatens to reclaim Dimwood as his family estate; in need of money, he marries a wealthy mulatto courtesan whom he grows to detest. Elizabeth, though wed to a sweetly placid man for whom sex is embarrassing ("It's not done in America"), becomes a "bacchante" in the bedroom. She makes love to both men, and bears a son of uncertain paternity. Though his gothic/romantic novel may be more aptly compared to Poe's "Ligeia" than to Mitchell's Gone with the Wind , Green is a poetic master at manipulating genre trappings--insolent aristocrats, buried family crimes, haunted mansion, sinister housekeeper and laudanum-drugged women who are victims or vampires. His skewed Gallic nightmare vision of the American South puts a distinctive spin on this monumental melodramatic read. A sequel is expected.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Forced to leave England after the death of her father, Elizabeth Escridge and her mother arrive penniless at Dimwood Plantation, Georgia in 1850, completely dependent on the charity of relatives. As Elizabeth soon discovers, the apparently insipid plainness of the Southern landscape conceals dark secrets and throbbing passions. This is Green's Gone with the Wind , begun in the late 1930s but not completed until 1986. His Scarlett O'Hara is a far more Freudian heroine, out of control and a prey to lust for her Ashley Wilkes, here named Jonathan Armstrong. At times Green strains the credulity of the American reader with his bizarre genealogies and unlikely events, probably more believable to a European audience. But Green, the only American member of the French Academy, weaves a spellbinding, suspenseful tale not easily abandoned. Beaumont's translation is smooth. Readers seeking historical fiction of the antebellum South should not neglect this book.
-Bob Ivey, Memphis State Univ., Tenn.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 902 pages
• Publisher: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd (September 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714529095
• ISBN-13: 978-0714529097
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #454,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars In a word: Odd, May 12, 2009

By 

49reasons (Vancouver, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Distant Lands (Paperback)

I agree with the previous (and only) customer review. Maybe the culture in the antebellum South was so totally different from today that the modern mind just doesn't get it, but I thought many of the conversations, expressed sentiments, and actions were just plain odd. I think part of the problem is that none of the characters were developed enough that they made any sense.
Worse still is that the main character, Elizabeth, is pretty hard to like, as are most of the others. I kept hoping throughout this book and the sequel, The Stars of the South, that she would redeem herself in some way; many times she almost did, but she never quite made it. As for the others, I found most of them very tiresome.
Especially disappointing was that the most interesting character was killed in a duel. He was the best part of the story.

2 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Spoiled Brat and a Pointless Story, January 24, 2006

By 

Graceann Macleod "Books Fuel My Life" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Distant Lands: A Novel of the Antebellum South (Hardcover)

What a terrible book - I kept with it, praying that it would get better, and it was just a frustrating slog. Elizabeth is just a spoiled little idiot, and there's no point to any of the suffering that takes place because of her selfishness. Don't waste your time.