Customer Reviews

The Gilded Web

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I was confused by the ratings from readers for this book - they were all over the map- so I decided to give it a go. And I loved it! The story unfolds slowly, but I never got impatient or skipped ahead. It's about two very introverted people who are trying to resolve a misunderstanding within the societal rules of their class and to come to terms with their own feelings. It all made perfect sense to me. The secondary love stories were also well done - nicely balanced throughout the book. I look forward to the rerelease of the next book in this series in July 2007, Web of Love, about Dominic. Mary Balogh is among my top five historical romance writers, and The Gilded Web and Simply Love are my two favorites. Damaged characters are so much more interesting to me, and I never felt that this story was written "by the numbers." I would definitely read this one again. I hope it comes out in an audio, unabridged version.

The Gilded Web is a reissue of a 1989 book by Mary Balogh, the first in a series of three (with "Web" in the titles of all three). The author comments in a preface to the re-publishing that her writing style has changed in her more recent books, although I didn't particularly notice this. However I have often found, when reading older books by popular authors, that they can seem very dated indeed. Not so with The Gilded Web.

Alexandra Purnell is a 21 year old girl whose betrothal to a much older man (who happens to be a Duke) is to be shortly formalised. Her father who has brought her up in a very strict Christian manner has allowed her one season in London to give her some polish before her marriage. It's at a party that Alex's life is turned upside down as she is mistaken for someone else, kidnapped and tied to the bed in the home of the Earl of Amberley. The bed is actually that of Madeleine, the earl's sister and twin of Lord Eden the Earl's younger brother and it is Lord Eden who planned the kidnapping to prevent his sister eloping. However, when Lord Eden discovers Madeleine isn't going to elope at the party he assumes the two friends he has persuaded to kidnap his sister will go home empty-handed. Alex's untimely wander in the garden and initial visual similarity with Madeleine causes her to be kidnapped instead.

When Alex is discovered by the Earl the next morning in his sister's bedchamber he has to do the gentlemanly thing and offer for her. However, Alex doesn't want to marry him - she is shortly to be betrothed to a Duke. It's only as the story of her escapade gets around and she realises she is being shunned by the ton that things appear differently to her and she ends up engaged to the Earl although his brother tries to get her to marry him instead. Her repressive upbringing has left her apparently cold and unfeeling and so the betrothal is difficult. Much of the book centres on the time at Amberley where the Earl introduces his betrothed to his friends and family and they try to get to know each other despite the problem of their betrothal being neither's choice.

Mary Balogh excels at writing stories where characters grow and change and this happens significantly in this book. There is a strong undercurrent of religious situations reflecting the way the characters behave - Alex has been brought up with a "fire and brimstone" God and Lord Amberley tries to show her the "God of Love". I personally thought this was done really well and not too preachy but it would probably put some people off. It's a story about a woman leaving behind oppression and trying to live for herself, but at the same time discovering that self-determination means little if it's separated from those who you love. There are a lot of scenes that set up the next two books in this series, and in a lot of cases the editing could be tighter, but I still think it's a good book. Those who enjoyed "A Summer To Remember" would find this a book on a similar theme and would probably enjoy it very much.

While reading the story of Alex and Edmund, I fought to keep myself from screaming at Alex to take her happiness in Edmund and stop her tedious search to find her "freedom", if, in actuality such a thing exists for any of us. Mary Balogh used the "insect caught in a web" analogy to good effect, however and I was too caught in the story myself to stop. A gilded web is as much a trap as any other web and one is caught just as fast. Over the course of the story, the reader learns that truth along with the heroine. And heroine she is. Such bravery took my breath away. The book took me to a place within myself where I've never been. I can think of no higher praise. That may be spreading it on a bit thick, but there you are.

I agree with other reviewers that this Mary Balogh reprint is repetitive, overwritten, and dullish. But the main problem is the heroine, Alexandra, called Alex by her intimates. Instead of feeling sympathy for this repressed and abused young woman, many readers will, as I did, grow increasingly impatient, frustrated, incredulous and finally even infuriated by her logic and behavior. Balogh has created a character who is by turn naïve, cold, stubborn, selfish, and generally unlikeable. I felt sorry for Lord Amberley, the hero, who is justifiably at a loss when he says, "I can't win, Alex. What do you want?"

Alex's yearning to direct her own life after being tyrannized by her father and betrothed against her will to a stranger is understandable, but her dogged insistence on living an alternate life is unrealistic. She appears, not Joan-of-Arc-courageous, but merely self destructive. The price for independence in a society which did not recognize the rights of women, especially women without wealth, would have been high, indeed, if even possible in Alex's era, and did not change for another 200 years. Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, set in the early 20th century, features Lily Bart, a heroine who could have given Alex a word or two of caution. Speaking to the man she loves but refused to marry, Lily says, ""I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else."

Balogh's effort to write a feminist period romance featuring a mistreated but triumphant Regency heroine determined to overthrow the restraints of her own society, may be applauded, but fails, mainly, because her heroine fails to convince us or even to make us care.

Skip The Gilded Web and read instead Balogh's more recent Slightly series, especially the final installment, Slightly Dangerous--Wulf's story--which has a delightfully likeable heroine who is equally independent and much more fun.

I loved "The Gilded Web" and felt that the characters were interesting and complex. Sometimes I do get a little tired of reading about men who are "rakes" and women who are "diamonds of the first water." It was a pleasant change to read about characters who were more realistic. Edmund lived a life of service to others, without ever really thinking about his own wants and needs. Alexandra lived a sheltered life of obedience to her father, who was a religious zealot, without ever really knowing her own mind. When they both came to the realization that they loved each other and had a right to choose happiness, it was beautiful. I thought it was a lovely book and I highly recommend it. I can't wait to read the other two books in the series which continue the stories of the secondary characters.

This book has everything - a woman compromised, an arranged marriage, and an erotic encounter. It tells the story of the development of a relationship between a man and a woman who have to marry against their wishes. I have now read it 5 times, and will probably read it again soon.

Fans of Mary Balogh will be so happy to have the classic Gilded Series re-released. In this first of three books we find the sheltered Alexandra Purnell in a mistake of identity, kidnapped from the gardens of a ball and taken to the townhome of the Amberley family and tied to the bed for the evening. Dominic, Lord Eden, believes it is his sister Madeline safely tied up in bed at home, as he believes she is eloping with a scoundrel and arranges the kidnapping to prevent disaster. It is his serious, straight-laced, responsible brother, Edmund Raine, the Earl of Amberley who arrives home and finds the young Alex tied to the bed. He knows he must save her reputation and do the honorable thing, especially because he is in need of a wife anyway, so he arrives to her home the following morning to ask for her hand in marriage. Alex and her brother James have led troubled lives under the strict, sheltered, over-religious, controlling rule of their father, Lord Beckwith. Alex not only has no idea about society and rules of the ton, but also does not know how to express her feelings or show joy or happiness, yet alone passion. Edmund and Alex eventually become betrothed and the story moves to the Amberley country estate where Alex and Edmund are to become acquainted with each other. There the story goes into deep detail of the stuggles between these two very sensitive and deep emotional characters, who at first feel they will never know each other, but eventually learn passion and love. It is a deep, strong story and really shows how the romance genre, which according to this reviewer, feels has become too simplified. The romances written in the past were much more involved and took more time in story development. At times it appears that the newer romance writers seem to have lost this art, and at times the classic romance authors disappoint as we look for something written like the Gilded Series, but instead get a rush in less than 300 pages. What has happened to the epics of Bertrice Small and Virginia Henley? Why must a story and the romance reader's attention span be so short? Bringing back this series proves that romance readers are begging for more in-depth romance epics, and it is a delight! I look forward to the next two reissues, Web of Love and Devil's Web.

The Gilded Web was one of the second Mary Balogh books I had ever read, and honestly, really put me off her work entirely. I am a huge fan of Regency romance, and read as many as I can get my hands on, but this book was difficult to get into. The heroine is supposed emotionally repressed from her strict and moral upbringing, and the hero is "without passion". Neither of these characters were particularly endearing, and even their inner thoughts were icy and distant, making it hard to really love the characters, just as the characters find it hard to love each other. They finally click, and come together, but from the first few chapters until the very end, is this block of ice. Regencies are often fun and frothy, or full of angst, but always with an element of give and take, or a bit of chasing the one you love. This book had none of that, instead it was extraordinarily slow reading, and the only reason I wanted to finish it was not because I had any attachment to the characters and wanted a happily ever after, but because I just wanted to see if it could salvage itself in the last few chapters. I have never been so disappointed. Hopefully, the Gilded Web is atypical of Mary Balough's work, but if not, I am going to stick to my favorite authors and leave Mary Balough on the shelf.

I have read five Mary Balogh novels, and three out of those five novels are among my all-time favorite Regency romances (The Secret Pearl, Dancing with Clara and More than a Mistress). Balogh is a gifted writer. She, unlike many historical writers, makes you feel the time period. She is right up there with Georgette Heyer when it comes to historical accuracy and subtle romanticism. The Gilded Web is another prime example of how palatable the Regency period feels while reading the novel. However, I had a hard time getting into the actual story and its protagonists. One night during a ball, Alexandra Purnell is mistaken for someone else and becomes a victim of a prank, a prank that costs the young woman her reputation. Lord Eden had wanted to kidnap his twin sister to keep her from accepting a marriage proposal by a suitor he did not approve of, and the men he hired had kidnapped Alexandra instead. She is found bound in a bedroom by Edmund, Earl of Amberley, Lord Eden's older brother. In an effort to make up for his brother's faux pas, he asks for Alexandra's hand in marriage, which she first refuses, but then has no choice but to accept it when she realizes that she's been unfairly shunned by the ton. But Lord Eden would not allow his brother to marry the seemingly frigid and plain Alexandra, a victim of her abusive father, who's a religious fanatic, and will do everything to assume the responsibility for his mistake.

As said earlier, the way Mary Balogh writes the Regency period is wonderful. I love the way this author makes you feel the time period. She is also quite an insightful social commentator of that period. That is why I give it two stars instead of one. However, this story is all over the place. First thing, it is longer than necessary -- 449 pages of a stilted, thin plot. And for that reason it is extremely repetitive, with pages and pages centered on Lord Eden's persuasiveness and guilt, and pages and pages centered on Alexandra being cold to the point of being robotic. I couldn't identify with these characters and the two leads had no chemistry by my measure. The only one who seemed interesting and scrumptious was James, Alexandra's brooding older brother. The novel does improve toward the end, where the author succeeds in showing us how the protagonists fall in love, and the parts that showcase the hypocrisy of "polite society" are insightful, but it wasn't enough for me to enjoy the book. This is a reprint of a trilogy, a very early effort from Balogh and it shows. This novel lacked the emotion-driven depths of other earlier works of hers like The Secret Pearl and Dancing with Clara. This book is a major disappointment. I have no high hopes for the remaining two Web books. I may read James's story, but I think I'll skip Lord Eden's installment.

Let me start out by saying that I love Mary Balogh's writing, but no one bats a hundred every time.

The story started out well enough. However, the female protagonist turned into some sort of psychologically and emotionally suicidal neurotic ultra-feminist. It was as if she wanted to punish the guy who loved her because of society's standards.

There were many moments towards the end of the book that I thought someone should smack some sense into this girl. I also couldn't understand how the two characters possibly fell in love. They hardly spoke to or spent time with one another. It was all just too weird.

I've never gotten past the third chapter of a book and not finish it, but I did this time. I just couldn't torture myself any longer. Don't buy it; I'm sure you can find people who'd be willing to give it away for free.