Customer Reviews

The Glass Blowers

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My first taste of Daphne Du Maurier was Rebecca. I loved it so much that I had to read more of her. I have always been a fan of drama set in real historical times, so I was drawn to this story that spans three generations of a french family living before, during and after the French Revolution. To make it more inviting, it is based on Daphne's own ancestors.

The trade that binds the family is glassblowing - a process that involves heating glass and blowing the melted medium into goblets and bottles and such. But the story is not about the glassblowing. It is about living and working and giving birth and dying during the years before, during and after the French Revolution.

Du Maurier blows so much life and heart and feeling into these characters that by the time the book ends, you feel like you're saying goodbye to a family that you have grown to know and love. One of my favorite books is Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth. I would put this book right up there with it. Not only do you watch the effect a tumultuous time in history has on a middle class family, you watch French society change through economic and political upheaval. And Du Maurier has characters placed in all the right places to watch the drama unfold.

This book comes with my highest recommendation. You had best snatch it up, because it appears to be out of print, and there are just a few copies available on Amazon.