'Perhaps we shall not see each other again. I will write to you, though, and tell you, as best I can, the story of your family. A glass-blower, remember, breathes life into a vessel, giving it shape and form and sometimes beauty; but he can with that same breath, shatter and destroy it' Faithful to her word, Sophie Duval reveals to her long-lost nephew the tragic story of a family of master craftsmen in eighteenth-century France. The world of the glass-blowers has its own traditions, it's own language - and its own rules. 'If you marry into glass' Pierre Labbe warns his daughter, 'you will say goodbye to everything familiar, and enter a closed world'. But crashing into this world comes the violence and terror of the French Revolution against which, the family struggles to survive. The Glass Blowers is a remarkable achievement - an imaginative and exciting reworking of du Maurier's own family history.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'Three cheers for a novelist who can write convincingly of human relationships and the horrors of civil war' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
About the Author
Daphne du Maurier was born in 1906 and educated at home and in Paris. She began writing in 1928, and many of her bestselling novels were set in Cornwall, where she lived for most of her life. She was made a DBE in 1969 and died in 1989.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Daphne du Maurier was born in 1906 and educated at home and in Paris. She began writing in 1928, and many of her bestselling novels were set in Cornwall, where she lived for most of her life. She was made a DBE in 1969 and died in 1989.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Daphne's ancestors,
By
This review is from: Glass-Blowers (Paperback)
Daphne du Maurier wrote this novel as a fictionalized history of her own forebears. As best I can tell, the famous author is a descendant of Robert Busson, who added the "du Maurier" to the end of his name as part of his aristocratic pretensions. The Bussons were a two generation family of glass blowers in France, who were master craftsmen, but no aristocrats. Simply stated, Robert was a gambler, a risk taker who threw everything into his quest for prestige. He spent time in prison because of bad debts, emigrated to England to escape his creditors, and abandoned his children from two marriages. When the side he supported failed, he merely turned his coat. All of this took place in the era of the French Revolution, and while the book contains scenes of local riots and insurrections, of starvation and murder, The Glassblowers lacks the tension so characteristic of Rebecca and some of her other fine works.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Somehow, we no longer seemed to preach the brotherhood of man",
By
This review is from: Glass-Blowers (Paperback)
In this book du Maurier recounts the tale of her forebears, the Busson family of master glass-blowers leading up to and through the French Revolution. Told through the POV of Sophie as she looks back on her life, daughter of master glass-blower Mathurin Busson and his formidable (in a good way) wife Magdaleine and her siblings Robert, Pierre, Michel and Edmé. For Robert, the eldest working his craft in the countryside is not enough and he dreams of greatness in Paris - but unable to manage his spending he always ends up in financial disaster and bankruptcy and he depends on his family to bail him out time and again.The countryside where the Busson family lives is not greatly affected by the first stirrings of the revolution in the cities, but that soon changes when Michel and Sophie's husband Francois become National Guardsman and find themselves slowly being caught up in the nationalist fervor sweeping the country. At first Sophie is horrified at the behavior of her brother and husband as they join others in sacking the manor houses and churches - "The people were mad. They had to have a victim. No single one of them was to blame, it was like a fever sweeping them." Eventually she too finds herself buying into the revolutionary ideals as the madness continues to grow and suspicion and rumor grip the countryside. In the end a new and "stable" government takes control but it is never enough. Eventually Sophie and her family are swept up in the War in the Vendée, a little known but horrific footnote in history (do go to Wik and read up on it). Once The Terror is over the Busson siblings rebuild their lives and eventually things come full circle with the return of Robert - who fled to England as an émigré to avoid the debts of his last business debacle. While this novel is a bit slower paced at times (although the scenes from the Vendée were downright unputdownable) and might not appeal to all readers, I enjoyed it a great deal. A refreshing change seeing the Revolution from the countryside - major events such as the taking of the Bastille, the Women's March on Versailles and the executions of Louis and Marie were events that happened far away. As maddening as he was in his doomed financial efforts, Robert was great fun and I loved the way the author worked in the "birth" of the family name in England - du Maurier. Definitely recommended for du Maurier fans or those interested in the history of the Revolution.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
