Customer Reviews

Harriet and Isabella (Historical Fiction)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
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This terrific story really brings the Beecher family back to life. We all know who Harriet Beecher Stowe was and have read "Uncle Tom's Cabin," but didn't know that the Beechers were the Kennedys of their time. What I loved about this book is that it's a 19th and 21st century story at the same time, about sex and religion, sisters and sisterhood.

All the scandals and family troubles that we think we invented were happening back in the 19th century. The preacher, Henry Ward Beecher was caught in a sex scandal. When he denied it and the case went to trial, his sisters took sides. Harriet chose family loyalty over everything, and Isabella chose truth over loyalty.

The story that Patricia O'Brien wrote takes place after the sisters had been estranged for a long time and their brother is dying. I loved the real life cast of characters! Victoria Woodhull and Susan B. Anthony. It's a great book group read because it sets off so many conversations!

This book has it all: timeless themes of truth and loyalty... family psychodrama... guilty pleasures (gossip)... and a fascinating historical backdrop of one of the most important periods in American life. But what I loved most was how the passions and issues of the scandal O'Brien writes about resonate so well both backward and forward across time. She tells the story of Henry Ward Beecher's adultery trial in 1875. It feels completely modern to me. And at the same time, it strikes me as only a slight variant of moral dilemma Sophocles wrote about in "Antigone." Does family loyalty trump standards of public virtue? Or vice verse? But this is no philosphy tract: it's a gripping page turner of a novel. A terrific read. And all the more satisfying because the two women -- one a prominent suffragette, the other, author of the most influential anti-slavery book perhaps of all times -- were fascinating characters in their own right. They were also spokespersons for two huge social movements. All in all, this book is a smashing libretto for a real-life operatic drama.

"Harriet and Isabella" is an engrossing, compelling page-turner that animates the past in ways few historical novels manage to do. It is many things at once: a timeless family saga, a gripping tale of pride, betrayal and redemption, and a vivid recreation of a fascinating, tumultuous era in America. O'Brien's characters seem to leap off the page, their story as relevant today as it was in the 19th century. I couldn't put this book down!

Harriet and Isabella is a novel based on the history of the Beecher family. I like stories that are based on history because I learn a lot about those people and that time in a captivating way. This story weaves in all sorts of people like Samuel Clemens and Susan B. Anthony and the events of that time, slavery, suffragettes, feminism.

This book was not so much action packed as it was a story about relationships. Henry Ward Beecher, a well loved pastor in his day, is accused of adultery. The story revolves around the Beecher family's reaction and opinions about the veracity of the claim. To be a faithful Beecher you must believe Henry innocent, to do otherwise is to be banished from the clan. Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, faithfully believes her brother innocent. Isabella, the radical feminist sister, believes him guilty... but still loves him. The loving him doesn't matter to Henry's wife, Eunice; Isabella is never welcome at Henry's home again and Eunice makes sure she never gains admittance.

As the Beechers all grow old, some hearts soften in regret and others harden to stone. It's a great story and a sobering character sketch.

A lotta back story. Actually the whole story is back story. Very interesting part of history that I know little about. I liked it, but after a while I got to wondering if it couldn't have started with the scandal and chugged its way forward, rather than stopping every other paragraph.

As the family gathers around the bedside of famed preacher Henry Ward Beecher in 1887 Brooklyn Heights, his closest sister and most avid supporter, Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom's Cabin) rushes to his bedside, Henry having slipped into a coma. With his cold-eyed wife, Eunice, hovering near, antagonizing nurses and friends alike, Harriet finds her brother's home as tension-filled as ever. In a nearby rooming house, the youngest sibling, Isabella Beecher Hooker, awaits an opportunity to approach the family with a request to see her brother one more time. Ostracized for the last twelve years, since Henry is accused of infidelity with a married woman, Isabella has little hope of a reprieve, even as Henry lies dying.

Time passing slowly on the death vigil, sisters Harriet and Isabella ruminate on the causes of their estrangement and the loss of sisterly intimacy they once shared. O'Brien dramatically presents Isabella's perspective, the impulsive, passionate younger sister who adores her older brother and her confidant, Harriet. Harriet is the one who has taken the time to mentor her step-sibling, explaining the evils of slavery and the family tradition of standing for truth. When an adult Isabella is attracted to spiritualism and an emerging women's movement, associated with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B Anthony and Victoria Woodhull, Harriet is unsympathetic, but agrees to disagree with Isabella on these matters, as long as family loyalty remains intact.

The threat arrives in the form of Victoria Woodhull, a sensational, free love-espousing lightning rod who inflicts moral vulnerability on the formerly righteous women's movement, creating a rift within the ranks that is quickly exploited by enemies of the movement. Woodhull makes public a claim that the upstanding Henry Ward Beecher has had an unseemly relationship with Elizabeth Tipton, wife of parishioner Theodore Tipton. Woodhull denounces Beecher as a hypocrite. As the Beechers draw together in defense of their older brother, it is Isabella who is the weak link, doubting Henry's veracity and agonizing over the imprisonment of Woodhull for exercising her right of free speech. Expecting understanding, even guidance from Harriet, Isabella is rebuffed.

In contrast, throughout a trail that follows later, Harriet remains loyal to Henry, but her devotion comes at great personal sacrifice. Turning her back on Isabella, Harriet cannot condone her step-sister's doubts, nor can she afford to be charitable to one incapable of family loyalty. The star of the piece, Henry, insulated by his arrogance, avoids other than patent denials, never experiencing guilt over the suffering of his brothers and sisters. It is hard to judge which sister carries the heavier burden, each as devastated finally as the other, although Harriet is much more intractable in her views than Isabella. The author weaves a tangled web: a man of God, a free-thinking suffragette, the indiscretions of a married woman and her wronged, if equally indiscreet husband. Wealth, notoriety, power and arrogance attend every aspect of this tawdry affair, the real victims sisters Harriet and Isabella. Luan Gaines/2008.

"Without the constraints of damnation, what holds human passions in check?"

Harriet and Isabella by Patricia O'Brien is a courtroom drama. Itis also an American Historical story about the Beecher family. Most of us are familiar with one of the sisters, Harriet Beecher Stowe. She wrote the world famous "Uncle Tom's Cabin." There is also Isabella, one of the other sisters. She fights fervently for the rights of women during the Women's Suffrage Movement. She befriends and works with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Victoria Woodhull and Susan B. Anthony. She becomes closest to Victoria Woodhull.

Although Harriet and Isabella are very much a part of the story being told, the main conflict involves the brother, Henry Beecher and his wife, Eunice. He is the pastor of Plymouth Church. He is known for his sermons about love and forgiveness vs. fire and brimstone sermons. Unfortunately, Henry Beecher becomes involved in a scandal that rocks Boston and New York. This scandal makes the Beecher siblings and their wives or husbands choose sides about Henry's guilt or innocence.

The book is powerfully written. All the characters are three dimensional. It is also a sociological and psychological study of family. Is it ever right for one family member to help others bring their sibling before a judge and jury? Is true love always silent? When some of the members of a family are famous, is there responsibility on all of the family to make a mark on history's page? There were so many questions brought to mind while reading the book. I also thought about how it feels to live so close to your family but no longer welcome within their homes because of a difference in opinion.

The courtroom drama is never boring. It's hot and stagnant inside the court. Perhaps, that made feelings more raw among the people there. I could not stop reading. I just kept thinking how it would all end. I also thought a lot about how far women have come in the annals of American History. Patricia O'Brien is a mighty writer. She leaves not one thread unraveled.

This book gives enough of the real history to make you want to go out and read the biographies the author uses to write it.

In March 1887 in Brooklyn Heights the great American abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher lays nears death. His extended family has gathered to pay their last respects while the media also arrives seeking a story especially since his two famous sisters have publicly feuded over him in the past fifteen years.

The gathering is mindful of a similar family meeting that happened a decade and a half earlier to discuss how to handle the scandal. On the front page of the newspaper is an accusation that Henry is having an affair with his parishioner Elizabeth Tilton witnessed by her children. A church committee conducts a kangaroo hearing into the matter and in 1875, he stands trial for committing adultery while his former parishioner, Theodore Tilton, sues him. Henry's sisters split as Harriet the renowned author supports him and Isabelle the ardent suffragette condemns her sibling.

This is a fabulous historical fiction tale that could be easily read in the headlines of today. Other flashbacks round out the tale, but it is the deftly handled celebrity trial of Henry Ward Beecher that makes this worth reading. Reconstruction Era historical buffs will appreciate this fine telling of the events that caused a schism amidst the first family of mid nineteenth century human rights.

Harriet Klausner

At the heart of Patricia O'Brien's wonderful new book is the question of family loyalty--with whom do you side when a family member brings scandal or embarrassment to the family name? Do you choose family loyalty or the truth? And in whose eyes does the truth lie? Harriet Beecher Stowe chose to remain loyal to her preacher brother when he was caught in a sex scandal. Her sister Isabella chose truth. The result was family estrangement for many years. With keen insight and gifted prose, O'Brien shows us that family dynamics were no different in the 19th century than they are today. This is an excellent book club choice that will have people confessing family secrets to each other all night!