Customer Reviews

The Heaven Tree Trilogy (The Heaven Tree / The Green Branch / The Scarlet Seed)

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If five stars is what a reviewer should give the top ten percent of all the books he or she has ever read, then this book has to get at least twelve! Actually, no number could do it justice; it is beyond praise.

Do you enjoy fiction that pummels you, puts you through the wringer, makes every muscle in your body ache from the mere Body English of trying to avoid the inevitable? Then this is for you. Saying that it 'puts you through the wringer' or makes you feel as though you've been 'boiled in oil,' is an atrocious understatement. I have read literally thousands of books in my life [averaging two or three a week], and nothing else comes close to the emotional impact of this one.

In the first installment of the trilogy [and the most powerful of the three] we meet someone who is a 'born artist,' and we follow the story through his life and that of his son. More to the point, both of them are truly Good People. And the combination of artistry with high moral purpose turns out to be just as deadly as we always knew it would be. To say more would be to give too much away. Suffice it to say that you will never forget these characters-- any of them.

As you begin to sense where the plot is headed, your blood turns to ice and your stomach constricts with dread. And yet, although it goes exactly where you knew it would, there's nothing predictable about it. The surprise is in how you get there.

An American writer named Ken Follett has written a book called The Pillars of the Earth, which has been very popular and has gotten rave reviews. Skip that one; read this one.

It is amazing to me that this trilogy hasn't been made into a TV miniseries or a sequence of movies a la Star Wars. I'm glad it hasn't though-- no visual treatment could come close to doing it justice. The pictures in paints in your mind's eye will be all the visual aid you'll ever need.

I recognize that I'm gushing here, but it can't be helped. This is, in my opinion, the best book ever written in the English language. Period.

This has got to be one of the best and most inspiring series of all time. They are all fabulous - but I find myself reading and re-reading "The Heaven Tree" time and again - and STILL can't get to the final chapter without a box of tissues handy! Edith Pargeter/Ellis Peters is FABULOUS with character development. Don't EVER hesitate to read ANY of her books - but do make a special effort to read this. I was only sorry to hear she's died and there won't be any further additions to her library!

I added a few sentences to several of the other reviews, but felt moved to include my own. THE HEAVEN TREE will be one of the very last books I part with. In my middle seventies, I am in the "paring down" stage of life. But I won't part with this book until the end.
I've read just about every one of Pargeter's/Peters' novels and detective stories. THE HEAVEN TREE is her best and I treasure it. From the very first paragraph of the first volume, I was riveted by her rich description.
And her characters! These are vibrant persons who live with immediacy. I taught history for four decades. I always tried to get across to my students how intensely people lived in medieval times. Life was short, death was imminent, and God, the saints, and the Devil were real. Pargeter's characters are well aware when they act basely. They KNOW when they choose evil instead of good. Hence their intensity, their immediacy, They grab our interest because we wish we could act with such intensity, even as we blench in horror at Isambard's conduct, and admire Harry Talvace's brave decency.
What a loss literature suffered with Edith Pargeter's death! How sad that her books are so hard to find. I am reminded of John Galsworthy's short story "Quality". The shoddy, the slimey, the quick sell drive out what is true, what is noble, what is admirable. I hope that this is not so in the case of THE HEAVEN TREE TRILOGY.

I found a paperback edition of these three books in a train station bookstall in Leeds, England in the late 60s, and they remain one of my all time favorites. Harry Talvace, Benedetta, and Ralf Isambard still populate my memories as if they were people I once knew.

Those who love these books should also check out Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles -- the only other historical novels that have the richness of character and plot that I found in these books.

This has to one of the best books I have ever read. The story of this noble turned stonecutter in the often brutal medieval period was nothing short of magnificent. Although this book is out of print and quite lengthy (899 pages)it is well worth the historical romance lovers time to read this magnificent story! Love, honor, hate, feuds and heart wrenching forgiveness. This novel covered it all. Absolutely fabulous! I cried so much in the last chapters that someone walking in on me thought a family member died. - Try your best to find a copy and do take the time to read - This has to be a classic!

I have never written a book review before, but this book inspires me to share my pleasure with everyone. This is, without a doubt, my favorite book. A friend told me about it several years ago and, bless her soul, lent me her copy of the trilogy. After reading it and living through the journey of Harry, Adam, Benedetta, Gilleis, and of course, my favorite, Isambard, I was transported back to this historical time. The pictures it paints are so vivid, so engulfing, that I couldn't tear myself away, and even at 899 pages, the journey was too short. After experiencing this brilliant story, I had to own a copy for myself. Though it was out of print at the time, I contacted the publishher (FREQUENTLY) until they released another printing. This is the only book I own that I have never lent to anyone - I can't bear to part with it! I have re-read this book at least 4 times, and I'm planning on diving into it again this summer.

How lucky I was to have been living in England in the late 1980s when I discovered Edith Pargeter/Ellis Peters, because these books were in print in paperback (how I wish I had hard copies!). I have read and re-read these books, and all of the Cadfael books, and just about every other book she has written - I even bought the Cadfael mysteries in Swedish (lived there after England) because (1) I had that collecting EP boks bug and (2) it immensely improved my vocabulary!

This story is complex, compelling, riveting; human in scale, yet encompassing great themes; and it's a roaring good read. I laugh, I cry, I wish I were as wonderfully talented as Madonna Benedetta, or as loyal as Gilleis...and every time the boys seek sanctuary in Shrewsbury, I think "If only Cadfael were there, he would find a way to help them." Yes, I am obssessed, but in a good way!

I am impressed by Ms Pargeter's knowledge of mediaeval history, and even more so by her ability to create living, breathing characters to bring it alive. Because of her, I have read a great deal of serious, non-fiction history about the war between Stephen and Maude, and about the melding of Norman and Saxon into England. And because her sympathies are so clearly with both Welsh and English in the tangled border area, I have been able to burnish my strong pride in my Welsh heritage, while learning to forgive those who trampled it to bits. Because history is never as simple as it seems from this end.

I highly recommend these books. I sent copies to a friend of mine for his birthday one year and I hope he treasures them too!

In her introduction, Edith Pargeter explains that her novel The Heaven Tree "came to birth as the incidental offspring of a course of lectures on the nature of art". She asked herself "what it must be like to be a great artist" and "set out to discover whether I could create a truly great artist." She has done this in this book, and in the two subsequent books that make up the trilogy she has shown that she herself is a great artist in bringing to life noble and believable human beings. She talks of "special perception of harmony, proportion and balance which identifies greatness" and herself reveals them in her writing. It is significant that she sets her tale in a time when the artist, in this case a stone-mason" consciously offered his talents in the service of God. Today, the lure of large sums of money, fashion, obsession with physical sex and violence conspire to pull an artist away from this service so that instead of helping us in our search for God, as the creators of the great cathedrals did, the artist all to often draws us in the opposite direction, with the help of "the media". Ms Pargeter's great achievement is in showing us that to be a truly great artist one needs also to seriously aspire to be a great man: both Harry Talvace and his son put their lives at risk in following their conscience and it is surely this even more than their artistic talent that inspires and brings out the best in those with whom they have contact, as Ms Pargeter so compellingly and convincingly shows us.

Wow. I never review books, but this one was way too good to not tell others about. I have rarely been so moved by a book, and I have read thousands. Despite it's 890+ pages I devoured it in my first day of summer vacation--and I couldn't have spent my day better. This book has everything, and is perfect.

I'm not going to write a summary of the book, because I want you to go out and read it, and be surprised to find the characters like they are, but I just need to say that this book has more truth and beauty than most books in this world. Read it. You'll never regret it.

I bought these books in a train station in Leeds, England, when I was sixteen, and still have them. I've loaned them carefully to a few friends over the years, and have long wished that they were more widely available so I could buy copies to give away to anyone I know who loves historical fiction. I haven't re-read them for many years, but the images and the characters are still vivid. Harry Talvace, Ralf Isambard, Benedetta--wow, I can still see them as if I knew them as old friends. If you can find these, snap them up!

Some of you may know that I'm also a big Dorothy Dunnett fan, and these rank right up there with the Lymond Chronicles and well ahead of the House of Niccolo in my estimation. I'm also inordinately fond of Hope Muntz's The Golden Warrior.

(While I'm at it--some other good historical novels (though a notch below these) include Sharon Kay Penman's Sunne in Splendor, anything by Shellabarger (Prince of Foxes, Captain from Castile, etc.), and much of Sabatini (Captain Blood, etc.))