Customer Reviews

Jubilee Trail

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first read Gwen Bristow's "Jubilee Trail" when I was in high school and really loved the story and characters. Over the years I have frequently looked for the novel in used book stores, thinking to reread it to see if the strong narrative would hold up after all this time. I saw a well-worn copy at a friends house last month and asked to borrow it. Once again this book, rich in historic detail about the old West and the brave men and women who traveled the Jubilee Trail, held me in thrall.

Eighteen year-old Garnet Cameron recently graduated from Miss Wayne's Select Academy for Young Ladies, a boarding school on a country estate in Upper Manhattan. She now resides with her doting parents at their home in Union Square, New York. The year is 1844. Garnet is in the process of being wooed by the cream of the local crop of eligible men, and she is just plain bored. She has always been different from her peers - more spirited and adventurous, and she is fearful she will have to surrender her dreams of travel and a more active life. She is expected to settle down, with a young banker or stockbroker, and live the staid existence her mother has. Then she meets Oliver Hale, a California ranch owner who has lived out West for eight years. Originally from Boston, he attended Harvard and then left with his older brother to buy land beyond the United States' frontiers. Oliver makes the trip East every year to trade goods from the Far East, California and Mexico. When he and Garnet fall in love and decide to marry, she is thrilled she will finally have the opportunity to travel, and much more. Before she leaves, her mother asks if she married Oliver for love, or because of the possibilities marriage to him offers. While Garnet obviously loves her husband, she is certainly not adverse to the benefits the match brings.

The young couple honeymoon in New Orleans, and then set off for St. Louis, Independence, Santa Fe and onward to California, through the badlands and the grueling heat of the Mojave Desert. The abundance of well developed characters - all interesting, though not all likeable - are just too numerous to mention. Suffice it to say that this is a complex plot and the individuals who people it make the tale even richer. Events that neither Garnet, nor Oliver, could ever have foreseen take place, and Garnet will need all her pluck and spirit to survive.

Ms. Bristow writes about an exciting and tumultuous time in California's history. During the period of this novel, the California Territory is transferred from Mexico to the US, and the famous Gold Rush begins. Although I was a teenager when I first read "Jubilee Trail," this is a book for people of all age groups, from early teens upward. There is much pleasure, and much that is educational, to be found between the pages here. Absolutely excellent!
JANA

At the age of 18, I devoured this book and told everyone for years that "it was the best book I ever read." Finally I forgot about it and went on to read thousands of others, novels, medical texts and spiritual guide books among them. A medical career, nine children and fifty years later, I stumbled upon it again.

To my utter delight I found that once again I can make that claim. It is indeed one of the most exciting, beautifully crafted and deeply insightful books I have ever read. I can scarce believe that I feel the same way ...about something...about this book...at age 68 that I did at 18. Gwen Bristow writes about a woman's life-journey over 150 years deep into America's rugged past. Her story is as true for 1950, at the time of its publication, as it was for the story's setting in 1844. Amazingly, it is equally relevant for the reader of today who is looking for meaning and adventure in his or her choices

It is no coincidence that all reviewers have given it five stars. This book is a jewel.

As a slice of Americana, of California history, of young love, of adventure, of character growth, I think this book is better than Gone With the Wind. Garnet Cameron, a lovely, passionate, gently bred girl follows her dream across the American continent in the days before the gold rush. Oliver Hale, her first husband is an adventurer, handsome and exciting but not quite grown up. Florinda, the tart with a heart, a wonderful woman, strong and vulnerable fortunately comes back to us in Calico Palace. And John Ives, the hero of the piece, is a man in love with a woman he thinks he can't have, a true "founding father" of pre 1849-California, strong, loving and brave.

The settings, actions, geography, food, clothing, politics and weather all come to life in this wonderful adventure. The reader becomes so enmeshed in the story that when you finally close the book, you are surprised to find you were not in old Los Angeles.

This is such an amazing story. It's about a young girl named Garnet Cameron who just graduated from Miss Wayne's Select Academy for young ladies. She is always wanting to do things that young ladies shouldn't do. She meets Oliver Hale, a trader on the Jubilee trail and they get married. He takes her to all the places she wants to go. She meets up with Florinda, "a slpendid strumpet," who is in trouble herself and help her get away. When they reach Santa Fe they meet up with Florinda again along with many other traders from Los Angeles and among them is Oliver's trading partner John Ives. On they way to California they are attacked by Diggers and Garnet is wounded. There is a scene in the book when Texas has to burn out her wound she bites John's hard thigh, causing him to bleed. There is also trouble ahead for her with Oliver's brother Charles. Oliver is killed and Garnet is alone in this strange country with a baby on the way. She ends up making her home above the Saloon with Florinda and falls in love with John Ives.
I just love this book and the characters, especially John Ives. You get so involved in the story that you feel like you are right there with them. Once you finish the book you want to open it up and read it all over again. I know I have! You won't regret it.

Living out West I've always been into the history of the Oregon trail but I never knew very much about the history off the California trial (except apparently there was assign showing the turn to Oregon and on fork was a nugget of gold and on the other was the word Oregon because the settlers in Oregon wanted more people to come there and settle who knew how to read and the illiterate people went to California) so reading "Jubilee Trail was kind of a history lesson for me. And an interesting, well written one at that.

This is the story of Garnet, a very well brought up New York socialite in the 1840's who ends up marrying a man who is a trader on the Jubilee trail, the trail to California, which Garnet has never even heard of. She marries Oliver because she wants adventure so bad, and ends up going on the trail with him. Along the way she meets Florinda, who is a sort of actress/courtesan with a very mysterious past but a heart of gold. The book tells the story of the journey to California and Garnet's meeting with Oliver's evil older brother Charles, who has Oliver so squarely under his thumb he makes Garnet feel like an exile in the beautiful flower cover Californian country. But she also meets Oliver's mysterious, emotionless best friend John, and his best friend the seven foot tall Russian called the Handsome Brute. When disaster strikes for Garnet, leaving her 3,000 miles from family in a wild country she will have to rely on her own strength and endurance, because even though she has great friends, pioneers can not depend on each other for sole support.

This is really a good historical book. Its quite accurate from what I can tell and very well plotted in the smallest details that all fall to place at the very end. Though it was written 50 years ago it's very readable and in fact, this gives the unique perspective of letting you see what people in the 1950'ss thought of people in the 1840's-so it's like a double historical. It also has wonderful insights into human nature and the nature of pioneers especially, which are beautifully expressed. I recommend this book highly and look forward to reading others by this author.

Five stars.

I loved this book since I was teen and still reread every couple of years. My copy is in tatters and am in search of a new copy. This was my Grandmother's book passed to my Mom and passed on to me. It is absolutely timeless and a great read. You will remember these characters long after you've read it.

This is a traveling west book, as a "Little House" fan, this was similar in hardships but much more intense. It is a story of survival and the human spirit. You would like to have friends like these characters.

This is a book report i wrote about it...



This is a great book! It's titled Jubilee Trail. Gwen Bistrow wrote it. I will be telling you about my favorite part of the book and the books plot.

Jubilee Trail is about a girl named Garnet. It starts off in New York City 1844 Just after an 18-year-old Garnet had graduated from Miss Waynes Select Academy for Yong ladies. She is an adventurous girl and she always wants to do things that "proper young ladies shouldn't be interested in". Her parents want her to be married to one of the proper rich young men who own a bank or something uneventful. When she meets Oliver Hale her life changes because he will let her go where she pleases and do what she wants. So they get married and head off to California, for Oliver is in the trading business. California is at this time part of Mexico so the only people who live there, and there aren't many are Ranch owners and traders. The Oliver and Garnets plan was to go to California give Oliver's Ranch to his brother and head back to the east. But when Oliver suddenly dies Garnet is left with no food, no money, no way to get home, and a baby on the way.

My favorite part of the book is when they are on their way to California a group of "digger" Indians attack.

" Garnet saw Figures crawling on their bellies, black against the sky like great worms. She took aim, but she had never fired a gun at a moving target, and as soon as she aimed the figure was not there. The voice inside her head said `shoot' another weak little voice protested in sudden horror `I cant! I can't kill a human being! I cant! She bit her lip so hard she thought she was going to bite it in two. She took aim, and the figure moved she aimed again and fired. Nothing Happened. The figure came on."

I think this is a great seen because it has a lot of suspense.

You should definitely read this book. I would recommend it to everyone. This is Jubilee Trail written by Gwen Bristow, and about Garnet's Journey to California.


-S.R.

Like so many reviewers of this book, I first read it in my early teens. Happy to report that it has aged more gracefully than I (okay maybe "happy" isn't quite the right adjective). Good writing, a wonderful story line, engaging characters and a happy ending. What more do you want?

the characters. they are beautiful. i have read this many many times and can't wait to order my own copy and make everyone i know borrow it. after i read it again, of course. i love these people. i miss them because it has been a couple of years. read this book and you won't be sorry.

I fell in love with this book from the start. I have read it six times already and am currently making my family read it aloud at the dinner table. Everyone in my family loves it too, even my 18 year old brother. I think that in this book, you can really understand the characters and relate to them. It is a story of a young lady who travels to California where she faces many difficulties. My favorite character is John, but I also really liked Texas. My least favorite character was Oliver and I didn't care too much for Charles. I highly recommend this book. You may not like it at first, because it is kind of hard to get through the first few chapters, but, believe me it's worth it!