From Publishers Weekly
In a trio of linked novellas, TrollopeAunder her historical-novel pseudonym Caroline Harvey (The Brass Dolphin)Afollows the romances of three adventurous women. Spirited, flirtatious Charlotte Brent, deathly bored with life in the countryside of early Victorian England, marries Hugh Connell, a rich officer, and accompanies him (bringing her sister Emily, who narrates) as he joins the doomed army of occupation in Kabul, Afghanistan. There, Trollope introduces the dashing womanizer Alexander Bewick, the British Resident (loosely based on the historical figure Alexander Burns). The Afghans evict the British army and take the women and children hostage, but between Charlotte's pluck and Bewick's daring, a successful rescue is inevitable. The second novella takes place in England two generations later, where Harvey more convincingly evokes her familiar historical terrain. Charlotte and Bewick's granddaughter Alexandra, who has grown up in the shadow of her illustrious ancestors, leaves home to care for the elderly Emily and discovers her own poise and capabilities with a little help from a reclusive artist. In the third, Alexandra's charismatic daughter, Cara, suffers and works through WWII. The three generations of women are very similar: intelligent, impulsive and na?ve. Each has to choose between a handsome, stylish, silly young man and a brooding, driven, older man; not surprisingly, each makes the same choice. The novellas sometimes feel a little cursory, especially in the third, where wartime years are dismissed in a sentence in order to get on with Cara's romance. But Harvey brings a practiced hand to these nuanced narratives of young women's trials, sexual awakenings and self-discoveries. (Oct.)
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Score another big winner for Joanna Trollope writing as Caroline Harvey. Known to
Masterpiece Theatre viewers as the author of
The Choir (1995) and
The Rector's Wife (1991), this skillful weaver of tales creates a historical romance-epic spanning the years from 1841 to World War II. Its sense of place as well as time will please armchair travelers when Harvey takes readers to Afghanistan with the British military just as rebels threaten to overthrow the foreign occupying force. As Arabian horses swirl up dust in the barren landscape, Charlotte, married to decent but dull Hugh, is irresistibly drawn to the infamous British Resident in Kabul, the dashing Scottish rake Alexander Bewick; and her conservative sister, Emily, councils caution as the rebel forces draw near. The family saga continues with Alexandra, Charlotte's granddaughter, who is called to Cornwall to nurse the now elderly Emily. Her daughter, Cara, a student oblivious to the inevitability of a second world war, is next in line and faces more than her share of tragedies. Readers will find it difficult to set aside this deftly written and triumphant page-turner.
Whitney ScottCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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