The Marsh King's Daughter [Import] [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Chadwick (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown & Co. 1999/99 (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316639613
• ISBN-13: 978-0316639613
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Elizabeth Chadwick is a best selling, award winning author of historical fiction. A born storyteller, her first novel The Wild Hunt won a Betty Trask Award in 1990. She has been four times shortlisted for the RNA Award in the UK for the best mainstream romantic novel. Her book The Scarlet Lion was selected as one of the top ten works of historical fiction of the decade by Richard Lee, founder of The Historical Novel Society.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Blended Historical Fiction With Romance Genre, November 15, 2000

By 

carol irvin "carol irvin" (United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Marsh King's Daughter (Hardcover)

English author Chadwick is the only author I can think of who manages to blend historical fiction with historical romance seamlessly from start to finish. I liked this novel better than her prior one, "The Love Knot", because this one gets to the story's central conflicts faster. Set in medieval times, like all of Chadwick's novels, Miriel and Nicholas are the lead characters, brought together when she nurses him to health in the convent where she is a novitiate. Miriel escapes from the convent and follows Nicholas, only to steal part of the treasure he recovered in the marsh so she can make a new life for herself. This sets the stage for a very rich tapestry of medieval life to unfold, which has a full complement of characters including various people to whom Miriel and Nicholas are married. The central villain is Miriel's second husband, Robert, whose evil acts as a wealthy merchant were common in this time period. Nicholas and Miriel come together and apart throughout the novel. For those readers who don't like lead character separations, this might be a problem but it was not one for me. If you like this novel, also read Chadwick's "The Conquest" and "Daughters Of The Grail," other five star novels by her.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great medieval tale, July 21, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Marsh King's Daughter (Hardcover)

In 1216 England, Nigel Fuller roughs his stepdaughter Miriel Weaver for her disobedience and disrespect. Wanting her out of his life, he dispatches Miriel to live in the St. Catherine's-in-the-Marsh nunnery.

Nicholas de Caen is a prisoner due to King John's false accusations of treason. The monarch destroyed Nicholas' family before branding him a traitor to the crown.

Nicholas escapes and finds refugee at St. Catherine's. Later he helps Miriel run away from her unhappy captivity among the Sisters. Although Miriel and Nicholas are attracted to one another, they depart on bad terms. She trusts no male and he is a wanted soldier of fortune with no name or future. Over the next few years, aristocratic roadblocks continue to insure no relationship forms between them.

THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER is an entertaining medieval romance that highlights the abuse of power that dictates much of the early thirteenth century noble lifestyle. Miriel is a brave woman, but her gender leaves her a victim as men make decisions that she dislikes for her. Nicholas is also impotent to help because he too is a casualty of the monarchy. Fans who enjoy an insiders look at a bygone era will gain immense pleasure from Elizabeth Chadwick's wonderful historical romance.

Harriet Klausner

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Didn't like the main characters, June 19, 2005

By 

Locococo (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Marsh King's Daughter (Hardcover)

Chadwick's writing is superb, her knowledge of all things medieval and the wool trade is beyond question, but couldn't we have chosen more sympathetic characters? Miriel starts off promising as a victim of her mother's bad decision in a husband. She's been groomed for the wool trade by her indulgent and successful grandfather but then rushed to the nunnery. She's constantly a thorn in the side of the nuns and then meets deathly ill Nicholas, who was washed ashore from an ill-fated baggage wain of King John. She helps to nurse him back to health (did we forget there were two other nuns involved in his nursing?), then runs away from the convent when they rid her of her one vanity - her hair - after she shows it off to Nicholas and gets caught. We see this character lie, cheat, steal, and then marry twice to further her position. She commits adultery with Nicholas, refuses to leave her husband for him, and then is upset when he goes back to his mistress. Ahh, the fine Nicholas, with the red-haired jealous mistress, but he deeply loves Miriel??? So much so, that he goes straight from Miriel's bed to the mistress?? Hmmm. Not exactly the romance novel material I'm accustomed to.

Call me overly romantic, but I like the main characters to be people I can admire for their "romantic" notions of chivalry in as brutal a time as the medieval period. Chadwick's fine writing style and knowlege of the period kept me in the book nearly to the end, until I realized that I really didn't care what happened to anybody.