Savage Lands [Hardcover]

Clare Clark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2010

It is 1704 and, while the Sun King Louis XIV rules France from the splendour of Versailles, Louisiana, the new and vast colony named in his honour, is home to fewer than two hundred souls. When a demand is sent requesting wives be dispatched for the struggling settlers, Elisabeth is among the twenty-three girls who set sail from France to be married to men of whom they know absolutely nothing. Educated and skeptical, Elisabeth has little hope for happiness in her new life. It is to her astonishment that she, alone among the brides, finds herself passionately in love with her new husband, Jean-Claude, a charismatic and ruthlessly ambitious soldier.

Auguste, a poor cabin boy from Rochefort, must also adjust to a startlingly unexpected future. Abandoned in a remote native village, he is charged by the colony’s governor with mastering the tribe’s strange language while reporting back on their activities. It is there that he is befriended by Elisabeth’s husband as he begins the slow process of assimilation back into life among the French.

The love Elisabeth and Auguste share for Jean-Claude changes both of their lives irrevocably. When in time he betrays them both, they find themselves bound together in ways they never anticipated.

With the same compelling prose and vividly realized characters that won her widespread acclaim for THE GREAT STINK and THE NATURE OF MONSTERS, Clare Clark takes us deep into the heart of colonial French Louisiana.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Clark (The Great Stink) bases her third novel on the true story of the first French settlers in America and the women who are sent to be their wives. Her dual protagonists—the novel begins as two narratives which then converge—are the independent Elisabeth Savaret and the curious youth, Auguste. Elisabeth sets herself apart from her gossipy sister brides-to-be, finding solace in her books, but when she meets her rugged husband, she softens into a devoted wife and hopeful mother. Auguste is assigned the task of learning the ways and language of the savages since alliance with the native population is key to France's position in the New World. Throughout the novel Elisabeth and Auguste experience all the tropes common to life in the colonies. Clark has many graces as a writer, but while she brims with enthusiasm over her novel's world and delights in describing every facet of it, her penchant for overwriting makes what could be a fast-moving romp into a slog. She is an assiduous researcher, but too eager to show it. Still, Clark's passion for her story overcomes and will please lovers of historical fiction. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

Clark’s third engrossing, painstakingly researched historical novel is set in the early 1700s in Louisiana, a colony populated by French settlers and named for Louis XIV. A group of 23 young girls is sent from France to be married there, among them Elisabeth Savaret, who is well educated and skeptical about finding happiness in the New World. Surprisingly, she falls almost obsessively in love with her husband, Jean-Claude, and their childless union becomes the core of the novel. Clark describes this backwater colony in meticulous detail—the mud, the stench, the mosquitoes, the freezing winters and stifling summers, but it is above all a political quagmire, a quicksand of duplicity and shifting alliances, because the French are engaged in fierce competition with the English for this inhabitable land. Clark’s third protagonist, whose life intersects with Elizabeth’s and Jean-Claude’s, is Auguste, a young Frenchman assigned to live with various Native tribes whose alliances will strengthen France’s position against the English. Clark’s vast store of historical and geographical detail enriches the portraits of her three vibrant characters, whose destinies are inextricably, and memorably, bound. --Deborah Donovan

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition, Author of The Nature of Monsters edition (February 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151014736
• ISBN-13: 978-0151014736
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,231,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

CLARE CLARK is the author of The Great Stink, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and The Nature of Monsters. She lives in London.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Savage Lands - Not Compelling May 29, 2010

By B. Egan

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book received good reviews, but get ready for a challenging read. The author's attempts at imagery can become tiresome when the reader wants the narrative to progress. The characters are never completely developed, and the story line is choppy. Because of the wide opinion on the book, it would seem to lend itself to Book club review.

Be prepared for a sluggish start. The early portion of the book is heavy with elaborate descriptions that delay rather than enhance the narrative. Some verbal images are distorted is a way so as to obscure their descriptive purpose. It can become annoying.

I recommend the reader be satisfied with not completely understanding the characters, their motives or their connections with one another. The author leaves the characters obscure, perhaps because the characters themselves are ill, or unfortunately developed. If so, this or the reason might have been conveyed more clearly. Empty characters can be developed. Why does Elizabeth immediately resent all the "chickens?" Is there not one among them with a single, admirable quality.

Being no expert on the early French settlements in Louisiana, I cannot address about the historical depiction. The description of social and political dynamics leaves much to the imagination. Clearly, despite Montaigne, Elizabeth's destiny was mainly determined by male figures in her life and only in small part of her own making.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Rough book to read March 23, 2010

By S. Carpenter

Format:Hardcover

I borrowed this book from the library and a quick read of the cover made me think this was exactly the book for me - historical fiction, love story, betrayal. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

This is an incredibly depressing book which is pretty poorly written. As other reviewers have pointed out, the characters are just horrible people. Not even interesting horrible, just the kind of people you'd hate being in the same room with, let alone reading a full story about. The narrative is really confusing.

The author jumps around a lot. She focuses on inane details like the swamps and barely mentions key points of the story. Halfway through the novel, the story changes entirely and a whole new crew of insufferable people are introduced. The copyeditor must have given up at some point because around page 200, there are some pretty basic spelling errors.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book, beautifully written February 4, 2010

By S. Stewart

Format:Hardcover

This is another tour de force from Clare Clark, and not to be missed. As with The Great Stink and The Nature of Monsters, Clark creates an intense and atmospheric world which instantly draws one in and is utterly absorbing until the very last page. The backdrop - the struggles of early 18th-century settlers in colonial French Louisiana - has clearly been impeccably researched and Clark realizes the desperate conditions and appalling hardships this small band of humanity must have suffered with astonishing detail. Against this scene Clark's main protagonists, Elizabeth and Auguste, immediately capture our attention and the unfolding drama of their intertwined lives is gripping. The result is a beautifully written story, uncompromising in its exploration of human endurance and suffering. This is a book to read slowly whilst savouring every page.