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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Son of royalty, orphan of history, November 1, 2003
Like The Winter Queen, Stevenson's second effort in the trilogy is as historically flawless and impressive as the first. The meticulous research is evident on each page as Stevenson surrounds her characters with authenticity. Balthasar Stuart is the son of the secret marriage of his father, Pelagius, an educated black man in Holland and Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia, living there in exile. She is the sister of the deposed King of England who is later restored to the throne. Pelagius and Elizabeth fall in love and wed clandestinely, the only written record of the union saved by a family friend for their son. Balthasar receives the marriage certificate after the friend's death, along wih his father's diary and book on indigenous plants. Balthasar is in a difficult position in 1660's Holland, a practicing physician, but unable to avoid the issue of his race. While caring for patients, Balthasar makes the acquaintance of Aphra Behn, married into a local printing family, hoping to improve her prospects whenever possible. Aphra's self-serving curiosity settles on Balthasar and she seeks to befriend the secretive physician. However, Balthsar is warned to exercise caution around this woman, advice he heeds, unfortunately after the damage is done. Given the opportunity, Aphra steals Pelagiou's books, secreted under Balthsar's bed, substituting her own books. Aphra plays a pivotal role in the story, as she is the only possible witness to Balthasar's true parentage. Aphra becomes, in fact, his nemesis. Escaping the scourge of the plague in Holland, Balthasar flees to London, a city he finds unwelcoming and harsh to a man in his position. Once again race constricts his ability to establish a successful practice. However, his fortunes change for the better when he marries a young woman with a small dowry and some land bequeathed in Barbados. Sibella doesn't consider Balthasar's race a hindrance to the marriage, but that is because of her naiveté. When they go to Barbados to take possession of her property, it becomes immediately clear that Balthasar will never be accepted as part of the planter society. After a few years of struggles, the couple returns to London, relieved to be away from the heat and burdensome life of the tropics. Balthasar's most endearing quality, especially in Barbados, is his curiosity and his unwillingness to accept conditions on face value. While much of his behavior is conducted to fit withing the strictures of European society, Balthasar allows himself more freedom when among the slaves and various societal strata in Barbados. Still, he is a man of his times, a Christian who believes that all men will benefit from his religion. Even when dealing with slaves, Balthasar is haunted by his inclination to Christian ize them, although such instruction is forbidden, lest the slaves become emboldened and rise against their masters. Although Balthsar's years are spent performing his duties to humankind and raising his family's prospects, he makes a conscious choice to live a noble and purposeful life, if not one with the trappings of royalty. Balthasar accepts his own reality: he may be the son of a king and a queen, but he is a simple man of color in a structured society that refuses him a place of his own, with out the restraints of color. It sometimes appears that there is not enough cohesion in this second novel to warrant the third and I am unsure how well this tale stands on its own. Balthsar's standing as the son of a king and queen almost acts as a deterrent to the simple story of a mixed-race doctor in European society. Then Aphra's actions regarding her own knowledge add more possibilities, promising yet another layer of interest in this generational saga, more of the tale yet to unfold. I am certainly curious enough to want to read the final chapter of this unusual triliogy. Luan Gaines/2003.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Subtle and involving, January 19, 2004
After The Winter Queen this middle volume of a trilogy, set in 17th century Holland, London and Barbados, follows the life of earnest, principled Balthasar, son of Pelagius, an African king sold into slavery, and the exiled Queen of Bohemia, who were secretly married in the first book. A well-trained and conscientious doctor, who strives to live a noble, honest life, Balthasar feels inadequate because of his failure to live up to his fathers heroic expectations. But its all he can do to be a good doctor in a world where much of medicine is a mystery and his skin color raises suspicion. Then a woman the writer Aphra Ben makes off with his fathers papers and all proof of his heritage is gone. After the plague years in 1660s Holland, he decides to try his fortune in his mothers land, but finds London devastated by the Great Fire as well as plague even more hostile to a black Dutchman. He marries an impoverished gentlewoman and they venture to Barbados where her father had property. But being a black man in a plantation slave culture is a rude awakening indeed, and after three years, a slave revolt and a hurricane, theyve had enough and return to London. Its a simple story, deriving its intimate tension by inner events conflicts between Balthasars white and black heritage, his noble birth and his more ordinary aspirations, racism in its subtle as well as overt forms. The relationship between Balthasar and his wife, Sibella, is particularly complex, with its often-unstated racial and sexual tensions, accommodations and compromises. The Barbados section is the most dramatic; its emotions raw and violent. Every aspect of life is tainted with the tension, fear and hate between slave and master, and the white societys total rejection of anything local or non-white, even effective medicines. The period detail is colorful and organic, from the political and religious turmoil of the time, to personal details of dress, food and accepted thought on a wide range of issues involving medicine, marriage, birth, slavery (in Barbados Balthasar owns slaves), and a mans place in society. An impressive, involving and subtle novel.
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