Customer Reviews

Virgin Earth: A Novel (Earthly Joys)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Virgin Earth, the sequel to the simply wonderful Earthly Joys, is nothing less than amazing. It tells the story of John Tradescant, Jr, a man haunted by the fame of his famous gardener father, a man who just lost his wife to the plague, and who has left his two little children to go plant hunting in Virginia. The book goes back and forth between Virginia and England, painting vivid pictures of England during its Civil War, and also of America during its savage beginnings. The lives of King Charles, Cromwell, the natives and settlers in Virginia, as well as John himself all intertwine, making this book one of the most elegant and compelling historical novels I have ever read!

In Virgin earth Phillippa Gregory finishes the story of the Tradescant's a family of gardeners and explorers who searched the world for rare and beautiful things and new plants that would thrive in England. The first book is Earthly Joys about John Tradescant the elder and this book is about his son.

Where John the elder was dutiful to the extreme, John the younger questions his worlds. The book opens with him on a ship to Virginia, trying to escape the grief that the death of his wife caused. In the new world he finds a young Indian girl to help him gather plants and becomes friends with and slightly infatuated though she is half his age. When he leaves Virginia he promises he will return and marry her, but when he returns home he finds that his father has died and left in their house a woman who he thought his son should marry and who would raise his children.

And so John is caught between two worlds. There is England his home, which is safe and predictable, and there is the new world, which awakened a life inside of him. But both are the point of upheaval, Virginia by the colonists who will not coexist with the natives, and England by the reformation. This conflict goes through the novel, as does another with similar themes. There is civil war in England. The king is executed and an elected government is in place. The people of England realize that the king is not divined, nor does he rule by divine right. He can be overthrown, even invited back.

This book exposes two profound human transformations in history. The change from rule of divine right to the rule of consent of the governed, and the transformation of the frontier of the earth into just another colony. The virgin earth of the title is literally the land and the mindset of the English people-and after this book it is virgin no more.

This is by far one of Philippa Gregory's best books. She does much better when writing about more normal people (as apposed to royalty) and normal, if somewhat extraordinary, lives. The book is believable and enthralling and truly expresses John's feeling that he is on the edge of the last new world (both real and political) that there will ever be.

Four point five stars.

I am a great fan of author Philippa Gregory, and she did not disappoint me in VIRGIN EARTH.

I had not realized that this novel is, in fact, a sequel; certainly, the story and the characters stand alone.

Though Gregory began her writing career in the 20th century and continues now, into the 21st, I am convinced that she somehow is living in England, c. 1600, so thoroughly is she steeped in the rhythms of that time.

Her hero here, John Tradescant, is a man of conflicted loyalties, loving England but excited by its American colony of Virginia, serving King Charles I as his gardener but not desiring to be his soldier, passionate about a Native American squaw in the Virginia colony while blessed with a wonderful wife at home in England.

Those were difficult times in which Gregory places this tale, and the great proof of her success as a storyteller is how engaged the reader becomes in her fictional characters, all the while knowing the ultimate outcome the conflict on which it hinges; to wit, Cromwell's Roundhead Revolution.

The part of the novel that deals with the earliest settlement of Virginia is fascinating. Gregory makes it clear that the United States is a country that was founded on turmoil, strife and cruelty. The suffering she describes, of both slaves and Native Americans, as well as the deathly struggles of the colonists, all are appalling--and these are issues that rarely are examined in full.

Philippa Gregory remains one of the finest authors in the English language. Her fans will be well-pleased by VIRGIN EARTH.

Phillipa became one of my most sought after authors after reading the juicy and wnderful Other Boleyn Girl. Followed by Queen's Fool, I was hooked, chasing bookstores for her next delivery of her next book. Since then, I have read The Constant Princess, Virgin's Lover, Earthly Joys, Wise Woman, and Virgin Earth. All these are 3 stars at best.

The writing is no longer rich with descriptives. Plots become unbelievable and basic. There is no longer much historical reference in these, making them feel like 'supermarket novels'.

Very dissappointing, since after Anya Seton (Katherine may be the best England/Historical novel yet), she was my favorite historical writer.

It feels like her publisher is pushing her to cough up a new book every year and the writing feels strained and rushed. She needs to stop and smell the flowers and let the historical imagination flow again.

I have read most of Philippa Gregory's books now on print. She has the ability to narrate the story vividly as if watching a film. One can close one's eyes and smell the earth, feel the cold air, experience the gardener's awe and reverence as he watches nature's gifts. Additionally, her depiction of characters, far from superficial, captures their very core. Each of them comes fully alive as the story develops, sometimes in the most unexpected ways. The reader can readily identify with the psychological make-up and the "hidden agenda" that each character brings forth. Each evening as I sat to read I felt I was visiting familiar faces, familiar stories. Virgin Earth's characters all speak to our humanity, our yearnings, our values, our passion, our fears, our disappointments, our strengths and weaknesses. In the process, we get a "slice of life" as it was back in 17th century England.

For plant lovers, it might be a good idea to have a reference botanical source to look up some of the plant species described in the book. It would deepen the learning and the delight.

This is historical fiction at its finest. It is the second volume in the two volume set on the Tradescant family. They live in post-Elizabeth England when the Civil War is about to break out.

While this story concerns the life of John Tradescant the Younger and his troubles observing the court of King Charles I. His observations convey to the reader what life as a low level observer must have been like during those times at that place.

John then leaves his wife in England while he travels to Virginia where he has another love in the form of an Indian girl.

I find the background of the book well researched and well written so that you indeed get a feeling for the way life was in those times. To a certain extent I did not like John. He was torn between two women and unfair to either. He was torn between two Governments and chose to switch his loyalties quickly when trouble appeared.

I usually love Philippa Gregory's books. But this one, for me, was lacking. The main character was frankly annoying--from the beginning of the book to its VERY disappointing ending. I agree with another poster who had a hard time understand how three intelligent women could love this guy. The reason I gave it two stars (instead of one or none) was because the book did have its moments. The time spent in early Virgina and the look into the lives of King Charles I and the story behind the English civil war were interesting. I just wish the story could have been told from another main character's perspective.

If you are panting for an in-depth history of the final years of England's Charles I or if you desire to be bored to death with 660 pages of one of the wimpiest, most dysfunctional males who ever lived, then this book is for you. There is no way three intelligent women could have loved this jerk. The only reason I gave it two stars is for the lovely description of life in a Powhatan village.

Read all of Anya Seton's books instead; they are far superior. Or "City of Dreams" by Swerling. Now THAT is historical fiction at its finest.

This will be the last Philippa Gregory book that I will read. The prequel, Earthly Joys was good but in the sequel, she has destroyed the characters. It was a bummer. One bad thing after another and the ending was the worst. She took the man's son we learned to love in the first book and made him into a man with no character, who ran from every hardship and left his wife and kids to rot alone during a war. She made his grandson a psych show and married his teenage daughter to a 50 year old man. No happiness in this book. No smiles while reading it. I put the finished book down and my shoulders hung lower all day. YUCK.

Being an avid gardener, I have enjoyed both of the Tradescant books. Living in Virginia, not too far from Jamestown, and being well-acquainted with colonial history, I found the descriptions of the New World and its inhabitants quite interesting. And being a British history buff, I loved the insights into Charles I, his queen, and the English Civil War.

That said, I understand how some readers could tire of the main character J and his seemingly selfish attitudes, but he lived in a quite different time and place from us. Though I did not always agree with his decisions, they were not far-fetched, and when one reads historical fiction, one must remember that the characters did not live in contemporary America. To his credit, the character does develop and mature over the course of the story as he tries to find his place in the world.

I have read most of Ms. Gregory's books now, and while THE BOLEYN INHERITANCE remains my favorite, VIRGIN EARTH is quite a good read.

For those who find the ending unsatisfying, I can only say that it is historically accurate and, I hope, leaves the story open for a future sequel.