Virgins of Paradise [Hardcover]

Barbara Wood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1993

Jasmine and Camelia Rasheed, two aristocratic Egyptian sisters, leave their traditional family and take two different paths to independence. By the author of Green City of the Sun. 75,000 first printing. $75,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the author of The Dreaming comes this multilayered historical saga of two sisters rebelling against Egyptian social tradition.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

As young girls from the upper-class Rasheed family in Cairo, Jasmine and Camelia are carefully schooled in Egyptian ritual by their enigmatic grandmother. As they mature and break away from strict Muslim custom, they are catapulted in unorthodox directions. To the family's horror, Camelia becomes an exotic dancer. At the age of 16, Jasmine is married off to her cousin, who abuses her physically and psychologically. When he divorces her after a rape scandal, Jasmine is banished and forced to leave her children behind. She pursues her dream of becoming a doctor and only returns to Cairo when mysteriously summoned by her grandmother. Author of The Dreaming (Random, 1991) and Green City in the Sun (Fawcett, 1989), Wood has once again written a too-long novel with a large cast of characters. Recommended for fans of Wood and readers who love protracted tales. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/93.
- Mary Ellen Elsbernd, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 521 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (June 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679415793
• ISBN-13: 978-0679415794
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,197,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enchanting, July 30, 2001

By 

Randy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Virgins of Paradise (Paperback)

I have read some of Barbara Wood's books, but Virgins of Paradise is the crown jewel of her writings. The story takes us back to 1945, to Egypt at the close of the Second World War and a powerful family from the highest circles of nobility, the Rasheeds. They are the friends of royalty, rich and influential, and their every move is judged by the gravitas of their status. But under the veil of wealth and power lies a web of secrets even thicker than blood whose disclosure could spell the downfall of the family. As time goes by and tremendous incidents ravage Egypt, winds of war, treachery, dishonor, scandal, and forbidden love descend upon the once peaceful house of the Rasheeds on Virgins of Paradise Street. Flashes of events and voices echo from the past and as if by the hand of fate toss the family from one predicament into another. The patriarch of the Rasheeds, Ali is dead, but his posthumous influence remains strong. While Ibrahim his son is the nominal head of the house, it is Amira, Ali's widow, who is the eminence grise, the "invisible" hand that guides the family and holds its deepest secrets. Amira keeps secrets of her own and towards the end she embarks on a journey to uncover the mystery of her origins, which has been haunting her for decades. Tradition and Muslim law play a big role in the unfolding of the story's events, and many points in the culture are discussed and compared with Western culture in a fascinating way through the voices of the characters themselves. Although the two main characters are supposed to be Yasmina and Camelia, they are only two of the lively characters (like Alice and Nefissa) who all contribute to the colorfulness of this story. What is most touching though is that no matter how far the characters travel to escape their past (California, France, England, Lebanon...), their fates are always tied to that quaint home on Virgins of Paradise Street, the witness to generations of Rasheeds, throbbing with their memories, their mysteries, their fears, and their secrets. Barbara Wood's writing is exuberant and vivid to the point that for days after reading the book, I felt a sense of nostalgia for a home I had never seen in my life. The exotic smells and tastes and colors that make up Cairo seem to waft out of the book's pages. Barbara Wood's Virgins of Paradise is not merely a book to be read but an enchanting experience to be lived and felt.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply beautiful!, January 17, 2001

By 

zeni (Tennessee) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Virgins of Paradise (Audio Cassette)

This novel has become a winter favorite for me. Snowed in on dark winter evenings I love to snuggle up with this book and allow it to take me away to another world.

Virgins of Paradise, by Barbara Wood, is an exquisitely painted picture of a Muslim family through five decades of love found and lost, war, royalty, loyalty, family ties broken and mended.

Though the ghostly presence of the elder Rasheed floats throughout the story, the rock-solid core of the Rasheed household is really Amira, his wife. She anchors the family with wisdom, her devout beliefs, and her healing herbs. Ibrahim, her son, in comparison, is a weak shell. It is the women in this story who seem to have all the strength, though their society has oppressed them.

This a moving and intriguing tale of the evolution of a family through its births, deaths, weddings, and daily life. Wood writes with such rich detail, you can feel all the research she did before writing this novel. She whisks you away to the hot, dusty city of Cairo, its narrow streets crowded with peddlars, beggars, and men thinking of a revolution.

The reader will want to know Amira's dark secret, find out what happened to the banished Rasheed family member, see if Nafisa will find love across enemy lines, and follow the lives of Camilla and Yasmina to adulthood.

It's winter; it's about time for me to visit with the Rasheeds again.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Provides interesting insight into an Islamic family, February 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Virgins of Paradise (Audio Cassette)

Having lived in the Islamic world for several years, I found this book entertaining but also quite insightful to the culture of family life dominated by men. The author fully explores a core group of characters and uses satellite characters to flesh out the family saga. I never had read anything by Barbara Wood, but after reading this book, I have ordered more of her works. The bottom line: entertaining to read, AND I learned something.