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The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (Paperback)

by Lauren Willig (Author)
Key Phrases: pink carnation, interrogation chamber, mummy case, Miss Gwen, Lord Richard, Lady Uppington (more...)
3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (138 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
It's difficult to narrate one book, much less a story within a story that spans two different time periods, but Reading meets this challenge with a bravado befitting Willig's swashbuckling tale. American academic Eloise Kelly has come to London to uncover the identity of the Pink Carnation, a British spy who infiltrated Napoleonic France. Eloise, who's given an appropriately flat American inflection, hits a vein of gold when she uncovers letters describing a love affair between the Purple Gentian, another famous spy, and Amy Balcourt, who may be the Pink Carnation. Much of the novel focuses on the far-fetched love story between Amy and Richard Selwick (aka the Purple Gentian), and here Reading truly demonstrates her vocal prowess. Amy's accent smacks strongly of her British roots but also proves as impish as her character, and Richard possesses a deep voice that actually sounds sexy. As the adventure progresses, evil French spies and formidable dowagers roll off of Reading's agile tongue, making this a fun, dynamic listen. Simultaneous release with the Dutton hardcover (Forecasts, Jan. 24). (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
Willig's imaginative debut is the story of Eloise Kelly, who is trying to uncover the identity of the Pink Carnation, a British spy a la the Scarlet Pimpernel who infiltrated Napoleonic France, for her Ph.D. dissertation. But it is also the story of Amy Balcourt, a young woman of French descent raised in England, whom Eloise learns about when she gains access to the papers kept by Arabella Selwick-Alderly, the descendant of another dashing spy, the Purple Gentian. Amy sets off to join her brother, Edouard, in France, with the hope of joining the league of the Purple Gentian. On her journey over she meets Lord Richard Selwick, the Purple Gentian himself, and though sparks fly between the two, he feels he can't reveal his secret identity to her. Eloise is engrossed in Amy's story, even as Arabella's infuriating but handsome nephew, Colin Selwick, tries to bar her access to the papers. Readers should expect more of the swashbuckling past than the scholarly present, but Willig's story is a decidedly delightful romp. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 464 pages
  • Publisher: NAL Trade (December 27, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 045121742X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1863254786
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (138 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #65,951 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
pink carnation, interrogation chamber, mummy case
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Miss Gwen, Lord Richard, Lady Uppington, Colin Selwick, Uncle Bertrand, Georges Marston, Miss Balcourt, Mme Bonaparte, First Consul, Sir Percy, Lord Uppington, Aunt Prudence, Amy Balcourt, Aunt Arabella, Mme Rochefort, Minister of Police, Hotel de Balcourt, Rosetta Stone, Chic Girl, Edouard de Balcourt, Mme Leclerc, Curly-haired Chap, Pauline Leclerc, Baron Jerard, Selwick Hall
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Customer Reviews

138 Reviews
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 (40)
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Average Customer Review
3.2 out of 5 stars (138 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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27 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars The Epitome of Mis-Marketing, October 18, 2006
By S. Gardner (Central Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (Hardcover)
At the time that this book was released, I was working at a bookstore. The bookstore included it in its recommended reading list and that, coupled with positive feedback from other people, was enough to have me picking it up (for all that it took me until a few days ago to actually get around to reading it).

I am now terribly glad that I bought this book at a discount.

I went in to reading the book expecting a tongue-in-cheek take on espionage during the French Revolution. Instead, I got a bodice-ripper.

The book featured perhaps what is the least compelling cast that I've ever read; the heroine is insipid, the hero is ruled by what's in his pants, the supporting cast is transparent at best. The heroine is a flake - perhaps her intended characterization in the spirit of parody, but she steps well over the line between amusing and irritating. The hero is remarkably ineffective as a spy, to the point that it's a wonder that he survived his first attempt. The supporting cast is interchangeable and frequently confused; I still can't keep straight the inner circle of the Purple Gentian, as the friends have little build-up until the climax of the book, barring the squabbling one has with the hero's sister.

The characters are modern - very modern. The women are spunky and dominating to a fault (unless the plot requires otherwise), while the men exist primarily to ogle the ladies' derrieres and angst. With a costume change, the book could very easily be set in the present day.

The espionage in the book is laughable: the hero is sneaking in through windows while masked and caped, only to fall over the heroine and suddenly find himself thoroughly distracted by her heaving bosom and wriggling backside. Napoleon's office is conveniently empty for the heroine to casually riffle it, and the deepest dungeon of the Ministry of Police is easily penetrated by gentry posing as cleaning women. The seduction scenes have more pages than any sort of spying and/or dramatic rescues.

The romance itself is bland at best and irritating at worst. Every character has a deep love-hate relationship, unless they've moved past that to the ooey-gooey love stage. The actual sex scenes are florid and utterly cliché, transposable with virtually any book sold in the Romance section. They're also vaguely disconcerting, as the heroine at most times seems to act like a 12-year-old, a perception that isn't quite dispelled by her more physical interactions with the hero.

The modern plotline interwoven with the main plotline is jarring; they switch back and forth with no real distinction, so you aren't quite certain which you're reading until you get to a name. The modern heroine behaves as though she's the main heroine transported to the present day: ineffectual and falling all over herself with self-thwarted lust. It's terribly difficult to believe that she's a doctoral candidate (written by a doctoral candidate!).

Had this book been marketed as romance and released as a mass-market paperback, I probably wouldn't have been terribly disappointed; it'd make a decent beach book of the bodice-ripper type. Given its marketing and its release as a hardcover and trade paperback, though, I feel almost betrayed; I expected so much more, so having it turn out to be that beach bodice-ripper further soured my perceptions of it. I'd recommend it as a bargain book for a one-time, fluffy reading, but even that seems to be too much. Instead, hit up the local library and pick it up with a stack of romance novels; it'll fit right in, at just the right price.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Not perfect, but fun!, November 10, 2006
This review is from: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (Paperback)
I enjoyed this book, and I'm a bit surprised by all the really bad reviews. It may not be perfect but it is a fun read, which I believe is what the author intended.

DON'T expect Jane Austen or Baroness Orczy or Philippa Gregory. Lauren Willig's "The Secret History of the Pink Carnation" is not deep, destined-to-be-classic, impeccably accurate historical fiction--nor is it intended to be. The author says on her website that she wrote it for fun after passing some tough grad school exams, and her enjoyment of writing it comes across in the book.

Sure, Amy Balcourt isn't quite as prim and proper as your standard young lady of 1803. It would be difficult to feature in a romance novel if she were. Which, though it hurts my intellectual pride to admit it, this essentially is.

It is not, however, I hasten to add, a bodice-ripper Harlequin that's all sex and no substance with no plot, flat characters, and a lot of heaving bosoms. Um, well...there are a few heaving bosoms, but that isn't the *sole* focus of the plot.

On the contrary, the book is well-written and engaging. The plot may be insanely contrived at times, but that's what makes it a comedy! The writing is light and funny, the dialog is witty, the romance is...romantic, the plot is suspenseful and full of funny unexpected turns, and the characters are outstanding.

Rebellious, vivacious Amy Balcourt and dashing, mysterious Lord Richard Selwick are the main characters. Amy is a lively, intelligent young woman with big plans to help the mysterious Purple Gentian save England (though she wouldn't object if he fell in love with her in the process). She is appalled when she meets Richard--an Englishman on Bonaparte's payroll, which in Amy's eyes amounts to nothing short of treason. Richard, of course, has a secret: he *is* Amy's idol, the Purple Gentian--who does *not* welcome the aid (or the romantic distraction) of a meddlesome, saucy (though very attractive--and very determined) accomplice. Hilarity ensues.

Despite the comedy, the characters are sympathetic and realistic. Both have troubled pasts to overcome and ambitious (and often conflicting) dreams. The chemistry of their love/hate relationship is wonderful.

Amy and Richard lead a wonderful cast of memorable, often eccentric--bordering on outrageous--supporting characters. There's Miss Gwen, the prim, straight-laced chaperone with a penchant for prodding people with her parasol--up to and including Bonaparte himself! There's Lord Richard's delightful family--his constantly flirting parents and overeager little sister and his two best friends--quiet well-behaved Geoff (who tends to get forgotten amid Richard's boisterous family) and cheerful, irreverent Miles (who provides a large part of the boisterousness himself). There's Stiles, Richard's butler, an ex-actor who does all of his buttling in character as King Lear and who ends up as a pirate...

The setting in Napoleonic Paris is very well done, and we encounter not only the First Consul and his wife, but an assortment of their contemporaries--Napoleon's promiscuous sister Pauline, his hen-pecked brother-in-law Joachim Murat, and his evil minister of police, Fouché.

"The Pink Carnation" is by no means a deep and meaningful work of historical fiction, nor does it make any claims to be. It is essentially romantic comedy--with all the silliness, crazy plots, and exaggerated characters that entails. These shouldn't be considered as flaws, however--they make the book a joy to read. The humor will have you laughing, the romance will have you sighing, and the suspense will make it impossible to put down.

Don't overlook the "Pink Carnation" series just because it isn't deep and serious historical fiction. Someone on the historical fiction forums called it "light historical fiction," which is a perfect term for it. It is written for entertainment, not education--and in this it certainly succeeds.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Historical chick lit, July 10, 2007
This review is from: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (Paperback)
When historical mysteries first started to become really popular I didn't really understand why. Then I realized that all we do in studying history is try to explain mysteries, even if it's just trying to understand the motivations of peoples personal actions. So I overcame my aversion to historical mystery and started in on this new-ish genera.

When I first read the title "The secret history of the pink carnation" I thought that the pink carnation had to be a painting of some sort. As it turns out, the pink carnation is a not-so-real English spy who worked against Napoleon. In fact, the pink carnation is the third in a line of English spies named after flowers who all worked in France. In modern times Harvard grad student Eloise Kelly is trying to uncover the real identity of the pink carnation, the only spy who was not unmasked by the French. She gets her opportunity when an elderly woman, a descendent of one of these flower spies, grants her access to family letter and diaries that revel the identity of the pink carnation, but have always been kept secret from the world.

And so we have the secret history of the pink carnation. Is the spy the same person as the romantic Purple Gentian, a spy who poses as the collector of Egyptian objects for napoleon? Is it Amy Balcourt, a young woman whose father, a French noble, was murdered by the revolutionaries? And will Eloise Kelly even be allowed to figure the mystery out over the objections of an annoying young British noble who doesn't want her poking into his families past?

In my opinion the main virtue of this book is that it's funny. All those little ironic, stupid observations that we make in the course of a normal day are written down. The characters routinely act stupid, say stupid things and get into ludicrous situations. I found the romance to be both overdone and not convincing, but in general the humor wins out and this book is fun to read, if not a masterpiece. But it's not really the kind of book written to be a masterpiece-it's the historical equivalent of chick lit or a beach read.

Three stars.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Like sherbet ...
I bought this book to read as a between-books read. It was light and campy, without too much depth. Like sherbet that is used to cleanse ones palate, The Pink Carnation was able... Read more
Published 2 months ago by CathyB

1.0 out of 5 stars Slow down. Put some time into plot.
Where's the Secret History? Where's the plot?
The prose and dialogue is adequate, but where is the story? I find myself asking WHAT I'm reading. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Sally Fallen

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your time
Quite possibly one of the worst books I have ever read. I think the author may have been going for a satire of the Scarlet Pimpernel story, but this book is dreadful. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Linda A. Slott

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Good Book
This is my first foray into "Chick Lit." I really enjoyed this book and found the characters interesting and the writing witty and entertaining. Read more
Published 3 months ago by jilliemarie

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!
This is an extremely fun and witty book! It keeps you laughing, guessing and completely satisfied.
Published 4 months ago by Christin Evans

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful...
This is a wonderful book. I loved the book so much I bought the audio version to listen to it again. Read more
Published 5 months ago by scrappygirl

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a serious historical fiction, but enjoyable nevertheless
I really enjoyed this book. It was humorous and cute. This book follows Amy, a wannabe spy adventurer, who tries to join The Purple Gentian's spy network against France shortly... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Cynthia

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved it
I loved this book. It was very well written and I love Amy and Richard. :]
I didn't really like the whole thing with having two stories in one, I wish it was just Amy and... Read more
Published 7 months ago by K. Blaisdell

4.0 out of 5 stars Suffers a bit from an identity crisis, but still a fun read...
Eloise is an intrepid American who is trying to uncover the identity of the Pink Carnation, a notorious spy who operated throughout the Napoleonic Wars. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Holly R

2.0 out of 5 stars Not impressed
I was bitterly disappointed in this book. Given the quality hard cover, the lovely cover art and the blurb, I was expecting something that strives to be Heyer or Austen. Read more
Published 11 months ago by T. M. Wheaton

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