Saturday, January 30, 2010

D is for Damask

I'm getting my "D" entry for Historical Tapestry's alphabet challenge in at the tail end of the posting period. The past two weeks at work have been crazy! Even though it seems I was just in Tudor England with my review of S. J. Parris's Heresy, I'm coming back to it with Philippa Carr's The Miracle at St. Bruno's -- not because of the time period it covers, really, but because it's the first book in one of my favorite historical fiction series.

The Daughters of England books, nineteen in all, trace the history of one fictional English family down through the female line, from the year 1522 to the World War II years. They are both historical gothic novels and family sagas; each book centers on a woman whose family gets caught up in the tumultuous historical events of her time. Most take place in England specifically, though some of the later books cross the Channel to France.

These books saw me through high school and college and after. The cover at left is taken from my 1978 Popular Library paperback, which I got used from a local paperback exchange. Apparently I wrote my name in books back then. After I took it off my bookshelf last week to summarize it and write this post, I opened the cover and saw my signature on the first page in a childish hand, dated 3-12-84.

Damask Farland, born in 1523, is the long-awaited child of a prosperous London lawyer whose lands adjoin those of St. Bruno's Abbey. Damask is raised in a loving household, cherished by her parents and her saucy but devoted nurse, Keziah. A year before her birth, the abbey next door had experienced a miracle: a newborn boy had been found in its Christmas crib on Christmas Day. Taken in and raised by the monks, the child named Bruno grows up fully cognizant of his special status. And as news about the miracle at St. Bruno's travels far and wide, the formerly declining abbey attracts numerous pilgrims, gifts, and bequests which make it one of the wealthiest in the south of England.

This is a time of political and religious turmoil, however, and the changing fortunes of Damask and her family closely intertwine with Henry VIII's break with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries. She and her cousin Kate become rivals for Bruno, who has turned into a haughty but charismatic young man. When the mystery at the heart of the abbey's miracle eventually comes to light, it has an immediate effect not just on Bruno himself but on everyone surrounding him.

The Miracle at St. Bruno's is an involving tale recommended to anyone who likes reading about the impact of major historical events on average citizens, and those who appreciate a nice balance of domestic atmosphere and accurately rendered historical intrigue. The Philippa Carr books never seemed to have as many readers as those of the author's Jean Plaidy or Victoria Holt novels; the cover of this one shows this clearly! Unlike the others, they haven't been reprinted since their original publication. They don't contain the sweeping gothic romance of the Holt books or the close-up glimpses of royalty as most of the Plaidy novels do. I think this is my favorite of all of her series, though, because of their emphasis on common people's experiences, particularly women's lives, and how they and their country are transformed over a period of five centuries. The Jean Plaidy Page has detailed summaries of each of the books (the uninitiated should be on guard for spoilers, though) as well as a family tree. The last book she wrote under the Carr name, Daughters of England, is actually unrelated to the rest of the series.

15 comments:

  1. What a great choice for this letter! Plaidy is my favourite author- and I agree there is a slight difference with those books as opposed to the Carr ones. I have this on my TBR for this year. Great pick. Thanks:)

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  2. LOL - every once in a while I just have to sit back and laugh at myself....I mean, how - as a hf afficianado - could I NOT know this series existed???

    Thank goodness for blogs like yours to bring this stuff to my attention!

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  3. I am asking myself exactly the same question as Michele! How did I not know about this series, and I bet it's going to be a bit of work to track down! Thanks for sharing it with us!

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  4. I'm happy to help spread the word :) These books are long out of print, so it's not surprising you haven't heard about them anywhere, Michele and Marg. They also don't say anywhere on the covers that they're part of a series, not like the Harrod-Eagles ones do. I have to admit they're somewhat dated in places, but they're sentimental favorites!

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  5. 19 books in all, eh? I have a couple, but not the 19.. What did I get myself into?

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  6. I've got the earlier ones but read the rest from the library. Apart from a couple exceptions, the stories are self-contained so you don't need to worry about collecting them all (unless you want to :) The last few in the series are readable but unmemorable. The best ones, imho, are The Witch from the Sea and The Love Child.

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  7. Oh no, another series to get me hooked on. I just looked for it at all the different libraries here in the lower mainland and found it in one. The bad news is that it is on cassette. How many people still have cassette players, not I. LOL!

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  8. Very cool--thanks for sharing a lesser-known book! (I used to put fancy little bookplates in my books when I was young haha.)

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  9. This is going to sound absolutely awful, but I used to write my name in colored marker across the page ends of a book... the part right opposite the spine. There's probably a technical term for that I'm not aware of. Gad, I cringe when I think about it. I can't ever give those books away, it's too embarrassing.

    OK, I have a cassette player that's part of the CD player on top of my desk. It still works. But I haven't used it in years and wouldn't use it play audiobooks!

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  10. Sarah, I know. I couldn't believe that the only copy available here is on cassette! Why would libraries still have those? At least it wasn't on 8 track. LOL!

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  11. Heh. My guess is the library still has it because people are borrowing it. Probably older readers who never got a CD player, or people still driving older cars :)

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  12. A blast from the past :) I remember plowing my way through this series when i was a lot younger, though at that stage it was still being added to on a regular basis.

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  13. Anonymous12:01 PM

    I read your post and then by accident found one in our library booksale so I'm starting it! It seems like an ancient book, but was actually published the year I started college. Does this make me ancient and worn too (and are my pages yellowing?)

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  14. Oh, I loved Miracle at St Bruno's a teenager. I still have that very same hardcover. At one point, Pan Books published them with these lovely white covers, and figures from the period in earth tones: I had them but sadly they got lost during my peripatetic youth. Thanks for reminding me about this book; now, I must go dig it out a box!

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  15. Anonymous3:08 PM

    I absolutely love this series! I've read it through twice, once as a teenager and again several years back. I've always been an avid Victoria Holt fan and came across the Philippa Carr books by accident. These are my favorite books in all the world! I am currently in the process of collecting all nineteen volumes in the hardcover Putnam editions.

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