Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40961 in Books
• Published on: 1997
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Time Out
`Tracy Chevalier's first novel is a triumph. Excellent.'

Sunday Express
`An intriguing and poignant read.'

Independant
`Such an achievement for a serious writer that you feel it deserves an award.

Customer Reviews

enjoyable historical-modern mix
I picked this from the bookshelf unsure as to whether I would like - I don't tend to read many historical dramas - but was plesantly suprised.

I gave it four stars because I found the switch from modern to historical slightly implausible. Some reviewers didn't like it as a method - I didn't mind it as a method but I found the premise it was based on was slightly too-far fetched.

I enjoyed the story and I would class it as a thriller -I was gripped in many parts and felt I was educated about the Hugenots. Actually for me the historical drama was more entertaining than the modern day - I found Ella to be mildly annoying and I'm not really sure I 'cared' what happened to her.

I am now reading The Girl with the Pearl Earring so haven't been put off Chevalier as an author, but I wouldn't say she was up there as a favourite (well unless The Girl gets better -finding it a bit plodding...)

Far inferior to Girl with a Pearl Earring
I am a newcomer to Tracey Chevalier, having read Girl with a Pearl Earring a few weeks ago! Absolutely loved it and couldn't wait to read more from Chevalier. Virgin Blue was the next one I picked up but I have to say, I was very disappointed. Wheareas Girl.. really stood out as an outstanding novel, Virgin Blue was very average. I didn't feel the characters were portrayed as strongly as they should have been and I ended up sympathising with the wrong people i.e I had more sympathy for Rick than Ella and Jean Pierre. Their love story had nothing to it at all and Ella just came across as a bit wet and contrary. The story set in the past had more promise but came to a bit of nothing in the end. As I loved Girl... so much, I am determined to persevere and read more from this author. Hopefully this book was inferior simply because it was the first. However, if this had been the first I had read, I probably wouldn't have bothered to read any more.

A good story
I enjoyed this book. I liked the two stories and how they were interwoven with history. The book carried a lot of personal resonance as I recently had a child with a midwife and am an American in Europe. Ella Turner's character did disappoint me as her internal thoughts were more British than American. For example, American women don't "get on with it". That sort of expression or way of dealing with life doesn't enter their mindset - but Ella Turner's character said this on one or more occassion as a way of dismissing her thoughts. It just didn't jar with the character's culture. I think that Ella Turner could have been better researched, to give her a more American attitude, and written out for this reason instead of just being given what someone who is writing an American woman assumes they think like a British woman. Also, not all Americans are obsessed with their ancestory!