Review: Daughters of the Grail by Elizabeth Chadwick

Synopsis:

The book is set at the beginning of the 13^th century in Languedoc. Young Bridget has just watched her mother Magda passing away in a Pyrenean cave. Magda had been accused of heresy and tortured almost to death by some black friars (Dominicans) . Now Bridget, her only daughter, despite fresh grief has a duty to perform. She remains the last of the Daughters of the Grail, direct female descendants of Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus. As such, she has some special gifts like healing powers, the ability of glimpsing the past and the future and the control over fire. She must make sure her bloodline is continued and her gifts - passed on. In other words she must have a child (but not necessarily a husband). Soon enough she finds the man who suits her the best but unfortunately  the young Raoul de Montvallant gets married the same day Bridget sees him for the first time; what's more his young wife, Claire, is a very beautiful girl. Bridget decides not to act on her own desire but she knows one day she and Raoul will meet again.

Meanwhile the peaceful, spiritual movement of the Cathars gains more and more supporters, Claire and her mother-in-law among them. Even Raymond de Toulouse, the prince of Languedoc, is accused by the Pope of supporting them silently; the war, or rather the crusade, is imminent. Of course religion is just an excuse for the French king to invade,  rob and occupy rich lands of Languedoc. Simon de Monfort, one of the Northern barons, is appointed as the commander of the French troops and the bishop of Citeaux represents the Pope and the Catholic church. Raoul and his father decide to join stronger French army as it is the best line of defense but soon enough they can’t stand participating in the atrocities against the Cathars and their own people as well. Bitter Raoul deserts after the horrible slaughter in Beziers. He enters the service of Raymond de Toulouse but even by doing so he can protect neither his wife nor his little son, Gillaume nor his land. Gillaume is taken in secret to one of his grandmothers but Claire remains at Montvallant when the French attack; she is raped and imprisoned by Simon de Monfort himself; in captivity she gives birth to his child, Dominic who is taken from her right after the birth and is raised among other de Monfort’s children. De Monfort keeps the rape and the parentage of Dominic as secret as possible. He hopes the boy might one day claim the lands of Montvallant.

Raoul doesn’t know about the plight of his wife; he meets Bridget again and they become one-night lovers. As a result Bridget bears a daughter, calling her Magda, after her grandmother. They hide among Cathars in their stronghold on the top of Montsegur and enjoy quiet life for some time. Bridget didn’t want to keep Raoul close as she saw in her visions Claire’s ordeal. Although Raoul finally finds and frees his wife she has become just a shadow of her former self, unable to love, forget and forgive.

The next generation – young Magda, Dominic and Gillaume – will have to fight their own weaknesses, the French and black friars as well and their fates will intertwine endlessly. Finally everybody will meet on Montsegur but only  few will escape the terrible fate of Cathars and other people defending the last free stronghold of Languedoc.

What I liked:

Plenty. The plot was not only interesting, quick-paced  and well-constructed but also close to historical facts. Of course I am fully aware that it is not a medieval history textbook but, as far as I remember, everything was more or less in accordance with the real events. Even a decent  bibliography was featured at the end of the novel. The fact that the authoress visited Montsegur really impressed me a lot! And you can feel it on the pages! After reading such a book you want to find out more about those events and I suppose it was one of the aims of the author. Well done!

I liked the characters as they were an interesting bunch, well-rounded and full of passion. Bridget, Dominic and Claire were my favourites but I also liked Raoul whose love-hate relationship with the world in general was really poignant. I loved the fact that all main characters kept reappearing here and there and their lives were so closely connected, almost like the lives of people in a Greek tragedy.

The theory behind Daughters of the Grail was not the same as in the “DaVinci Code”; because of that I liked it even more.While I'm not a big fan of the entire controversy about Mary Magdalene, this is definitely one of the better versions of the story. Oh , and the Knights Templars were added to the whole brew – a very interesting move!

Image by Lawrence OP via Flickr

What I didn’t like:

The baddies, especially Friar Bernard, were underdeveloped a bit – I would like him less black, maybe a tad more conflicted. Also I can’t help mentioning one detail which, in my humble opinion, was not in accordance with history. We were told that Magda, Bridget’s mother, was tortured by the monks. Well, Dominicans didn’t torture their victims themselves. Of course they led the Inquisition and were vicariously liable for all this horrible attrocities but they usually left torturing and murdering – the dirty and bloody work-  to the lay arm of justice. Well, perhaps there were exceptions.

The final verdict:

Finally a Chadwick book I can honestly recommend - it really wasn't bad at all! I even hope she continues the story!

Review: Highland Hellcat by Mary Wine

As I don't have enough time to write my normal, lengthy review I decided to use the  format presented by jennylovestoread, and called "3 reasons review" - short and sweet.

 

First a short synopsis:

Connor Lindsey is a handsome Highland laird, but his clan’s loyalty is hard won and he takes nothing for granted. He was born a bastard and he knows how hard life can be with such a stigma, especially when your parents aren't around to protect you. Small wonder he’ll do whatever it takes to find a virtuous wife, even if he has to kidnap her…and he needs a wife because he is looking for allies against the rich and strong Douglas clan - they had kidnapped his younger sister for a turn and are looking forward to taking his land as well.

Lindsey chose the Chattan clan but the girl promised to him, Deidre Chattan, has been unfaithful even before their marriage. A no-no to say the least of it. She had two sisters, though...The youngest one, Brina Chattan has always defied convention because she has been named a Bride of Christ from her birth. She sees no reason to be docile now that she’s been captured by Lindsey instead of her sister and taken to his storm-tossed castle in the Highlands, far from her home.When a rival laird’s interference nearly tears them apart, Connor discovers that a woman with a wild streak suits him much better than he’d ever imagined…

1. Reason you chose this book

I won this book courtesy of Blodeuedd and her friend, bf, who very kindly drew my number. I promised to write a review. I try to keep my promises. By the way the interview with the author was interesting and funny so I decided to give her book a chance.

2. Reasons you liked or disliked this book

-I liked some period details and the fact that the author definitely tried to describe medieval Scottish Highlands as well as she could. Of course the material world is nothing compared to describing the way of thinking, a definitely more difficult task and here I think the author failed, putting too modern words into her medieval characters' mouths...

- This one wasn't really my style of romance. The book has been touted as "deeply romantic". Hmm, deeply indeed. All these "deeply romantic" situations (mostly involving the right girl and the right boy in bed) I found rather spurious, written just to titillate naughty teen girls. The author can't even claim she wanted to develop her readers' imagination as these scenes were rather painfully detailed to tell you the truth. I think it was my biggest hurdle; that and the flatness of  main characters as well.

 

-The plot was rather predictable and underdeveloped - I could put down the book without a problem and I wasn't in a hurry to return to it...one measly turn of action in the whole book.

3. Reason you are recommending this book

-Actually I am not recommending it at all, unless you are an irredeemable fan of such stories and/or you love being titillated...but still thanks for the thrill of winning at least one giveaway!

Silent Sunday

Thoughtful Thursday, 25 November, Yule tide

 

It has already started whether you like it or not... ads of any kind with different Santas preening and prancing on tv, Christmas songs as a part of muzak's repertoite, tinsel-and-mistletoe decorations in shops...If you are preparing for this year's festivity, tell me why do you really celebrate Christmas? Is it the nice atmosphere and extra shopping? For your family and/or children? As a part of your religious tradition? For no reason at all, just because you feel like it and everybody around seems doing the same?

If you don't celebrate Christmas, but enjoy your winter holiday, how do you cope with the annual deluge of shopping crowds, tawdry shop windows and aggressive consumerism calls? Or maybe you actually like it? Why?

Finally why, in your opinion, is  Christmas nowadays so widespread even in countries with no Christian traditions to speak of?

I would love to know your opinions!

As usual, here are some quotes, the food for thoughts, concerning the topic:

"Let's be naughty and save Santa the trip!"

 Garry Allan

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” Norman Vincent Peale

“Christmas itself may be called into question, If carried so far it creates indigestion.” Ralph Bergengren

“I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included.” Bernard Manning

“From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it.”  Katherine Whitehorn

Image via Wikipedia

All for love

Imagine the scene. You live in a big city. You work as a secretary or an assistant of a political figure. One day into your lonely life comes Tom. He chats you up and he always behaves like a perfect gentleman – flowers, chocolates, little gifts, he listens when you need him, has a little nice compliment ready when you are depressed. Of course you fall in love with him – what else are you going to do? He is simply the nicest guy on the planet and he happens to adore you. Truly. And then little by little he asks you to tell him exactly what you work on. He is being curious, that’s all. You are flattered, you show off and  tell him a lot, perhaps a bit more than is wise to tell, all things considering. Nobody likes to be a bore so you want to appear more important than you really are. One day he says he needs a photograph of some documents. By now you will perhaps have got a bit suspicious. “But if you loved me you would do it” he says. “I need them for my work”. Now you guess what  Tom really does - he is perhaps a spy and he is taking your every word back to his masters. So what would you do? Risk exposure, be demoted or even fired and go back to having nobody to love? No, you’d carry on taking the bait. Perhaps he did need only that one document or that photo. Perhaps he still loves you madly. Perhaps he is a cop…In many movies it was exactly the other way round – a sexy female agent was seducing a male loner who happened to have access to interesting documents. The situation is often more fascinating, though, when men act as the Mata Haris and women are their preys. Because women will do anything for love, won’t they?

 One former CIA officer said that while sexual entrapment wasn't generally a good tool to recruit a foreign official, it was sometimes employed successfully to solve short-term problems. Seduction is a classic technique; "swallow" was the KGB tradecraft term for women, and "raven" the term for men; they were trained to seduce intelligence female targets. The whole technique has been known as “honeypot” – an appropriate agent, male or female, usually attractive but it wasn’t a prerequisite, tried to seduce and emotionally bind the target to get access to the information they needed.

One of the most successful “honeypot agents” was a Pole - Jerzy Sosnowski a.k.a Georg von Nałęcz-Sosnowski, active in Germany during the period of 1926-1934. Apparently he was a very handsome guy– rather tall, with dark hair and eyes and impeccable manners; he loved riding horses and he knew several foreign languages, German and Russian among them. While working  in Berlin he single-handedly won the spy war with Germans just because of his unique “honeypot” abilities. 

His career started in an ordinary way, though: Sosnowski promised well as a cavalry officer. However, a woman became almost his downfall - after taking a girlfriend away from his superior he knew he wouldn’t be promoted in the army any time soon. The scandal was too great and his personal enemy - too influenced. Traveling with his new wife around Europe he happened to watch a German movie about a heroic spy – from that time he knew who he wanted to be. Isn’t it rather prophetic that his new career, which supposedly influenced to some extend Ian Fleming and James Bond movies, was kick-started by a film? In 1926 he was recruited to work in the II Department of the General Staff and, because of his fluent German, sent to Berlin, of course without his wife.

Jerzy Sosnowski

As soon as he arrived there he pretended to be a rich dandy from the East. He lent a luxury apartment in a good quarter and put six of his horses in a horse stable near a horse racing track. He spread the news that he lived off a big landed estate left in Poland and he is an ardent Germanophile and he opposes the current Polish government and the Bolsheviks from Russia as well. The Berlin elite was duly impressed and some of them greeted him simply with open arms, especially a lady called Benita von Falkenhayn, his first German lover and a perfect source of information. Coming from a well-connected family, Benita knew personally many secretaries working in different Ministries. She was swiftly recruited and then she helped to entrap several other women, among them Irene von Jena, an office worker from the War ministry, who brought Sosnowski a dowry in the shape of the entire budget documents of the German state, and Renate von Natxmer, who showed him very important files concerning the cooperation between the Nazis and the Soviets. Small wonder the reports Sosnowski wrote were simply priceless and his efforts were noticed. In 1929 he was awarded the Goden Cross of Merit and two years later he was promoted to a major. It was too good to last forever, though. 

Sosnowski and his net of female spies was finally exposed by a jealous woman – a dancer called Maria Kruse. She was of course his lover too but after a while she found letters in which Sosnowski promised marriage to other of his trophies. Perhaps she didn’t know the guy had been already married as well. Absolutely outraged, she went to the Gestapo with her revelations. Perhaps the clever major hoped that he would manage to outmaneuver the Germans as he had done time and again but his luck ran out. He was arrested with several dozen other people during a party, among them his three most important female agents. Although Sosnowski put all the blame on himself before the jury (and he was perfectly right) two women were sentenced to death just because they fell in love with a spy and did his bidding. He, however, after two years in prison, was exchanged for seven German spies, caught in Poland. After the outbreak of  war Sosnowski was detained as a POW by the Soviets and after that it is rather difficult to find out what really happened to him. Some sources say he died of famine in one of Soviet prisons after a year or so; Russian sources claim that he agreed to cooperate with the famous NKWD - they were intelligent enough to recognize his talents and achievements. In 1943 he was sent undercover to Poland to help creating the Polish People’s Army and spreading Soviet influence. Allegedly he was also seen in the besieged Warsaw in 1944. Some say he was murdered there by Polish right-wing partisans, who would undoubtedly perceive Sosnowski as a traitor, but nobody found his body or any witnesses of his death. Perhaps he survived, and hid himself well under a false identity. I wouldn’t be surprised if a woman helped him to do so. I haven’t found anything about the fate of his first wife, the girl who started it all.

If Sosnowski could be called a brilliant artisan of the honeypot techniques his exploits couldn’t match those of the Stasi officers who worked under  Marcus Wolf. One man, even very handsome and gifted, can’t outperform several dozen men; even if they were a bit less gifted and plain they were perfectly organized and had a bigger budget.

We do not know exactly how many women were duped by Stasi agents during the cold war. But over the course of four decades, around 40 were prosecuted for espionage only in the Federal Republic of Germany, as a result of romantic relationships with undercover officers of the German Democratic Republic. Early on in the cold war, the Russian KGB had perfected the art of sexual blackmail - usually one-off assignations with targeted foreign embassy staff in Moscow. But the Stasi operation was more extensive, with agents assigned to develop long-term relationships with their sources. Women were the principal targets - often secretaries in Bonn's many ministries and other government offices. Wolf believed that just one of these well-placed women could prove infinitely more valuable to the Stasi than five or even 10 male diplomats. After all, women tend to gossip a lot at work; they know everything, and are often also responsible for their bosses' private correspondence. He couldn’t have been more right. In the years following the second world war, Bonn was full of ambitious young women from all over West Germany. They hugely outnumbered single men in the capital. They were hardly even invited to official social functions. It was almost impossible to find a boyfriend and if you found one, almost impossible to keep him – the competition was too great. A perfect playfield for honeypots. Many of these women were delighted to be subject to the attentions of eligible men. Marianne Quoirin, the author of Agentinnen aus Liebe (The Spies Who Did It For Love), a book about Stasi "romeos", sat in on the court cases of a dozen women. She says that a woman pursued by an agent was usually vulnerable in some way. "Perhaps she had been left by her boyfriend, or her mother had recently died, or she didn't have many friends. When the romeo approached her, he already knew everything about her - her likes and dislikes, her history." 

In fact the Stasi did an impressive amount of groundwork before a woman was approached. Scouts were employed to inform officers who might be a good candidate and thousands of deutschmarks were paid for a job well done.

In the course of her research, Quoirin was struck by how ordinary - even physically unattractive - some of the Stasi romeos were. "The women definitely weren't going for good looks. It was the old-fashioned manners ... flowers, wining and dining, and, most importantly, these men listened to women. Men often don't, so that was very attractive. Sex didn't play a major role. It was important for Gabriele and a couple of the other women, but actually, it mattered rarely." 

Gabriele Kliem remembers everything about the day Frank Dietzel walked into her life. It was a sweltering summer's evening in Bonn in July 1977. As she sat on the banks of the Rhine waiting for a male friend, a tall, blond, blue-eyed man strolled towards her. "He looked like my dream man," she recalls, "and I thought, if I could ever meet such a man I would be so, so happy. I fell in love with him the minute he came towards me." Dietzel introduced himself and told her he was a friend of the man she was waiting for, who was sick. Would she like to come to dinner with him instead? "My first reaction was that I should get up and walk away as fast as I could, because a relationship with a man that good-looking would be disastrous. But I didn't, I just didn't." 

Dietzel was, in fact, a Stasi spy. He had been sent by East Germany across the border to Bonn, on a mission to seduce Kliem, a 32-year-old translator and interpreter at the American embassy. He told her he was a physicist working for an international research company committed to world peace; beyond that, he remained vague. Three months later, in October 1977, the couple got engaged. And, over the course of their seven-year relationship, Kliem supplied Dietzel with hundreds of secret documents from the embassy - furthering, or so she thought, his noble aims. It was only in 1991, when she was arrested for espionage, that she discovered her former fiance had been a married, East German Stasi officer, who had been awarded a medal for his "work" with her. In spite of an advertising campaign by the federal government warning women of Stasi tactics, she says that she never asked her lover who else was looking at the material she collected. Too fearful of losing him, she lived instead for the days they spent together, when they shopped endlessly for the life she believed they would one day share. It was only at her trial for espionage in 1996, that Kliem discovered her fiance had given most of these consumer goods to his wife in East Germany. More shocking was the revelation that he had passed all her love letters to the Stasi's psychologists. "So they would sit and read and laugh and analyse and see how they could hurt me some more," she says. "To them I was just a laboratory rat or worse - and to him, I was just a tool." She was treated rather leniently - the judges clearly took into account the fact that she was also a victim.

Although there were romeos who married their targets the large amount of paperwork needed to marry in West Germany meant an undercover officer risked exposure. But the Stasi were not beyond arranging mock marriages if it ensured the compliance of a useful source. A secretary and former nun refused to have sex with her romeo before they were married; she was obliged with a wedding in a small church in Copenhagen. "A Stasi officer played the priest, and took her confession," says Quoirin, "and later on another officer played her mother-in-law at a small reception." I bet they had the time of their lives.

I would like to finish this essay with something positive but honestly the best thing that comes to my mind is: “be careful what you wish for…” and “trust no one”. 

My sources:

http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Sosnowski_%28oficer_wywiadu%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clandestine_HUMINT_asset_recruiting#Love.2C_honeypots_and_recruitment

http://militera.lib.ru/research/suvorov8/16.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20071027183634/http://www.spymuseum.org/programs/educate/loe.php

Review: The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud

Hardcover: 448 pages

Genre: YA fantasy

Publisher: Doubleday Childrens (14 Oct 2010)

ISBN-13: 978-0385619158

Synopsis:

Remember the naughty djinn Bartimaeus? He is back. This book is a  prequel to the bestselling BARTIMAEUS TRILOGY, reviewed by me not so long ago.

In the novel we are transported in time to the court of the king Solomon in 950 BC Jerusalem. The said king rules because he owns a very powerful artifact – a golden ring, hiding a strong entity from the Other Place. No one has been as strong as him so far. He is surrounded by seventeen of the most powerful magicians from different countries – each and every one of them would like to bask in the glory of the famous king and also to cut a piece of this appetizing cake for him/herself. Magicians are, as usual, a very greedy, very selfish and very ambitious lot.

Bartimaeus is of course in trouble: not only had he eaten his previous master, which was considered a huge breach of good manners on the court, but he also managed to antagonize the new one, Khaba the Cruel, an Egyptian priest who took Bartimaeus as a servant soon afterwardsas a form of punishment. The insolent but witty djinn is now employed as a builder of the famous Jerusalem temple and then, because he offends the king even further portraying one of his many wives as a hippo in a skirt,  he is sent with other spirits to chase desert robbers. During that mission he saves the life of Asmira, a beautiful but deadly hereditary guard of the queen of Sheba. Asmira was sent by her queen to do the unthinkable - to kill king Solomon and steal the source of his power. It is a suicidal plan indeed - several marids had planned and failed to do so. She has to risk her life only because Solomon dared to propose to the queen for the fourth time in a row and then he asked for a very high tribute to be paid in frankincense. Is it really a good reason to die for? Bartimaeus thinks he should have eaten the girl and made her choices for her. Asmira will have to rethink her personal priorities and change her mind several times and Bartimaeus will help her throwing witty and sometimes philosophical remarks as he tries to save her from the worst - losing her personality.

What I liked:

As usual the book was written in a vibrant, fast-paced way; I wasn’t bored one single minute. Perhaps the plot was a bit predictable, especially for those who had read the trilogy before, but still each individual scene was a hoot. Bartimaeus's pranks and attempts to escape his magician controllers were very funny, especially those snarky footnotes scattered in-between. The sense of humour is always a very welcome feature, no matter what genre, and Mr. Stroud knows how to make you smile.

 I also liked Asmira - she reminded me a little of Kitty from the BARTIMAEUS TRILOGY – she was portrayed as one strong-willed, intelligent, passionate girl with sad experiences, a thoughtless superior and a hopeless mission. Stroud uses her to ask questions about the right choices in your own life, slavery and control. Her personal journey is well depicted and her changes are very subtle and real. What a pity not every suicidal assassin is paired with an intelligent and witty djinni.

What I didn’t like:

Although The Ring of Solomon is head and shoulders above the other young adult fiction I've read recently, I found it shallower than the original trilogy. Due to its length - it is just a single volume instead of three - The Ring of Solomon  simply feels like a watered down version of the previous series. I would like to read more about Solomon and his famous verdicts. I would like to know more about  the main baddie, Khaba and his past. In short, I would like more historical background. You can’t have it all, though…

The final verdict:

This novel can be enjoyed as a stand alone read or as an addition to the trilogy, mentioned before. I highly recommend it to those with children as something you can read together and discuss, or just as an exhilarating light read which will make these long black evenings pass by in a wink.

Silent Sunday

The new design is here...

I must admit sometimes I am a bit clumsy - fat fingers syndrome and all that. Due to unpredictable circumstances I somehow managed to change the whole design again. It wasn't intentional at all but after it had been done I couldn't reverse it. I hope you still like it - I did try to make it more interesting than the lost one. If something  annoys you just leave me a comment.

What were they thinking?

This meme was started and hosted by Alayne from the Crowded Leaf.

Now, have a look at this cover:

What have you noticed? Can you say what this book is about? Could you see the title? No? Let's consult the blurb then:



What if everything you always thought you wanted could be yours simply by saying "I do"? Billionaire Jordon Bennett needs to find a wife, now, to secure his position as CEO of B.H. Holdings. Reed Mohr could use a miracle to help pay for her alternative elder care facility, Potters Woods. Inside and out of the dojo, can these two survive sparring with each other?  

Look at the cover again- what would you think this book was about? Gardens? Gnomes? Gardens and gnomes? Dogs? Country live? No. It is a romance story. Go figure.

ETA: Apparently the publishers are laready thinking of changing it. Wise move.

Review: Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

Genre: YA fantasy romance

Publisher: Philomel; 1 edition (October 19, 2010)
ISBN-13: 978-0399254826
pages:440

Synopsis:

The main character, 17-year-old Calla Tor, a golden-eyed platinum blond beauty, is a young werewolf Alfa female. In her world werewolves are called the Guardians because of their social function – they help the Keepers, also known as witches, to guard normal people against evil Searchers. The Keepers provide the Guardians with all the luxuries – free houses, cars, clothes and human helpers who will clean and wash and buy your food – but they demand the ultimate submission. Guardians can’t marry a person if their Keeper objects. They must live in the area their Keeper has chosen or move out if it is the Keeper’s will. A Keeper might decide they fancy a Guardian and then that Guardian ends up in their bed. If you are not obediend, you will be culled. Each pack has one Keeper and two Alphas – male and female.

At birth, Calla's parents were told that their Keeper arranged her marriage to fellow shapeshifter, the son of an Alfa of another pack. She and Renier Laroche are duly bound to get married on Samhain, the night of Oct. 31. Together, they're supposed to bear werewolf pups and rule a new pack with a special mission – they will guard the sacred cave of witches. With their marriage fast approaching, Calla hasn't yet experienced her first kiss as she is expected to enter the union as a complete virgin. Her future mate, however, is a gadabout who's dated, and possibly bedded, half her graduating class.

"Nightshade" opens with the scene that could prove to be Calla's eventual undoing: she saves a human boy in the midst of a grizzly bear mauling instead of leaving him to die on a hiking trail. The boy was simply too hot to die that young. That human boy is named Shay Doran. He lives with his uncle, Bosque, who happens to be a kind of uber-Keeper, called the Regent. Soon enough one of the Keepers demands that Shay be protected, watched and looked after; it becomes Calla's duty to comply. It is through Shay, that Calla learns just how much the ties that bind her and her family can chafe. But Shay is not all that he appears. Surrounded by secrets and forbidden knowledge, Shay and Calla set out to find the truth about the world around them. The truth is hidden in an old book written in Latin. As a result, their lives, and the lives of those whom Calla loves, will never be the same.

What I liked:

The plot is readable, even un-putdown-able; I burned through it in about two days (I had to have breaks due to my work) so it certainly can boast of possessing and addictive quality that makes it difficult for the reader to cast it aside. It's also very well paced - there really isn't a stopping point. Once you start, you have to finish. At least I did.

The cover looks really nice.

What I didn’t like:

I already feel these red-black horns sprouting and the tail growing. Prepare yourself.

I must admit I hate romantic trios – it’s something akin to allergy! When will they stop haunting me in YA books? It seems the answer is never. Well, at least I have plenty to mock. That is the question: who will the divine Calla choose? Will it be the intellectual Shay with excellent abs and lovely mouth, uttering Latin words of comfort and wisdom, or the smoldering playboy Ren who, although pretty much lascivious, in fact, is not as full of himself as you might think at first? Honestly I don’t care. I never will, as long as character development is lacking to make place for those scenes full of saliva-dripping, lips-crushing and other thrilling activities connected with forbidden love. Done to death elsewhere. Yawn.

Calla, while initially strong, became less and less so across the book, especially when she fell to mush around her love interests. Her inability to control her hormones was absolutely ridiculous. The touch of a finger or a brush of a boy’s well-muscled body sends this girl into nervous convulsions, making her incapable of coherent thought or action. She shows more character retaliating against her mother's attempts to improve her clothes than toward the cruel men using her pack mates as sex slaves. By the way, these powerful witches who might be even fallen angels don’t seem to be a well-thought-out idea. How come they can control a bunch of nasty wraiths and other ugly winged creatures but not a pair of teenagers? Tsk, tsk.

What’s more? Some climactic scenes were resolved too quickly, and in my view the major plot twist lacked suspense. The werewolf mythology I found rather confusing, and it remained totally muddled at the end. Perhaps it will improve.

Last but not least: the novel concluded with neither resolution nor an extreme cliffhanger that will require readers to pick up the sequel to see what happens next.

By the way I really wonder what our lovely Calla would do  if  Shay was not such a hottie but, say, an overweight, round-shouldered bespectacled individual with face full of pimples...Perhaps she would tell the bear, attacking him: "Be careful what you eat, my dear animal, this boy might cause you a serious indigestion, so much fat and all..." and took to her heels.

The final verdict:

"Nightshade" is a book for hopeless romantics who like their heroines conflicted, their love interests smoldering and their passions triangulated and torrid, yet unfulfilled. To tell you the truth the book was too similar to “Twilight” to turn me into one of its fans - it didn't contain anything spectacular. If you're addicted to the YA paranormal genre, I'm sure you'll be content to add this new series to your shelves, if not, you may not enjoy "Nightshade". I won’t probably follow it as the next part isn't a release I would be on edge about

Wishful Wednesday 17 November

 

The meme is hosted by Brooke Bluestocking Guide.

 Welcome to Wishful Wednesday!

  I know I know, I must be mad - another vampire story. Strangely enough it made me interested. Maybe because of a very good review posted by Melissa from i swim for oceans blog
 

Vampire predators run wild in this exciting steampunk adventure, the first in an alternate history trilogy that is already attracting attention. In 1870, monsters rise up and conquer the northern lands, As great cities are swallowed up by carnage and disease, landowners and other elite flee south to escape their blood-thirsty wrath.

One hundred fifty years later, the great divide still exists; fangs on one side of the border, worried defenders on the other. This fragile equilibrium is threatened, then crumbles after a single young princess becomes almost hopelessly lost in the hostile territory. At first, she has only one defender: a mysterious Greyfriar who roams freely in dangerous vampire regions.
Taken from GoodReads.

Silent Sunday

Of porcelain and men

Image via Wikipedia

Of porcelain and men

A story about the beginnings of Meissen porcelain



Once upon a time there were beautiful objects made of translucent, hard substance. Sometimes they were white, sometimes colourful but always very, very expensive as they were rare. They derived their name from old Italian porcellana meaning cowrie shell but also were called Bone china as they were produced by the Chinese. Nowadays you can buy porcelain in many shops around the world. When you look at it from a scientific point of view it is a kind of ceramic made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln at high temperatures. Complicated a bit but after all nothing special. In the 17th and 18th century in Europe, though, the status of porcelain was totally different. Fine pieces of Bone china were so rare and sought-after that they were called white gold. The porcelain came from China as the Chinese invented the way to produce it long before Europeans, most probably during the Tang Dynasty period (618–906). With lack of fast ways of transport it was imported to Europe at horrendously high cost, often involving the loss of human life.Some monarchs had a thing for porcelain, though – they considered it the very symbol of the highest status, luxury and power. Here comes our second hero – a king who liked porcelain a bit too much. When you come to think of it, he liked good life a bit to much too. I give you His Majesty Elector Frederick Augustus I of Saxony (1694–1733) and King Augustus II of Poland a.k.a. Augustus II the Strong. He was the second son of Elector John George III, and Anna Sophie, daughter of King Frederick III of Denmark. At the time of Augustus's birth, his grandfather, John George II, ruled Saxony, Augustus's father, John George III, was only twenty-three and had already sired Augustus's elder brother, John George IV. There seemed to be little likelihood that the mew baby boy would ever have to be a monarch. Small wonder little Augustus grew to be a totally spoiled brat - his general disinterest in formal study and an early marked inclination to pursue pleasure hunting, soldiering, and womanizing were apparently tolerated by indulgent parents.


The fate decided to test him as a king, though, after a series of unpredictable deaths. After his grandfather died of plague (1680), his father of apoplexy (1691), and his brother of smallpox (April 1694), Augustus became unexpectedly the heir elector and then, in 1697, he decided to buy himself something larger, better suiting his own royal persona and he managed to become the king of Poland.Unfortunately for the new king, the Polish crown came at a steep price - Augustus had to spend lavishly on votes to ensure his electoral victory. In order to have enough money he pawned his jewels, and sold his rights to the duchy of Lauenburg. Seeing that it wasn’t enough, he levied oppressive taxes upon his Saxon subjects, the majority of whom were Lutheran. As you might guess it wasn’t the most popular move but those days no king asked people their opinion. While the election was costly, Augustus reasonably expected that Catholic Poland, a country twenty times bigger than his native Saxony, would provide lucrative markets for Saxon manufactured goods and was certain that his new title would enhance the status of the Wettin dynasty. From his point of view it was a perfectly wise and logical move. But he was broke. Before we progress let me describe what Augustus was like as a man.

Image via Wikipedia

Perhaps it is not so visible in the portrait on the right but he was a tall, strapping fellow, weighing 260 pounds and enjoying every ounce of it, being known as the "Saxon Hercules”. His zest for life and love of hunting, fishing, parties and firework rivaled only his bulk. He was said to have arranged scraps with the biggest and toughest men he could find just to show off his muscles. He was also known to fight bears and bulls. Augustus often rode his horse through Dresden, with the reins in his teeth and carrying two urchins in each hand. I wonder where the said urchins came from and whether they were willing enough. One story tells of his horse throwing a shoe. The village blacksmith made a replacement. Augustus took the horseshoe in his hand and broke it in two to prove his strength. He then tossed the blacksmith a coin to pay for a new one. The blacksmith, not to be outdone, then bent the coin in his hand. Augustus laughed aloud and gave the blacksmith a third coin for the final horseshoe. As you see he was a public relations genius - Augustus didn't mind paying three times the price, since it made for a good story. I guess common folk simply loved this king, so close to their own idea of a rich, generous, powerful ruler, enjoying their own pleasures.


Augustus was also famous for his amorous adventures and many mistresses. He was said to have a luxurious court full of the most beautiful wanton women. Legends have it that he fathered more than 300 bastards but officially there were only 9 illegitimate children acknowledged by the king himself, all of them having high-born mothers. Count Karl von Pöllnitz published a biography of Augustus the Strong one year after his death, in 1734. He reported that the king had only one official mistress in Saxony (for nine years) and the second in Poland, after becoming the king of Poland. Moderation itself. Of course he couldn’t know about the unofficial ones. Or wouldn’t like to know.

Image via Wikipedia

Aurora von Konigsmarck

The king was officially married but he openly despised his Lutheran wife who was plain and didn’t want to renounce her faith in order to be crowned as the Queen of Poland. Instead of divorce she was given a palace of her own and asked to stay away. I bet the fact that she grudgingly obliged was a perfect excuse for taking all these lovers. Poor Augustus was so lonely…His favorite mistresses were Countess Cosel and Countess Maria Aurora von Königsmarck . The career and the fall of both women, but especially of Countess Cosel, is a good example of this king’s more cruel nature. When it came to disposing of a lover he wasn’t a gentleman, far from it. One time Countess showed her jealousy towards a daughter of a Warsaw mine merchant, with whom the king was rumored to have had an affair. She fell out of grace immediately. Augustus found another mistress, Countess Maria Magalena von Denoff, of Warsaw. She bore Augustus' son. Madame Cosel's spies told her so and she went to Warsaw to win the heart of her royal lover back but she was stopped and ordered to go away at the city gates. She persevered. Finally Augustus locked her up in a fortress until she died in 1765. She was imprisoned for forty-nine years even though Augustus himself died in 1733 and she pleaded for clemency time and again. Apparently the orders of the spiteful king were respected even after his death. Imagine how mean he sometimes must have been and how full of himself. There were rumours she dared to blackmail the king with a signed promise of marriage.
Another mistress was a Mademoiselle Dieskau, a strikingly beautiful girl. She had platinum blonde hair, blue eyes, fresh rose-petal skin, exactly like one of those little sweet porcelain shepherdesses. She was a virgin so Augustus II had to pay her mother a huge sum of money to have her in his bed. Well, he never spared money if he wanted pleasure. However he grew tired of the purchased girl very quickly, claiming that she was too “lifeless”, and sent her back. I haven’t found what happened to her afterwards but such a behaviour shows clearly how Augustus treated people who somehow stopped being useful to him. Like a porcelain figurine broken beyond repair.

It’s high time we introduced the third hero and returned to porcelain. You might risk a statement that if the king hadn’t been broke after purchasing the Polish crown and if he hadn’t been so fond of jewellery, the Meissen porcelain manufacture would have never existed. Around 1700, an apprentice chemist with the pharmacist Zorn in Berlin, Johann Friedrich Böttger, claimed to discover in private the "Alltinktur", a substance with which any disease could be cured and base metals converted into gold. His activities did not stay secret for long and soon he was regarded as an adept in alchemy. It seems that in his native Prussia, in the court of Freidrich Wilhelm I, people soon found out that he was just a braggart. Johann fled to Saxony where he was captured by Augustus II.

Poor lad was taken before Augustus himself and, although he tried to beg himself off, admitting that he couldn't do as he had boasted, the king, who always needed gold very badly with two kingdoms to rule, didn’t believe him. He took Böttger into his personal "protective custody". Böttger escaped, but was detained and taken back to Dresden. As you see you can never be too careful with your tongue unless you want to get out of the frying pan into the fire. Let’s remember that the 18-year-old Johann Böttger had committed no crime but still Augustus practically imprisoned him just in case. If gold was to be made, Augustus was taking no chances – he was determined to keep the secret and guard it like a big, bad greedy dragon.

Böttger was to work with Walther von Tschirnhaus, a scholar and chemist. Presumably by involving Böttger in his experiments, von Tshirnhaus spared him the fate that overtook former alchemist adventurers. Maybe he also noticed that Böttger, although mendacious, was talented nevertheless.. Böttger refused any cooperation till September 1707. He did not want to be involved with porcelain which he thought was von Tschirnhaus' business. Only when ordered by the king, Böttger started to cooperate. The king could be really nasty to people he didn’t need anymore, even if they were his own mistresses so there was no other option I suppose. Under von Tschirnhaus' supervision and with the assistance of miners and metal workers from Freiberg, they conducted experiments with different clays. After many years of work, both men ended up making first a porcelain-like pottery and then the real white porcelain.Tschirnhaus died at Dresden, in October 1708, from dysentery. Böttger had to continue the research on his own.

In 1708, a practical formula was produced and production began in the Dresden laboratories in 1709. The first pieces, red in colour and known as Böttger stoneware, went on sale at the Leipzig Easter Fair in 1710. It was a rare event. Augustus finished building a royal porcelain factory in Meissen in June the same year and the operation was transferred there.. By 1713, however, Meissen was producing delicate white porcelain and coloured glazes followed within the next few years. Augustus never made money from the factory as he bought most of the best pieces to add to his own collection and he never let sell the pieces produced in Meissen during his life.
Böttger, so unwilling at first, now was passionately proud of his creations. Yet he directed the Meissen factory from confinement in Dresden. He had the luxury of a free house in the fortress, but he couldn’t leave it unguarded. Augustus, a really tyrannical employer, remained resentful that he had been given porcelain rather than gold, finally released Böttger in 1714 but without the right of leaving Dresden. The prison just got larger and it was considered a favour. I just hope the man was proud of his achievement.
In 1719, Johann Friedrick Bottger, still in his early thirties, became extremely ill and died prematurely. Despite being quite young he looked like a man twice his age. The prolonged exposure to dangerous, corrosive substances undoubtedly deteriorated his health. You might say his death was a side effect of certain king’s porcelain addiction.
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Image via Wikipedia

Sources:

http://www.angelfire.com/mi4/polcrt/AugustII.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcelain
www.antique-marks.com
http:// bildhauerei-keramik.suite101.de

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Review:The Wild Hunt by Elizabeth Chadwick

Review: The Wild Hunt by Elizabeth Chadwick

Mass Market Paperback: 361 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (July 20, 1992)
ISBN-13: 978-0345377241
Genre: historical fiction/romance

Synopsis:

Guyon FitzMiles, lord of Ledworth a son of a Welsh Marcher Barron (called so because their lands "march" with the borders of Wales) returns home from the court with some grave news. He’s been ordered by the slightly perverse king William II Rufus, to marry 16-year-old Lady Judith of Ravenstow, the heiress to great lands, coveted also by her evil uncle, Robert de Belleme. His father is less than pleased as he believes this ordered marriage is tantamount to a death sentence because of the inevitable war his son will have to fight with de Belleme. The king’s will is nothing to trifle with, though. Guyon himself is also sad for personal reasons – he has to kiss goodbye to his beloved Welsh mistress, Rhosyn, who is pregnant but refuses to live with him or under his protection.

Some girls at 16 are already physically mature - almost grown women - but lady Judith is still little more than a child. She is also deeply terrified of the physical aspects of marriage. As a very young girl she witnessed very rough treatment her mother received, being beaten and raped, often  in public, by her brutal oik of a husband now happily dead; Judith, not knowing her future lord, doesn’t hope for a better treatment for herself. However, in some people adversity builds strength and despite her young age, Judith is determined to stand up to her new husband, and not be a weakling.

Small wonder marriage turns out to be a difficult experience for both Guyon and Judith, with such a very rough start and such a burden of bad emotions, but fortunately Guyon proves to be not only an experienced lover but also a compassionate and patient partner. He is so moved by the terror of his child bride that he refrains from sex on their wedding night and also later he decides to wait until Judith matures, although they officially sleep in one bed. The problem is they have less and less time together to overcome the mutual distrust. The Welsh raid over the border, and Judith's uncle Robert de Belleme with his lackeys are always determined to make mischief, even during Judith’s wedding. Guyon’s life is seriously threatened more than once as he gets caught up in the plotting and battling so endemic at the royal court at the end of the 11th century and beginning of the 12th century; many dark deeds and many dark secrets will be unveiled before Judith and Guyon, now passionate lovers, triumph over their evil enemies.

What I liked:

This is Ms Chadwick’s first novel and I must say it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be. I liked the fact that the plot followed parallel lines: the personal history of Judith and Guyon, and the history of 12th-century feudal England. I liked it as far as it went but I wasn’t enraptured by it. Also some characters were not bad – I mean here mostly two women, Rhosyn and Judith. Guyon's dog and Judith's cat were a nice addition to the narration. The cover design is really pleasant too.

What I didn’t like:

Anachronist turns into a mean nerd, sprouts horns and a tail

Ok, it is supposed to be a historical novel; in such books the author should, in my very humble opinion, try his/her best to do A LOT OF research and present the world as close to the epoch they’ve chosen as possible. Ms Chadwick chose 12th century England, but in her book we might find passages not being entirely in accordance with this setting.

For example Judith and Guyon both can read and write. Excuse me? These skills were not very popular even among the monarchs at that time. Apart from that one must ask: in what language they were taught and who has taught them? At the beginning of the 12th century the most common and often the only places where you could learn such skills were convents and monasteries; most probably you would be taught to write and read in Latin, the lingua franca of that age and many years to come. While the fact that Guyon, the heir of a rich baron, might have had his private tutor in the shape of a monk or a priest, wouldn’t surprise me much. It was unlikely but it could have happened. I couldn’t simply imagine Judith's obnoxious father squandering money on a teacher of that unworthy daughter of his, though. If you think I am going over the top, here’s more. After the murder of a Welsh merchant compassionate Judith writes a letter of consolation to his family and the letter is read also by Guyon’s mistress, Rhosyn, who later tells Guyon his wife didn’t sound childish in it anymore. Right. Hello, hello, Earth to the author, Earth to the author…time to return to the solid ground of reality. My first question is: in what language was the letter written? Latin? Welsh? Old French? Old Saxon? English? The most probable answer is Latin but then how come a simple Welsh wench or a family of a common Welsh merchant could read Latin? Who taught them for a change?

I also wasn’t entirely persuaded by the pair of protagonists, especially Guyon. Dear me, that guy could have never existed. EVER. Imagine a handsome 30-year-old man in full health, a former courtier who used to enjoy carnal pleasures to the full, sleeping with his nubile wife for a YEAR in the same bed and never touching her…some saints failed an analogical trial which lasted only ONE NIGHT. Although the life of a courtier was a highly stressful morsel of bread and the debauchery of the court was always rather on a higher level than ordinary standards, Guyon returns home practically unspoiled…he is simply too good to be true. And the scene in which he almost died defending a pair of pretty much unknown people just because it seemed the right thing to do…do forgive me my retching and enough of it. I think I made my point. I have to say the lack of experience shows in this book.

The final verdict:

As a recreational read it will do. I am still willing to try other books of Ms Chadwick; I’ve heard they are better. We’ll see.

Silent Sunday

Review: One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

Review: One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

Publisher: Doubleday
Year:2006
Pages: 526

Genre: crime mystery

Synopsis

If the title of this book reminds you of an old saying 'One Good Turn Deserves Another' you are perfectly right. On a beautiful summer day, crowds lined up outside an Edinburgh theatre witness an act of road rage: a tap on a fender makes a bald, baseball bat-wielding owner of the damaged Honda attack the other driver with the clear intention to smash his unworthy scull and batter him to death. Fortunately one of the onlookers dares to react, and he does it just in time to save the victim’s life, throwing at the perpetrator the first thing he could grab – his laptop. This is the good turn of the title which kicks off all the action.

The brave savior of the careless driver is called Martin. Professionally he is a fairly successful writer but privately - a shy, isolated, deeply unhappy man. Martin, when he isn't writing cheesy novels about the exploits of equally bland Nina Riley or fretting over a mysterious "Russian incident" that teasingly unfolds over the course of the novel, provides an opportunity for much fun at the expense of writers, their agents and the readers. He lets stay in his house a has-been comedian who wants to earn some money during the Fringe, and preys on Martin’s complete lack of assertiveness.

Another main character, Jackson Brodie, ex-cop, ex-private detective and a new millionaire, is also among the bystanders. His partner, Julia is one of the actresses performing in an avant-garde (read: horribly senseless) Fringe play, partly financed by Jackson; as Julia seems to be always busy Jackson has plenty of time to kill and nothing interesting to do. He finally finds his purpose in the shape of a body washed up on Cramond Island and then snatched back by the tide – a dead young woman without identity. Her death is somehow connected to the road rage incident and Brodie’s cop instinct makes him pick up the scent and follow it, although he is repeatedly told not to by the police officers.

The investigation thrusts Jackson into the orbit of Gloria, an elderly wife of a dishonest real estate tycoon; she has just found out that her husband had had a cardiac arrest in the arms of a beautiful Russian call girl and lies unconscious in hospital. Gloria also happened to be among gawping onlookers outside the theatre; she recognized the perpetrator but she doesn’t even think of going to the police; she has a plan of her own to implement now. Is it possible to arrange a fresh start in life when you are a 70+ housewife who’s just realized she had spent most of her best years with a wrong kind of man and her adult children couldn’t care less whether their mum is happy or not?

Then finally we meet Archie, the only son of DI Louise Monroe, who, with another teenager, treats shoplifting as a kind of extreme sport cum theatrical performance. His single working mother ends up investigating the case of Jackson's vanished corpse and finds herself fancying Jackson more than she ought. Will she finally find out about her son’s activities? Will she understand the fact that her son lacks parental guidance to say the least of it?

What I liked:

It was often repeated that Atkinson developed the plot of this novel in the manner of a matryoshka – one of most popular Russian souvenirs, consisting of a set of nestling wooden dolls, hollow inside, with the last solid one in the centre. Somehow I don’t agree with this comparison, maybe because I own several sets of charming matryoshkas myself and I am well aware how they work. I would rather say this novel is like an intricate pattern of a bigger picture or a maze. You follow some lines, then the others, not fully comprehending the whole until you enter a platform in the middle and can see the structure from above, finally understanding how all the strands come together into a single entity and how they are connected and intertwined.

Having said that I must admit that “One Good Turn” is an absolute joy to read. The author tells the story from many different POVs and we often read about the same event several times. The retelling, however, is done just to keep you guessing; not often enough to be redundant. It is also full of quiet, snappish, ironic humour – something I value highly in any book.

I loved the characters too. Each one was definitely unique and real. I could relate to bits and pieces of Gloria, Louise, Jackson and poor, introvert Martin. I loved getting into their heads and understanding their thoughts and emotions and I was really eager to learn the whole story of Martin's "incident" in Russia. Gloria had my sincerest sympathy too – the way she behaved in time of crisis was full of dignity and she kept her wits about her all the time. The ending included certainly several surprises for me!

Last but not least, I also enjoyed the pictures of the Edinburgh scenery that the author paints for her readers. I have been there for a short period of time one summer, just before the Fringe, and it was great to be able to place the characters on the streets that I have walked or the castle that I have visited. It does make a difference when you read about a city you actually know.

What I didn’t like:

My single complaint is about Gloria’s husband and the “Honda Man”, two villains of the piece. Contrary to the main characters, they are hardly three-dimensional, the first being unconscious all the time and the second being described only superficially whenever he pops up wielding his faithful baseball bat. Pity, I like the baddies well-rounded and complex.

The final verdict:

Definitely a position worth reading even if you are not fond of whodunits.

Reviewing a classic: Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) by Choderlos de Laclos

About the author:

Image via Wikipedia

Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) is a French epistolary novel by Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos (18 October 1741 – 5 September 1803), a French novelist, official and army general under Napoleon. “Les Liaisons dangereuses” will remain his most known novel, although he wrote poems and other novels as well. He also was a man who began a project of numbering Paris' streets and invented the modern artillery shell. During the French Revolution he was a diplomat and a commissar in the Ministry of War. Interesting creature. He married relatively late, in 1786, choosing a Marie-Soulange Duperré, 18 years his junior. I wonder whether he let her read his book.

Some quotes from “Les Liaisons dangereuses”:

"Truth to tell, the longer I live, the more I'm tempted to think that the only moderately worthwhile people in the world are you and I." 

"A man enjoys the happiness he feels, a woman the happiness she gives."

"Humanity is not perfect in any fashion; no more in the case of evil than in that of good. The criminal has his virtues, just as the honest man has his weaknesses."

Synopsis:

The first letter shows us a young, innocent Cecile de Volanges, aged 15, who, only recently brought out of a convent boarding school, is preparing herself for her incoming nuptials. Unfortunately her future husband, the Comte de Gercourt, put her in a very dangerous position – he had been a lover of Madame Marquise de Merteuil, a beautiful but immoral widow, and they didn’t part on friendly terms; to put it shortly he dared to cast her out. Madame de Merteuil doesn’t like being cast out and she is a woman who knows what she wants and how to get it. She plans a cruel revenge and asks her other ex-lover and a frequent associate in crime, the Vicomte de Valmont, for help. Meanwhile the Vicomte has set himself a more difficult task than corrupting young girls just out of school – he is determined to seduce the virtuous, very religious Madame de Tourvel. He plans it just to create a scandal and boast of another trophy in his rich collection of broken hearts and tarnished reputations. Madame de Tourvel is staying with Valmont's elderly aunt while Monsieur de Tourvel is away for a court case. Big mistake, monsieur.

Cécile makes involuntarily the whole revenge scheme a bit easier – she hasn’t met her future husband yet but she’s already managed to fall in love with the Chevalier Danceny, her music tutor. Madame de Merteuil and Valmont pretend that they want to help young lovers so that they can use them later in their own schemes. Chevalier Danceny has scruples about the romance with Cécile, though. Impatient Madame de Merteuil urges the Vicomte to seduce Cécile asap in order to exact her revenge on the Comte just in time. Valmont refuses, finding the task too boring and too easy, and preferring to devote himself completely to the cause of the divine Madame de Tourvel. Merteuil promises Valmont that if he seduces Madame de Tourvel and provides her with written proof, she will spend the night with him. Apparently she values her bed skills very high. Valmont, whose vanity was badly tickled, agrees.

He returns to the country house of his aunt expecting rapid success, but does not find Madame de Tourvel as easy a prey as his many other conquests. During the course of his pursuit, he discovers that Cécile's mother has written to Madame de Tourvel, warning her about the Vicomte’s bad reputation. What a pity she hasn’t warned her daughter instead. Valmont decides to avenge himself in seducing Cécile as Merteuil had suggested. Poor Cecile, not even being fully aware what’s happening to her, gets pregnant and then has a miscarriage right under the nose of her dear mum and Valmont’s respectable aunt. In the meantime, Merteuil, who doesn’t like idle life, takes young Danceny as a lover.

After a really long courtship interrupted only by nights spent in the arms of no longer so innocent Cécile, Valmont finally succeeds in seducing Madame de Tourvel. Unfortunately by that time he has really fallen in love with his victim. However, he is the last to acknowledge this fact, fooling himself and everybody around. Not Madame de Merteuil, though. Jealous Madame proves to be a lethal opponent. First she tricks him into deserting Madame de Tourvel by making him write her a truly outrageous letter and then she goes back on her promise of spending the night with him, knowing fully well who he would really prefer to be with. In response to that open defiance Valmont reveals that he prompted Danceny to reunite with Cécile, and abandon Madame de Merteuil herself – something she detests the most. Merteuil declares war on Valmont. She reveals to Danceny that Valmont seduced Cécile and practically schooled her in whoring. Danceny challenges Valmont and they duel. Valmont is fatally wounded, but before he dies he is reconciled with Danceny, giving him Madame de Merteuil’s scandalous letters. His final missile hits bull’s eye. Two of these letters are enough to ruin Madame de Merteuil’s reputation and also make her lose an important case, leaving her significantly poorer. What’s more, after a theatrical performance, during which she was publicly booed and ostracized, Madame de Merteuil falls ill (probably succumbing to a bout of smallpox) and, as the result, her face is left permanently scarred. She has to flee the country with jewellery stolen from her late husband’s family. I am sure in her challenged state Madame needed it more than them. The innocent victims (but is there really anybody left innocent? ) also suffer: hearing of Valmont's death, Madame de Tourvel dies from fewer (probably a nervous breakdown) in the convent where she had been educated as a young girl; also Cécile returns to her old convent, too ashamed and too disgraced to lead a normal life.

What I liked:

The story of two individuals who use sex to manipulate and humiliate other people was a scandal right after the first publishing. Even by today's standards, some of the scenes are shocking and this book used to be compared with the novels of the notorious Marquis de Sade. Small wonder it had been a best-seller even before that name was coined – allegedly 1,000 copies were sold in Paris in a month, an exceptional result for the times.

I loved the fact that it is an epistolary novel so a novel composed entirely of letters written by the various characters. This way the same event could be presented from two or even three different points of view, and readers could get to know plenty about the writers of the letters themselves. The narration pace is really splendidly balanced – not too fast, not too slow, keeping you interested till the very end. The plot is scandalous but it also brings up really serious, complex questions – how to raise children so they are not lured and abused by different predators without scruple, how to lead a happy, fulfilled life, how to arrange a successful marriage. The book speaks volumes about morality without being sanctimonious – not a mean feat.

Now about the characters. The main leads are as complex and well-rounded as you would wish. Madame Marquise de Merteuil has always been my favourite – you simply can’t help admiring her stamina and cunning, even if she was so openly corrupted and sometimes plainly evil. She was a woman living in a world governed by men, her range of choices was evidently limited despite the fact that she was an aristocrat – for instance she couldn’t pursue any professional career (and I don’t doubt she would make a perfect CEO or a politician, finding a more decent outlet to her energy) she had even little to say when it came to her personal wealth. Her revenge on men, although sometimes disgusting, is at least understandable. The main mistake seemed to be her fierce sense of independence. Had she been, say, a mistress of a king or a powerful duke, so still an immoral but less independent individual, she would have been judged less harshly by her contemporaries. Not to mention the fact that she wouldn’t have had financial troubles. The Vicomte is another story. He was a privileged, handsome, intelligent man from a family of means. Even though he could have made something good with his life, a career of a kind, he preferred preying on women and leading a layabout life of a libertine seducing weak or/and stupid for the heck of it. If you think about it, with hindsight you really understand the reasons behind of the French Revolution. Facing such an individual I would be the first to scream “les aristocrates à la lanterne!” (aristocrats to the lamp-post) despite his obvious charms. Small wonder Valmont ended up dead in all movie versions of this novel I’ve seen so far. He was too vain about his lifestyle to change and too damaged at the end to live on.

What I didn’t like:

The fact that such a disfiguring illness attacked Madame de Merteuil right after the public disclosure of her second machiavellian nature did seem a bit over the top…like an act of God. I would prefer her 'only' disgraced. However, when it comes to Madame I am heavily biased and I don’t try to hide this fact.

The final verdict:

This book has always been one of my all time favourites. I even read it in French. I recommend it to anybody.

Image via Wikipedia

Madame (Glenn Close) and the Vicomte (John Malkowitch)  in one of the better movie adaptations of this novel I've seen so far