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A review by ablotial
Devil Water by Philippa Gregory, Anya Seton
3.0
I have a love-hate relationship with this book. On the one hand, I found the story (meaning the plot and characters) fascinating, and moreso because it is based on real people and real events. I found myself looking multiple things up on Wikipedia during each sitting. And yet... it was an INCREDIBLY slow read. It kept putting me to sleep. Partly because it seemed to drag on and on - events seemed to take far more pages than needed (spoiled by the internet much?) and ... I don't know, I guess I just didn't care for the writing style. Which makes me sad, because this author has been recommended by many people. Then again, they have never recommended this book in particular, so perhaps this one isn't really representative.
The story revolves around Charles Radcliffe and his daughter, Jenny. Charles is the grandson of King Charles II of England, and his older brother is the Earl of Derwentwater (translated as Devil Water) at Dilston. They are fervently Catholic in a time when England is moving quickly toward Protestantism, and are supporters (to the death!) of "The Pretender", "King James III" (in quotes, because he was never recognized as King although he was technically next in succession, but he was Catholic and there was a new-ish law preventing Catholics from taking the throne).
But the story more surrounds his daughter, Jenny (Jane), who was the result of a childhood affair with a country girl named Meg, whose father forced a marriage between them when he discovered her pregnancy, of course causing a scandal in the upper class life of Charles and his family. Jenny is torn in many ways due to her mixed heritage - between country life and life as "a lady", between Catholicism and Protestantism, between life in the north country and life in London, between romantic love to a childhood companion and fixed marriage to better her status and that of her family. I cried at multiple points in her story, and ESPECIALLY a lot at the ending... I began to believe I was in love with Rob myself, and was horrified by his reaction [to a spoiler], but glad of how he 'remedied' it.
And the historical details thrown in are just fascinating. I do think it's worth struggling through the writing style, but be prepared to take forever reading this. It -is- broken up into six shorter "Books" by timeline, so that gives good stopping points, where you can stop and come back to it months later like I did :)
The story revolves around Charles Radcliffe and his daughter, Jenny. Charles is the grandson of King Charles II of England, and his older brother is the Earl of Derwentwater (translated as Devil Water) at Dilston. They are fervently Catholic in a time when England is moving quickly toward Protestantism, and are supporters (to the death!) of "The Pretender", "King James III" (in quotes, because he was never recognized as King although he was technically next in succession, but he was Catholic and there was a new-ish law preventing Catholics from taking the throne).
But the story more surrounds his daughter, Jenny (Jane), who was the result of a childhood affair with a country girl named Meg, whose father forced a marriage between them when he discovered her pregnancy, of course causing a scandal in the upper class life of Charles and his family. Jenny is torn in many ways due to her mixed heritage - between country life and life as "a lady", between Catholicism and Protestantism, between life in the north country and life in London, between romantic love to a childhood companion and fixed marriage to better her status and that of her family. I cried at multiple points in her story, and ESPECIALLY a lot at the ending... I began to believe I was in love with Rob myself, and was horrified by his reaction [to a spoiler], but glad of how he 'remedied' it.
And the historical details thrown in are just fascinating. I do think it's worth struggling through the writing style, but be prepared to take forever reading this. It -is- broken up into six shorter "Books" by timeline, so that gives good stopping points, where you can stop and come back to it months later like I did :)