Pulse en una miniatura para ir a Google Books.
Cargando... The Book of Dayspor Francesca Kay
Ninguno Cargando...
Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. Married to a much older husband, Alice wants to have children but her husband is dying. His will stipulates that all will go to his daughter Agnes, flush with her first love, unless Alice bears a son. As her husband ails, he commissions a fine chantry chapel in the local church, his tomb is carved and a priest arrives to sing. However the locals on the estate are not happy about this and change is afoot, the old king is dead and the new one wants a different form of religious practice. It was quite hard to get into this book, there are few names used in early chapters and the date is really given until later. Luckily I have a fair bit of knowledge and could use the hints about wider events to place this story. I'm glad I persevered as this is a wonderfully understated bit of writing. There are tumultuous events taken place as the Protestant reformation takes place and this book reflects on how it must have felt in the heart of the countryside.
Francesca Kay’s fourth novel is a welcome throwback to the literate, witty style of such novelists as William Golding and Iris Murdoch, although its concerns – gender, faith and personal fulfilment – are contemporary. Its focus is a young woman in 1546 England who is drawn into her dying spouse’s growing obsession with having a grand chapel built to commemorate him, but this fixation inevitably comes into conflict with her own desires. Kay again proves herself an able chronicler of frustrated wishes and flaring passions.
Things change; we have to recognise that; the world will not stay still. What we must hope is that the new is better and stronger than the old. Anno Domini 1546. In a manor house in England a young woman feels the walls are closing round her, while her dying husband is obsessed by his vision of a chapel where prayers will be said for his immortal soul. As the days go by and the chapel takes shape, the outside world starts to intrude. And as the old ways are replaced by the new, the people of the village sense a dangerous freedom. The Book of Days is a beautifully written novel of lives lived in troubled times and the solace to be found in nature and the turning seasons. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
Debates activosNinguno
Google Books — Cargando... ValoraciónPromedio:
¿Eres tú?Conviértete en un Autor de LibraryThing. |
In a village, north of Oxford , 1546 , the tale begins to unfold. Alice is a young woman , married to a much older man, Richard, who is very ill and is dying. Alice would very much like to have a child. Richard's first wife died, and left behind a now teen aged daughter, Agnes. Richard is obsessed with building a chapel where he plans to be buried, and prayers said for his soul. Alice has already lost a 3 day old baby, and mourns her loss.
Though not specifically mentioned, the Protestant Reformation has begun. The Catholic Chapel where Squire Richard and his family and the town worship, is threatened. A commissioner arrives, and the chapel is to dismantle all things Catholic. Meanwhile, daughter Agnes grows restive, and becomes interested in a man named Henry Martyn. When Richard dies, his manor and fortune will go to Agnes, unless a male heir is born. Alice wonders what will become of her when her husband dies.
Many of the townspeople begin to follow a firebrand Protestant preacher, and turmoil and tragedy result.
A fascinating tale from a very personal perspective, but one that has made me seek out more information on the Protestant Reformation, and the reign of King Henry V111
A couple of quotes
48% " I have been a man's possession since the day I was born" - Alice.
55% " was it right to liberate a church from Rome to enslave it to another throne ? " ( )