This story is told in three sections, each from the point of view of an inhabitant of a house called Littleperry Manor. The house was built around 1300 for a newly wed minor noble, son and heir of a nearby great house, and his fifteen year old wife Melisande from France. Melisande comes to the house bringing the Saracen Lamp of the title, a gift from a dear friend who was a Saracen slave owned by her father but to her was like a second and less distant father. She has only one friend with her and they have to cope with Melisande's mother in law who doesn't think she is good enough for her only son Hector, although as time goes on and she gives birth to three sons and manages the house well, the MIL thaws a bit. Melisande faces a number of tragedies in her lifetime and her section closes on the greatest when the Black Death comes to the house. A supernatural element is that as Melisande grows older, with her family grown and away, and she sits alone at night in her Lady Room, she becomes aware of the presence of a ghost from the future - a young girl sitting in a wheelchair.

The second section is from the POV of Alys, a dishonest and self-centred young woman who has been taken to see the master of LittlePenny by her grandmother since she was a small girl and eventually gets a job there and becomes the close friend of the self-effacing daughter of the house. As an adult reader, it was quite clear early on that she is in fact the illegitimate daughter of the house's owner. Due to her infatuation with a young man who works there she hatches a plot when the house owner tries to make his daughter marry an older rather cloddish man. The daughter appeals to Alys to help her get out of the marriage and Alys' plan is that they run off to London with the help of the young man. She has learned that the Saracen Lamp is valuable and unbeknown to her half-sister takes it with her when she leaves, but her plans for marriage and a comfortable life with her young man funded by the sale of the lamp turn to tragedy.

In the final section, Perdita, a girl who has a leg problem is sent to recuperate at the house, nursed by her grandmother and an old retainer, who is probably a descendant of a woman who worked there in section 2. Perdita becomes rather insular and obsessed with a sampler that includes a mysterious rhyme which refers to the Saracen Lamp. Old stories say that a bad woman sold the treasure of the house and it has been an unhappy house ever since. Perdita begins to retreat into a world comprising just herself and Alys, a character she believes she has created and with whom she has conversations, but Alys more and more becomes a strong presence and it seems that the Alys of part 2 is condemned to haunt the house because of her heartless deeds. Only a young boy from Greece, whom her grandmother has sponsored, can eventually start to bring Perdita back to the real world and to motivate her to walk again.

This is an old time historical novel for children - the book dates to 1970 - which manages to convey quite a lot of factual information about the time periods. The supernatural element adds an interest that might not be there in a totally 'straight' history. However, the first section in particular has quite touching aspects to it as we go through the lifetime of Melisande from her arrival as a nervous young bride to when she has survived widowhood and other family tragedies, and that was my favourite part of the book. Overall I rate this as 4 stars. ( )

One of my very favorite books as a kid! I named my Barbies after the characters in this book and the names stuck. ( )

Told from the perspectives of three young women, this book follows the fortunes of a family, a house, and a lamp over the course of six hundred years. Brought to England in 1300 by the beautiful Melisande, the Lamp - a symbol of love, faithfulness, and family - rests at Littleperry Manor until it is stolen in Elizabethan times by the resentful Alys. It falls to Perdita, a modern young woman, to find a way to restore what has been lost...

The Saracen Lamp closes with a beautiful description of Perdita's sense of completion in this act of restoration, and her sense of connection to her ancestors and her home. With Arthur's delicate treatment of the supernatural, her gift for understanding both the finer and baser motives of young girls, as well as her polished prose, this novel is both moving and entertaining. Its strong sense of place, with Littleperry Manor becoming almost a character in its own right, reminds the reader of the house of Green Knowe in L.M. Boston's Green Knowe Chronicles. Possibly one of Arthur's finest works. ( )

12/2011 This is one of my all-time favorites. It may well be where I first learned of The Black Death, which went on to become a passion of mine. It is certainly where I first heard of the Crusades, and where I learned about the Saracens. It's where I learned how Henry Tudor's sacking of the monasteries affected the populace at large, and any number of other historical curiosities that I was compelled to learn more about. Arthur is a fantastic writer, and her deft touch with the slightly spooky is perfect for the kid I was, and the woman I've become. I love this book beyond all reason, and when I read it now, I start to cry on about the second page and never stop with the furtive eye-wiping till I close the book with a sense of satisfaction and rightness and completion. Highly recommended, indeed.

8/2007 Sadly, this classic novel is out of print. It's a wonderful, very British story of a house and 3 women who live there separated by hundreds of years. My favorite vignette is the first, set in the times of the Crusades and the Black Death. Arthur was a master of the gooseflesh-inducing tale and is in fine form here. Highly recommended, if you can find it. ( )