Tea at Trianon: The Passion of the Purple Plumeria

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, August 10, 2013

The Passion of the Purple Plumeria

Lauren Willig’s dazzling series about spies of the Napoleonic era has just been enriched by the addition of her latest offering, The Passion of the Purple Plumeria. A novel replete with hilarity as well as intriguing historical detail, there is really no comparison of Willig’s historical fiction mysteries with any other works of the genre, past or present.

The staid spinster Gwendolyn Meadows is in actuality an agent of the famed League of the Pink Carnation, and Talleyrand himself cannot predict when and where she might turn up next. When Gwen encounters the roguish Colonel William Reid in their mutual search for two missing schoolgirls, sparks fly between them, opening up a perilous new path of adventure and romance. Their odyssey includes a hunt for fabulous legendary jewels, an encounter with a dangerous cabal known as the Hell Fire club, and an unforgettable night at the opera. In the meantime, they are pursued by an enemy who will stop at nothing to hinder their quest. The greatest mysteries, however, lie within the hearts of the protagonists. Only an immersion in Dickens, Austen, and Doyle could result in a novel as witty, amusing, and suspenseful as The Passion of the Purple Plumeria.

This review originally appeared in the August 2013 version of the Historical Novels Review.

(*NOTE: This book was sent to me by the Historical Novel Society in exchange for my honest opinion.)