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| Virgin Blue |  | Author: Tracy Chevalier
Publisher: Topeka Bindery
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  157 reviews
Media: Turtleback
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.3 x 1
ISBN: 0606284850
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780606284851
ASIN: 0606284850
Publication Date: August 2003
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Product Description
Tracy Chevalier has established an enormous and loyal fanbase with her much loved Girl With a Pearl Earring and Falling Angels. This is a reissue of her first novel, which was first published in 1996 and has been out of print for 4 years. The compelling story of two women, born four centuries apart, and the ancestral legacy that binds them. Ella Turner does her best to fit in to the small, close-knit community of Lisle-sur-Tarn. She even changes her name back to Tournier, and knocks the rust off her high school French. In vain. Isolated and lonely, she is drawn to investigate her Tournier ancestry, which leads to her encounter with the town's wolfish librarian. Isabelle du Moulin, known as Le Rousse due to her fiery red hair, is tormented and shunned in the village -- suspected of witchcraft and reviled for her association with the Virgin Mary. Falling pregnant, she is forced to marry into the ruling family: the Tourniers. Tormentor becomes husband, and a shocking fate awaits her. Plagued by the colour blue, Ella is haunted by parallels with the past, and by her recurring dream. Then one morning she wakes up to discover that her hair is turning inexplicably red...
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| Customer Reviews: Read 152 more reviews...
 B+ August 8, 2008
Chevalier shows budding writers the correct way parallelism should be used for dramatic and storytelling effect in The Virgin Blue, her debut novel. It is flawlessly carried out. I enjoyed the melodrama of the flawed romantic relationships, although some readers might find that off-putting. The protagonist, Ella, inexplicably leaves her husband, and no adequate reason is given. Many have found this aspect to be a plot hole, but I think a more sophisticated eye would find that there really doesn't need to be a reason for every choice a person makes, that emotion-based logic is a shaky system, used quite often in Chevalier's tome. The author had a penchant for telling, not showing, which is the inevitable downfall of the book. The story is a wonderful idea, and the characters were pretty well developed. Some images got repetitive, and I got tired of seeing some of the same descriptions numerous times. The descriptions of life in a small French town, while a bit stereotypical, are also portrayed well. The climax is expected if you paid enough attention, and the epilogue is beautifully open-ended in just the right amount.
 Fails to deliver character development or plot August 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
While the basic idea is intriguing, the book fails to deliver in terms of character development and plot.
I found Ella selfish and whiney, an impression that only intensified through contrast with Isabelle, who lives at a time when as a woman and refugee she has far fewer options than Ella has today, and yet responds with courage and concern for others. Isabelle's character interested me initially, but unfortunately she remained the same from childhood to middle-adulthood. Isabelle makes little impact on her surroundings, and at the same time it is not shown how circumstances impact her. Ella stays consistently whiney throughout, and if anything, the book celebrates her becoming even more selfish.
The coincidences used to tie the past/present plotlines feel contrived. The end of the book feels rushed, with Ella making the remaining discoveries about her family's past through dreams (which, conveniently, are no longer abstract) and through especially unbelievable guesswork. Finally, in a book that condemns the persecution of Catholics, which is largely motivated by ignorance, the author nevertheless perpetuates common misunderstandings, showing the central Catholic character eager to "worship" Mary.
 Deeply Disturbing - Do Not Recommend May 30, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
No doubt Ms. Chevalier highlights a significant time of religious intolerance, but the tale is disturbing on so many deep levels, I am extremely sorry I read it. I am still trying to erase my memories of this novel and I won't be taking a chance on any other Chevalier material. (I previously read Girl with a Pearl Earring and thought it was interesting.)
A great debut novel April 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I quite like Tracy Chevalier's books, although I believe she has sort of lost her touch with her two most recent novels, The Lady and the Unicorn and Burning Bright. "The Virgin Blue" is her debut novel, and while it also deals with a part of European history, the main motive of all Chevalier's books, displacement, is most evident here. It alternates between two stories, one about Isabelle de Moulin, a young protestant woman dealing with the hardships of life in 1572 France, and a modern-day one about Ella Turner, an American who has recently moved to France with her husband and who starts tracing her family history out of boredom.
The novel is both fun and difficult to read, as it requires some knowledge about the Huguenots and the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, but there is a historical note at the end of the book that explains it all and should be read first. The two women are very well-written characters, although at times too two-dimensional - irregardless, their stories are engaging, and the novel is a real page-turner.
Although not quite as good as Chevalier's smash hit Girl with a Pearl Earring, Deluxe Edition, or her best novel, Falling Angels, "The Virgin Blue" is good historical fiction - far-fetched, engaging and sexy, bordering on erotic.
Burning Bright March 15, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this book, Burning Bright, with great anticipation, after I read and liked her previous 2 books, Girl with a Perl Earring, and The Lady with the Unicorn. I am most disappointed by this effort. Perhaps, I am thinking, it is not Tracy Chevalier's writing after all? The above mentioned two novels were magical, the language wonderful, while this one is flat, forced, boring, and so on. I tried to read on valiantly but eventually gave up at page 46. An old professor of my said long ago: "Who does not speak Arabic, should not speak Arabic".
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