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Edward Rutherfurd

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Edward Rutherford is a pseudonym for Francis Edward Wintle. A writer of historical novels, he has also found success with multigenerational epics. His first book Sarum: The Novel of England was published in 1987. It was followed in 1991 with Russka: The Novel of Russia. He has also published two näytä lisää novels which cover the story of Ireland from the time just before Saint Patrick to the twentieth century: Dublin: Foundation (The Princes of Ireland) and Ireland: Awakening (The Rebels of Ireland). His books have been translated into twenty languages. Wintle was born in 1948, in Wiltshire, England. He attended Cambridge University and graduated with honors in English. His title's Paris and Sarum: The Novel of England made The New York Times Best Seller List. (Bowker Author Biography) näytä vähemmän
Image credit: Edward Rutherfurd

Sarjat

Tekijän teokset

London (1997) 4,501 kappaletta
Sarum (1987) 4,036 kappaletta
The Princes of Ireland (2004) 2,833 kappaletta
New York: The Novel (2009) 2,591 kappaletta
Russka (1991) 2,272 kappaletta
The Forest (2000) 2,088 kappaletta
Paris (2013) 1,665 kappaletta
The Rebels of Ireland (2006) 1,471 kappaletta
China (2019) 341 kappaletta
Russka, Part I (1994) 31 kappaletta
Russka, Part II (1994) 22 kappaletta
Sarum, Part I (1992) 16 kappaletta
Sarum, Part II (1994) 11 kappaletta
The Forest Part 1 Of 2 (2000) 6 kappaletta
London, Part I (1998) 5 kappaletta
London, Part III (1998) 4 kappaletta
London, Part II (1998) 4 kappaletta
The Forest [abridged] 3 kappaletta
London [abridged] 3 kappaletta
Hiina (2022) 2 kappaletta
The Forest Proof (1999) 1 kappale
Sarum dl2 1 kappale
Pasadena * 1 kappale
1995 1 kappale
The Forest Part 2 Of 2 (2000) 1 kappale
2007 1 kappale
2006 1 kappale
1998 1 kappale
Rusos I - Edward Rutherfurd (2006) 1 kappale
Nyskoven, bd. 2 1 kappale
Nyskoven, bd. 1 1 kappale
Galilee 1 kappale
Kina 1 kappale

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Edward Rutherfurd., Historical Fiction (marraskuu 2011)

Kirja-arvosteluja

A few days ago, here in early 2024, I recalled reading and enjoying an epic novel that followed a few English families, from prehistory through modern time. Its title and most of its contents escaped me, but this morning's research brought back the almost-thousand-page novel, Sarum.

The idea of following history through a set of stories about family lines, is both sort of kludgy, and at the same time brilliant. I'm willing to agree that a line of the Browns (I don't remember any names from the book) kept their family name and family worldview through centuries. If they were nice people or nasty ones in the bronze age, they were the same in the 1900s. That's the cover Rutherfurd uses to make his novel work. And it did work for me. What I know about English history is probably largely influenced by this big, fat, paperback book.… (lisätietoja)
 
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mykl-s | 76 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Mar 2, 2024 |
It is an epic novel spanning the Stone Age to the late 20th century in the Salisbury Plain. The story is written in the style of the late James Michener.
 
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Huba.Library | 76 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Feb 25, 2024 |
Family Saga
 
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BooksInMirror | 82 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Feb 19, 2024 |
I’ve owned this book, the First American Edition, since 1997. It took me over 2-1/2 decades to finally get to it.

I was disappointed in this book. I’d expected to give it 5 or at least 4 stars.

2-1/2 stars rounded up because I suspect my mood influenced by enjoyment of it and because I enjoyed enough about it that it was a bit more than just okay for me. I kind of liked it.

I thought it would be a page-turner but for me it was not. I struggled to pick it up and didn’t have that hard a time putting it down. I was eager to be done with it. I’m glad that I stuck with it but I barely liked it, true of both when I was reading and now that I’ve finished. I’ll probably keep the book though.

It was sheer stubbornness that made me want to finish. That and thinking that I’d enjoy the last few chapters the most and I sort of did.

The chapters are: 1. The River; 2. Londinium; 3. The Rood; 4. The Conqueror; 5. The Tower; 6. The Saint; 7. The Mayor; 8. The Whorehouse; 9. London Bridge; 10. Hampton Court; 11. The Globe; 12. God’s Fire; 13. London’s Fire; 14. St. Paul’s; 15. Gin Lane; 16. Lavender Hill; 17. The Crystal Palace; 18. The Cutty Sark; 19. The Suffragette; 20. The Blitz; 21. The River.

The maps are: a general map shows southeast England and some of mainland Europe and the English Channel and the North Sea; Roman and Saxon London; Medieval and Tudor London; Georgian and Victorian London; and one of London’s Village and Suburbs.

The characters/family trees have a timeline double page showing those who appear in each chapter.

This story should have been my cup of tea given that London is my number one bucket list destination and I’ve always been interested in the city & area. Also, I’m fascinated with genealogy/family trees and now each generation affects the next one(s) and this multigenerational story does a good job of showing this.

What I liked:

I loved how it started with the area prior to human habitation.

I loved how it ended with an archeological dig and its particular participants.

I appreciated the maps.

I did care about a few of the many characters and I delighted in seeing how each generation impacted on the next generations.

I loved the history.

I liked seeing how life was for average people in various time periods. I think that a good job was done with this.

What was neither here nor there:

The characters/families timeline was definitely helpful but if used properly (and I did that) it contained a lot of spoilers such as who got married to which people and who their children, grandchildren, etc. were, and also when their line ended in some cases.

The author seemed to do thorough research and I learned a lot but I’d have much rather read a nonfiction book covering the same content.

I tried an audio version to read simultaneously with the hardcover but listened to only maybe a quarter of it. It didn’t help me concentrate or focus or get more enjoyment from the book.

I did look up some of the real history and the real people as I was reading the novel. I was motivated to want to do that.

What I didn’t like:

The premise was interesting but only a very few characters were memorable for me. So little time is spent with most of them and for me they were sometimes hard to remember and at times I was confused and I felt as though I didn’t get to know most well enough to feel fully invested in their lives. Most were forgettable once I left their chapters.

I thought the fictional characters would bring history to life. They often do and I’m sure they were meant to here but while that was sometimes the case I don’t think it worked well enough of the time.

There was too much reliance connecting the characters down the generations on genetic physical descriptions.

I think many of the characters could have been better drawn. I hate when real people/events such as Beckett and Chaucer and King Henry VIII and the Mayflower and King Charles I and II and Pepys and James the Duke of York and Sir Christopher Wren and others are too involved with fictional characters. I realize this is done to flesh out a narrative and I know this is done to some extent in nonfiction too but I really didn’t like it in this story.

It was a slog to read it. I love long books when I am engrossed in them but that didn’t really happen for me with this book. It was easy to put down and I wasn’t yearning to pick it up.

It is a heavy book and hard to read with it sitting on my chest. This is an instance when an e-book might have been better than a paper book.

What might have been different:

I think if I’d read this book with my book club or with a friend or friends I’d have liked it more than I did. Discussing it with other readers chapter by chapter would have made reading it more fun and more absorbing.

I’ve been struggling to read and to find the right book for my mood so if I’d been in a different frame of mind I might have loved or at least liked this book more than I did.

All this said about how underwhelmed I was with this book I do want to read the author’s book about New. York. I’ve always been interested in the Indigenous people of the area and its early immigrants and I spent a couple of formative times there and I think I would enjoy reading about its history. I do wonder if I had spent time in London and knew it well whether I might have enjoyed this book more than I did.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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Lisa2013 | 72 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jan 25, 2024 |

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