Saturday, July 06, 2019

THE BLUE


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The Blue, Nancy Bilyeau, Endeavor Quill, 2018, 434 pp
 
This novel is a wonderful modern example of historical fiction written in the style of Daphne du Maurier and Mary Stewart, complete with a brave and reckless heroine, romance and both English and French settings. The "Blue" is a color used to paint on porcelain, tricky to formulate and much sought after in 18th century Europe, where porcelain is all the rage and making fortunes for it producers.
 
Genevieve Planche, our heroine, is an English-born descendant of Huguenot refugees from France. All Protestant sects in France were hounded, persecuted, imprisoned and even burned at the stake in the 16th and 17th centuries. Those who emigrated found acceptance in England as well as in other European countries and the United States. In fact Nancy Bilyeau is a Huguenot descendant.

Genevieve at 24 years of age is not interested in porcelain. Her dream is to be a famous painter in the "historical" style (Rembrandt, da Vinci, Michelangelo), a profession open only to men. She cannot even find a teacher willing to take her on. Instead, she finds the deceptively charming and seemingly wealthy Sir Gabriel Courtenay, who strikes a deal with her. If she will go as a spy to the famous English Derby Porcelain Works and steal the formula for cobalt blue paint, he will finance her art studies in Venice.

So eager is she to get to her goal, she goes with only minor trepidation off to Derby, posing as a painter of flowers on porcelain plates, cups and bowls. She impresses the owner and manages to get access to the young scientist who is working on the cobalt blue formula. She also falls in love with him and he with her. From that moment on she suffers conflicted emotions and puts both herself and her scientific lover in great danger.

Before long, they find themselves captives of King Louis XV, whose investment in the French porcelain factory, Sevres, makes him avid to get that formula for the Blue. 

I loved the novel for the story itself, for the history, and the great characters. My two fellow members of the Tiny Book Club, whom I had convinced to read it, were less enraptured. They found the writing style and plot somewhat improbable and Genevieve too ditsy or something. They were however, quite excited to learn about porcelain. I, of course, encouraged them to read du Maurier and Stewart for other excellent examples of the genre on which I thought Nancy Bilyeau based her approach.
 
The Tinies held our meeting at The Getty Museum of Los Angeles, first touring their exhibit of French and Chinese porcelain. I was amazed to see that the Chinese, who invented porcelain in the 7th century, had an even more vivid blue than the French. The afternoon came to be one of our most wondrous meetings.

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This next part is addressed mainly to bloggers:
 
Yesterday I read about some snarky pronouncements made by an author regarding bloggers: that we don't buy the books but only get free review copies (as do the "critics"), that we don't use the methods of literary criticism and take attention away from the "better writers." Hm. 
 
Both of the other Tinies and I bought our copies of The Blue. Some of my fellow bloggers do accept free review copies, but we also buy tons of books and do our best to present balanced, well thought out reviews. 
 
If not for reviews from Helen at She Reads Novels and Emma at Words and Peace, I would not have learned about this novel, read it and passed it on to you my blog followers. What say you?

30 comments:

  1. Sounds interesting! I'm a sucker for well written historical novels. I'll look out for it. If you haven't read 'Pure' by Andrew Miller I can't recommend it too highly.

    Good to see you posting. Hope the earthquakes aren't affecting you too much!!!

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    1. Thanks for reminding me of Pure. We have been rocked and rolled two days in a row. It is never, ever a nice experience, but so far we have not been too much affected, just that weird vertigo feeling when the ground is not steady beneath one.

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    2. Good to hear. I hope that last one was the end to it. I picked up the latest Miller book 'Now We Shall Be Entirely Free' without even looking what it was about after being SO impressed by Pure. I'm itching to read it but there's so much else to read!

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    3. The "experts" are saying there is a less than 10% chance of another earthquake in the near future. My husband says there is a better chance than that of having a car accident. I don't know what to think. I am not a worrier by nature so I tend to think it is best to carry on. In fact, today I realized that human life is dangerous by definition. Still, I hope we get another 10 year break! Meanwhile, there is sooo much to read!

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  2. i've had Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy on my tbr list for years... i know i've read at least one of her works but of course i can't recall the title... i get around the carping criticism of carping critics: i just call my blogs book reports haha... this sounds good; another one for the list... tx...

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    1. I have had that trilogy on my list for a long time as well. Since I am reading her books in order of publication I have not quite gotten there yet. I happen to like her improbably reckless yet romantic heroines.
      Book reports is good. I hated writing them in school, but I have been a reviewer and didn't like having to conform to someone else's "rules" about how to write them. Blogging was the perfect solution!

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  3. p.s.: i thought you lived in New York? this blogging thing is a bit disorienting at times... i'm in northwestern Oregon, btw...

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    1. Somehow I figured out you were in NW Oregon. Glad to have it confirmed! Essentially we all live in the blogoverse, right?

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  4. That's so messed for whoever said that. I buy all the books that I liked even if I got the ARC. Now, I do admit to not buying the book if I didn't like the ARC. That's just silly to me to waste money I things I didn't like. Just like I will sell a book I bought after reading it if I didn't like it. Ugh some people....

    Great review! Also, I love that cover <3

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    1. Yes, it is the kind of cover that makes me want to buy the book! Some people, even authors, maybe especially authors, are insecure. It was a bit foolish of a thing for him to say though. What if the bloggers found out who he was and boycotted him? Ha Ha.

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  5. Great about going to the Getty and tying that in with the review, wow! Love it. As for your second part, I think snobby authors & critics or professional reviewers often put bloggers down for being dumb amateurs or something, but I think my fellow bloggers offer interesting perspectives on their reads & often buy books whether in print, ebook or audiobook format. We are bibliophiles for goodness sakes and pass along our enthusiasm for good reads. It bums me when I hear stuff like that eh?

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    1. Yes! The Getty thing was suggested by one of the other members and it was brilliant. Yay! I figured us bloggers would erupt in contradiction and they have!

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  6. ps. Granted, I check out about 95% of my reads from the Library, so I mostly don't buy anymore, but every once in awhile when I need more time with a book or give myself a gift, I'll buy a copy ... like The Goldfinch just the other day which needs time etc.

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    1. Absolutely no problem. I found out a couple months ago that authors get a royalty whenever one of their books is checked out from a library! Anyway, checking out library books is the best thing we can do to protect and keep libraries.

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  7. The book sounds like it is very entertaining. My wife is a fan of Daphne du Maurier. I have actually not read her. I really must give her books, and books like this a try.

    I would guess that book boogers mostly benefit authors. Maybe that author had a bad experience.

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    1. Well, Brian, here we are introducing each other to books we have not tried yet. You may be right about that author.

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  8. I share same dream with Genevieve. I really love painting and I love rococo/victorian style ♥

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    1. Kim, I wish you success with your dream. Thank you for stopping by and commenting!

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  9. I'm glad you enjoyed this book as much as I did, Judy! The plot might be slightly improbable but I thought it was fun to read and I loved all the details about porcelain.

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    1. Yes, very fun to read. I had not realized it would be almost a thriller until I read it!

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  10. This sounds like a great summer read. As for snarky comments about bloggers, that's the world we live in, I guess. Why should we be exempt? But in fact, I do buy my books. Since I read exclusively on a Kindle now, I have stopped accepting review copies, but I see nothing wrong with bloggers who do.

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    1. All of what you say is true, Dorothy. Even the "critics" accept review copies. It seems to me we are all in the same game or profession or aspiring to the same things: that books are important and it is good when people read them and discuss them, as well as write them.

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  11. Perhaps that author is just a Sad Suzy because he or she is mad a blogger did not like his/her book. Boo hoo. I buy tons of books, use the library, NetGalley, and accept ARCs and final products from authors and publicists. I am also a writer myself. Anyone who can read and think is qualified to write a book review.

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    1. Well said Sarah. I think many bloggers have been or are currently writers. Anyone who can read or think...I like that!

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  12. Wow, The Blue sounds like a wonderful read. I also love how your book club meeting was held at The Getty Museum of Los Angeles and you were able to see porcelain on display during your visit... Ingenious idea!

    As a side note, my husband and I saw an entire room of porcelain on display at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco in May of this year. It was lovely to view.

    As far as the snarky comment from the author goes about bloggers only receiving FREE books... I'm not sure why she's complaining about this as it is a win-win situation for both the blogger and the author... As a reader/blogger, I luck out in receiving free books on occasion and the authors luck out in receiving free online reviews for their books. The more their book is being talked about online/word of mouth, the better. I'd think the author would be grateful that her novels are being read and discussed at all. This will drive sales of her books if the reviews are good.

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    1. It was so wonderful! Our Tiny Book Club gets pretty ingenious about our meetings, that is for sure.
      I am quite pleased with all the responses I got here about the snarky author. We know what we are doing as bloggers and we are proud of it!

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  13. Thanks for your note. I do receive a lot of books for free, but thanks to my reviews, I recommend them to many friends, and they buy the books

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    1. You are welcome. I agree with you and it seems obvious that bloggers get the word out about books.

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  14. Bloggers are entitled to their opinions. I choose not to post about books I didn't like for some reason. Works for me. Cheers

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