- Paperback: 296 pages
- Publisher: Mills & Boon; New edition edition (6 Jan 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 026384630X
- ISBN-13: 978-0263846300
- Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 10.6 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,616,346 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
The Knave and the Maiden
Could a maiden's kiss turn a cynical rogue into an honourable knight?
Sir Garren owes much to the Earl of Readington, even his very knighthood. So when his liege lord falls ill Garren knows he must save his friend, whatever the cost - even if it means embarking on a pilgrimage and promising to deflower an innocent woman...
Though stirred by Sir Garren's knightly presence. Dominica is steadfast in her determination to take the veil. Only every step of the pilgrimage seems to be leading her straight into his powerful ARMS! Garren's mission is to seduce the beautiful Dominica - but that is before he finds himself falling in love...
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Board book
This is a love story set in 1357, about a decade after the onset of the Black Death and during the early stages of the hundred years war between England and France.
Sir Garren owed everything to his feudal lord, William Earl of Readington, who had adopted him as his squire when Garren was a penniless boy. Garren had fought at Lord Readington's side until the earl was badly wounded in a great battle (not specifically named but it would almost certainly have been Poitiers). Garren rescued his liege and brought him home, but the earl has never recovered his health, and at the start of the book is close to death.
William asks Garren to undertake a pilgrimage on his behalf, to pray for him at the shrine of Saint Larina. Garren's faith has been badly undermined by the horrors of plague and war, and by the corruption of the church, but for his friend and liege lord
he agrees.
Another traveller in the same group of pilgrims has very different motives. Dominica is a sixteen year old maiden, an innocent and very pious girl who had been taken in by the nuns of the local priory when she had been left on their doorstep as a baby. She wants to complete the pilgrimage and then take her vows as a novice. Dominica is intelligent but very naive - and of course, this being a Mills and Boon romance, she has a very attractive figure, hair like poured honey, and eyes of the purest blue which Sir Garren has ever seen.
Richard, Lord Readington, younger brother and heir of the Earl, wants to get rid of his elder brother's devoted knight. And the snobbish and worldly Prioress does not want Dominica to join the order, partly because of her presumed illegitimate birth but mostly because Dominica wants to translate the bible into plain Enlgish, which the Prioress regards as heresy. (Controversy over whether the bible should be made available in language which the majority of people could understand was a real historical feature of the time this novel is set.)
So Richard and the Prioress hatch a vile plot: He gives the Prioress money with which to offer the penniless but very handsome knight a bribe to seduce the innocent virgin. If he does, Richard can then feign moral outrage and turn Garren away for ruining the girl, while the Prioress can refuse to accept Dominica as a novice beause of her unchastity.
Garren is shocked by what the Prioress asks him to do, but he desperately needs money - and as the pilgrimage continues he finds her innocent charms harder and harder to resist. Meanwhile Dominica, who harbours the foolish idea that Garren is some kind of saint, does not realise her danger. Yet she is oddly drawn to him in a way she cannot understand ...
Not the most plausible historical romance that I have read, though the author has gone to some trouble to get the major events and themes of fourteenth century history right. But not a bad read either.
Sir Garren owed everything to his feudal lord, William Earl of Readington, who had adopted him as his squire when Garren was a penniless boy. Garren had fought at Lord Readington's side until the earl was badly wounded in a great battle (not specifically named but it would almost certainly have been Poitiers). Garren rescued his liege and brought him home, but the earl has never recovered his health, and at the start of the book is close to death.
William asks Garren to undertake a pilgrimage on his behalf, to pray for him at the shrine of Saint Larina. Garren's faith has been badly undermined by the horrors of plague and war, and by the corruption of the church, but for his friend and liege lord
he agrees.
Another traveller in the same group of pilgrims has very different motives. Dominica is a sixteen year old maiden, an innocent and very pious girl who had been taken in by the nuns of the local priory when she had been left on their doorstep as a baby. She wants to complete the pilgrimage and then take her vows as a novice. Dominica is intelligent but very naive - and of course, this being a Mills and Boon romance, she has a very attractive figure, hair like poured honey, and eyes of the purest blue which Sir Garren has ever seen.
Richard, Lord Readington, younger brother and heir of the Earl, wants to get rid of his elder brother's devoted knight. And the snobbish and worldly Prioress does not want Dominica to join the order, partly because of her presumed illegitimate birth but mostly because Dominica wants to translate the bible into plain Enlgish, which the Prioress regards as heresy. (Controversy over whether the bible should be made available in language which the majority of people could understand was a real historical feature of the time this novel is set.)
So Richard and the Prioress hatch a vile plot: He gives the Prioress money with which to offer the penniless but very handsome knight a bribe to seduce the innocent virgin. If he does, Richard can then feign moral outrage and turn Garren away for ruining the girl, while the Prioress can refuse to accept Dominica as a novice beause of her unchastity.
Garren is shocked by what the Prioress asks him to do, but he desperately needs money - and as the pilgrimage continues he finds her innocent charms harder and harder to resist. Meanwhile Dominica, who harbours the foolish idea that Garren is some kind of saint, does not realise her danger. Yet she is oddly drawn to him in a way she cannot understand ...
Not the most plausible historical romance that I have read, though the author has gone to some trouble to get the major events and themes of fourteenth century history right. But not a bad read either.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Unique and compelling!
12 Mar 2004
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Blythe Gifford uses beautiful language and engaging historical detail to tell this unique and compelling story that will take you back in time. THE KNAVE AND THE MAIDEN is an extremely well-crafted tale that drew me in immediately. I fell in love with Garren and rooted for Dominica, and found the setting and cast utterly entrancing.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
The Knave and the Maiden
24 Aug 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I appreciate that book and I like to read it many times that's a really wonderful romance and I very interested to read it again
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
engaging look at fourteenth century culture
31 Dec 2003
Format:Mass Market Paperback
In 1357, Garren carried the severely wounded Earl, William, and the man's armor home from the French battlefields. Though he sacrificed personal wealth by not looting like everyone else did and William's brother Richard the heir blames him that his sibling still lives, Garren knows William is dying anyway. When William asks him to buy a lead feather to help him on his next journey, Garren promises to steal the relic so William can touch it.
The Prioress Mother Julian believes that the abandoned foundling Dominica is a heretic when the lass insists that God told her to spread the word. Julian and Richard make a evil pact to destroy Dominica and Garren. They arrange a pilgrimage to honor Will, but offer money for Garren to take Dominica so she is not a pure wife to the Savior, which in turn will disgrace the popular hero. Garren agrees, but on the trek, he falls in love with the gentle Dominica and she reciprocates. As he becomes a believer, he wonders how to keep her safe and pure.
THE KNAVE AND THE MAIDEN is an engaging look at fourteenth century culture of the various classes. The story line is fun to follow with Garren slowly becoming converted by the goodness and love he feels for the woman he is supposed to deflower. Though Dominica is a charming person, she adjusts too easily to what should have been a strange secular world that should have her tripping all over the place since she has no experience outside the monastery. Still medieval fans will appreciate this appealing tale of love between two unlikely individuals.
Harriet Klausner
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