- Paperback: 144 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (2 Oct 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747578133
- ISBN-13: 978-0747578130
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,289,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'Through clear, descriptive prose, Sauerwein beautifully interweaves the history of the time into her spare tale of love and loss. Despite its brevity, the number of characters and perspectives make this a challenging read. This absorbing story is a fine choice for an interdisciplinary study of the time.' School Library Journal 'A superbly crafted tapestry of medieval heartbreak.' Kirkus Reviews 'An incisive poetic writer, Sauerwein (The Way Home) populates this novel of 12th century France with dynamic, memorable characters that illuminate the setting without compromising their dimension or believability.' Publishers Weekly
Product Description
At fifteen Eloise is married off to a man twice her age and taken to his forlorn castle in the mountains. Thomas, a trobar (troubadour), and his companion, a juggler known as Babel, make their way from village to village, from tavern to castle, singing and entertaining. While peasants work the fields, knights hunt and fight and joust, monks pray the hours of the day, and the seasons turn, Eloise and Thomas, separated as children, reunite. Ultimately freed from her marriage to Robert by his death, it is however too late for Eloise and Thomas - their love seems doomed as well in this tragic but realistic story of broken hearts.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
I'm an English teacher, not a child - the target audience of this book, and with an English degree and an infinite amount of patience I found it immensely difficult to follow the plot of this novel - I think it's a novel as this is unclear.
Dual or multiple narrative novels are often wonders of literature and personally enjoyable but there were simply too many strands in this very short book for the reader to keep track of.
But by far the most disappointing thing was the ending, whilst Eloise is released from the grasp of her husband nothing else really happens or changes. The lyrical and poetic descriptions of the setting that run between the respective narratives, I thought were creative and beautiful but unfortunately again failed to match the prose.
A beautiful cover, and that's about it! Don't be fooled. The old maxim has never been truer - NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER!
Dual or multiple narrative novels are often wonders of literature and personally enjoyable but there were simply too many strands in this very short book for the reader to keep track of.
But by far the most disappointing thing was the ending, whilst Eloise is released from the grasp of her husband nothing else really happens or changes. The lyrical and poetic descriptions of the setting that run between the respective narratives, I thought were creative and beautiful but unfortunately again failed to match the prose.
A beautiful cover, and that's about it! Don't be fooled. The old maxim has never been truer - NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A Beautiful But Sad Story
27 April 2005
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
SONG FOR ELOISE is written in a lightly flowing narrative delicate as a spider web. The point of view shifts between several voices, drifting from Eloise to the characters of her husband Sir Robert, Robert's mother Merle, Eloise's Uncle John, Thomas the fisherman's son turned troubadour, the juggler Babel, the hermit William, and the peasant families living near Robert's fortress as well as softly touching upon a few more. Together their individual tales interweave to create a single story.
Having been married off to her father's favorite knight, a man twice her age, Eloise is overcome by melancholy. She pines away for her old life at her parents' castle and refuses to find any happiness in her new life at Baron Robert's remote fortress. Robert is well versed in the arts of war, but he is a failure when it comes to expressing his love for his young wife who thinks he is nothing but a dumb brute and cannot look past her own grief to see his "good heart." After the birth of their son, Robert tries to bring back the light he so adored into his wife's eyes by inviting a singer to the fortress. When Thomas the troubadour arrives, Eloise's inner spirit is reawakened; however, it is in a way tragic for all involved. The happiness she does at last find has the potential to destroy the lives of her lover, her husband, and herself.
Although the story is named for Eloise, Robert is undoubtedly the hero of it. He is the most sympathetic of all the main characters. It is he who acts unselfishly and suffers silently. Robert raised himself up from being the illegitimate son of a baron tossed out to live unwanted among the peasants to becoming first a stable boy, then a knight, and finally a baron himself. He is good and noble although he lacks the skilled tongue and refined manners of a courtly aristocrat much to his wife's embarrassment. Eloise is quick to find all his faults, but she fails to see any of his strengths. She overlooks everything that would make her proud to have him as her husband -- the honor bestowed upon him by her father for having saved his life, the well tended fortress and the lands over which he presides, his ability as a warrior and a huntsman, his compassion for the peasantry, his devotion to a mother struck by blindness and encroaching madness, his love for her -- and sees Robert only as a disappointing match. Consumed by her sadness, she wishes to return home and, like a modern woman, be free.
As a medieval tale, this story is almost completely historically accurate, and it is very believable.
Having been married off to her father's favorite knight, a man twice her age, Eloise is overcome by melancholy. She pines away for her old life at her parents' castle and refuses to find any happiness in her new life at Baron Robert's remote fortress. Robert is well versed in the arts of war, but he is a failure when it comes to expressing his love for his young wife who thinks he is nothing but a dumb brute and cannot look past her own grief to see his "good heart." After the birth of their son, Robert tries to bring back the light he so adored into his wife's eyes by inviting a singer to the fortress. When Thomas the troubadour arrives, Eloise's inner spirit is reawakened; however, it is in a way tragic for all involved. The happiness she does at last find has the potential to destroy the lives of her lover, her husband, and herself.
Although the story is named for Eloise, Robert is undoubtedly the hero of it. He is the most sympathetic of all the main characters. It is he who acts unselfishly and suffers silently. Robert raised himself up from being the illegitimate son of a baron tossed out to live unwanted among the peasants to becoming first a stable boy, then a knight, and finally a baron himself. He is good and noble although he lacks the skilled tongue and refined manners of a courtly aristocrat much to his wife's embarrassment. Eloise is quick to find all his faults, but she fails to see any of his strengths. She overlooks everything that would make her proud to have him as her husband -- the honor bestowed upon him by her father for having saved his life, the well tended fortress and the lands over which he presides, his ability as a warrior and a huntsman, his compassion for the peasantry, his devotion to a mother struck by blindness and encroaching madness, his love for her -- and sees Robert only as a disappointing match. Consumed by her sadness, she wishes to return home and, like a modern woman, be free.
As a medieval tale, this story is almost completely historically accurate, and it is very believable.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
A story of a teen married off to a man twice her age
10 Mar 2004
Format:Hardcover
Ages 12 and up will appreciate Song For Eloise, a story of a teen married off to a man twice her age and transported to a lonely castle to live. Her involvement with a childhood friend brings newfound romance and dangers in this vivid, realistic story of medieval times and passion which brings the 12th century world to life.
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