- Paperback: 896 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Canada (APB); First Thus edition (Feb 11 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0143014293
- ISBN-13: 978-0143014294
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #792,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Pauline Gedge, the award-winning Alberta writer known primarily for her novels set in ancient Egypt, such as Child of the Morning and Stargate, has also essayed the field of British history, as in this early work The Eagle and the Raven, originally issued in 1978. The blurb tells us that the subject of this novel is Boudicca, queen of the Iceni tribe who led a famous revolt against the Roman occupation of Britain in the middle of the first century. Despite its assurance that her "passion and pride lit up the mysterious world of the Celts," the famous queen only features sporadically in the first three-quarters of this 900-page door-stopper. But lest the reader feel cheated, we have the mystery of the Celts in spades, embodied in the sprawling saga of the great resistance leader Caradoc (a.k.a. Caractacus), who is finally betrayed to the Romans by a discarded lover. There are lush and misty landscapes, druids lurking in the shadows, and much singing and drinking of mead. While there are some fine evocations of the British landscape, and the characters are more convincing than those in Gedge's Egyptian sagas, embarrassingly purple passages abound: "Spring came to Aricia like a jaded old whore, draped in false beauty to hide rampant decay." Do the ancient Celts (as has been suggested) merely provide a convenient ethnic identity for white people, or does their dream of freedom and paradise represent the plight of all oppressed peoples? But freedom is more than dream; it is about real social and economic self-determination, not pretty fables set in the misty hills of Albion. --Robyn Gillam
Review
"A novel of majestic sweep, splendid assurance, and controlled imaginative power." —Publishers Weekly
"A big, other-worldly, and beautiful novel. Gedge . . . has brought another age pulsating to life." —San Francisco Chronicle
"[Gedge’s] uncommonly splendid gift for storytelling is again supreme . . . She gives us the daily life and landscapes of Celtic Britain with an almost psychic immediacy." —Toronto Star
"A tremendously moving portrait of a people who have long since disappeared—entertaining, knowledgeable . . . Gedge is a writer who can weave a spell with words." —Montreal Gazette
"It is history . . . it is life . . . there is simply no laying it aside until the end." —South Bend Tribune
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most AMAZING book about the Roman Invasion of Britain,
By "acharra" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Eagle and the Raven: A Novel (Hardcover)
I can't tell you how many times I've thanked my lucky stars that I found this book on a table at Bargain Books. IT DESERVES TO HAVE A PLACE FAR HIGHER as well as to REMAIN IN PRINT! I am currently without it and I am so afraid that something will happen to it that I refuse to allow it mailed to me unless I am its personal messenger. Seriously. I just pray that someday the publisher will somehow have it reprinted. Pauline Gedge was able to make these historical figure come to life in a way that I didn't know possible. I've been interested in Roman Britain and the Celts for so many years and I've read all that I can get my hands on, yet this is still the best in fiction but I feel that it's much too historically accurate to be simply classified as 'fiction", it is like a history lesson but with all the elements of being there and living it. If you ever run across this book, BUY it, or write me and I'll buy it from you, because I can definately use another copy-or two, you know...as backup. I mean it. Thanks for reading my blithering blubber, but I can't imagine what I can do to get this book back in print so I can actually have a copy to read with me here in Portland, instead of in Florida, as I said earlier, I refuse to take my chances mailing it across the entire United States. It's that good.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (45 customer reviews) 71 of 71 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Print it again!,
By Amazonbombshell - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Eagle and the Raven: A Novel (Hardcover)
This is an amazing novel. It is not, as the cover claims, so much about Boudicca -- though certainly plays her part in blazing fire and glory -- as it is another historical Bristish chieftan named Caradoc, who united many of the Celtic tribes of England against Rome and fought determinedly until his eventual defeat in A.D. 50. (For those of you who do not know the story -- it's not a common one -- I won't reveal the rest.) It is also about some of the (also historical) Romans who encountered the power of Britannia, though the ultimate sympathy (wrong word, but close) lies with the British tribes. Ms. Gedge sticks to history as far as she can in her writing, and fleshes it out with incredible skill. The book is 827 pages long and I devoured it.One of the things that makes this book so good is its chosen subject -- obscure figures who have become the stuff of legend; a mysterious and ancient fight for freedom that yet finds a home in our modern souls. Another is its realism -- brutal violence and desperate betrayal alongside deepest love 20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gedge steps out of Egypt,
By S. Smith "a98hoya" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Eagle and the Raven (Hardcover)
Wow! I have always loved Pauline Gedge's novels set in Ancient Egypt. Her attention to detail, historical fact and ability to imagine a civilaztion in the fullest sense of the term based on the knowledge we have available through the work of Egyptologists continues to impress me. In the Eagle and the Raven, Gedge brings her remarkable abilities to another place and time in histroy and is quite successful. I really encourage a reader who wants to see and feel living history to pick up this book. You won't be sorry, I promise.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Eagle and the Raven,
By nissa - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Eagle and the Raven (Hardcover)
My favorite book ever!If you have ever been transported back in time then you know what it feels like to read this book.When you read the Eagle and the Raven you become a part of the celtic world,you feel the pain of their struggle,you understand their need to remain a free people,and you really start to hate Romans! It's true,before I read this book I was totaly fascinated by the Roman culture,now it just [makes me mad] I'm not very good with words so I really can't convey how amazing of a book this is,but I will say that I have read hundreds of books and this really must be one of the best ever writen.I cried in this book,I cry whenever I read it,and I am not a person who cries often. ... if-when-you read it you will understand that that the words of an untrained mind are not able to speak more than simple praise for a book This magnificent. I'm buying this today and you should too! READ THIS ! |
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