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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping Multigenerational Saga Of The English In Ireland, April 7 2004
Susan Howatch has written a gripping multigenerational tale of a titled English family who live on their Irish estate, Cashelmara, during the 19th century. This family saga is interwoven with Irish and English politics of the period, self-rule, the Great Famine, emigration, etc.. The years after the Irish famine were marked with issues like the land question and the struggle for independence. Tenants started to demand more security of land tenure. At the same time, landlords were eager to remove paupers from their land to reduce their poor law charges. The landlord/tenant divide was exacerbated by this conflict. The drama of Cashelmara takes place against this explosive backdrop.Edward de Salis, an English nobleman with vast landholdings in Ireland and England travels to America and visits the Marriot family, distant relations in New York City. De Salis, a man in his fifties, has been a widower for eight years and has a young son, Patrick, and three older daughters, all married or living away from home. He returns to England with plans to marry seventeen year-old Marguerite Marriot, to his family's great consternation. Marguerite and Edward are married at the family estate, Cashelmara. Oddly enough the marriage turns out to be a love match. Times become difficult when Edward dies and finances become tight. Cashelmara and the situation in Ireland begin to weigh heavily on the family with unexpected results. This historical novel is filled with romance, intrigue, social and political unrest and family drama. Ms. Howatch is able to vividly describe the same situation through the eyes of various characters. These differing points of view give tremendous depth to her characters and interesting insight into their personalities and ulterior motives. The events they are involved in become more complex when all the versions are compiled. Cashelmara's plot unfolds through the individual stories of five people. The author's research and attention to detail are meticulous and give the reader insight into the hardships and difficulties of 19th century Ireland. Cashelmara is an example of excellent historical fiction.
JANA
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5.0 out of 5 stars
"The match flared in the darkness, his eyes watched me above the single steady flame..", Feb 28 2009
I cannot recall the last time a scene from a book has so thoroughly chilled me to the bone (and there were plenty more besides), but you'll have to read it for yourself to see what I'm talking about - I'm not telling! Set in Ireland in the latter part of the 19C, Howatch recounts three generations of the wealthy English de Salis family in six separate "books", each of those being in the first person POV of different characters.
Edward de Salis visits his distant cousins the Marriotts in New York and brings a much younger Marguerite home as his bride. Despite the great difference in their ages, the two are well matched and soon have children of their own to add to Edward's brood from his first marriage. When Edward's eldest son Patrick inherits the de Salis lands and fortune, he marries Marguerite's niece Sarah and upon their return from New York they live in London until their lavish lifestyle and Patrick's gambling brings it to a screeching halt. Forced to economize, Sarah and Patrick start life fresh at Cashelmara but Edward comes under the influence of childhood friend Derry Stranahan. Derry's unnatural hold over Patrick continues to grow and leads to clashes in his marriage and with his Irish tenants until Derry's fate is sealed during an Irish riot. Eventually Sarah finds her hopes to repair the marriage and run a profitable estate are hindered once again by Patrick's too close relationship with another man - Hugh McGowan. Sarah soon finds herself an unwilling member of a triangle that for the sake of her children she endures until......well you know I don't tell all.
Howatch takes the reader on quite ride in this one as Sarah's desperate situation forces her to make an unwise alliance of her own until she can return - although that return sets in place another set of circumstances leading to a death by natural causes - or is there something more going on here? If this is sounding a bit like you've heard this story before, you're probably right. Howatch based her characters on the lives of England's first three Edwards and that's really half the fun of reading this novel. Can you spot Piers Gaveston? Hugh Despenser? Isabella and her lover Mortimer?
All in all a near perfect read, the scenes between Patrick, Sarah and Hugh were downright bone chilling, let alone the effects of the famine on the Irish tenants. Darn near unputdownable, although the last hundred or so pages did slow down just a tad, and the ending itself just a bit too abrupt - although at 700 pages enough was probably enough. 4.5/5 stars and the story of the third "Edward" continues in Wheel of Fortune - but with entirely different characters.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best books I've ever read., Jan 29 1998
This book is patterned after the lives of some medival kings of England, but even knowing the basic plot, I couldn't put it down. The story is told over a period of years through the eyes of 6 different characters. Ms. Howatch changes point of view in a masterful way. Plus there is no unnecessary 'biological detail' just to sell the book. A truly wonderful, marvellous book.
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by Susan Howatch
