#ReadThis #TheWomenofChateauLafayette by #StephanieDray
We definitely have a demonstrated affinity for history and also for many things French! The Women of Chateau Lafayette roll their eyes at the world of today that says the future is female: the PAST is also female and it's time to crack open this book which made its debut in March earlier this year.
This puts you in an immediate time machine bouncing back between three women, three respective eras and three respective stories. Of course it should come as a surprise to no one that we liked glittering New York socialite Beatrice the most of the three, and she proves that middle is not boring. Preceded by noble Adrienne (same time as Marie Antoinette read Will's book!), whom the marquis de Lafayette marries in the American Revolution, and followed by french schoolteacher and artist Marthe during World War II, Beatrice is the star of the show says our panel. Also we don't need to tell you the New York of Beatrice's 1914 was far more civilized than the one we've seen in the last year due to the horrid no-good-bad-terrible mayor we are burdened with today. This is the kind of New York we knew during the Giuliani and Bloomberg eras!!! The Vanderbilt Hotel is mentioned also here which will remind you to check out SOHO MUSE by our friend Consuelo.
We admire and love the enormous amount of historical references included within, starting with the map at the beginning. At the end of the book, Stephanie details in great length the choices she made which we suggest you actually read first so you know all of it going in. The character Uriah Kohn (maybe the second Uriah we have ever heard of!) might remind you of the absolutely unforgettable Uriah Heep from David Copperfield: the epitome of revolting.
This book though set in the past is terrifically current because of the challenges the world has faced in the last year or so due to some highly unfortunate actions of China, putting the rest of us into a virtual state of health war. The sentiment of challenges faced throughout these three eras wind up commiserating with each other when you step back and look at the book overall.
Dray really gets into the minds and psyches of the characters which color in the story quite a lot, hence the fiction of historical fiction.
We love how the author mentions Theodore Roosevelt, and the social and charitable endeavors discussed will greatly appeal to our readers, especially as a zoom call is NOT and will NEVER be an event. A virtual event in a book is second best to an in-person real-thing event. We loved being part of the lives of these three heroines from afar on our couch with our rose colored glasses and bien sur mes amies we sipped Veuve Clicquot Rose because then we can also pretend we're going to a Polo match next. (also not happening in reality.)
We ALL are ready TO GET OUT AND SEE THE LIGHT.
First, be inspired by this book. "Drifting to a drunken sleep, Lafayette closed his eyes. 'Because the world always snuffs out fire, and every generation must bring light from darkness again.'" (p. 75)
The Women of Chateau Lafayette is Recommended by Whom You Know.
Acclaimed novelist STEPHANIE DRAY is beloved for writing about historical women who lived in exciting and important times—often in the shadows of more famous men. Her two previous novels shined a light on American Founding Mothers Eliza Hamilton and Martha “Patsy” Jefferson. No other working writer has brought American colonial women to life as vividly and intimately as Dray.
Now Dray takes us across the Atlantic in a novel that is, if possible, even more ambitious, cinematic and compulsively page-turning than her previous bestsellers: THE WOMEN OF CHATEAU LAFAYETTE.
Set during three dark chapters of history—the French Revolution and both world wars—the novel is a sprawling, epic journey inspired by another “founding mother”: Adrienne Lafayette, wife of the Marquis de Lafayette.
While Patsy Jefferson and Eliza Hamilton have earned a place in American lore, Adrienne Lafayette, America’s little-known French Founding Mother, has stayed hidden firmly in her husband’s shadow. Raised as a noblewoman and a member of the French royal court, she experienced an awakening to democratic and enlightened ideals after her marriage to Gilbert du Motier, last of the Lafayettes. She would go on to give her soul to the revolutionary cause, first in America, and then in France, exhibiting the same raw courage, idealism, and adventure as her American counterparts.
THE WOMEN OF CHATEAU LAFAYETTE is a sweeping classic narrative tied together by intimately detailed character studies of Adrienne and two women who kept alive her legacy—the Lafayette’s ancestral home, the Chateau de Chavaniac in Auvergne—through the ensuing centuries. That includes Beatrice Chanler, a real life New York socialite who turned the castle into a sanctuary for orphaned and sick children during the Great War. (In fact, Dray, digging through unsorted files at the New York Historical Society, inadvertently discovered that Chanler was hiding incredible secrets, including a false identity and a secret affair, and wove them into the novel.) The third narrative is told from the perspective of a fictional French resistor during World War II, Marthe Simone. Her story was inspired by the castle’s very real role in protecting its most vulnerable residents during Nazi occupation.
Intricately woven and beautifully told, THE WOMEN OF CHATEAU LAFAYETTE is a novel about duty and hope, love and courage, and the strength we find from standing together.
About the Author
Stephanie Dray is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, & USA Today bestselling author of historical women's fiction. Her award-winning work has been translated into eight languages. She lives in Maryland with her husband, cats, and history books.
Find her online at www.stephaniedray.com, Instagram @stephanie.dray, and Facebook.com/stephaniedrayauthor
THE WOMEN OF CHATEAU LAFAYETTE
by Stephanie Dray
Berkley Hardcover
On-sale: March 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984-80212-5
Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade book publisher, is dedicated to its mission of nourishing a universal passion for reading by connecting authors and their writing with readers everywhere. The company, which employs more than 10,000 people globally, was formed on July 1, 2013, by Bertelsmann and Pearson, who own 75 percent and 25 percent, respectively. With nearly 250 independent imprints and brands on five continents, Penguin Random House comprises adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital English- and Spanish-language trade book publishing businesses in more than 20 countries worldwide. With over 15,000 new titles, and close to 800 million print, audio and eBooks sold annually, Penguin Random House’s publishing lists include more than 60 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.
