Helpful Score: 2
I love biographical historical fiction, especially when I feel the author has tried to stay as close to truth and reality as possible. I feel Nancy Horan, the author, did this through an incredible amount of research into the lives of Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne and Robert Louis Stevenson. Fanny and Robert each were quirky, artistic, moody, adventurous people so this account of their relationship is magnified at least times two. Of course, along with those qualities comes some "medicinal drug use," complicated relationships, and mental breakdowns. As individuals and as a couple, they thought out of the box. defied societal norms, and embarked on amazing adventures without the security of things such as a stable income. I was mesmerized by the last part of the book when Fanny and Robert decided to sail the South Seas and move their extended family to Samoa, not knowing anything or anyone in the region. Remember, this all took place in the late 1800s!
After reading this and Loving Frank, i've become a Nancy Horan fan. She thoroughly does her research, then proceeds to make her characters exceedingly human. Famous people are multi-faceted and not so one dimensional as they are often portrayed. The women in her books are as strong (and flawed) as the men they loved. Sometimes I felt both books got a little bogged down in the details, but certainly not enough to deter me from reading every word. An interesting, informative, and enjoyable book.
This was a wonderful, wonderful book, full of adventure, love, controversy, and the urge to survive under the direst of circumstances. It was hard to put down and I dreamed about it at night.
Horan is a good writer
This book is one of the best I have read in the last few years. Highly recommended.
It took some time for me to get into this story. It read like a romance at first - not a normal read for me - and it had a slowness to it that made me lose interest often. But knowing how much I enjoyed Nancy Horan's "Loving Frank" about Frank Lloyd Wright, I knew I had to push myself to keep on with "Under the Wide and Starry Sky" and I'm happy I did.
This story about Robert Louis Stevenson's life really surprised me. Horan's novel was inspired by actual events of Stevenson and his wife, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne, both prolific writers. Horan scoured diaries, letters, and the written word of many of their family members and friends for a basis to this story. I never knew that RLS was so worldly and open-minded, and even though such a thoughtful writer, so immature while in his twenties.
Coming from a well-to-do family has its opportunities as well as downfalls and RLS often stepped away from his opportunistic life to a calling of his own. Although he had severe health problems, he was open to long travels across oceans, and learning about and living within other cultures. Much of his traveling was for his health, where climate was thought to help his ailments, and they seemed to have done so. His traveling made him well ahead of his time in his view about white man's intent to influence and degenerate traditions, languages, beliefs, etc. He disdained class distinctions and found that the impact of colonization on the native people of the South Seas, terrible.
Whatever I thought I knew about this man (and his interestingly different wife, Fanny) was way off course. If you thought you may have had an idea about what Robert Louis Stevenson was all about, think again. Read this book and you will find quite an interesting Scotsman. The longer I think about this story and let it marinate in my mind, the more it grows on me.
This story about Robert Louis Stevenson's life really surprised me. Horan's novel was inspired by actual events of Stevenson and his wife, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne, both prolific writers. Horan scoured diaries, letters, and the written word of many of their family members and friends for a basis to this story. I never knew that RLS was so worldly and open-minded, and even though such a thoughtful writer, so immature while in his twenties.
Coming from a well-to-do family has its opportunities as well as downfalls and RLS often stepped away from his opportunistic life to a calling of his own. Although he had severe health problems, he was open to long travels across oceans, and learning about and living within other cultures. Much of his traveling was for his health, where climate was thought to help his ailments, and they seemed to have done so. His traveling made him well ahead of his time in his view about white man's intent to influence and degenerate traditions, languages, beliefs, etc. He disdained class distinctions and found that the impact of colonization on the native people of the South Seas, terrible.
Whatever I thought I knew about this man (and his interestingly different wife, Fanny) was way off course. If you thought you may have had an idea about what Robert Louis Stevenson was all about, think again. Read this book and you will find quite an interesting Scotsman. The longer I think about this story and let it marinate in my mind, the more it grows on me.
Story of Robert Louis Stevenson, beginning when he meets his wife, an older divorced woman with children, and their life together. Told from the point of view of the wife. Due to RLS's extremely poor health, they lived in Switz. and later in the tropics, while he wrote Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
The words Under the wide and starry sky are part of the inscription on the tomb of Robert Louis Stevenson. This book tells the story of the love of Stevenson's life and the tumultuous path of his relationship with Frances (Fanny) Matilda Van de Grift Osbourne Stevenson. The book charts the course of their relationship from when they meet until Stevenson's death in 1894. Although not as compelling as Nancy Horan's first book, this book is still a beautifully told story.
Read my complete review at: http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2014/03/under-wide-and-starry-sky.html
Read my complete review at: http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2014/03/under-wide-and-starry-sky.html
