Williamsburg
3 primary works • 5 total works
Book 1
Colonial Williamsburg lives again in this rich story which is Elswyth Thane's first novel of American history. Against a background of Williamsburg's quiet streets, the pomp and glitter of the Palace during the last days of British rule, and the excitement and triumph which swirled through the Raleigh Tavern, we see the people of Williamsburg whom history has forgotten: aristocratic St. John Sprague, who became George Washington's aide; Regina Greensleeves, the spoilt Virginia Beauty; Julian Day, the young schoolmaster, just arrived from England; and finally, Tibby, the most appealing, irresistible creature Miss Thane has ever written about. Washington, Jefferson, Lafayette, Greene, Francis Marion, and the rest of that brilliant galaxy are portrayed not as historical figures but as men. We see de Kalb's gallant death under a cavalry charge at Camden, the swamp-encircled camp which was Marion's fastness on the Peedee, and the cat-and-mouse game between Cornwallis and Lafayette, which ended in Cornwallis's unlucky stand at Yorktown.
"Dawn's Early Light" is the human story behind America's first war for liberty, and of men and women loving and laughing through war to the dawn of a better world.
"Dawn's Early Light" is the human story behind America's first war for liberty, and of men and women loving and laughing through war to the dawn of a better world.
Book 3
In Ever After, Bracken Murray visits London duing the Jubilee summer of 1897 after his wife deserts him. Here he falls in love with an English girl. Meanwhile back in the USA his cousin Fitz rescues a music-hall singer who f alls in love with him. '
Book 7
Lovely Phoebe Sprague, of Williamsburg, Virginia, became engaged to her childhood sweetheart just before she set sail for England - where she fell headlong in love with Captain Oliver Campion. But in 1902 a betrothal was almost as binding as marriage, and Phoebe, who meant to abide by her promise, changed her mind too late. There was noting that either Phoebe or Oliver could do about it; separated initially be convention, they were soon to be whirled apart by the tumultuous events of history itself. In telling this fascinating story of two great loves, Miss Thane presents the reader with a brilliant and crowded panorama of the carefree days in England and Europe before 1914. The saga which she unfolded in Ever After, Yankee Stranger and Dawn's Early Light is here carried forwarded more ably than ever in the recreation of a glowing, unforgettable era, when Europe still danced, society was still glamorous, and tragedy wore a smiling mask.