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+--- Thread: Daughters of England by Philippa Carr (/showthread.php?tid=950)
Daughters of England by Philippa Carr - Charybdis - 06-12-2011
Philippa Carr was one of the pseudonyms used by Eleanor Hibbert for a series of nineteen books collectively known as the Daughters of England series. The first book started in 1522 and in each following book the protagonist was the daughter of the former book's heroine. The final book took place during the second world war.
Each pseudonym of Eleanor Hibbert appears to target a specific kind of book: As Jean Plaidy she mainly writes historical novels about royalty and other well-known "real" people. As Victoria Holt she writes true gothic romances. And as Philippa Carr she combines the gothic romance with relating how fictitious people's lives were influenced by current politics.
For each of these pseudonyms you can find books that do not quite belong, IMHO, like "My Enemy, the Queen" should have been published under Jean Plaidy's name and "Beyond the Blue Mountains" should be one of Victoria Holts. Which brings us to the book I'm reviewing right now: Is it a true Philippa Carr?
While reading I mostly thought so. It was a bit weird to realize that while the book's title suggests so, it does not belong to the series of the same name. The title was ill chosen, which may be explained by the fact that the book was published after Eleanor Hibbert's death. Perhaps she planned to start a second series of Daughters of England, this one having its first book beginning in 1649. For that reason this book indeed should be published as "written by Philippa Carr", but I'm afraid it isn't quite like the first series. The historical elements are all there: Cromwell, puritans, king coming back out of exile, London plague, London fire, Popish plot, Titus Oates, rebellions and William of Orange. These all have their effect on the heroine and her relations. It's the gothic part that is lacking in this book. Not until the book was three quarters on its way that finally some mysterious elements could be felt: the heroine gets to live in a huge and ancient castle, where several people do not want her to be. So much could have been made of this, but sadly the author was content to brush over everything in favor of describing the turmoil the country was in.
I liked how there was a similarity between what happened in the royal family and the heroine's family. I don't remember this from the other Philippa Carr books, so perhaps it was her intention to incorporate this into all the books of this new series. If she planned it as a new series at all, of course.
I also wonder if the book really was the final book Eleanor Hibbert wrote; it might just as well have been her first attempt at writing a "Daughters of England" series, which she discarded when she created a better version with "Miracle at St. Bruno's". I noticed one of these (The love child) was written way before the others, in 1950, so the author could easily have had the idea for such a saga in the 1940s.
Anyway, this book needs to be read on its own as a single novel and though I think it doesn't live up to the other Philippa Carr books, it surely would be wrongly labeled as being written by either Victoria Holt or Jean Plaidy. If you like Eleanor Hibbert's prose you are sure to enjoy reading it, but if you expect a gothic you will be disappointed.