Burning Bright

Loved this book. There were so many stories within the story. Many historical persons, places and facts that I enjoyed looking up. Tracy's writing is SO descriptive. You could picture everything as if it was on video. I used this book for my book club. It was a great book for discussion. I read Girl with a Pearl Earring and saw the movies- liked the book better. I look forward to another book by this author.

I had read all four of Tracy Chevalier's previous novels prior to picking this up. I found Girl with a Pearl Earring superb, The Lady and the Unicorn quite good, The Virgin Blue plain weird, and Falling Angels unreadable. I didn't know what to expect here. I'm happy to say that I enjoyed Burning Bright immensely. Several reviewers have commented that this novel's characters are two-dimensional. I don't disagree with them. I find Jem and Maggie, however, absolutely captivating, and I found myself pulled along from page to page by the writing. It's also worth mentioning that the research for this novel is, as far as I can tell, superb. The most easily verified example is the geography; I can find nearly all the streets and the place names on maps (and in the right places), and I strongly suspect that the ones that I can't find have changed names since the late eighteenth century.

All of Tracy Chevalier's novels are well written and researched, but I've found some more engaging than others. BURNING BRIGHT was very satisfying and kept my interest. I'm shocked by all the bad reviews it has gotten, because I think it was her finest work since PEARL EARRING. The characters were brilliantly crafted and I really connected with them. Like Dickens, Chevalier exposes the harshness of London society, but her rougher language was far more realistic and entertaining. William Blake's poems were intertwined in the children's lives. By the end, it was hard to determine who was innocent and who was experienced. The message was clear, that all of us have dark and light within us. She made the strange Mr. Blake come alive and I respect his poetry more than I did before. The ending was more upbeat than FALLING ANGELS and VIRGIN BLUE. I liked those as well, but I would give them 4 and 3 stars respectively. Listen to Burning Bright on audio book, it's a lot of fun hearing the accents!

Tracy Chevalier brilliantly brought to life the 17th-century world of the Netherlands in the fictional biography of Johannes VerMeer in GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING. Now, in BURNING BRIGHT, she turns her spell-weaving skills toward painter, poet and visionary William Blake in 18th-century London. Maisie Kellaway, daughter of a woodworker, has just moved with her older brother Jem and her parents from a North Country village to an upscale London row house owned by her father's new employer, Phillip Astley, of the famous Astley Circus. Her father, a skilled chair maker, seeks a better life for his family by working as a carpenter for the circus. Maisie is befriended by street-wise Maggie Butterfield, the daughter of a con artist and rogue who lives in a rough nearby neighborhood. Maggie is a few years older than Maisie and has her eye on Jem. The Kellaways live next door to William Blake and his wife, who are shunned yet regarded with fearful respect by their neighbors. The story is set against the far-off rumblings of the French Revolution, a cause in which Blake seems to sympathize. As a poet and an engraver, Blake's obscure prolific publications perplex even the most erudite Englishmen, but they seem to impart the sense of lust for freedom and equality roiling on the continent that the fervid Royalists of the age see as seditious. Maisie, Jem and Maggie begin to spend time in the Blake garden, as their landlady won't allow renters in her formal backyard. Blake does not outwardly try to influence the young people, but he and his wife encourage them to learn to read, and his poetry is all they have at hand aside from the Bible. Blake's role in the book, while pivotal, is not as central to the story as was VerMeer's in GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING. Servitude and class distinctions are not as strictly drawn in the late 18th century as they were in the 1600s. As the 1700s draw to a close, a new awareness of the power of the masses is on the horizon. As the French Revolution grows, so does its threat of spreading to England. When Maggie's Royalist boss at the vinegar factory intimidates his employees into signing a petition in support of King George, she manages to slip away without doing so. She heads for the local pub where her mother, father and brother hang out. The boss shows up at the pub and declares that dissenters to signing the petition are traitors to the crown and may suffer the same consequences as the French Revolutionaries if they don't support the king. When a few in the pub, including Maisie's father, stand up to the man, they are threatened with a visit to their homes. Maggie is shocked when her own father so easily bends to the will of the petitioner. She follows Maisie and her father to their home. Soon, a torch-bearing throng marches down the street where the Kellaways and Blake live. They confront Blake at his doorway, and when Blake staunchly refuses to sign, a riot breaks out. What follows seals the fate of our young h

Other than The Girl With a Pearl Earring, I think this is Ms. Chevalier's second best work. Her ability to create another world is powerful. The reader can see the countryside and smell the city, as we travel with one family from rural farm country to London. As most people then, they were escaping the pain of loss and thus were running from the world they knew, to a totally foreign existence. They meet hostility in the new culture of city life. They struggle to understand a new dialect, as well as learning big city mores and expectations. As they journey, they encounter three angels in the unique form: of business man, Mr. Astley, who runs a successful circus and gives them employment; a political writer, Mr. Blake, who teaches them to be true to themselves; and a worldly young woman, whose lot in life is to be servant to others, who helps them survive daily challenges. The bibliography is impressive and the author certainly demonstrates an accurate portrayal of life in that very important time in European History, the early 1790's. Her book besides being a very interesting glimpse into the life of both the wealthy and the humble is also a representation of today's world events. Mr. Blake is persecuted for standing up for the people by writing poetry and children's stories, which reveals the oppressiveness of the current powerful elite. I think perhaps as American's, we fail to see this same system taking advantage of us because our officials are elected...or are they? When was the last time a moral person got elected to Congress or even dog catcher without loads of money from Corporate sponsors? This is the world Mr. Blake is almost martyred in, are we not approaching this censorship today with the control of the Media by a select few such as Media Corp, Clear Channel and Tribune Communications tell using, who is morally right and who is deceiving us and immoral and just plain wrong?When we hear the same arguments over and over that are proven lies told to get support of the people. When talking heads constantly berate anyone, who doesn't walk lock step with the President. Though like other reviewers, I too felt that William Blake could have been better developed and more integral. Perhaps, Ms. Chevalier wanted to make us relate to the world from the view point of being ordinary, but living in extraordinary times? Well Done Ms. Chevalier!