Yankee Stranger

I have read the entire series many times and am replacing the books lost over the years. Ms. Thane delights with her characters and historical accuracy. The love that develops between Eden and Cabot is true and strong. Lovers of historical novels will love this book and others in the series.

Well, not quite, perhaps. A couple of generations get skipped (as do several wars) between the first and second books in this series, but "Yankee Stranger" is well worth the wait. The presence of Tibby Day, now approaching 100, gives the meandering trail between books one and two a context and much-needed continuity -- and the overlap of the generations which this scenario demonstrates has always fascinated me in my own life. As in book one, Thane's characters grip you firmly and draw you unresisting into the tangle of their lives, battered by war and division, anchored by family affection and made luminous by love and passion: Eden, the Titian beauty pulled in different directions by love and loyalty; Cabot, product of an embittered father who learns to love and trust despite the cataclysm of war; Susannah and Sedgwick, the star-crossed lovers who must face the future without each other; and most joyously, Tibby Day, a matriarch in wisdom, a "character" in the idiomatic sense, and the glue that binds the family and the book together. As usual, the history in this book is exact and irreproachable, the historical characters become human, and the atmosphere is tangible and touchable. Libby Prison is juxtaposed against fashionable Willard's Hotel; war-ravaged Richmond underlines in blood-red the quaint and restful pastels of ante-bellum Williamsburg; military camps stand vivid against civilized family holidays and the gentle spirit of Tibby Day presides over all. Courage and dedication, sacrifice and humor, the entire spectrum of human emotion emerges in this book. The superficial reader will be offended, as in Thane's other books, at the casually racist undertones, but the historically aware will rightly attribute them not only to the age in which the story takes place, but the era in which the author is writing. With history books firmly in hand and love stories firmly in mind, Thane once more slips us back through time into a memorable past -- and makes us eager to move forward to the next book in the series!

I discovered Thane's Williamsburg novels as a sophomore in high school in the 1970's. I devoured them! My reading sealed my decision to major in history at university, and now I have a PhD in history. I was so enamoured of the characters that I named my daughter Susannah, after one of the major figures in "Yankee Stranger." Had she been a boy, she'd have been "Sedgwick." For anyone who loves history and enjoys the personalization of history, I can think of no other historical fiction that so satisfies. I have read these books many times, and have always enjoyed them thoroughly.

Elswyth Thane wrote a timeless tale of the human experience and how it is affected by war and made bearable by love. With skilled writing and human insight she made those moments come alive and ring true for every generation from the 1700s to the 1940s! I stumbled on "Dawns Early Light" at the local library when I was in my 20s and traveled between three libraries to find the other five books in successive order. I'm rereading them now in my mid-50s and enjoying them more than when I read them at 30 and 40. Im still traveling to three libraries to ferret them out. How delighted I am to finally find a source where I can put together my own set. I purchased "Dawns Early Light" during a visit to Williamsburg in 1978 and it remains one of my most cherished books. I am still enthralled with Thayne's descriptions of Marion's (the Swamp Fox) camp and the battles of Camden and the Pine Barrens. These novels have done more to foster my life-long love of American history than any other books I've ever read.

I first read the Williamsburg Novels when I was a senior in high school in El Dorado Springs, Missouri. My history teacher suggested that I read the books and I have read them all at least 5 times since 1968. In 1978 I purchased the novels and treasure them! History and loving family relationships from the Revolutionary War through WWII. Thanks Mrs. Elliott for getting me started!

Elswyth Thane, Yankee Stranger is the second in her series. It is set during the Civil War. Tibby is in her nineties and a gracious lady. The family relationships are convoluted but not dysfunctional. I read this first in my teens and will read it again when I am old.