Writers
Spirited Abigail Banes dreams her newly married life in coastal Georgia will
be lived amid spreading magnolia trees, where lovers walk and whisper along
blossom-lined paths. But her dreams are shattered when a fatal accident
claims her husband, Eli, leaving her sole proprietor of their rice plantation -
and the slaves that work the magnificent land.
From The Critics
New York Times Book Review
While it is their emotions, their observations, their wisdom, and their follies
that dominate these pages, Price also gives her characters a well-documented
historical background.
Publisher's Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly
Completed just prior to her death in 1996, Price's (Beauty from Ashes) final
novel is ponderously plotted and awash in sweet naïveté. Her last chronicle of
the Old South begins in the North, as Boston blueblood Abigail (Abby) Barnes
marries rice planter Eli Edward Allyn and moves with him to coastal Georgia.
But after only five years of marriage, Abigail feels trapped by Eli's silences
and his preoccupation with their plantation, Abbeyfield. Then Eli, on his way
to rendezvous with an illegal slave ship, drowns in a sudden storm. Left alone
with a plantation to run, Abigail finds herself growing closer to her
housemaid, Rosa Moon, and spending ever more time with Abbeyfield's
handsome overseer, Thad Green. Confused by her feelings about Eli's death,
her growing attraction to Thad and her increasing doubts about the morality
of slavery, Abbey returns to Boston for a visit. Surrounded by her mother's
abolitionist friends, it isn't long before she decides she must free all her
slaves. Returning to Georgia, she is encouraged in this plan by Thad, who has
proposed marriage. While the fate of Abby's slaves is left unresolved in the
wake of John Brown's raid and in the shadow of the looming Civil War, Abby's
future with Thad is happily secured. As usual, Price works in only the most
primary of emotional colors; although the picture she paints isn't subtle, it's
sure to be treasured by her millions of fans.
Publisher's Weekly
Completed just prior to her death in 1996, Price's (Beauty from Ashes) final
novel is ponderously plotted and awash in sweet navet. Her last chronicle of
the Old South begins in the North, as Boston blueblood Abigail (Abby) Barnes
marries rice planter Eli Edward Allyn and moves with him to coastal Georgia.
But after only five years of marriage, Abigail feels trapped by Eli's silences
and his preoccupation with their plantation, Abbeyfield. Then Eli, on his way
to rendezvous with an illegal slave ship, drowns in a sudden storm. Left alone
with a plantation to run, Abigail finds herself growing closer to her
housemaid, Rosa Moon, and spending ever more time with Abbeyfield's
handsome overseer, Thad Green. Confused by her feelings about Eli's death,
her growing attraction to Thad and her increasing doubts about the morality
of slavery, Abbey returns to Boston for a visit. Surrounded by her mother's
abolitionist friends, it isn't long before she decides she must free all her
slaves. Returning to Georgia, she is encouraged in this plan by Thad, who has
proposed marriage. While the fate of Abby's slaves is left unresolved in the
wake of John Brown's raid and in the shadow of the looming Civil War, Abby's
future with Thad is happily secured. As usual, Price works in only the most
primary of emotional colors; although the picture she paints isn't subtle, it's
sure to be treasured by her millions of fans. Literary Guild and Doubleday
Book Club selections; Crossings main selection. (May)
Library Journal
Price (Beauty from Ashes, LJ 1/95), the grande dame of Southern romantic
fiction, died shortly after completing this work. In her final novel, she tells
the story of Abbie Allyn, a Boston socialite who marries an older man and
moves to a small coastal Georgia town where her husband has purchased a
rice plantation. When Abbie's husband, Eli, dies during a trip to purchase
contraband slaves, she suddenly finds herself the owner of 100 slaves and a
plantation whose workings she doesn't understand. Aided by Thad Greene,
her handsome young overseer, Abbie learns rice culture and develops both a
feminist and abolitionist conscience; predictably, she finds love as well. Fans
of Price's previous novels will find all the hallmarks of her fiction here:
considerable historical research, historical figures walking the streets, and a
story imbued with inspirational Christian values. A required purchase
wherever Price's novels are popular. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/97.]
Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park,
Kan.
Kirkus Reviews
The indefatigable Price (Beauty from Ashes, 1995, etc. etc.), returning to her
beloved South with another preCivil War tale, provides shadings of complexity
on a subject that tends to be portrayed in strictly black-and-white terms: the
reactions of Southerners, both transplanted and born-and-bred, to an
institution that literally divided the country.
Well-bred Bostonian Abigail Banes has plenty of romantic illusions about
what life will be like when she marries the much older Eli Allyn, who owns a
rice plantation in coastal Georgia. And to a certain extent, those illusions
come true: Eli dotes on her, buys her everything she could dream of, and
provides her with two loyal, kind-hearted servants who cater to her every
whim. But what Abigail really craves—companionship—seems beyond her
husband's abilities to provide. When Eli dies unexpectedly while attempting to
purchase slaves, his new overseer, Thaddeus Greene, comes to Abby's
immediate rescue, helping her understand, for the first time, the inner-
workings of the plantation and the responsibilities she now faces as the owner
of not only the property but the hundreds of black men and women who keep
it operating. Although Thaddeus works as an overseer, his true feelings about
slavery cause him constant anguish; and after a visit to Boston, where her also-
widowed mother has become an avid abolitionist, Abby is forced to make some
critical decisions concerning her livelihood. In the end, Abby and Thad both
find peace of mind in living true to their deepest beliefs; in the process they
also find what each has been seeking without really knowing it: a love that
will sustain them through their darkest hours.
Formulaic period romance, yes, but Price's saving grace, once again, is her
thorough historical research and her insistence on blending a strong dose of
real grit with the obligatory melodrama.
some years ago. She was a
prolific writer and wrote till her
death. I have read most of her
books and highly recommend
them.
Anne has often endured sorrow--the death of her husband and daughter and
the loss of the family home. Anne, an ardent Uunionist, can only watch as
her cherished son enlists in the Confederate Army. But, when the tide
turns against the Southern cause, Anne finds new strength, fighting to hold
on to her family now cruelly divided by war.
From the Publisher
Beauty from Ashes is the long-awaited concluding volume in Ms. Price's
Georgia Trilogy. The sweeping saga of two families of St. Simons Island -
the Coupers and the Frasers - resumes in 1852, as Anne Couper Fraser
grieves the deaths of her husband and her parents. But fate is as cruel to
Anne as history itself would prove to be to the nation: Anne's family, fallen
on hard times, has lost its home. Anne has no choice but to seek refuge, and
reluctantly resettles in Marietta, three hundred miles north of her beloved
St. Simons Island. As she begins to piece together her broken life, all
around her the society she knows so well is falling apart. The roots of the
Civil War are already evident. Anne's family, like the South itself, seethes
with internal conflict. Her son and grandson, who find it impossible to
spurn their Southern heritage, enlist in the Confederate Army. Anne, in
strong sympathy with the Unionists, finds her life disintegrating once
again, and the family, the region, and the nation begin an agonizing
collapse. But Anne, like the Union, endures. She learns that even in life's
cruelest circumstances, there is always a place for the unquenchable human
spirit to find a refuge, and to blossom anew.
From The Critics
Publisher's Weekly
The conclusion to Price's Georgia Trilogy (Bright Captivity; Where
Shadows Go) will please her fans but will probably underwhelm those new
to her work. As the story reopens in 1845, Anne Couper Fraser is living with
her four children at Lawrence, their beloved home on St. Simons Island.
Still mourning her late husband, Anne finds comfort only in an unlikely
friendship with Eve, a family slave. When her precarious finances force her
to give up Lawrence, she is brokenhearted. Though she moves with her
children into her brother's household, she never abandons hope that she
will again have a home of her own. Finally, she manages to buy a house in
Marietta, a small town outside Atlanta. These are years of great change for
Anne and her family. On a visit to Florida, her tomboy daughter, Rebecca,
now in her 30s, meets a young doctor who follows her back to Marietta. And
Anne finds that not all her children share her strong abolitionist
views-daughters Fanny and Selina fall in love with men favoring secession,
while her son and her grandson join the Confederate Army when the Civil
War breaks out. Anne nobly weathers the many tragedies that war brings
(even the occupation of her home by Sherman's troops), but her gentility as
a sheltered flower of the Old South may leave many longing for a bit of
Scarlett O'Hara's fire. Literary Guild, Doubleday Bookclub, Crossings
selection. (May)
Library Journal
Rounding out her "Georgia Trilogy," Price relates the tale of a widowed
Southern woman who rediscovers life with the help of a Union doctor.