Loss of Innocence
by: Anne Newton Walther
Published by: Tapestries Publishing
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Reviewed by Michele E. Davis
In this historical fiction, Anne Newton Walther’s Loss of Innocence represents a new adaptation of her well-received book, A Time of Treason. However, instead of being set in Revolutionary America, we’re transported to Revolutionary France and the chatelaine Eugénie Devereaux’s extensive land holdings in Bordeaux, the wine country of France, specifically the Château de Beamount. Besides Devereaux and her lover Captain Bridger Goodrich, several major characters are carried forward from the first book to this one and expanded on, including a feisty horse, The Roan.
Devereaux walks the fine line of supporting France and the citizens she loves and her desire to help Marie Antoinette avoid becoming a victim of the revolutionary tide. Even if you know nothing of the French Revolution, you know what happens to Antoinette in the end. This book brings to light lesser-known tidbits of history in an imaginative blend of fact and vivid fictional characters. In addition Walther adds French phrases throughout the book to remind us constantly that we are in France and this adds a piquant quality to her writing.
Azilum is a non-fictional place that a group of Americans, hand-in-hand with some French nobility, created to rescue Antoinette from being imprisoned in France and bring her to the town expressly built for her and her family on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. Plans were already started to build Azilum, and several attempts were made to get Antoinette to escape to America, but she refused to leave either her husband or children each time she was rescued. This book gives us some fascinating things to think about:
· The tension between Devereaux’s love of France, its people and saving Marie Antoinette.
· Numerous highlights of the political reality of good intentions that result in disaster.
· What love means between two people: a married sea-faring captain and Devereaux.
This book is a fantastic addition to the existing French Revolutionary literature.
Armchair Interviews says: Imagery, adventure, death, excitement and passion all wrapped up in one book.
Author’s Web site: http://www.AnneWalther.com/index.php
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