The Merlin of the Oak Wood
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
The Merlin of St. Gilles' Well was named one of the 10 Best Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels the year by Booklist. Now Ann Chamberlin continues her acclaimed saga with another gripping mixture of brilliantly re-created history and ancient magic.
A.D. 1425. France lies in bloody fragments, torn apart by decades of bitter warfare. Merlin's ancient prophecy foretells that a Maid will come, La Pucelle, who will unite the kingdom and heal the Land, but how much longer must the wounded country wait?
In the farmlands of Lorraine, young Jehannette d'Arc wrestles with her place in the world. Her family wants her to be more like other girls, but she hears Voices urging her on to a greater destiny, as does the wise old hermit who knows, even before Jehanette herself, whom she truly is: The Maid of Orleans.
The Merlin of the Oak Wood is an unforgettable novel that exposes the mythic roots running beneath one of history's most remarkable dramas.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Smoothly blending the real and the magical, Chamberlin puts French history to masterly use in another appealing chapter in her medieval saga centered on Joan of Arc. (Despite the title, "the great magician Merlin in ancient days" is mentioned only twice by name.) In the first volume, The Merlin of St. Gilles' Well (1999), Joan figured in the visions of a young peasant boy-turned-magician, Yann. In the present novel the teenaged Joan, still called Jehannette, takes center stage, already possessed by "Voices." Amid credible scenes that range from ordinary rural life to the ravages of war, Joan encounters a host of historical characters, including the weak Dauphin, who later becomes king, and Robert de Baudricourt, governor of Vaucouleurs, who supports Joan after she predicts the siege of Orleans. Most prominent, though, is the dashing Gilles de Rais, who appeared in the earlier book and has yet to devolve into the sexual monster and child murderer of Bluebeard legend. Yann, "milk brother" to Gilles, also returns to play a key part. The author is particularly good at adumbrating the paganism lurking beneath the Christian surface of the early 15th century, when people took witchcraft seriously indeed. Since Joan is only starting her eventful journey, the novel lacks a strong climax, but this is to be expected in a series that fans won't want to see end. Chamberlin deserves an honorable place in the company of such writers as Twain, Shaw and Anouilh who have dramatized the life of the Maid of Orleans.
