The Blue Rose
Author: Forsyth, Kate
ISBN: 9780143786177
Publisher: Penguin Australia Pty Ltd
Year first published: 20 Jul 2021
Pages: 368
Format: Paperback / softback
Moving between Imperial China and the P#8216;TerrorP#8217; of the French Revolution and inspired by the true story of the quest for a blood-red rose.
Viviane de Faitaud has grown up alone at the Chateau de Belisima-sur-le-Lac in Brittany. Her father, the Marquis, lives at the court of Louis XVI in Versailles. After a hailstorm destroys the chateauP#8217;s orchards, gardens and fields an ambitious young Welshman, David Stronach, accepts the commission to plan the chateauP#8217;s new gardens in the hope of making his name as a landscape designer.Plt;brPgt;Plt;brPgt;David and Viviane fall in love, but it is an impossible romance. Her father has betrothed her to a rich duke who she is forced to marry and David is hunted from the property. Viviane goes to court and becomes a maid-in-waiting to Marie-Antoinette and a member of the extended royal family. Angry and embittered, David sails away from England with Lord Macartney, the British ambassador, who hopes to open up trade with Imperial China.Plt;brPgt; Plt;brPgt; In Canton, the British embassy at last receives news from home, including their first reports of the French Revolution. David hears the story of P#8216;The Blue RoseP#8217;, a Chinese fable of impossible love, and discovers the blood-red rose growing in the wintry garden. He realises that he is still in love with Viviane and must find her.Plt;brPgt; Plt;brPgt; Viviane escapes the guillotine and returns to the ruin of Chateau de Belisima to rebuild her life. David carrying a cluster of rosehips finds her there, and together they decide to grow the fabled red rose of China in France.
ISBN: 9780143786177
Publisher: Penguin Australia Pty Ltd
Year first published: 20 Jul 2021
Pages: 368
Format: Paperback / softback
Moving between Imperial China and the P#8216;TerrorP#8217; of the French Revolution and inspired by the true story of the quest for a blood-red rose.
Viviane de Faitaud has grown up alone at the Chateau de Belisima-sur-le-Lac in Brittany. Her father, the Marquis, lives at the court of Louis XVI in Versailles. After a hailstorm destroys the chateauP#8217;s orchards, gardens and fields an ambitious young Welshman, David Stronach, accepts the commission to plan the chateauP#8217;s new gardens in the hope of making his name as a landscape designer.Plt;brPgt;Plt;brPgt;David and Viviane fall in love, but it is an impossible romance. Her father has betrothed her to a rich duke who she is forced to marry and David is hunted from the property. Viviane goes to court and becomes a maid-in-waiting to Marie-Antoinette and a member of the extended royal family. Angry and embittered, David sails away from England with Lord Macartney, the British ambassador, who hopes to open up trade with Imperial China.Plt;brPgt; Plt;brPgt; In Canton, the British embassy at last receives news from home, including their first reports of the French Revolution. David hears the story of P#8216;The Blue RoseP#8217;, a Chinese fable of impossible love, and discovers the blood-red rose growing in the wintry garden. He realises that he is still in love with Viviane and must find her.Plt;brPgt; Plt;brPgt; Viviane escapes the guillotine and returns to the ruin of Chateau de Belisima to rebuild her life. David carrying a cluster of rosehips finds her there, and together they decide to grow the fabled red rose of China in France.
