| Created 2007..08.21; Updated 2007.08.21 |
Review by Gabrielle Pantera [More
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2007.8.14
Rating: 3 stars ***
Nothing sours a father-son relationship like trying to kill each other’s friends. Edmond Verney and his son Ralph chose opposing sides in the English Civil Wars of 1642 to 1651. Edmond chose the Cavaliers or Royalists. Ralph chose the new order, the Roundheads or Parliamentarians. The Varney ambition to advance to government position and title inevitably got them involved in wars. Edmond's older brother Francis rebelled and became a Barbary pirate. Francis died young (and anticlimactically) of illness.
The Verney women had their share of adventure…and scandal. Out of wedlock pregnancy in the 17th Century was punishable by death. Mall Verney, who lived with only her maid in London, spent time with many men…and became pregnant. The family helped her…but with conditions. Mary, a young woman who married into the family, went mad within two years with zelotypia (morbid jealousy) from her husband Edmond’s philandering. The women did much to help the family. Ralph’s wife Mary went to London to secure the right for her husband to return from exile in France.
Although bits and pieces are told in story form, the book mostly dwells on dry historical facts. Tedious explanations of 17th-century English politics distract from the story of the Verneys. The book confusingly jumps between father and son. Interspersing the letters as conversation would have given a more personal view of the family. I wanted a chapter for each member of the family and to know more about the Verney women.
Author Adrian Tinniswood has written more then a dozen books. With over 100,000 pages of original letters from family members, the facts at the author’s fingertips are amazing. The Verney’s prolific record-keeping, over a hundred years worth, is the largest continuous collection of papers of an upper-class British family.
The Verneys gave me a better understanding of Britain in the 17th Century. Despite wars, religious and money issues that occasionally divided the family, most of them stayed close and communicated often though letters. There was great abiding love between many of the married couples revealed in the letters they wrote to each other.
This review originally appeared in the British Weekly.