The Legend of the Seventh Virgin

By Victoria Holt

Book Overview

According to the legend, six novices living in a Cornish convent strayed from their vows and were turned to stone. The seventh faced quite a different fate. Years later when the convent became the family mansion of the St. Larnston family, fate beckoned to another young virgin. Kerensa Carlee was only a cottage girl, but she possessed great ambition and greater beauty -- and she knew how to use them both. Working in the legend-haunted mansion as a lady's maid, Kerensa began her perilous journey into womanhood. She stirred old memories and mysteries, and brought to that quiet corner of Victorian Cornwall moonlight madness and an ancient vengeance . . . .

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385006098
• ISBN13: 9780385006095
• Release Date: January 1965
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Age Range: 4 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 7

Customer Reviews

Legend of the 7th Virgin by Victoria Holt

Read this as a kid and not at all sure how. Holt's writing style is very convoluted and difficult to understand.

Good read!

My sister was named for the heroine in this novel, so of course, Kerensa and I had to read it. It's a heartbreaking book, full of romance and drama! The historical background is absolutely breathtaking! It made me a Victoria Holt fan, and since reading this book, I have read more of Holt's books! Great read for a sunny day!

Captivating!

This was one of te most unusual Victoria Holt books I have ever read. You don't really like the heroine, and yet you do understand her. This book reminds me of a saga - you go on this journey with the heroine throughout many years of her life. There are some captivating characters throughout and this is one book that I will never forget.

I also read this book when I was 12? 14? Can't Remember

But I loved it. It's not a perfect, tidy ending, but that was what I liked about it. It had the formula of a gothic novel, but not 100%. It was moodier and more interesting. I wish I knew where all my Victoria Holt's were. But this one was the best

Nostalgic Critique

I don't generally read Romance novels. If I accidentally read one, then I generally dislike it. The genre and I are simply not made for each other. Legend of the Seventh Virgin is different, in that it and I have a history together. Between the ages of 8-11 I must have read this book 60,000,000 times, and when I saw it in the store I had to buy it to see if it was as I remember.It may be that Victoria Holt is a formulaic writer. I've never read any of her other books, so I wouldn't know. What I do know is that the same impressions I had as a child came back to me very strongly. I loved Kerensa and I hated Mellyora. I totally supported Kerensa's decision about Nellyphant and would have done exactly the same. The one signal difference, I suppose, is that I felt much less dissatisfied about the ending than I did as a child (her fate no longer seeming so awful to me). I kind of figure that anything that vivid can't be all bad.

Riveting!!

I read this book when I was 14; it was the first Victoria Holt book I read, and it was all I could do to put it down!!Truly a fantastic book!