The Dream Maker

by Alison McLeay

Book Overview

It is 1819 and the Napoleonic Wars have brought misery in their wake for 16-year-old Flora St Serf and her family. Flora falls in love with the man she believes is responsible for her family's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312244231
• ISBN13: 9780312244231
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Everyone should own a copy of this book, if not more

This book is the best book I've ever read. I love the Author's work, and I would tell anyone to read it. Although some aspects of the fiction are complex (may account for the previous critic's dislike), it all adds to the novel. Buy this. Read this. I promise you'll enjoy it. McLeay's family must be the luckiest around.

A work of fiction that captures the times

In 1638, John Tradescant travels from England to Virginia in search of exotic plants that might successfully grow in the royal gardens. The Jamestown colony magistrate Mr. Joseph reluctantly arranges for an Indian child to serve as John's guide for the next month since the child's mother is serving that much prison time for slander. At the end of the month, John meets his guide's mother and finally learns the name of his escort is Suckahanna and she is member of the Powhatan tribe. Before leaving for England with his treasures, John vows to return to live and protect Suckahanna and her mother.John returns home to find his father, the royal gardener died during his trip overseas. His father left him a note asking John to marry Hester Pooks to help raise his two children from a previous marriage. Leaving his family behind, John flees England for Virginia when war civil war seems eminent. He sets up a plantation in Virginia that survives only because Suckahanna and her people help him. History repeats itself, as war seems imminent between the Powhatan and the Virginia colonists. VIRGIN EARTH is a brilliant historical fiction that makes the personal and national conflicts of seventeenth century England and the Virginia Colony seem real. The story line centers on John's simple desires to garden turning to inner turmoil due external forces pulling at him from varying sides. Suckahanna and her mother are genuine players critical to the plot. The colonists and John's English family adds to the lead character's dilemmas. Philippa Gregory provides readers with an exciting tale that sub- genre fans and Anglo-American history buffs will fully enjoy. Harriet Klausner