The Dungeon - Softcover

Banks, Lynne Reid

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007137788 ISBN 13: 9780007137787

Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books, 2003

Synopsis

A medieval tragedy and tale of retribution -- The Dungeon is a powerful story from a writer of great skill and potency. The setting is medieval Scotland, a land dominated by skirmishes and battles on the borders, a land of fortresses and castles in Scotland, England and Wales. We meet Bruce McLennan, a Scottish laird, a man sorely-changed by a terrible family tragedy. He is a domineering master, an uncaring landlord, a cruel man, who has his heart set on building himself a castle and a Dungeon in which to punish his enemies in the future. But while the dungeon is being built, McLennan plans a trip to the far ends of the earth. As we follow McLennan on his travels to China and beyond, we witness his buying of Peony, or Mudan, as her Chinese name is, a young girl who McLennan uses as a slave. He is uncaring, unsympathetic, as he drags her after him across the world. Gradually, knowing no other, Peony develops a kind of affection for her master. In Scotland, Peony meets Fin, a stable lad and a loving friendship develops between them. McLennan, busy fighting off enemies, uses Peony in an horrific scene in one of his battles; he looses badly and subsequently blames her. He decides to punish her by throwing her in his dungeon! then unfolds a ghastly scene where Peony kills herself, at last in control of her own destiny. McLennan dies of guilt, shame and remorse. Fin lives on, and even Peony, perhaps, in his new baby sister.

About this title

About the Author:

Lynne Reid Banks was born in London in 1929. She was an actress in the early 1950s and later became one of the first two women TV News reporters in Britain. She is a best-selling author for both children and adults, and has written over thirty books, including The L-Shaped Room.Lynne Reid Banks has three grown-up sons and lives in Dorset and London with her sculptor husband, Chaim Stephenson.

From Publishers Weekly:

Tinged with Buddhist notions of karma and reincarnation, Banks's (The Indian in the Cupboard) riveting tale of reprisal and redemption centers on a Chinese slave girl and her fierce, embittered master, the Scottish laird Bruce MacLennan. After a feud with a neighboring warlord results in the bloody deaths of his cherished wife and children, MacLennan sets in motion his plans for a huge fortress, complete with dungeon, and then decamps to the fabled land of China in search of adventure. Working as a hired fighter, MacLennan encounters young Mudan (Peony) and, on impulse, buys her as his tea slave. The child's presence begins to reawaken feelings of tenderness in MacLennan, which he does his best to squelch. In another, more conventional novel, this softening might be the start of the warrior's re-entry into the world of the loving; here, it is simply the beginning of a heart-wrenching struggle between compassion and vengeance. For her part, Peony takes scraps of happiness where she can, gleaning wisdom and courage from the teachings of the Buddhist soldier with whom MacLennan travels; some years later, when she accompanies MacLennan back to Scotland, she finds something like familial love in her friendship with a kind stable boy. As the novel moves toward its conclusion, it conveys a powerful message about the terrible price of unswerving revenge. A poignant epilogue offers a spark of hope, especially welcome after all the sorrow that precedes it. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0007137788
• ISBN 13: 9780007137787
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224