The LACEMAKER - Hardcover

Janine Montupet; Lowell Blair (Translator)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689118147 ISBN 13: 9780689118142

Publisher: Scribner, 1988

Synopsis

A wealth of historical detail buttresses this novel set in the lacemaking capital of Alecon, France, during the mid-1600s. Gilonne Perdriel, daughter of a nobleman who will not acknowledge her and a young lacemaker who died soon after giving birth, is apprenticed at five to the trade that blinded her grandmother. While Gilonne and her friend Michanteau are locked away from the world learning the arduous steps involved in crocheting lace collars and flounces, the persecution of Protestants gathers deadly momentum with the blessing of the Catholic court of Louis XIV. At the height of this religious strife, the girls are freed to attempt to eke out a living. Beautiful Gilonne secretly marries a rich Protestant, but pines for Ogier, an arrogant servant from her father's estate who makes his fortune in New France and returns to Europe as a nobleman. When her husband is killed, Gilonne and Michanteau build a thriving lacemaking business aided by a clutch of eccentrics ranging from elderly, gossipy blind women to bickering artists. While the romance tends toward sugary excess and the prose is too often weighty and stiff, this French bestseller is ultimately as enticing and intricate as the gossamer lace it describes.

About this title

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)

From Library Journal

It is 17th-century France, where a rising bourgeoisie is gaining power and making fortunes, and Gilonne Perdriel owns her own lacemaking shop by age 15. Montupet spares us none of the sweatshop conditions that child apprentices to lacemaking endured, yet she succeeds in resurrecting a lost art whose patterns were once prized as the quintessence of culture. This French best seller combines all the elements of popular historical fictiona beautiful heroine who achieves success and romance by her wit and spirit; a hero worthy of the enterprising heroine; and a miscellany of amusing social types. Women are clearly the focus; men often disappear and reappear without explanation. A vivid portrayal of the period that will appeal to fans of historical fiction. Lisa Mullenneaux, Iowa City
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0689118147
• ISBN 13: 9780689118142
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 467