Lady of Hay - Hardcover

Erskine, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385295391 ISBN 13: 9780385295390

Publisher: Delacorte Press, 1986

Synopsis

British journalist Jo Clifford discovers her past life as a twelfth-century Welsh noblewoman and embarks on a personal odyssey that will reveal her own destiny

About this title

Reviews

Erskine's first novel gets off to a fine start. As a participant in a college research project on hypnotic regression, Jo Clifford is almost too good a subject. Under hypnosis, she relives the final, tortured moments in the life of Matilda, a 12th century Welshwoman. In the process, Jo herself comes close to death. The story then jumps 15 years. Jo, now a journalist researching regression, is again hypnotized and again regresses to Matilda's excitement-packed life. Unfortunately, the pace of the early pages is not maintained. The problem is not with Jo/Matilda, who are both well-drawn, or even with the whopping coincidences Jo encounters. What slows the narrative is the bevy of minor characters, Jo's acquaintances. They talk to her and about her, they try to help her and they conspire against her, all at the expense of the central plotline. This is still a good read, but it could have been better. Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Matilda de Braose was an actual 12th-century Englishwoman who angered and was put to death by King John. Fictional journalist Jo Clifford undergoes hypnosis while researching the story of her previous life as Matilda. As she becomes increasingly obsessed with the story, her male friends assume the roles of Matilda's husband, lover, and the king, manipulated by "mad scientist" Dr. Sam Franklyn, who hypnotizes all of them. Jo's story is initially an annoying intrusion in a historical drama that could easily have stood on its own merits. The modern-day characters are all "types," none of them particularly likeable. However, as Matilda's death nears, this complex first novel turns in to an engrossing gothic that races to an exciting conclusion. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates. Marcia R. Hoffman, M.L.S., Hoechst Celanese Corp., Somerville, N.J.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385295391
• ISBN 13: 9780385295390
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 545