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    The Virgin Blue
    The Virgin Blue
    The Virgin Blue
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Virgin Blue

    Written by Tracy Chevalier

    Narrated by Gigi Marceau Clarke and Janine Carter

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The compelling story of two women, born four centuries apart, and the ancestral legacy that binds them.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateJun 23, 2003
    ISBN9781598872934
    The Virgin Blue
    Author

    Tracy Chevalier

    Tracy Chevalier is the author of eleven novels, including A Single Thread, Remarkable Creatures and Girl with a Pearl Earring, an international bestseller that has sold over five million copies and been made into a film, a play and an opera. Born in Washington DC, she moved to the United Kingdom in 1986. She and her husband divide their time between London and Dorset.

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    Reviews for The Virgin Blue

    3.5/5

    55 ratings50 reviews

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    • 3/5
      After loving ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ and ‘Remarkable Creatures’, Chevalier’s ‘The Virgin Blue’ was a great disappointment. The premise itself was good: twin story lines, one in today and one in the late 1500s, each told from a young woman’s point of view. One, Ella, is recently moved to France, arriving with her husband who has moved for a job; the other, Isabelle, is a French farm girl married into the local ‘rich’ family; both are midwives. Isabelle is an ancestress of Ella’s. Ella fills her time with looking into her genealogy, finding a few leads but also finding a handsome French librarian. What unfolds is a tale of superstition, magic and betrayal. The plot had promise-it’s partly a mystery story, but the characters lacked depth. Isabelle is the only character I felt was fleshed out and even she was pretty thinly done. I couldn’t manage to like Ella, the main protagonist. She is shallow and amoral. The book reads almost like a first draft, a sketch in words when it really needed to be painted in color. An odd event- Ella’s hair turns red overnight- is never explained; I know it’s supposed to show us that Ella is tied to Isabelle but it’s like the story steps from realism to magical realism when it’s half over, with no other magical events other than some dreams. This was Chevalier’s first novel and it shows, sadly.
    • 3/5
      Good but disturbing!
    • 2/5
      Overall I didn’t find this very compelling or original. The ancient secret that is pried loose is one of child sacrifice. Partly because she has red hair and partly to punish her mother, Isabelle’s child is killed and buried under the new hearth of their new home. They had to run because of trumped-up witchcraft charges that might have caught up with Isabelle. In modern times, Ella traces this house and has some bogus psychic vibrations that lead her to pry up some stones in this shack preserved as history. She finds a skull and a remnant of blue cloth. Immediately she concludes that this is the girl in her dreams and is also her ancestor. Now she knows why she was haunted and now the spirit can rest. Bah. I didn’t much like Ella. She seemed selfish and petulant to me. Like a little girl more than a woman. She got her man and her fancy wedding and now she wasn’t satisfied with that and wanted something else. Her affair with the local Frenchman isn’t romantic, although Chevalier tries to make it seem pre-ordained somehow. I just saw her as a lying, cheat and nothing more. In the end she’s pregnant and knows the brat will be a girl with red hair. Bah!
    • 4/5
      Brilliant. Just the right book for a summer evening, I so like Tracy Chevaliers historical novels and this book did not disappoint me.
    • 5/5
      When American Ella Turner moves with her husband to Lisle-sur-Tarn, a small town in southwestern France, she hopes to qualify to practice as a midwife as well as to start a family of her own. Instead she is disrupted by less-than-idyllic village life and strange dreams of the color blue. Haunted by sleepless nights, bewildered by her unwelcoming neighbors, Ella tries to forge a bond with her new home by investigating her French ancestors, with the help of seductive librarian Jean-Paul. Ella’s research takes her to the Cévennes, isolated mountains in the south and the birthplace of the Tournier/Turner family. 16th-century peasant Isabelle du Moulin, known as La Rousse for her red hair, is suspected of witchcraft and tormented for her association with the Virgin Mary even after she and the rest of the village have converted to the “Truth” – the new Protestantism as preached by Calvin’s ministers. When she becomes pregnant, she has no choice but to marry into the powerful Tournier family. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew in Paris sends waves of persecution throughout France, and the Tourniers are forced to flee their home near Le Pont de Montvert for a new life in the Swiss town of Moutier. Old ways follow them there, however, and Isabelle's final shocking fate lies undiscovered — until Ella Turner's arrival four centuries later…
    • 3/5
      I suppose I really mean 3.5 as there are a couple of issues that kept me from going to 4. Issues sounds bad and I don't mean it that way. The premise and the story were interesting, but I have to admit I found the present day characters more difficult to enjoy than the 16th century ones. Ella was really very whiney at the start. She seemed in some ways the stereotype of the ugly American, despite all her efforts and desires to fit in. In the historical parts, I have read other authors who would have spent more time explaining the religious conflict, both in the historical context and within the interplay of the characters themselves. In the big picture, I did really enjoy the mysterious connection of the past and the present, and I especially liked the pacing of the short passages back forth at the climax of Isabelle's story and Ella's discovery of the evidence. I am willing to admit that people who belonged together in the past being reunited in the present is a very attractive and romantic premise that I would like to think is possible. And the power of bloodlines.....I have two other Chevalier novels already, and I look forward to reading them.
    • 3/5
      Several years ago, a little artsy theater in Menlo Park, California, had on its marquee, "Vermeer was Here," in way of a promo for the movie, Girl with the Pearl Earring. I furrowed my brow as I tried to puzzle that one out. I vaguely knew about the movie and book, but I didn't know who Vermeer was. Although I cleared everything up with an internet search, Vermeer and Tracy Chevalier were ever after connected in my mind with the uncomfortable feeling of being on the "I don't get it" side of a joke. (Menlo Park and Palo Alto frequently left me feeling that way.)

      When the book club selection this month was for "The Works of Tracy Chevalier", I nearly passed it along. Although Girl with the Pearl Earring wasn't one of the three options for the meeting, I was still hesitant to read anything by Chevalier. I didn't want that "outsider" feeling again. I get that enough living in New England (although here it's not quite the same as the California "outsider" feeling...more a cold shoulder than a derisive smirk). But I also pretty much live my life with the purpose of proving my preconceived notions wrong, and that inclination won out at the last minute. I took the kids on our weekly library visit this Friday and left with The Virgin Blue and the intention to power through it this weekend in preparation for book club Monday night.

      I was pleased to find that it was a quick read and required little effort to power through. The story was interesting, as was the device she used to tell it. The book consists of the interwoven tales of Isabelle and Ella, members of the same family separated in time by 400 years. When she and her husband move to France, Ella begins to be haunted by a recurring nightmare. She begins to believe that finding out the secrets to her family tree will help to cure her of the nightmare, and so the story progresses.

      Chevalier's handling of the interwoven story technique isn't expert, but it's not bumbling either. The interpersonal interactions seemed realistic if a little overly simplistic. Towards the end, the action sped up and the various characters going hither and thither across Europe began to feel a little cumbersome. There were a few too many symbols in the story (the wolf, the shepherd, the blue, the red hair), which just made the connection between Ella and Isabelle seem a bit too tidy. And the fact that Ella was a midwife was kind of an unnecessary detail. It was an interesting connection but didn't really play a large role in the story. I think it was meant to explain her "uncanny" ability to spot a pregnant woman before the woman herself even knew about it, but when a librarian/researcher/archivist person can do the same thing, that sort of makes the "midwife" connection less significant.

      All the same, this is the kind of first novel I enjoy reading. It's not perfect, but it shows promise. The characters seemed interesting to me, they developed over time, and there's a quality to Chevalier's descriptions and sense of connection that makes me curious about her later novels. As an on-again, off-again writer of fiction, I don't like a first novel that's awesome and expertly crafted right out of the gate. But as a reader, I don't like a really crummy first novel, either. The Virgin Blue was a fun read and wasn't so bad that it threatened my faith in humanity nor was it so good that it threatened my self confidence in my own writing.
    • 4/5
      When Ella Tournier starts looking into her family history, her story becomes bound with that of Isabelle Tournier, her ancestor . Although the two women live in entirely different times, their stories are linked in many ways. As Ella tries to find out what happened to Isabelle's family, she discovers some things she didn't want to know, not only about her family but also about herself. It took me a while to get into this book but towards the end it was too chilling to put down. Really well written, especially the parts from Isabelle.
    • 2/5
      I thought this was a terrible book. I gave it 2.5 stars because it was well written and the historical details were interesting. I found the characters unlikeable and their actions frustrating. The combination of religious mysticism with immoral lifestyles (portrayed as somehow being the better course than morality) really bothered me.
    • 3/5
      16th century and present day - story of 2 women
    • 3/5
      A solid first novel - slightly predictable, but still enjoyable. The description of the isolation experienced by a foreigner in a small village cut close to the bone, indeed.
    • 4/5
      The novel has two timelines, a modern one and a medieval one. First, there's Ella in modern day France, then there's Isabelle in medieval France. The connection is not readily obvious but hints are placed within the book. The narrative juggles between the two characters, in a mirror effect, between the life of Ella and the life of Isabelle, her medieval counterpart. It is one of the better books by Chevalier, so I have no issues recommending it: the chapters are kept short, the plot is suitably complex and there is a sense of speed in the resolution of the mystery towards the end, which is quite good. I've read it a few times and the reading pace is fluid, there are no language issues or plot holes that I can see. In the end, it's a good fiction, it's something to read on the way to work or in the summer.
    • 3/5
      Interesting book that's all about parallel lives in this generation and a few generations earlier during the Huguenot opression in France. An American woman, Ella Turner, moves with her husband to France and tries to find her feet there. Her ancestors were Tourniers and they come from somewhere pretty close to where they're living now. This searching for her roots cause her to ask questions about her relationship with her husband and whether or not he's the person she should be with. At the same time it tells the story of Isabell du Moulin, known as La Rousse because of her hair. Trying the best to live her life but trapped in a marriage that is breaking her spirit.This one left me with a feeling of incompletness. Maybe it would have been better if she had employed the same technique as in her later novels where she writes totally in the past. The connection to the painting was a bit more tenuous than in the others but still it's an interesting read. I just didn't find myself caring much for the characters or what happened in their lives, it was all quite abstract, I didn't get involved. It's interesting but in ways just not interesting enough for me.
    • 3/5
      Lovely writing, as always, but I feel like I missed the point of the novel -- like I'm not sure what Chevalier was trying to get across.
    • 4/5
      Haunting family story split between the present and the past.
    • 5/5
      Beautifully written with many twists.
    • 3/5
      A double plot unfolding in France in the 16th and 20th century. The 16th century story involves a family of Hugenots running away from persecution and settling down in Switzerland, and a woman in this family for whom "virgin blue" is very dear. The 20th century protagonist is a descendant of the family who comes to live to France from the States. The old family history takes over her life more than she expects immediately after she settles down. The book is very well researched and very well written until the last two- three chapters, which are weak.
    • 2/5
      This was Chevalier's first novel, but not the first published. The writing clearly shows promise, but it isn't [Girl With a Pearl Earring].
    • 4/5
      Ella and Rick have just moved from California to France for Rick’s work. Ella has time on her hands and ancestors in Switzerland, originally from France, so she decides to research the family. 400 years earlier, Isabelle is made fun of for her red hair, but marries Etienne and lives with his family who hates her. They start a family, but are run off their land because they are Huguenots. The chapters alternate between focusing on Ella and focusing on Isabelle.I really liked it. I was pulled right in. While I was reading, I rarely wanted to put it down and almost right away, I wanted to go pick it up again and keep going. I will most likely be reading more by Chevalier.
    • 4/5
      I loved the historical sections of this, they were rich in detail. The color was woven through the story nicely, tying the historical with the contemporary. It took a bit more time for me to connect with the contemporary heroine, but in the end I thought it was a satisfying story. I would recommend it.
    • 3/5
      Not as compelling as The Girl with the Pearl Earring, but still quite good. The clumsy connection between the stories in past and present France is a big weakness.
    • 3/5
      Elizabeth, a midwife from the U.S. follows her husband to France when he lands a job in an architectural firm. Unable to speak the language and alienated by the cold, comtemptuous silence of her neighbours, she decides to distract herself by looking into her family history. Thus begins a voyage led mostly by intuition and deeply embedded ancestral ties, but also by the hands of a cute and able librarian. Although the plot seems to have been hammered together with some plywood and a couple of nails the manipulation was so obvious, I somehow didn't mind. I guess it is because it is interesting to think that we have some sort of connection to our ancestors and that their story still lives inside us.
    • 5/5
      My favorite book by Tracy Chevalier. Evocative and stunning.
    • 4/5
      Simply put, this book is like an interesting fusion of 'Labyrinth' and 'Practical Magic'. Isabelle is a young woman in rural France who finds herself increasingly despised by those around her. Her bright red hair links her to the Virgin Mary, and whispers of witchcraft float around her as the Calvinist 'Truth' spreads through the people and the Catholics turn to persecution to fight back. Marrying into the wealthy but arrogant Tourniers, she is still marginalised and life becomes ever more difficult. Several hundred years later, Ella Turner moves from America to France with her husband, to a little provincial town that doesn't take kindly to strangers. Increasingly miserable and lonely there, she takes up the search for her ancestors as a project to pass the time, enlisting Jean-Paul, a local librarian, to help her. Tormented by a smothering nightmare of billowing blue and chanted words, she moves ever closer to discovering the fate of Isabelle and her children.The book began disastrously for me. It was clunky, irritating, confusing and disjointed. In fact, if it hadn't been for a fellow LT-er mentioning having a similar experience but really liking it in the end, I might have given up before the end of the first chapter. I'm glad I took that advice and persevered! I enjoyed seeing the parallels between Isabelle and Ella building, wondering if anyone else in the 'modern' chapters might be descendants of those in the 'old' sections, and how the tangle of characters around these women fitted together. The ties between women, in friendship as well as through the generations of a family, is nicely explored, with the whispering echoes of Isabelle and her red hair reminding me of the mysterious family curse at the centre of 'Practical Magic'. The chapters alternate between Isabelle and Ella, between the third and first person voice, and between narrative styles, until the climactic chapters where both alternate ever more quickly, building suspense and a horrible sickly sense of dread and fear. That said, I worked out what was coming a little too early, which meant that I was waiting more for the WHY than the WHAT - and was therefore disappointed when the truth was revealed but never explained. All in all, I'm really glad I carried on reading it - but I was a bit distracted by it's similarity to the later 'Labyrinth', which I read (and loved) a few years ago now. It was evocative and exciting and suspenseful, but the anticlimactic ending let it down to some extent. I think the story will stay with me so I'll hang on to it a while and let the reflection run its course before I decide whether it's a keeper or not!
    • 4/5
      I liked it--not as good as Pearl, but I stayed up too late reading.
    • 3/5
      My immediate thought after finishing this book was that I' already read a story similar to this one and that that one had been executed a lot better. It reminded me a lot of 'Labyrinth' by Kate Moss but I thought that in Labyrinth the book just flowed a lot better. I didn't dislike the book, but I'm not crazy about it either.
    • 3/5
      Easy read, rather contrived
    • 2/5
      Tracy Chevalier is a very frustrating author for me. I liked the first one I read (The Lady and the Unicorn), I adored the second one I read (Falling Angels) and was disappointed with the third (The Girl in the Pearl Earrings). This is the 4th, and once again, disappointed. The thing that disappoints me most is that the subject material is so rich, I can see how the book could be so good. I know nothing about the Huguenots in France and would love to read more. I love history, I love genealogy and so forth. This could have been a really great story.Instead, one of the protagonists I really didn't care for (the modern Ella). I did like the way the author showed how it was difficult to adjust to life in small town France. The book described that well, in a way I could understand. But the character herself, I didn't much care for.The way the magical elements were woven into the story also didn't make sense to me. I found the blue dream hokey, the hair that grew mysteriously red overnight unbelievable, and so forth. I've read a lot of books with magical elements to them so that as a plot device or aspect of the story doesn't bother me. But it didn't fit well here.There were also lose ends that were never tied up and things that were never explained. I'm not referring to an open ended ending, which can be excellent sometimes. I'm referring to the painter that ended up being a dead end. Why was he even in the story? It did not move the plot forward or contribute in any way. It was frustrating.Finally, the sections taking place in the 1500s were confusing and hard for me to follow. I find the French way of writing dialog difficult to read. They never sound like characters speaking in my head. I also thought there were too many names and the action was difficult to follow. I ended up confused and had to read back a few pages to get the characters straight.Once again, highly disappointing since I love the idea behind it.
    • 4/5
      Parallel stories of two women, Isabelle from 15th century France who marries, but becomes an outcast in her village and Ella an American living in France who is tracing her family's history and becomes haunted by dreams that connect her past generations.
    • 5/5
      Part of it takes place in late 16th century France where a Hugenot family is on the run from Catholic persecutors. The rest takes place in modern time where an American living in France is researching her family history. I must say that I liked the historical fiction story better than the modern story. It is one of the best books I read in 2006.