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    Virgin Earth
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    Virgin Earth
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    Virgin Earth
    Ebook808 pages15 hours

    Virgin Earth

    By Philippa Gregory

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    About this ebook

    Sequel to the outstanding historical novel Earthly Joys, and written by the bestselling Philippa Gregory, the author of The Other Boleyn Girl and The Virgin’s Lover.

    John Tradescant the Younger has inherited his father’s unique collection of plants along with his unerring ability to nurture them. But as gardener to Charles I, he confronts an unbearable dilemma when England descends into Civil War. Fleeing from the chaos, John travels to the Royalist colony of Virginia in America. But the virgin land is not uninhabited. John’s plant hunting brings him to live with the native people, and he learns to love and respect their way of life just as it is threatened by the colonial settlers.

    In the new world and the old, the established order is breaking down and every family has to find its own way of surviving. For the Tradescants, through the upheavals of the Commonwealth and the Restoration, this means consolidating their reputations as the greatest gardeners in the country.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateNov 11, 2011
    ISBN9780007383351
    Unavailable
    Virgin Earth
    Author

    Philippa Gregory

    Philippa Gregory is an internationally renowned author of historical novels. She holds a PhD in eighteenth-century literature from the University of Edinburgh. Works that have been adapted for television include A Respectable Trade, The Other Boleyn Girl and The Queen's Fool. The Other Boleyn Girl is now a major film, starring Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana. Philippa Gregory lives in the North of England with her family.

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    Reviews for Virgin Earth

    4/5

    162 ratings8 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Not one of my favourite Phillipa Gregory books, lots of pages and little writing.... i found it very slow and repetitive with not much of a storyline.
    • 3/5
      This novel follows John Trandescant, the gardener to the king of England as he navigates personal tragedies and the period around the civil war and interregnum. At the beginning of the book, John is still reeling from the death of his wife. In an attempt to flee his grief, he travels to the Virginia colony to collect new and rare plants. While there, he meets a prepubescent native girl who helps him gather and collect plants. He becomes obsessed with her and before he sails home, he promises to marry her upon his return. Back in England, John finds that his father has died in his absence. Now he is the sole owner and operator of an extensive collection of rare plants and other curiosities knows ask Trandescant's Ark. He also meets a matronly woman named Hester who had been caring for his aging father and his young children. It seems that his father intended him to marry this woman. John is annoyed by his father trying to control him even in death, but soon he realizes that he desperately needs Hester's help. They marry as a matter of convenience and their relationship is strained. The times are troubled in England. The king and his wife are feuding with the parliament over matters of religion. Soon the nation is embroiled in a civil war and John is struggling to escape the service of a foolish king. He proposes moving house to Virginia. He professes love to his wife and asks her to come with him. Hester shocks him by rejecting this idea. It's too dangerous in the colony and she promised John's father to look after the rarities. John leaves in a bitter rage, intending never to return. As he sails he imagines the little farm he will build and the beautiful native woman he hopes is waiting for him still. He clears some land but nearly dies of starvation. It's far harder to survive in this land alone than John ever imagined. When he is on the brink of death, he is saved by the local Powhatan village where he finds the woman Suckahanna, now grow, married, and caring for her own children. Against all odds, the natives take him into their village and teach him their ways. John survives, and even marries Suckahanna. But he is eventually exiled when he refuses to kill the English settlers. He travels back to England where he is reunited with his wife and children. The land is still at war, and more trouble is on the horizon.This book is odd. I often felt like the characters were not fully formed as they were just vantage points from which the movement of history could be observed. John especially was a difficult character to care about. His loyalties were constantly switching sides without rhyme or reason. His beliefs and impulses seemed to be chiefly driven by the dictates of the plot. I found his bigamous marry to a native girl young enough to be his daughter disgusting, especially when he abandoned his native family to death when the war went badly for them all. I couldn't understand why the Powhatan liked him. It seemed like everyone, especially women would just instantly like John for no reason. When he returned to England and did nothing but criticize all the work Hester had done, I lost all respect for him. He completely abandoned his family for years and never thought about them once. He intended never to return and only did because his other wife and family would no longer tolerate his bullshit. And then he had the audacity to complain about how his wife conducted business in his absence. But the narrative expects you to just continue on being sympathetic towards him. The books ending was also odd. I felt like the author couldn't figure out how to wrap things up. She obviously wanted to hit a few more historical beats but the plot of the novel was essentially over. And then it just finished rather abruptly with John making an astonishingly bad financial decision that would pass on all his father's work to a mercenary friend. It was bizarre.
    • 3/5
      I've never met a Philippa Gregory book I haven't liked and for the most part it's still true about Virgin Earth. I really enjoyed it right up until the last few pages. I found the ending deeply unsatisfying.
    • 5/5
      John Tradescant was a Gardener to King Charles I. He also collected rare and unusual items to put on display at his home. When the King started a war with parliment, his loyalties were divided. John traveled to Jamestown, Virginia, his second wife and childen stayed in England to take care of his gardens and rarities. In Virginia, he collected new and unusual plants to sell back home in England. He tried to live in Jamestown, he bought land, and married an indian woman. Life became to hard, eventually he went back to England. I learned a lot about all different kinds of plants and how they took care of them in 1638. They used glass domes over melon plants to protect them from the weather. They brushed snow off of new trees to keep the branches from freezing and breaking. Little tidbits like that made the story more interesting
    • 5/5
      Following Earthly Joys, this Historical account of England in the 17th Century has moved on to the son of the Royal Gardener, who, despite his desire to not become embroiled in the dangerous and violent happenings in England at the time, find himself just as caught up in the lives of the King and his advisers. Interesting and fun reading for history buffs, as well as gardeners as they follow John Tradescant the younger in England and then to America in his quest for rare and exotic flora to bring to the King's gardens. Very good reading.
    • 5/5
      The Tradescant's family story interweaves with the demise of Charles I and the Cromwellian interlude. She is a very good writer of history and I'm looking forward to reading her next historical novel. I thought it was so good Ibought a copy for my mother-in-law and sent it to her.
    • 5/5
      I think this has been my favorite book by Gregory so far. Just a fabulous read. I loved it. I just absolutely loved it. And the setting, and the history, the story, all woven together in such a fine way.I was sad to see it end honestly. I think Gregory is an amazing writing and the stories she creates just draw me into them.
    • 2/5
      I just couldn't get into this book so I returned it to the library.