Someone cries on nearly every page. I should, of course, be an adult and turn my nose up at this. But I refuse. This novel made me realize at a young age that your dreams are not awarded to you, but that you must work to make them come true. It taught me that love is illusory and must be experienced, cherished in every form that it appears. It taught me not to believe in anything and to never stop believing in everything.
This is a big, contradictory, romantic, preposterous and wonderful novel that I still love. Oct 08, Kerry Dunn rated it it was amazing. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'm giving this five stars it was amazing because that is how I felt about this book when I read it when I was fifteen. My dad bought this book for me on one of our Sunday bookstore browsing days and I picked it up only because I liked the cover.
I had never heard of Anne Rice and didn't know anything about her Vampire Chronicles. I was immediately sucked into this book by its historical context,intricate plot, kind of naughtiness, and very romantic New Orleans setting.
I was devastated at the I'm giving this five stars it was amazing because that is how I felt about this book when I read it when I was fifteen.
I was devastated at the end because it really leaves you hanging. I've waited all these years for Anne to write a sequel and tell me what happened to Marcel. I doubt she ever will. I'm curious if the five stars would hold up if I were to re-read this today.
I might have to try that soon. View 1 comment. This is a fist clenching, hyperventilating, teeth grinding story that was an epic piece of work by Anne Rice. She is typically best known for her vampire-themed works but did an incredible job in her storytelling of the tragedies, false identities, and identity crisis affecting so many lives in Louisiana, with this fictional period piece. Yet, Rice included non-fictional events woven into this storyline to reveal those ugly and monstrous truths many tried to hide in the history of this country t This is a fist clenching, hyperventilating, teeth grinding story that was an epic piece of work by Anne Rice.
Yet, Rice included non-fictional events woven into this storyline to reveal those ugly and monstrous truths many tried to hide in the history of this country that could also be found in countries around the world. A false sense of security, illusions of all the accoutrements of a family, but no family Quadroons, some thought to be white still had the blood of color in them, were always reminded that they were going to always be people of color living in a white man's world.
Even those who were free people of color gens de couleur libre were still considered inferior to the white man. Injustice separated the prosperous gens de couleur who struggled to be fully enfranchised from their white fellowmen. They have been caught between the worlds of privilege and oppression, master and slave. The rich and privileged have taken advantage of the weak and lowly, with their selfishness and explicit lusts, exploiting them in no uncertain terms, having their way when it is convenient.
I'd hoped for a more happy ending for all of those who fell victim by default. Sadly, this was a harsh reality during this period piece of our time and country. I wish things ended better for Marcel, Marie, Richard, Christophe, and Anna Belle, but as tragic as the storyline went, I believe they survived from those tragic mistakes adults made and the consequences they had to deal with as a result of those salacious mistakes.
My hats off to Anne Rice for a story that was filled with a myriad of emotions anger, surprises, intrigue, sadness, hope, happiness and survival. This is a recommended read! Apr 23, Lois rated it it was amazing Shelves: historical-fiction.
It also focused on what life was like for the children born into that arrangement and what it was like for the free Black businesses existing in that era. Very interesting historically. I like the story and the characters but it is too long and drawn out and I hate the edition I am reading.
The text is soooo small. Maybe I will try this again another time. Jan 03, Jessica Thurlow rated it liked it. I t was then that Lestat held me in his arms and whispered sweet nothings in my ear. And it is becuse of this experience that the name Rice has become synonymous with all things preternatural for me. Thus, I was shocked to find, when I began reading The Feast of all Saints that the novel contained no elements of the supernatural save for a few instances of spiritual awakening.
I was trepidatious — would this novel break my heart? Eventually, I summoned the strength and dove headlong into the creole world that lives within the pages of this book. Knowing virtually nothing about the gens de couleur libre, I made exciting and sometimes horrifying discoveries with every page.
This book is drastically different from The Vampire Chronicles - as it should be. With this book, Rice has taken a much more direct path. The ideas are very often literally, shouted at the reader by various characters. Revelations about racism and gender inequality are frequent and I found myself dog-earring many a page so that I might return to the passage to savour the intensity and eloquence of the words. One particular outburst will stay with me for always.
When I first read this passage, I nearly shouted out loud: someone else was able to articulate just how I felt about the written word — the idea that it keeps the thoughts and ideas they embody alive forever, that books should be treated almost like living things.
My teacher believes in those books only because they occupy space …. We forget all the time, I think. I think, Monsieur, people forget this … I want to understand it, I want to … find some key As if the words imbibe part of your personality and if a reader really looks — a truth can be discovered.
This was a profound moment in the text for me. I think the other idea that I got from this book that was quite astonishing and startling was that some gens de couleur libre wanted to stay in North America, where the environment was not always in their favour and they did not have the same rights as their white counterparts.
I guess, I had always thought — if there was an escape to a place where people would readily respect you, why not take it? But over and over it was reinforced that many of these people felt they had to stay for the future of their people. Who else was going to make the changes happen?
This was startling because it was also such an obvious revelation. Social structure is hard to go against. Not just because others may oppose you and look down on you if you do, but also because some part of you must break and die before you are able. There was a profound sadness that surrounded each character in this book for this very reason. There are things to be admired from both perspectives and also much to be learned from all sides.
I deeply appreciate, and am thankful for, the immense strength and many sacrifices of the gens de couleur. There is so much more I could say about how this book affected me and changed me but I would need a vast space and eons of time to express those sentiments.
Normally, when I finish a book, the review is up the next day. This book had such a huge impact on me and my life that I had to take time to digest the ramifications before I was able to formulate the words. I believe this book should be used in high school classrooms to promote discussions about gender inequality and racism. I also believe that everybody, and I mean everybody, should read this book.
Jan 15, Rowena rated it really liked it Shelves: american-lit , own. This book made me understand colourism in Black society a bit more. Very interesting book, though it took me about pages to really get into it. May 31, Katrine Austin rated it really liked it. I read this in the early 90s without the lens of racial understanding I have today.
Might be a re-read for me soon. A beautiful and lush novel set in a very unique community in America in antebellum New Orleans - the gens de couleur libre, the mixed race Creoles of color. The novel, though with many characters who play very important roles in the story, concentrates on the St. Marie family: Cecile St. Marie, the haughty matriarch of dark skin and fine european features who was rescued as a little girl from St. Mesmerizing, enchanting, melancholic, overall, a beautiful novel!
Feb 12, Ginger rated it it was amazing. This is so much better than the vampire books, a complex and fully imagined life of a young free man of color in pre-Civil War New Orleans. Jul 29, Sarah rated it it was amazing Shelves: all-time-favorites. Almost went blind! I'm still crying though. Sep 20, Ronique rated it it was amazing Shelves: historical-fiction , fiction.
I know that before I discovered this title, I had already watched Interview with a Vampire to be reviewed later, btw because Lestat. Yes and had yet to pick up and read anything by Anne Rice. To be honest, I only noticed this title because of the mini-series on Showtime. I was like, 20 when it debuted and I knew very little to nothing about the gen de couleur libre I almost typed that without looking it up, four years of French, ftw and it seemed interesting. It was an entire series about pe I know that before I discovered this title, I had already watched Interview with a Vampire to be reviewed later, btw because Lestat.
It was an entire series about people of color who were not enslaved during a time in American history were the majority of anyone who was not white, were bound by someone who was. I was definitely intrigued. After watching the series, which played out like a dramatic soap opera, I had to find and read the book. It took forever for me to get around to it and the only regret that I had about it was that I hadn't read it sooner. Of course this title doesn't read like an actual historical account on any particular person or family during the time of the gens de couleur, but as a fictional tale about the general plight of these people during pre-Civil War America.
They were free but still contained. Marcel, the novel's main protagonist, has to learn this. He has to learn that yes he was raised as the head of his household, being the only male aside from his White-Plantation-Owning father, that did not allow him the same rights and status as a traditional heir has. Marcel grows up believing the world is his and he can have what he wants but, when his father dies and even a bit before then, he is thrown into the cruel and harsh reality of that era.
There are other elements to this story. Everyone has a backstory, which is something I love in any novel. The city of New Orleans because uhm, Anne Rice, hello has a story within this backdrop as well. Nov 22, Alethea rated it it was amazing.
The Feast of All Saints is one of the most beautifully written books I have read. The story focuses on the lives of the gens de colour, free people of color in antebellum New Orleans, who created a rich and highly cultured society in the midst of prejudice and the world of slavery.
Purely historical fiction, and at times skirting the genre of Southern Gothic, it focuses on young Marcel, the blue-eyed mulatto son of a plantation owner who keeps Marcel's mother and his family in luxury in New Orle The Feast of All Saints is one of the most beautifully written books I have read.
Purely historical fiction, and at times skirting the genre of Southern Gothic, it focuses on young Marcel, the blue-eyed mulatto son of a plantation owner who keeps Marcel's mother and his family in luxury in New Orleans, far from his other family.
Marcel excels as a student and has been promised life in Paris to continue his studies when he comes of age. Marcel hangs all his hopes upon this dream. His beautiful sister Marie, who could pass as white, loves Richard, a young black man whose family are undertakers, but the culture disdains young girls such as she to marry black men.
Families spent a great deal of energy to have their daughters to become mistresses to white men, as Marie and Marcel's mother have done. This did occur, but from what I read about the subject many of these girls actually settled down as married women within the gens de colour society.
The novel is a slow read, but the details which Anne Rice weaves into the setting creates a world where I felt I had time travelled each evening as I read the book. If you see a Google Drive link instead of source url, means that the file witch you will get after approval is just a summary of original book or the file has been already removed.
Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to fiction, historical lovers. Your Rating:. Your Comment:. Read Online Download. Great book, Feast of All Saints pdf is enough to raise the goose bumps alone. Source: co. Anne Rice Anne has sold over a whopping one hundred million books in her career. Knowing Anne her werewolf book titled The Wolf Gift will be the greatest werewolf novel ever. Rice ended up writing ten novels in The Vampire Chronicles.
As one of my favorite authors I am beyond excited that she is delving into the world of werewolves. In the book the werewolf would bite those that had a pentagram on their forehead not seen by normal people thus turning them into werewolves. She would write about him again many times in her series of books that is known as the Vampire Chronicles. Anne Rice is probably the most famous author of vampire fiction in history. Source: es.
Source: ar. Anne shared the news of the sequel on her popular Facebook page and wrote that The Wolves.
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