Wideacre (The Wideacre Trilogy, Book 1) by Philippa Gregory (Epub)

Description

Beatrice Lacey, daughter of Wideacre Hall, will not accept society’s rules that women cannot inherit…The internationally bestselling debut from the author of The Other Boleyn Girl and Three Sisters, Three Queens.

Wideacre Hall, set in the heart of the English countryside, is the ancestral home that Beatrice Lacey loves. Built from yellow stone, facing due south and surrounded by the rich woodlands and rolling downs of Sussex, it has been in her family for generations. But as a woman in England in the 1770s she has no right of inheritance; only a loveless arranged marriage lies ahead. Beautiful, sensual and passionate, Beatrice sets out to pursue her own goal: control over Wideacre – at any cost.

Yet even as her scheming succeeds, Beatrice is haunted by the one person alive who fully understands her obsession and knows her capacity to let nothing – and no-one – stand in her way.

The 30th anniversary edition, with new foreword by the author.

User’s Reviews

From Publishers Weekly Gregory’s full-blown first novel is a marvelously assured period piece, an English gothic with narrative verve. Beatrice Lacey loves nothing more than the family estate, Wideacrenot her bluff, hearty father, her weak brother, Harry, or her mother, who can’t quite believe mounting evidence that damns her passionate daughter. Foiled in her hunger to own the estate by the 18th century laws of entail, Beatrice plots her father’s death, knowing she can twist Harry in any direction she chooses, for her brother harbors a dark, perverted secret. Their incestuous tangle is not broken even by Harry’s marriage. And while a bounteous harvest multiplies, no one gainsays the young squire and his sister, the true master of Wideacre. Beatrice marries also, managing to hide the paternity of two children sired by Harry until her increasing greed squeezes the land and its people dry, and the seeds of destruction she has sown come to their awful fruition. Gregory effortlessly breathes color and life into a tale of obsession built around a ruthless, fascinating woman. Doubleday Book Club main selection; Literary Guild alternate; major ad/promo. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Review Val Hennessy London Daily Mail When it comes to writers of historical fiction, Philippa Gregory is in the very top league. Maeve Binchy Author of Quentins A story of violent love and unsettling passions. It will never let you rest for a page as you wait for the climax that must come for the people and the land. San Jose Mercury News The quintessential page turner. Pasadena Star News Never has fiction portrayed such a woman as Beatrice Lacey….Wideacre is a compelling story of dark fascination. –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Review Val Hennessy London Daily Mail When it comes to writers of historical fiction, Philippa Gregory is in the very top league.Maeve Binchy Author of Quentins A story of violent love and unsettling passions. It will never let you rest for a page as you wait for the climax that must come for the people and the land.San Jose Mercury News The quintessential page-turner.Pasadena Star-News Never has fiction portrayed such a woman as Beatrice Lacey….Wideacre is a compelling story of dark fascination. –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ I love her books on the royal Monarchy. This did not work for me. I found the main character too disgusting for words and the incest in the book made me sick. The characters did not maintain their personalities throughout the book. The brother was a sweet, sensitive and lovable person who was very attached to his mother in the books beginning, but suddenly in the middle of the book he was completely self centered, nasty to his wife and did not even seem to grieve when the mother dies. The ending was completely unbelievable. The main character throughout the book acts in the most bizarre ways because she is so totally about self preservation. I can’t see her just surrendering herself at the end of the story. Completely unbelievable. The book went on and on and on and on. My greatest wish is that the main character would have died earlier so the book would have ended sooner.

⭐ I love this trilogy. Many people have such a problem with the lead character in book 1, Beatrice Lacey, that they cannot fathom reading books 2 & 3. But if you do, you will be very surprised. These books must be read together to see the whole picture. This is one of my all time favorite trilogies or series by one of my favorite authors. Great, thought provoking read that you will not forget.

⭐ This book was recommended by a friend who knows my taste in books. The main character, Beatrice, is a very good character in my opinion. Most readers seem to hate her but in my opinion if you can actually have hate for a character and still want to finish the book the author did a good job on building that character. For me i went back and fourth liking/disliking Beatrice, throughout the book. If you have read this far into my review this book is most definitely for you.

⭐ I cannot understand why anyone would give this book more than 1 star. One other reviewer stated that it is like reading the biography of a sociopath and I agree. I, too, kept waiting for some redeeming event but it just gets colder, darker and more depressing as it goes along. It left me feeling kind of stunned, sad and sick to my stomach. I absolutely will not read the other books in this series. This book was not a delight to read-it became a ponderous chore. Couldn’t wait to be done. I won’t include any spoilers in this review but the heroine is sickening. There is nothing heroic, or even human, about her. Other reviewers state that she is the heroine you love to hate but I just plain couldn’t stand her or this novel. I have never written such a scathing review of a book before. This one, however, deserves it.

⭐ I went and read some of the 1 star reviews just to see what was the problem. I guess I found this book riveting & describes how desperate people do desparate things. I got the feeling that Beatrice thought, “just this one terrible thing & then I am done.” Kind of like a gambler that swears the next hit will pay off. But it was a tale of chasing what you don’t have at the peril of what you do, & loosing it all. Sorry I loved it & am starting the 2nd book. Rarely do I watch a movie or read a book & not have a sense of what will happen next. This book has so many twists and turns that I never saw some of it coming. I stumbled on to the White Queen & Tudor series & really enjoyed her historical fiction. I was a bit disappointed when I realized it was not based on any real life event. But wow in the end it didn’t disappoint. It is a dark tale, with really damaged characters.

⭐ There are over 200 reviews so of course I won’t rehash the plot, and I don’t know if this review will ever even be read since it is so far down the line. However I was shocked by the low ratings. From what I can gather this author has a wide following with her later books. Wideacre was her first book, the first of a trilogy and the first book of hers I have read. Since I came to this novel with no previous expectations based on her later work I was able to enjoy it very much since I had no preconceptions. This is definately a saga, and will not be something for everyone since it does have an incestuous relationship, but that is not the core nor the heart of the novel. At its heart this is the story of how far a determined, unwavering woman will go to secure for herself the land that she loves. That doesn’t sound like a bad thing but it becomes one when her desire for the land blinds her to the consequences of her increasingly horrid actions. I would like to say a lot more about this absorbing novel but I don’t want to reveal to much.. I hate spoilers in reviews!I guess I will content myself by saying please don’t be put off this book by the negative reviews from people who came to this story with preconceived notions. It is absorbing, masterfully written and darkly fascinating. It sort of reminds me of Through A Glass Darkly which was published in the late 80’s I think and has a devoted “cult” following. Also, if you like Anne Rivers Siddons I think you will like this book as well. Even though Siddons books are on the surface nothing like this one (place, time periods etc.) the dark heart of Ruth Yancey Fox from her brilliant novel Foxes Earth can be felt in Beatrice Lacey the anti-heroine of Wideacre.I very much loved this book and hope that one more positive review may encourage more readers to take a chance on it.A side note for Kindle readers…..ugh the scan from print to ebook format made for lots of errors. Nothing that takes away from the joy of reading the book, but punctuation errors are pervasive.

⭐ After just finishing the wideacre trilogy I had to right a review. Wideacre is my favorite of the trilogy, followed by Meridon and finally the favored child. Personally, I loved this book. Beatrice is wicked to the core and I couldn’t love to hate her more. There is nothing that she will not do to keep hold of her family’s land. Its hard to write a review without spoilers so I’ll just write how I felt while reading it. Mrs. Gregory is an amazing writer. I’m always impressed with every book I read from her. Wideacre is no exception. I do like her Tutor books better but I couldn’t put wideacre down. I just had to know what disgusting, disturbing thing Beatrice would do next! And like all good villains she gets what she deserves in the end. I’ve noticed many people hated this book and wrote terrible reviews. Some didn’t even finish the book before writing that they hated it. To them and others I’ll say this. This book is not for the faint of heart. Beatrice is the bad guy and it is her story. You will not like her, you will wish she were dead. There is sex, dirty sex in the book and many other naughty things that will shock you.

⭐ Very disappointed in this book. Philippa rarely lets me down but she has excelled herself with this novel. I kept reading thinking that the main character would redeem herself but no, she just got more and more evil. Don’t get me wrong I sometimes love a badass female character – adored Forever Amber. But this was just too much and I didn’t bother to finish 1/2 way through.

⭐ This was my first Philippa Gregory book and I was a bit disappointed since she is so highly regarded overall. I would not call this a bad novel. It had a consistent theme and an overall worthwhile plot. The incest (combined with some wild S&M) part was a flaw in some ways since it was a bit farfetched if not downright icky; but created a key plot element so I understand why it was in there as it created the key reason of where the main character took the story line. It looks like the second book in the trilogy, The Favored Child, gets even more incest bizarre.If you have time on your hands and like series family sagas, this book is entertaining and isn’t the worst book you can choose. But don’t expect Pride and Prejudice type quality.I admit to skimming some parts just to cut down on the repetitiveness of the storytelling, mostly the obsession Beatrice has with her family estate, Wideacre. I guess Gregory really needed to harp on that to justify the way out things Beatrice resorted to to try and seize control over Wideacre since women could not inherit property in her era, just males.By the end of the book, Beatrice does have some element of awareness of what her choices have cost her and those around her which does make her less of a cartoon and more human. But psychologically, this is a pathological woman who in modern times would be given life and/or death penalties in today’s legal system.The main characters are:Beatrice Lacey – a kind of Scarlet O’Hara in that the family estate (the LAND) is her obsession. She understands how to run the estate and was raised more like a son by her father since her brother was sickly and a mama’s boy. But ultimately, her father fully expects her to marry and move off the estate to her husband’s and become a traditional wife/mother.Ralph – the groundskeeper’s son who is Beatrice’s first lover, albeit a secret one. They are a good match as both are very passionate and willing to do quite a lot to realize their aligned desires to be rulers over Wideacre.Harold (Harry) – Beatrice’s brother and the heir to Wideacre. He is lazy and because he had to spend so much of his time indoors as a sickly child, he never quite learned what he should have about agriculture and farm management. He is sent away to a boys boarding school for the quality education of the times. There he discovers that he enjoys the pleasure of being dominated and pained.Celia – a local Quality woman who is a bleeding heart. Harry falls in love with her and they marry.She is able to essentially replace the unquestioning love he got from his mother. As the story progresses, she becomes the conscience Beatrice lacks.John MacAndrew – the local Doctor who the estate and surrounding village are very lucky to have. He is the heir to a very wealthy family fortune. He falls for Beatrice, marries her and moves onto Wideacre.Between these two couples, the main part of the story takes place. Insert two children, Julia (being raised by Harry/Celia)and Richard (being raised by Beatrice/John). Ralph leaves the estate for complicated reasons but as he figures heavily at the beginning, he will do so at the ending as well.

⭐ This book is well written, though a bit odd at times. It offers a very honest and raw glimpse into the inner workings of a mind dedicated to a single cause. Beatrice, in the end, is by any measure a horrible person, yet because you are intimately acquainted with her mind, you can’t help but feel some pity for her. She didn’t start out that way. Due to her unyielding desires, the laws that govern her land and the choices of others, she becomes more and more withdrawn from human connection and hardened to the feelings of others. She is willing to hurt anyone that stands in her way and knows how to manipulate those around her to suit her purpose. Parts of the plot may be cringe worthy, but it’s such a profound description of human experience that it makes those parts interesting. Overall it’s pretty good.

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