Creepy. Reminds me a lot of Wuthering Heights with the main character being brooding and sinister. The setting is magical and the story telling is very real. ( )

A very memorable novel of the clash between the old feudal values and the rich tapestry of new freedom in America. A farrmer's daughter is invited to live at an estate of a distant relative, becoming enmeshed in its dark secrets.

I really have nothing snide to say about this book. I'm grasping for snark, and nothing is coming to me. It was a decent novel, a bit gothic and a bit silly. It wasn't Forever Amber or Rebecca. It certainly wasn't in the same league as Jane Eyre.

The book can stand alone without comparison. It's not a bad book. It's just not a particularly deep book to fall into, and that's okay, too. I had to roll my eyes a few times at Miranda's shallow stupidity. Shallow stupidity in a woman is something I can't tolerate, even when it's my own. Still, Miranda redeemed herself at the end. I guess.

It felt like the author was trying to sew together the book using yarn instead of thread. The yarn had to be yanked through the tiny little eye of the needle, and the book had gaping holes as a result. Also, I was a bit perturbed by all the name-throwing. I was not impressed.

Still, it was a pretty nice little book. I won't hold any grudges. ( )

Opening Sentence: "...It was on an afternoon in May of 1844 that the letter came from Dragonwyck..."

Back in the 1970's I read every Anya Seton book. I am now re-visiting them. Dragonwyck is a gothic romance - Miranda Wells is summoned by her distant cousin Nicholas Van Ryn to live with his family at his luxurious residence of Dragonwyck. She thinks her dreams of romance will come true.

When she gets there life is very different. Nicholas runs a feudal state - browbeating his tenant farmers and refusing to let them own their own land. Miranda though can't see this she is smitten and can see no wrong in the love of her life. When his first wife dies Miranda is overjoyed to become wife number two. But gradually the scales fall from her eyes and she realises she is in very great danger.

Dragonwyck is not the best Seton book - but was still a good read. ( )

A young girl goes off to be a governess in a lonely, somewhat creepy house and starts to find herself falling in love with her employer. Sound familiar? Of course one can't help but compare the plot to Jane Eyre, and while it takes some different turns from Bronte's book, I think Seton must have had J.E. in mind. This is her attempt at a gothic novel (even Poe appears briefly as a character), and I thought it worked. The ending is sort of pat and expected, and the whole novel perhaps doesn't have the complexity of some of her other works, but it was a very enjoyable read, with just the right mixture of creepiness and sentimentality. Seton has a wonderful talent for recreating characters and worlds from the past, and some of the set pieces in the novel were just splendid. ( )