The Oak Apple

I'm beginning to almost crave Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' Morland Dynasty series, and can only wonder how I have taken so long to start reading them! Book four in the series, The Oak Apple, covers twenty years centred around the Civil War, and a new generation of Morlands ('There's too much inbreeding in our family, cousins marrying cousins over and over', one character comments). Mary Esther, daughter of the Bear Cub's son Gabriel, is the female lynchpin this time, but she is more of an earth-mother than the far stronger Eleanor of book one.

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' writing is a joy, seamlessly merging historical fact with her own fictional characters, while adding the occasional lyrical gem ('the shadows thickened and crept forward so that show more the room shrank to the circle of honey light in which she lay, and the unicorn [a symbol of virginity stitched onto an old family tapesty] was hidden in darkness'). I admire how she can explain the complexities of the Civil War to the reader through the biased perspective of the characters, so that history is happening to them and the story never stops. The battle scenes at Marston Moor and Naseby are riveting, and I usually hate such 'masculine' narratives, but the overwhelming sense of camaraderie between the men, and then the futility of fighting and dying for a losing cause, is most powerfully told.

There are fewer deaths this time - mainly men dying in battle - but the same bewildering assortment of births and inter-marriages (not to mention a seemingly immortal wolfhound called 'Dog', who somehow survives the twenty year duration of the novel). My tip is to print off a copy of the family tree from Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' website, and keep referring back! My favourite character has to be the sharp-tongued, plain-speaking Ruth, and I can't wait to read about her fantastically named daughter, Annunciata, in a future instalment. show less

#4: Covers 1630-1649; the Civil War

The Oak Apple, the fourth book in the Morland Dynasty series, takes its reader to 17th century York, just before and during the Civil War. The Morland family is a house divided as Kit Morland joins the Royalist forces under Prince Rupert, his brother Ralph marries a Puritan, and Edmund Morland, the family patriarch, tries to be impartial. Hero Hamilton marries Kit, while her twin, Hamil, bitter over her marriage, joins the same side of the war as his enemy. And Ambrose and Nell Morland move to the New World, where they build a settlement in Maryland.

I’m a little hazy about the details of the Civil War, so The Oak Apple was a great re-introduction to the period. I’m usually bored by descriptions of show more battles, but Harrod-Eagles makes the battles of Marston Moor and Naseby some alive on the page. But the best part of this novel are the people and the way they interact with one another; Harrod-Eagles may not be the world’s greatest writer, but she knows how to create fantastic people and plots that suck you in.

There’s a large time gap between the events in this book and those in the previous book The Princeling, but I found it was really easy to connect with the characters here. One of my favorites was Ruth, the dark horse of the family, who, unwed, bears Annunciata, a character I became familiar with through reading The Black Pearl a few months ago. Ruth isn’t your typical pretty girl (instead, she’s rather plain), and she holds up under an incredible amount of pressure both during the war and when the man she loves marries another woman. My only problem was with the dog named Dog—it seemed to live an awfully long time (nineteen-plus years). In all, a really fine addition to the series, and I can’t wait to read what comes next. show less

This is the fourth book in the Morland Dynasty series. We join the Morland family in 17th century York, just before and during the Civil War, beginning in 1630 and closing with the execution of Charles I in 1649. The family motto, Fidelitis (loyalty) is strained with members of the family battling each other in the Civil War. Kit Morland joins the Royalist forces under Prince Rupert, while Morland heir, Richard, marries a Puritan and opens the family home to the Roundheads. In one of the most interesting story lines, Ambrose and Nell Morland leave for the New World, where the build a homestead in Maryland.

There's plenty of intrigue in this book. The fictional characters are very engaging and there's a lot of action. It seems well show more researched and is filled with rich historical detail. I read the first three books in this series years ago but it was easy to get back into the family saga. I enjoy exploring the history of England through this factional family. I definitely plan to continue with book 5, The Black Prince. show less

This is the fourth book in the Morland Dynasty series. We join the Morland family in 17th century York, just before and during the Civil War, beginning in 1630 and closing with the execution of Charles I in 1649. The family motto, Fidelitis (loyalty) is strained with members of the family battling each other in the Civil War. Kit Morland joins the Royalist forces under Prince Rupert, while Morland heir, Richard, marries a Puritan and opens the family home to the Roundheads. In one of the most interesting story lines, Ambrose and Nell Morland leave for the New World, where the build a homestead in Maryland.

There's plenty of intrigue in this book. The fictional characters are very engaging and there's a lot of action. It seems well show more researched and is filled with rich historical detail. I read the first three books in this series years ago but it was easy to get back into the family saga. I enjoy exploring the history of England through this factional family. I definitely plan to continue with book 5, The Black Prince. show less

The Oak Apple is the fourth book in Cynthia Harrod-Eagles’s Morland Dynasty series, which explores British history through the lives of the fictional Morland family. The primary focus of this book is the English Civil War, with forays into the rise of Puritanism and the colonization of the New World.

I know very little about the English Civil War, but this book gave me a strong sense of how traumatic this period was for many families. For the Morlands, the difficulty involves more than having the young men of the family go to war, there are also disputes regarding where family loyalties should lie. Religion also proves to be divisive when Richard, son of Edmund, the current head of the family, brings home a Puritan wife.

One of the show more things that I enjoy about this series is that the characters, while not exactly complex, generally avoid being cardboard stereotypes. So far, all of the Morland books have featured at least one central spunky woman, but this series is not populated entirely with brutish men and progressive women. Richard’s Puritan wife, Katherine, however, was a big disappointment. Her abhorrence of sex, even within marriage, is drawn right from the book of Puritan stereotypes and is, as far as I know, not at all typical of English Puritans of that period. Fortunately, she is not a major character, so I didn’t have too many opportunities to get annoyed at this characterization.

As much as I want accuracy in my historical fiction, I can put some lapses like this aside if the story is good. And the story here is very good, probably my favorite in the series so far. The battle scenes in particular stood out. This book, more than the three previous books in the series, really showed the horrors, and not just the heroics, involved in battle. Of course, there’s also romance, and one story is particular, that of Edmund’s daughter Anne, is quite lovely.

So far, the Morland series doesn’t come close to the work of Dorothy Dunnett, but it’s fun, slightly soapy historical fiction.

See my complete review at my blog. show less