The Black Pearl

Book five of what has quickly become my favourite series of books, with the joy of so many still to come. We return to Morland Place and Ralph Morland is now the master. We see all that happens in Yorkshire along with following Annunciata, Ralph's cousin, to the court of King Charles II. I love this combination of settings and I can't get enough of this fascinating family. The Black Pearl is another brilliant book in the series, rich with detail and characters to adore.

I think I left too long a breathing space between instalments this time, and therefore spent the first half of the novel 'catching up' with the Morland clan, but Cynthia Harrod-Eagle's fluid narrative and easy grasp of history soon welcomed me back to the fold. The Black Pearl is the fifth book in the series, but apart from a few tangled family ties, the novels can be read individually. This chapter covers the Restoration in 1660 to the Great Fire in 1666, and is centred around the superbly named Annunciata Morland, a beautiful and wilful child, who matures into a pale imitation of Katharine Winsor's Forever Amber and leaves Yorkshire for the Royal Court in London.

I quite liked Annunciata, even if she didn't quite live up to her show more reputation as an 'incorrigible rougue, thoroughly selfish and unscrupulous'. There is nothing quite so wicked or dangerous in Annunciata, merely another strong woman in a line of strong women. And I'm always amazed at the, no doubt historically accurate, lives of the characters in Harrod-Eagle's Dynasty - at the tender age of nineteen, Annunciata has been married twice, had three children and risen to the top rung of the social ladder in London, and poor old 'uncle' Ralph is only thirty! I know people died younger, and so had to start living earlier, but my modern brain still has difficulty computing the difference between then and now.

My memory also struggled with the identity of Annunciata's father, too - who's the daddy? I definitely remember one illicit liaison towards the end of book four, but don't recall any confusion afterwards. Oh dear, I shall have to make sure I read the next novel while this one is still fresh in my mind!

Entertaining and instructive as always - heartily recommended. show less

On the eve of the Restoration, the Morland family, led by Ralph, finds itself in reduced circumstances, and eager to regain lost property once King Charles returns to take his throne. Annunciata, age 15, has higher aspirations than marriage to her cousin Kit; and she goes to London, to take part in court life there. This was my introduction to the Morland Dynasty, and I have to say that it didn't disappoint! Harrod-Eagles makes English history accessible while at the same time creating an engaging, entertaining plot and characters. Although there are characters in The Black Pearl that appeared in The Oak Apple, I found that it wasn't completely necessary to read them first--although I will, since the series is such a treat.

The main character in the book is Annunciata Morland, the illegitimate daughter of Ruth. Much is made of Annunciata’s beauty and spirit, and she knows it. She’s probably the first of the Morland heroines that I took an outright dislike to, but as the story went on, she grew on me. I was never entirely won over, but I still came around to thinking she was at least fun to read about. Much of the book follows Annunciata’s time in the court of Charles II, where she falls in and out of love and learns that passion does not always equal lasting love.

For me, the more intriguing characters were those who stayed behind at Morland Place, and I would have liked more of them. Catherine was a particular favorite of mine. She makes some show more difficult decisions that the rest of her family doesn’t understand, and she accepts the consequences.

As I mentioned above, the book opens shortly before the Restoration of the Monarchy, and the previous book, The Oak Apple, closed right about the time the monarchy was defeated. I thought Harrod-Eagles missed a great opportunity by skipping Cromwell’s Protectorate. Because many of the Morlands are Catholic, this would have been a difficult period for them, and it would have been interesting to see how they coped during that time.

See my complete review at my blog. show less