Status
Available
Publication
Harper Perennial (1996), 336 pages
Description
Francisca de Luarac, the daughter of a poor Spanish silk grower, is a dreamer of fabulous dreams. Marie Louise de Bourbon, the niece of Louis XIV, dances in slippers of fine Spanish silk in the French Court of the Sun King and imagines her own enchanted future. Born on the same day--in an age when superstition, repression, and the Inquisition reign--the lives of these two young women unfold in tandem, barely touching. Each hoards the memory of her adored lost mother like an amulet. Francica's obsession with her lover, a Catholick priest, will shaper her fate. Marie Loouise is yoked by political expediency to the mad, imptoent Carlos II of Spain. But even as their twin destinies spiral inexorably toward disaster, both Queen and commoner cultivate a dangerous, secret life dedicated to resistance, transcendence, and love. Written in gorgeous prose that has the sheen of silk, Kathryn Harrison's POISON vividlyreminds us of the persistence of desire, the passion that exists between mothers and daughters, and the sorcery of dreams.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member JennaKim
POISON, the explosive period novel by Kathryn Harrison, tells in elegant prose the intertwined stories of Francisca de Luarca and Queen Marie Louise of Spain during the Spanish Inquisition. Francisca, a young woman and a daring dreamer, describes her passionate love affair with the village priest,
Jenna Kim
Show More
Father Alvaro, who teaches her both to read and to love. The novel also explores Francisca's tumultuous relationship with the sister who ultimately betrays her, and the girls' bond with their deceased mother. Queen Marie Louise is wed to an impotent king, in a time when strong women are suspect and those in power highly vulnerable. The novel seamlessly weaves through time and place to tell the stories of remarkable women and those who touch their lives and shape their destinies. Highly recommended.Jenna Kim
Show Less
LibraryThing member Bookmarque
An age of cruelty and fear is the truth. Both of these women are doomed by circumstance. F is headstrong & greedy and her affair with the priest starts innocently and ends in abrupt disaster – betrayed by her own sister. I can see her smug face now as she watches F being taken away by the white
The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that the story seemed to be told by F – even the parts about the Queen. How did she know all that?? About the Queen’s letters from her mother being taken by the Queen Mother before they can get to ML. How did she know that the Queen faked miscarriages on 3 separate occasions? How did F know about the dwarf and how he helped her?
The 2 women did have one tenuous thread tying their lives together. F’s mother went out to be a wet-nurse to the King. F’s father’s silkworm farming failed & her mother was forced to do this. Unfortunately the King was 8 years old at the time and still took milk from the breast and couldn’t walk!! In his adult life he at human milk-sopped bread and ML was nauseous every time she had to dine with him.
We are never told what happens to F. She was sentenced to life in prison. Considering the pain of losing her son, this didn’t seem like too much for her. The burning and the rack and the torture of tying your arms behind your back & then dropping you down from a great height. None of it seemed to touch her. She went away in her mind and would say anything they wanted her to say. Oh yeah – the torturers kept asking her about her mother and whether or not she ate babies. This was never really explained. Oh well.
Show More
hoods. ML is the queen and she could have flexed her muscles if she had any. She doesn’t though and is bullied by the queen mother into playing second fiddle. Her life is so unbearable to her that she gets an illicit supply of laudanum which she uses to get through her days and her nights with the King.The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that the story seemed to be told by F – even the parts about the Queen. How did she know all that?? About the Queen’s letters from her mother being taken by the Queen Mother before they can get to ML. How did she know that the Queen faked miscarriages on 3 separate occasions? How did F know about the dwarf and how he helped her?
The 2 women did have one tenuous thread tying their lives together. F’s mother went out to be a wet-nurse to the King. F’s father’s silkworm farming failed & her mother was forced to do this. Unfortunately the King was 8 years old at the time and still took milk from the breast and couldn’t walk!! In his adult life he at human milk-sopped bread and ML was nauseous every time she had to dine with him.
We are never told what happens to F. She was sentenced to life in prison. Considering the pain of losing her son, this didn’t seem like too much for her. The burning and the rack and the torture of tying your arms behind your back & then dropping you down from a great height. None of it seemed to touch her. She went away in her mind and would say anything they wanted her to say. Oh yeah – the torturers kept asking her about her mother and whether or not she ate babies. This was never really explained. Oh well.
Show Less
LibraryThing member sushitori
Fascinating account of the Spanish Inquisition and how people dealt with it. It's a dark tale about hopelessness and the dangers of intolerance. The differences between the two women's lives is strikingly portrayed.
LibraryThing member akblanchard
In Poison, Kathryn Harrison tells two parallel tales, one historical, one fictitious, both set in Spain in the late 1600s. The historical plot line involves the ill-fated arranged marriage of French princess Marie-Louise to Carlos II, the physically and mentally feeble scion of the Spanish Hapsburg
Harrison deserves credit for not reducing Marie-Louise and Carlos’s story to a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast”. Carlos is frail, childlike, and clueless about sex; his deformed physique and limited intellect are the result of many years of Hapsburg family coddling and inbreeding. Marie-Louise finds his habits, especially his penchant for drinking human milk, nauseating. When she fails to produce an heir, the royal court, led by her evil mother-in-law Marianna, conspires to get rid of her.
Both narratives rely to some extent on clichés. Tragic, forbidden love between a young woman and a priest has been done before, as has the mother-in-law from hell trope. The reader also must accept that as the narrator, Francisca somehow knows the intimate details of Marie-Louise's life, even though the two characters never meet.
Nonetheless, the book contains some wonderful details related to taste and scent, including, for example, the unpalatable egg dishes served at every meal because after one hundred years of dynastic decline, the royal household can no longer afford a variety of food. The narrative also contains heart-rending scenes of torture, animal cruelty, and death. Yet for those who can handle the sadness, injustice and suffering that are vividly described in this book, as well as the occasional overused plot device, it is a rewarding read.
Show More
dynasty. The fictitious story is about Francisca, a poor silk farmer's daughter, who falls in love with a priest and runs afoul of the Spanish Inquisition. The two narrative threads are only tangentially connected, yet both illustrate the misogyny of Baroque-era Spain.Harrison deserves credit for not reducing Marie-Louise and Carlos’s story to a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast”. Carlos is frail, childlike, and clueless about sex; his deformed physique and limited intellect are the result of many years of Hapsburg family coddling and inbreeding. Marie-Louise finds his habits, especially his penchant for drinking human milk, nauseating. When she fails to produce an heir, the royal court, led by her evil mother-in-law Marianna, conspires to get rid of her.
Both narratives rely to some extent on clichés. Tragic, forbidden love between a young woman and a priest has been done before, as has the mother-in-law from hell trope. The reader also must accept that as the narrator, Francisca somehow knows the intimate details of Marie-Louise's life, even though the two characters never meet.
Nonetheless, the book contains some wonderful details related to taste and scent, including, for example, the unpalatable egg dishes served at every meal because after one hundred years of dynastic decline, the royal household can no longer afford a variety of food. The narrative also contains heart-rending scenes of torture, animal cruelty, and death. Yet for those who can handle the sadness, injustice and suffering that are vividly described in this book, as well as the occasional overused plot device, it is a rewarding read.
Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1995
Physical description
336 p.; 5.25 inches
ISBN
0380727412 / 9780380727414
UPC
071001012958
Local notes
Fiction