Beyond Robinson Crusoe: Riches to Rags on a Rocky Island

Beyond Robinson Crusoe: Riches to Rags on a Rocky Island

by | Jun 17, 2026 | Book review, France, Historical novels

Greetings, Reader Friend!

If you’ve read Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe’s classic survival novel, or seen the movie, I have a question for you:
Could a female Robinson Crusoe survive, marooned on an island?

Robinson Crusoe is the story of a man shipwrecked on a tropical island who creates a successful life there for twenty-eight years.

Isola, by Allegra Goodman, cover image

Isola, a recent novel by Allegra Goodman, also takes up the theme of an individual abandoned on an island who must survive alone (for at least a substantial portion of the adventure). Both novels are based on the lives of real people.

The novels take very different directions. While Robinson Crusoe shows the triumph of human ingenuity, Isola’s author turns this story theme on its head:
• Marguerite, the protagonist, was a French noblewoman with little practical life experience
• The island wasn’t tropical, but rocky and close to the Arctic Circle
• The vegetation wasn’t lush, and one sour berry bush provided the only edible produce

Brief Summary:

Isola begins with Marguerite, the daughter of a French noble, living a pampered life in a chateau in Périgord, even though her mother died in childbirth and her father died in battle for his king when Marguerite was three years old.

Over a period of years, her guardian steals her legacy and agency, culminating in her abandonment (along with her husband, Auguste, and her nurse, Damienne) on Isola, a rocky island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

Marguerite’s years on that island represent her greatest challenges, as well as the most exciting part of the novel for me.
I needed to find out if and how Marguerite would survive!

 

Key Characters:

Marguerite de la Rocque: The protagonist and narrator, her character becomes more sympathetic as she loses her protection from life’s challenges

Jean-François de Roberval: Marguerite’s cousin and villainous guardian

Damienne: Marguerite’s lifelong nurse, who devotes herself to her motherless charge

Auguste Dupré: (Male) secretary to Jean-François de Roberval; he and Marguerite fall in love

Claire D’Artois: Marguerite’s close friend; the daughter of one of Marguerite’s teachers

Queen Marguerite of Navarre: The sister of King Francis I, she writes a book about illustrious women, including Marguerite de la Rocque (although her depiction of Marguerite isn’t accurate)

Strengths:

This riches-to-rags story offers a unique slice of life in 16th-century France, with many settings and fascinating details.

Weakness:

Early sections set during Marguerite’s childhood offered a slow start, and could have been condensed.

Content review:

Violence of humans vs. nature, several scenes involve cruelty or physical intimacy

My recommendation:

If you enjoy a sweeping, decade-spanning story from centuries ago that reveals the protagonist’s character growth through many years of challenges and adventures, Isola will thrill you. I especially enjoyed the adventure scenes and the novel’s denouement.

Reader, can you recommend a novel set in bygone times in which a character is abandoned and has to fend for him or herself in an isolated location?

Courage in the Paris Underground

Courage in the Paris Underground

by | Apr 18, 2026 | Book review, France, French Resistance, Historical novels, Holocaust, Jewish History, World War II

Greetings, Reading Friend!

Do you enjoy novels that stretch characters to their limits, or even beyond, to pursue their highest calling, come what may?

If so, you’ll love Skylark! Author Paula McLain places her characters in terrible danger in two interweaving stories, set in 1664 and between 1939 and 1942.

Skylark, by Paula McLain, cover image
The Paris underground has always been a dark, foreboding place, so how could a novel set in that location brighten a reader’s day?

My answer is simple: Skylark reveals the heroism that transformed the underground into a refuge for the persecuted.

Plot Summary:

In 1664, Alouette Voland wishes to follow in her father’s footsteps to become a master dyer. She secretly experiments with dyes, seeking to create a lost shade of blue dye. When her father is arrested for treason by his employer, The Gobelin Tapestry Works, she testifies at his trial and is sent to the Salpêtrière asylum, a place where women are treated with extreme cruelty. Along with her allies Marguerite and Sylvine, she plots an escape through the city’s sewers and tunnels.

In 1939, Kristof Larsen arrives in Paris to work in a psychiatric ward. His neighbors, the Brodsky family, befriend him, particularly their young daughter Sasha. When the Nazis begin deporting Jewish residents in 1942, Kristof and Alesander attempt to utilize their knowledge of the labyrinthine Paris catacombs to guide Sasha and other refugees to safety.

Major Characters:

1664 Timeline

• Alouette Voland: The daughter of a master dyer at France’s Gobelin Tapestry Works, she secretly creates forbidden dyes, but her ambition leads to her imprisonment in the brutal Salpêtrière asylum

• Étienne Duchamp: A young quarrier who works in the dangerous limestone mines beneath Paris. He forms a deep romantic connection with Alouette.

• Marguerite: A fellow prisoner at Salpêtrière who chronicles the institution’s horrific abuses against women in a secret ledger

• Sylvine: Another prisoner at Salpêtrière who lost her child to the system; she allies with Alouette and Marguerite in their quest for freedom

1939–1942 Timeline

• Kristof Larsen: A Dutch medical student who specializes in psychiatry because of personal tragedy. He lives in Paris as World War II begins, and eventually risks everything to help his Jewish neighbors escape the Nazi occupation.

• Sasha Brodsky: A precocious 13-year-old Jewish girl. She uses a “memory palace” to help her remember and tell stories, as well as to cope with her family’s persecution during the Nazi roundups.

• Alesander Extebarria: A charismatic Basque architecture student who befriends Kristof and uses his expertise to map the Paris tunnels for the Resistance

• Ursula: An Austrian nurse and Resistance member who works alongside Kristof to save children and patients from the Nazi threat

Strengths:

• Scenes with life-and-death choices and cliff-hanger endings
• Poignant, yet very human characters I cared about
• Well-researched historical background, with a new location and two new subcultures to inhabit and explore
• Insights into the lives of cloth-dyers and female mental patients in bygone times

Weakness:

Frequent shifts between timelines may occasionally disrupt the narrative flow.

Content review:

Both stories contain violence (including sexual) and the mistreatment of powerless individuals and groups by those with power.

My recommendation:

Readers whose sense of adventure motivates them to explore unfamiliar locations and times will find much to love in this suspenseful novel, as I did. It’s a rewarding read for those who can tolerate descriptions of the harsh realities of life and the darker side of social institutions in earlier eras.
Reader, can you recommend a time-slip historical novel you loved? Many thanks to the friend who recommended Skylark to me!

Arrivederci/Until next time,

Colleen
clrpeterson.com

From Persecution to Privilege: The Unlikely Journey of a Fille du Roi

From Persecution to Privilege: The Unlikely Journey of a Fille du Roi

by | Jul 23, 2025 | Book review, France, French Protestants, Historical novels, Huguenots, Reformation

What does it mean to risk everything for faith and freedom?

Kerry Chaput’s evocative novel, Daughter of the King, follows Isabelle Colette, a young Huguenot woman whose courage and convictions propel her from the shadows of persecution in France to the uncertain promise of New France.

Daughter of the King, by Kerry Chaput, cover image

Daughter of the King  

How could a heretic persecuted by the French king’s dragoons be chosen as a Fille du Roi (Daughter of the King) and given special privileges?

Daughter of the King tells the remarkable (fictionalized) story of Isabelle and her family, who could scarcely survive, let alone thrive, in La Rochelle in the last half of the 1600s. The novel exemplifies the fates of Protestants (known as Huguenots in France) during and after the Wars of Religion.

Throughout this novel, Isabelle must deal with many conflicts and decisions related to her religious faith, among them whether to:
• hide away at home to avoid persecution, as her mother counsels
• embrace a relationship with a sympathetic Catholic soldier
• betray her heritage and convert to Catholicism to gain a new life in New France

Chaput’s vivid characters and harrowing choices bring to life this little-known chapter of history, as Isabelle’s decisions lead to a life of adventure and an action-packed story.

Major Characters:

Isabelle Colette—protagonist, she’s a young Huguenot woman whose independent streak assists others and often endangers herself

James— Isabelle’s first love; he’s a young French soldier who, despite his Catholicism, rescues Isabelle from the dragoons

Andre—French fur trapper; his wild streak connects with Isabelle’s independence

Henri—Huguenot friend from Isabelle‘s youth in La Rochelle

Naira—young Native-American (Huron) woman with nearly incredible intuition and wisdom; she assists and bonds with Isabelle

Angelique—Isabelle’s mother; she’s a Huguenot who retreated to her home, never recovering from the losses and tragedy her family endured because of their faith

Antoinette—Isabelle’s childhood rival and later, nemesis; she haunts and challenges Isabelle

Strengths:

• Dramatic portrayal of French persecution of Huguenots
• Vivid setting details
• Well-researched historical background (about Huguenots and Filles du Roi)

Weakness:

In the opening scenes, the high tension of the persecution of Huguenots in La Rochelle is beyond my comfort zone

Content review:

This novel includes violence (including sexual violence) related to persecution and war.

My recommendation:

After the tense early scenes, I found Isabella’s adventures exciting, if sometimes hair-raising. If you favor novels from a past era about heroes persecuted for their beliefs, where survival demands both sacrifice and hope, you’ll enjoy Daughter of the King.

Reader, can you recommend a favorite novel set in France during the Wars of Religion?

The Cost of Conscience: The Courage of Georges Picquart

The Cost of Conscience: The Courage of Georges Picquart

by | Jun 23, 2025 | Book review, France, Historical novels, Jewish History

Imagine you discovered evidence that an innocent man was sentenced to life in prison. Would you try to exonerate him if it would cost you your career?

Georges Picquart, the head of France’s spy agency in 1894, faces this dilemma in An Officer and a Spy, Robert Harris’s 2013 historical novel that overwhelmingly remains faithful to the facts of the Dreyfus Affair.

An Officer and a Spy, by Robert Harris, cover image

Alfred Dreyfus, the highest-ranking Jewish officer in the French Army, is convicted of spying for Germany in 1895 and sent to Devil’s Island (a bleak, tiny atoll in the Caribbean).

In 1896, Georges Picquart, the new French Army intelligence head, stumbles across a document proving that Dreyfus is innocent, hence revealing that someone else within the French Army spied for Germany. 

The remainder of the novel recounts Picquart’s struggles to exonerate Dreyfus, the Army’s attempts to silence the story, the roles of numerous characters, and the ultimate resolution of the conflict.

 I loved this book because:

  • I like stories with heroes, especially sweet if they survive their trials
  • Picquart refuses his Army superiors’ demands in spite of the risk to himself
  • Harris’s detailed portrayals of the characters and their motivations
  • Characters’ warts show in Harris’s presentation—no one comes across as perfect
  • Deep, immersive description of French society in that era

Characters:

Georges Picquart—narrator and protagonist, he’s a French Army officer who is promoted to head of the intelligence department after Dreyfus’s conviction.   

Alfred Dreyfus—Jewish Army officer whose performance and grades at the French Military College enabled him to rise higher than any previous soldier of Jewish heritage

General Mercier—French war minister who brought charges against Dreyfus after the discovery that someone in the Army hierarchy had spied for Germany, despite weak evidence

Lucie Dreyfus—wife of Alfred Dreyfus, she works doggedly for years to free her husband

Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy—a dissolute French Army major suspected of treason (by Picquart)

A number of other French Army officers, including generals, play significant roles in this novel, overwhelmingly in support of the honor of the Army and the conviction of Dreyfus, even if this involves a cover-up of the truth, including sentencing an innocent man to a tortuous life imprisonment.

Strengths:

  • Thorough, detailed account of the entire story
  • Multi-dimensional, complex portrayals of major characters that help explain their decisions, failures, and changes of perspective

Weakness:

The novel’s length, complexity, and repetition of key elements present a challenge to readers

Content review:

This novel contains not only references to romantic liaisons outside of marriage, but depictions of extreme mistreatment and violence.

My recommendation:

I found An Officer and a Spy fascinating, in spite of its length. People in high positions sometimes go to great lengths to preserve their reputations, even if it means innocent people will suffer greatly.  This novel offers the author’s in-depth characterization of Picquart’s thought process and his efforts to remain true to his moral code, in spite of the Army’s intense pressure and shocking treatment of himself as well as Dreyfus.

Reader, can you recommend a true-to-life novel in which the protagonist sacrifices so much to bring justice to an individual?

Three Generations of Heroines

Three Generations of Heroines

by | Sep 23, 2024 | Book review, France, French Resistance, Historical novels, World War II

This month, I’m pleased to offer you a review of a novel I recently enjoyed.

With its title, The Women of Chateau Lafayette, you might expect a biography of Lafayette’s wife, but this novel offers much more.

The Women of Chateau Lafayette, by Stephanie Dray, cover image

This amazing time slip novel draws readers into three distinct eras, separated by generations but united in several ways:

  • Each takes place in one of history’s darkest hours
  • Each is set at least partially at Castle Chavaniac, the residence of Gilbert Lafayette, the Frenchman who helped the American colonies win their independence so long ago
  • Each female protagonist’s efforts culminated in heroism at Chavaniac

Summary of each time period:

(includes protagonists; kept general to avoid spoilers)

 

  • Revolutionary era: After helping American colonists win their independence from the British, Gilbert Lafayette returns to France a hero and helps spark the French Revolution, which goes terribly wrong. His family and the French nation suffer grievously. Gilbert’s wife, Adrienne, must navigate between the values of her wealthy noble family and Gilbert’s ideals of democracy, political liberty, and religious freedom. Her heroism will surprise or even shock readers.
  • In World War I, Beatrice, whose marriage to William “Willie” Astor Chanler, elevated her from humble beginnings, finds her passion in creating the Lafayette Memorial Fund, first supplying care packages for French soldiers in the trenches, and then helping refugee children orphaned by the war. Her husband buys Castle Chavaniac for her, and she manages its transformation into a sanctuary for displaced children and orphans. She is torn between her failed marriage and a new life with a kind Frenchman who loves and supports her.
  • During World War II, Marthe, an orphan who grew up at Castle Chavaniac, now teaches there. She must come to terms with her identity, as well as deciding how she can live out her ideals with integrity during and after the Nazi occupation of France.

Other major characters:

Maxime Furlaud—a banker and military officer; Beatrice’s French romantic interest

Victor Chapman—Willie’s nephew, close to Beatrice and Willie; an American architecture student who joined the French Foreign Legion

Emily Sloane—Beatrice’s American friend who works with her to gather aid and work at Chavaniac

Baron Amaury de LaGrange—husband of Emily Sloane; interim president of Preventorium at Chavaniac after Fall of France Riom Trial

Anne—daughter of Emily and Amaury, contemporary of Marthe

Yves Travert—small-town policeman who keeps an eye on Chavaniac and Marthe; he must cooperate somewhat with the Gestapo

Madame Pinton—mother of Marthe’s fiancé, she plays an unexpected role

 

Strengths:

This is a fascinating novel, with its three linked plots, all strong, well-portrayed, and providing windows into life in France in each era.

Weakness:

Three time frames and sets of characters can lead to confusion for readers, who may benefit from taking a few notes as they read.

Content review:

This novel doesn’t shy away from the violence of war, or expressions of the major characters’ sexuality.

My recommendation: 

Readers who enjoy historical fiction steeped with romance and values (both personal and societal) will find The Women of Chateau Lafayette a rewarding and thought-provoking read.

Reader, do you have a favorite time slip historical novel?

My writing update:

I continue to sift through the comments of my beta-readers and polish my upcoming novel, Lucia’s Journey.

Celebrate with me!

Celebrate with me!

by | Jul 24, 2024 | Bohemia, Book review, England, France, Reformation

I invite you, Reader, to celebrate with me!

  • I’m excited to offer my review of the favorite novel I’ve read in 2024! (see below)
  • My second grandson has arrived in the world, and my husband and I have the opportunity to participate in his family’s life almost daily!
  • The revisions of my new novel are nearly finished!

I hope you’re finding things to celebrate in this season, too!

The Mercy Seller, by Brenda Rickman Vantrease, cover image

My Review of The Mercy Seller:

 

You may be familiar with Martin Luther’s reform efforts and eventual break from the Roman Church in the 1500s…

But these earlier reformers had less success and paid a terrible price:

  • John Wycliffe, a cleric who translated the Bible into English in the late 1300s (His followers became known as Lollards)
  • Jan Hus, a preacher in Prague in the early 1400s who championed Wycliffe’s ideas in Bohemia.

Why?

The Mercy Seller, Brenda Rickman Vantrease’s 2007 novel, immerses readers in the cultures in which Wycliffe and Hus lived (England and Bohemia, respectively). After reading it, I understood in a visceral way why the beliefs and reforms that Wycliffe and Hus proposed were doomed to fail in their times and locations.

Because Anna was raised with the teachings of Jan Hus in Prague, she must flee and undertake a dangerous journey, both physical and metaphorical, to find safety and a new life.

Without a guide, this young woman struggles to know whom to trust. The people she encounters challenge her view of the world, as her perspective challenges theirs.

This compelling story of courage, betrayal, persecution, and character growth also gives readers a window into an era far removed from ours.

Characters:

Some were easy to root for, others easy to hate, some evoked both emotions

  • Gabriel/VanCleve—title character, an English priest assigned to sell pardons/indulgences; his background and many-faceted career become central to the story
  • Anna—protagonist who grew up in Prague, raised with Lollard beliefs by her grandfather, Finn; she learns his trade but must flee Prague after religious persecution begins
  • Finn—copyist of writings of Wycliffe and gospels of the New Testament, fled from England to Prague to escape persecution of Lollards
  • Abbess Kathryn—leader of the abbey at Saint Martin’s that specializes in copying texts, both sacred and secular
  • Brother Francis—Gabriel’s spiritual father and mentor
  • Little Bek—abandoned handicapped boy; Anna mothers him
  • Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham—member of House of Lords; he and his wife use their wealth in generous ways, among which are supporting the Lollard community and the copying of religious texts into English
  • Prince Hal (Henry V of England)—friend of Cobham’s during their military years; torn between his need for Archbishop of Canterbury’s blessing of his coronation and his friendship with Sir John Oldcastle
  • Archbishop Arundel—aged, declining leader of Roman Church in England; determined to root out heresies and heretics from England

Strengths:

  • Characters—three-dimensional, their arcs reveal clear change; the author shows us their flaws as well as (for some) their heroic qualities
  • Heroic theme—self-sacrifice for one’s beliefs
  • Plot—fascinating threads connect the characters, including multiple generations; plot twists that keep readers on edge
  • Settings—portrayals of the several settings provide telling details to immerse readers

Weakness:

Alternating points of view between characters from scene to scene can confuse readers until they get their bearings.

Content review:

Readers should anticipate a few scenes of physical intimacy, but not of a graphic nature, as well as descriptions of executions in this time period.

My recommendation:

If you enjoy an exciting story of strong-willed individuals whose religious convictions lead them to risk and sacrifice their lives, and whose interactions shape their characters, I highly recommend The Mercy Seller.

Reader, can you recommend novels set in the world of John Wycliffe or Jan Hus?