The Glass-Blowers
Ratings3
Average rating3.3
15
Ratings3
Average rating3.3
'Perhaps we shall not see each other again. I will write to you, though, and tell you, as best I can, the story of your family. A glass-blower, remember, breathes life into a vessel, giving it shape and form and sometimes beauty; but he can with that same breath, shatter and destroy it' Faithful to her word, Sophie Duval reveals to her long-lost nephew the tragic story of a family of master craftsmen in eighteenth-century France. The world of the glass-blowers has its own traditions, it's own language - and its own rules. 'If you marry into glass' Pierre Labbe warns his daughter, 'you will say goodbye to everything familiar, and enter a closed world'. But crashing into this world comes the violence and terror of the French Revolution against which, the family struggles to survive. The Glass Blowers is a remarkable achievement - an imaginative and exciting reworking of du Maurier's own family history.
Reviews with the most likes.
This was a much different speed than the other books I've read by Daphne Du Maurier. While interesting, I found it painfully slow. I wanted to like it more than I did given the story's biographical edge, the characters being somewhat based on Daphne Du Maurier's ancestors during the French Revolution.
The story focuses on Sophie Duval and her family as they face the trials that come with war (and the realities of life in the 18th Century). The book has a mellower tone compared to the usual suspenseful themes in Du Maurier's novels though there are sporadic moments here. As someone who doesn't know too much about the French Revolution, it ended up being educational. At the same time, not having much of an interest in this time period made it drag. Nonetheless, I consider Daphne Du Maurier my favorite author so I'm always glad to experience her work.
