≫ PDF Gratis The Blue Nancy Bilyeau author 9781911445623 Books

The Blue Nancy Bilyeau author 9781911445623 Books

Download As PDF : The Blue Nancy Bilyeau author 9781911445623 Books

The Blue Nancy Bilyeau author 9781911445623 Books

England and France were embroiled in war on many fronts in 1758. The Seven Years War was raging. French, God-fearing Huguenots continued to seek refuge in England. Political and religious unrest produced fertile ground for spying. Ask Sir Gabriel Courtenay, a most unscrupulous nobleman. Sir Gabriel made Genevieve Planche an offer she couldn't refuse.

Genevieve was a third generation descendant from a line of French Huguenot refugees. She lived with her grandfather, Pierre Billiou, in Spitalfields,London. Pierre discouraged Gen's interest in oil painting since women were barred from the Royal Academy. "No lady of a good family could take art lessons". It seemed unlikely that Gen would be apprenticed to a great artist in order to learn proper technique and composition. Approached by Sir Gabriel, she was offered a path to Venice, an "enlightened" city, where she might find a master painter to help her achieve her dream.

Pressured by her grandfather, Gen had accepted a so called "coveted" position at Derby Porcelain Works. The job entailed painting designs on porcelain vases, plates and sculptures. Gen felt she would be "...sent away to be trapped in a Derby manufactory condemned to decorate the objects of the rich and frivolous". With this position, Sir Gabriel informed Gen that she would be "ideally placed" to learn the secret formula for "...a blue the world has not seen before...a different way of seeing blue". Who is the elusive chemist who has created this "blue"? While Gen tries to locate the secret formula, her every move is being watched. Is Derby Porcelain Works secure? Could Gen be perceived as a French spy? If so, would a porcelain company in Sevres, France reap the rewards from ill-gotten gains?

What if Genevieve wants to extricate herself from the fact finding quest for the chemist and the sought after blue? Questioning the morality of this operation, the possibility of imprisonment for criminality and casting aside the possibility of true love, Gen finds herself at a crossroads. What path will she choose?

"The Blue" by Nancy Bilyeau is a riveting novel of historical fiction. Bilyeau has thoroughly researched the art of porcelain making and the importance of the color blue to artists of 18th Century England and France. The issues faced by French Huguenots living in England are discussed. The detailed character development of Genevieve Planche and the many other primary and secondary players was spot on. One's moral compass could arguably be at odds with greed or obsession while trying to achieve financial or artistic success. I found "The Blue" by Nancy Bilyeau to be an amazing historical read that was replete with crime and intrigue.

Thank you to The Pigeonhole for your serialized ARC. I thoroughly enjoyed this presentation of "The Blue". Thank you to Endeavor Quill Publishers and Nancy Bilyeau. I felt totally immersed in life at the Derby Porcelain Works through the first person narrative of Genevieve Planche!

Thank you for the opportunity to read "The Blue" in exchange for an honest review.


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The Blue Nancy Bilyeau author 9781911445623 Books Reviews

The term refugee as we know it was first applied to the Huguenots who fled France. Google has graphs of the density of use of certain words. The graph for refugee starts with a few slim uses in the 18th century and slowly climbs in importance. By 2010, the year the graph ends, it was near the top of the chart. Just one of the many ways that Bilyeau smoothly and seamlessly creates a set of characters that somehow manage to survive a compelling plot (this reader stayed up to the point of collapse two nights in a row in order to finish the book) and yet get us to reflect on the cultural tensions we live in today.

Because with the refugee comes exile. With artistic vocation, the necessity to produce artistic work that can sell. With a religious conscience, the struggle with temptation. With desire, passion and ambition, the need for dissimulation, discretion, and compromise.

Let’s start with Genevieve. A woman artist who can’t even apprentice herself to a seasoned artist. There is just no approved way for her to learn. A dashing aristocratic spy sucks her in to his web of intrigue with the promise that she will be able to pursue the life of artistic creation she longs for. Thus begins an edge-of-the seat narrative in which Genevieve’s religious beliefs — and the ethical code she has derived from her religion — are put repeatedly to the test.

No less artistic is the mysterious Thomas Sturbridge, an artist who’s art manifests itself through chemicals. Like the dashing spy, Sturbridge just wants the space and resources he needs to create. He shares an obsession for the color blue with many other characters in the novel, including two kings. But not just any blue the blue, a transcendent blue, a blue that makes the viewer weep and think of heaven and repent their sins. His is a pragmatic philosophy, a philosophy that refuses to see the world as divided into two camps.

In spite of his easy-going nature, his pragmatism, his genius and his physical beauty, or perhaps become of those things, Thomas Sturbridge, the tragic chemist. and Genevieve find themselves at the center of knottier and knottier web of intrigues and betrayals.

The catalyst for all this backstabbing (sometimes literal!) and cloak-and-dagger escapes is porcelain, that most seductive of commodities — at least to the 18th century eye. Bilyeau manages to reach across time and make the reader feel our ancestor’s lust for the smooth, white product of mud and fire and the colors and images it is decorated with.
I am a fan of the author and have read her other three books in her original Joanna Stafford The Crown series. My mother always said never to judge a book by its cover, but I loved this cover -- I was really drawn to it, and I really loved this book. The Blue, her fourth novel, definitely doesn't disappoint. The book is well-researched. As a lover of historical fiction, that is something I really appreciate. The Blue actually transported me to another place and time with a little bit of romance and a lot of suspense. The main character, Genevieve, who dreams of being an artist, feels she is not being taken seriously in the male-dominated art world in London. She then becomes involved with the world of fine porcelain and industrial espionage and that's when things really get interesting!!!! This character is strong and well-drawn and the suspenseful plot kept me up into the wee hours, neglecting my more mundane responsibilities. Definitely my favorite historical fiction read of 2018.
England and France were embroiled in war on many fronts in 1758. The Seven Years War was raging. French, God-fearing Huguenots continued to seek refuge in England. Political and religious unrest produced fertile ground for spying. Ask Sir Gabriel Courtenay, a most unscrupulous nobleman. Sir Gabriel made Genevieve Planche an offer she couldn't refuse.

Genevieve was a third generation descendant from a line of French Huguenot refugees. She lived with her grandfather, Pierre Billiou, in Spitalfields,London. Pierre discouraged Gen's interest in oil painting since women were barred from the Royal Academy. "No lady of a good family could take art lessons". It seemed unlikely that Gen would be apprenticed to a great artist in order to learn proper technique and composition. Approached by Sir Gabriel, she was offered a path to Venice, an "enlightened" city, where she might find a master painter to help her achieve her dream.

Pressured by her grandfather, Gen had accepted a so called "coveted" position at Derby Porcelain Works. The job entailed painting designs on porcelain vases, plates and sculptures. Gen felt she would be "...sent away to be trapped in a Derby manufactory condemned to decorate the objects of the rich and frivolous". With this position, Sir Gabriel informed Gen that she would be "ideally placed" to learn the secret formula for "...a blue the world has not seen before...a different way of seeing blue". Who is the elusive chemist who has created this "blue"? While Gen tries to locate the secret formula, her every move is being watched. Is Derby Porcelain Works secure? Could Gen be perceived as a French spy? If so, would a porcelain company in Sevres, France reap the rewards from ill-gotten gains?

What if Genevieve wants to extricate herself from the fact finding quest for the chemist and the sought after blue? Questioning the morality of this operation, the possibility of imprisonment for criminality and casting aside the possibility of true love, Gen finds herself at a crossroads. What path will she choose?

"The Blue" by Nancy Bilyeau is a riveting novel of historical fiction. Bilyeau has thoroughly researched the art of porcelain making and the importance of the color blue to artists of 18th Century England and France. The issues faced by French Huguenots living in England are discussed. The detailed character development of Genevieve Planche and the many other primary and secondary players was spot on. One's moral compass could arguably be at odds with greed or obsession while trying to achieve financial or artistic success. I found "The Blue" by Nancy Bilyeau to be an amazing historical read that was replete with crime and intrigue.

Thank you to The Pigeonhole for your serialized ARC. I thoroughly enjoyed this presentation of "The Blue". Thank you to Endeavor Quill Publishers and Nancy Bilyeau. I felt totally immersed in life at the Derby Porcelain Works through the first person narrative of Genevieve Planche!

Thank you for the opportunity to read "The Blue" in exchange for an honest review.