Résumé
Résumé de Du royaume à la colonie
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Readers who like historical romance, colonial New England and the sea, brave girls with a sharp wit, and love stories set against real events such as the Boston Port Bill and the first shots at Lexington.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
From Kingdom to Colony is a Revolutionary War romance by Mary Devereux, who died in 1914. She dedicates it to her father and sets it in her own family country, the fishing town of Marblehead, Massachusetts. The Devereux name in the story runs back to a knight who sailed with William the Conqueror, and the book follows that family across the sea and into the quarrel between King and colonists.
Most of the action falls in 1774 and 1775. British soldiers camp on the Neck, a press gang seizes local sailors, and the town hides guns and powder from the Governor. In the middle of this stands Dorothy Devereux, a spirited sixteen-year-old who loves her father, her brother and her horse, and who fears nothing. Around her move a peddler with a sharp tongue, a loyal friend, a stern aunt with secrets, and a young cavalry officer in a scarlet coat.
You get a story of two loves at once. One is the love of home and cause, which pulls on every character. The other is a love that arrives in the wrong uniform. The first key point takes you back to a pirate night in the earliest days of the colony, where the family's story begins.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A pirate night starts the family storyFree
- 2Marblehead stands at the edge of war
- 3A spy sits in the Devereux household
- 4A redcoat finds the cave
- 5The night of the lanterns
- 6Three men love one girl
- 7A wedding night and a dark ride
- 8Loyalty, love and the cost of choosing
- 9A story told with the sea and the past
Point clé 1 sur 9
A pirate night starts the family story
The book opens with a prologue that sets the family's roots. Robert D'Evreux crosses to England with William of Normandy in 1066, and his name goes on the roll hung in Battle Abbey. The story then jumps to a May evening in 1639 at Bromwich Castle in Warwick, a vine-covered fortress with a dry moat full of cowslips and violets.
Sir Walter Devereux comes home from a deer hunt with his three sons. The youngest, John, is quiet and thoughtful, and his seventeen-year-old wife Anne sits at a window with an illustrated book about the land across the ocean. A picture of a painted Indian chief frightens her. John soothes her, promising that where they will live, the home is rough but safe, and that they will found a new branch of the family there.
Ten years later the scene moves to the rocky shore of Marblehead. John and Anne now have three sons, Humphrey, John and Robert, and a stone house in a forest clearing. Their neighbors are the Naumkeg people, led by the Squaw Sachem. Anne has taught the faith to Ahawayet, the wife of the Sachem's son, and her wild young daughter Joane has become a friend of the household.
One evening Joane slips in and warns that a strange ship has anchored in the harbor and that its men have taken corn without payment. Pirates are near. John bars the door, posts his nine servants and workers in the sheds, and arms every woman in the house. Joane insists on staying with a blunderbuss, and Anne, whom the Naumkegs call Singing Bird, stands calm beside her husband.
The raid has a comic edge. Parson Legg, a pinched and selfish traveling preacher, arrives asking for supper, eats heartily, and then hides under a bedcover when the shooting starts. Joane fires the shot that sends the pirates fleeing. The prologue closes by tracing the Devereux line down to Robert, and it plants the quiet promise of the whole book, that courage in this family is shared, and that love gives it strength.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Du royaume à la colonie
What is From Kingdom to Colony about?
It is a Revolutionary War romance set in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in 1774 and 1775. A spirited girl, Dorothy Devereux, helps her family hide guns from the British while falling for a young redcoat officer.
Is From Kingdom to Colony based on a true story?
The Devereux family and the romance are invented, but the setting is real. The Port Bill, the redcoats on the Neck, the Cat Island hospital fire, Elbridge Gerry and John Glover all come from the town's history.
Who is Moll Pitcher in the novel?
Moll Pitcher is a fortune-teller from Lynn who visits her father in Marblehead. She tells Dorothy and Mary about a black cloud of war and a scarlet fate, and her words shape how Dorothy sees her own life.
Who is Johnnie Strings?
Johnnie Strings is a peddler whose real name is Stand-fast-on-high Stringer. He walks the road between Boston and Gloucester with his pack and white horse, and he carries news and warnings for the patriots.
Is From Kingdom to Colony easy to read?
Its chapters are short and its scenes are clear, with lively dialogue, humor and a strong sense of place. Each chapter usually has one event, so it is easy to follow and pleasant to read in small portions.