9 h 4 minAudiobook16 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Where the sea returns with sudden speed, love and loyalty share the sands with legend.
In The Fairy of the Sands, Paul Féval places romance among the tidal flats around Mont-Saint-Michel, on the coast of Normandy and Brittany. The sea withdraws far across the bay, then rushes back. This shifting ground gives the tale its atmosphere: a landscape where danger belongs to the place itself.
Love, loyalty and old legend shape this Gothic romance. Féval brings his interest in adventure and Breton folklore to a world where human choices meet something older. The fairy of the title points toward folk belief, inviting you to read with one eye on the coastal landscape and the other on its mysteries.
What you’ll discover
- A coast that changes Explore tidal flats where the retreating sea leaves space that its swift return can reclaim.
- Love beside loyalty Follow a romance shaped by the pull of love and the demands of loyalty.
- The presence of legend Discover how coastal folklore brings the ordinary human world close to something older.
- Adventure rooted in place Enter Féval’s world of romance, where a dangerous landscape helps shape the story.
- A fairy at the threshold Consider the title’s mysterious figure, poised between familiar life and the realm of folk belief.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy swashbuckling history, medieval legend, daring heroines, loyal friends and landscapes full of danger and mystery, and anyone drawn to Brittany, Normandy and the shores around Mont-Saint-Michel.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A pilgrimage that carries a secret
- A monk summons the duke to God
- Saint John's Eve in a Marsh village
- The knight who lost his purse
- A chase over the moonlit sands
- Hunger, a rope and a noose
- A prisoner takes his cousin's armor
- An oath, a siege and a club called Josephine
- Love, loyalty and a landscape that kills
Who’s who
- Reine de MaureverA sixteen-year-old noblewoman who risks quicksand, arrows and soldiers to feed her outlawed father and free the man she loves.
- Hue de MaureverAn old, loyal knight who summons his duke to God's judgment and then refuses to raise his sword against him.
- Aubry de KergariouA brave young lancer who throws down his sword rather than serve a crime and wants to protect Reine.
- MéloirAubry's older cousin, a hearty, greedy knight who hunts Maurever for the duke's reward and for Reine's hand.
- JeanninA poor, blond egg seller thought a coward, who chases a fairy for fifty écus to marry the girl he loves.
- SimonnetteA cheerful farmer's daughter who laughs and sings, loves Jeannin and would give her life for her mistress Reine.
- Vincent GueffèsA sly Norman beggar with an enormous jaw who doubts the fairy, sells secrets to Méloir and wants Jeannin gone.
- Brother BrunoA talkative lay brother and former soldier who loves stories, wields a club named Josephine and helps the fugitives.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 16 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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The Fairy of the Sands
by Paul Féval · 1850
Reine de Maurever slips across the sands of Mont-Saint-Michel as the Fairy of the Sands to save her outlawed father.
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In short
The Fairy of the Sands is a Gothic adventure by Paul Féval, the French novelist who died in 1887. He sets it in the summer of 1450 on the tidal flats around Mont-Saint-Michel, where the tide fills hidden channels behind a traveler and quicksand waits under smooth ground.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A pilgrimage that carries a secret
The novel opens with the bay itself. Féval describes a dike near Cancale and a shore once covered by the forest of Scissy, where the sea and the land have fought for centuries. He tells us that the roads around Mont-Saint-Michel shift with every tide and that dozens of travelers are swallowed each year. Before any character speaks, the reader already fears the sands.
Then the scene turns to June 8, 1450. The bells of Avranches ring as Duke François of Brittany rides out toward the Mount with a noble escort. He goes to pray for the soul of his brother Gilles, who died not long before at the castle of La Hardouinays. A cannon shot from the rock announces low tide, as if the sea itself were serving the duke.
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What is The Fairy of the Sands about?
It follows an outlawed Breton knight, his daughter Reine, a young lancer named Aubry and a village egg seller in 1450. They flee the sword of a duke accused of fratricide across the dangerous tidal flats of Mont-Saint-Michel.
Who is the Fairy of the Sands in the book?
The village believes in a spirit who rides moonbeams and grants wishes if caught. In the story, the fairy is Reine de Maurever, who moves at night across the sands to feed her hidden father.
Is The Fairy of the Sands a true story?
No, it is a historical romance by Paul Féval. It uses real places, such as Mont-Saint-Michel and Tombelène, and real figures, such as Duke François and Gilles of Brittany, and adds folklore, invented characters and a fast-moving plot.
The author
Paul Féval
1816–1887 · French novelist and playwright
French novelist and dramatist 1817-1887.
More by Paul Féval
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