Guinever's Gift

by Nicole St. John

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B000QBD3ZM
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: Random House
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The ghost of Guinever

I obtained this book from a yard sale, thinking it looked interesting, and then forgot I had it until the other day. Having seemingly run out of things to read, I stumbled across Guinever's Gift and decided to finally give it a shot. I was hooked instantly--the prose is elegant, and the heroine, Lydian, an interesting mix of intellectually adept and emotionally naive. Lydian has been fascinated by the Arthurian mythos since she was a child, but was discouraged from this interest by her father, a devotee of Greek antiquities. Her father dies, and Lydian is invited to visit the reclusive scholar Charles Ransome at his estate, Avalon. Seeing a chance to finally explore the myth and landscape of Arthur, and having little else in the way of a social life, Lydian agrees. This leads to a hasty marriage and to a troubling attraction to Lawrence, an archaeologist helping Charles with his studies. Meanwhile, Lydian begins writing a book on Celtic women, and is haunted by parallels between her own life, her parents' lives, and Arthurian legend. There is a more immediate threat as well. Someone at Avalon has a deadly axe to grind. I recommend this to anyone who likes gothic novels, Arthurian legend, and mysteries with a hint of the mythic.

Mystery, adventure, and a love triange reminicent of Camelot

I found this book in a used book store and didn't know how lucky I was!! This book is about a shy American girl, Lydian Wentworth, left in England after her father's death. She meets and marries an old family friend, Charles, who is a scholar studying King Arthur, a subject which interests Lydian also. He is trapped in a wheelchair, since an accident, which turns out to be part of Lydian's past that she can't remember -- there's the mystery. Enter the third character in this love triangle -- Lawrence, an archeologist who is on a dig to find King Arthur/Guinever artifacts. Lydian suffers nightmares which she knows lead to a memory in her past long-buried, a memory somehow connected to King Arthur's legend. As Charles' mental and physical health declines, she find herself turning to Lawrence more and more. Finally she sees that she is indeed reliving the love triangle between Arthur, Lancelot and Guinever ... to say much more would ruin this lovely book! Though there is romance in this book, it is not a romance novel so much as a stirring mystery. What a great read!