The Light Heart

by Elswyth Thane

Book Overview

Volume 4 of The Williamsburg Series. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B000E33TYM
• Release Date: January 1947
• Publisher: Peoples Book Club
• Length: 341 Pages
• Weight: 1.11 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Two Loves Worth Waiting For...

When Phoebe Sprague discovers that love may not mean the bland affection evoked by dependable, familiar, unexciting Miles Day, but rather the effervescent, shameless, delirious passion inspired by the revelation that is Oliver Campion, life enters a maze she never imagined. Endlessly, hopelessly separated by previous entanglements, Phoebe and Oliver weave in and out of each other's lives through peace and into war, touching but never holding in an agony of love denied. Meanwhile Rosalind Norton-Leigh, beautiful, light-hearted and naive, learns what it means to commit her life without love to a man who is a stranger in perspective, in background, and in temperament. These two main stories hang upon the framework provided by the years between the death of Victoria and the start of the First World War. But be forewarned: glorious and enthralling as the stories are, in this as in the final books of this series Ms. Thane's dislike for and contempt of what she perceives to be the "German Character" glare like a discord in a lovely symphony. One must remember that Thane spent all her summers in England between the World Wars, and that these novels were written just before and during the Second, so that her blatant anti-German prejudice becomes at least understandable -- but her verbal decimation of Germans as a nationality and as a culture can be as difficult to take as the casual racism of her earlier novels. Read this book for its virtues -- her description of the sinking of the Lusitania, London during the zeppelin raids, life in a German Schloss before the war, England in Thane's favorite elite trappings. Read it, if for no other reason, than for the embraceable, eye-popping and purely-a-joy character that is long lost cousin Sally Sprague. And read it most of all for the glorious human romances that adorn this scaffolding. If nothing else, this book will make you fall in love all over again with the wild, pulse-pounding idea of being once more (but maybe for the only time) truly in love.

Unforgettable Love Story

I read this book over 25 years ago and loved it. The enduring love story of shy, young Phoebe and strong, handsome soldier Oliver (set in the War years of the early 1900s) has remained strong in my memory all these years.

Dawn's Early Light

I have read Dawn's Early Light and Yankee Stranger and can't wait to read the complete series. I would like to know the sequence of the books in the Williamsburg Novels. Your feedback would be appreciated.

Lovely historical novel

This book is probably my favorite in the series, since Phoebe is the strongest woman character of the family. I also love the World War I era. But they are all wonderful. Elswyth Thane had a remarkable gift for historical fiction, placing romances that we actually care about amid the well-researched past.

A wonderful story of enduring love with plenty of history

Phoebe and Oliver are two of the most memorable characters I have ever met. Their story of enduring love has enchanted me for years--right up there with Scarlett and Rhett. The added interest of WWI history pulls this book together in an unforgettable way. An all-time favorite of mine!