any other fans? Granted, it’s been a few years since I read her novels & even when I did, it was limited to her right-wing historical romances (DEAR & GLORIOUS PBYSICIAN, CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS, BRIGHT FLOWS THE RIVER being my favorites).
Yeah, her works were overwrought & not the most historically accurate & schmaltzy-conservative, but I still have some nostalgic fondness for the lady’s stuff.
I read one of her books when I was a child. I don’t remember the title…something about a man who’d rescued some children from a Nazi concentration camp. I remember there was one little girl who had an enlarged heart due to the “medical experiments.” Was he the new pastor in town? I can’t remember.
now that is one I have never heard of!
I would point to Grandmother and the Priests as my favorite. I enjoyed her writing in different styles. It was almost Chauserian and quite fun in places and very touching in others. I’m not sure why but the others never really took hold with me. Although Dear and Glorious Physician was OK.
TV
The weirdest one was “Search for a Soul”, which she co-wrote with Jess Stearn. It was “non-fiction” and predated Shirley MacLaine by a good decade, but was the story of her past-life regressions as everything from the mother of Mary Magdalene to the concubine of the Archangel Darios. Really really bizarre book.
I read most of her works–it was my introduction into the realm of historical fiction. Did you know that late in her life she believed that she had been reincarnated and that several of her lives corresponded to the historical eras she wrote about? I remember she lived in the time of Jesus or just after, and was a poor servant girl (who died young) in the 1870’s or 1880’s. She wrote a book about it, co-written by the hypnotist (IIRC) that lead her through the past life regressions. I think his name was Jess Sterns, although why I remembr this and not the name of the book I’ll never know.
And Grandmother and the Priests was one of my favorites as well, although I liked the sweep of Captains and Kings and the like as well.
Drat you, Sampiro for your quicker typing skills–that was to be my scoop!