The Illuminator

Starred review from February 7, 2005
A medieval illuminator with radical views finds himself sharing quarters with a widow struggling to preserve her independence in this enthralling historical novel set in the 14th century, a time of religious strife. Lady Kathryn, mistress of Blackingham Manor in East Anglia, must be practical to ensure the future of her 15-year-old twin sons. Little as she cares for the money-grubbing worthies of the local abbey, she is happy to do them a favor by taking in a master illuminator as lodger. Finn, a widower with a 16-year-old daughter, proves to be a congenial guest. He is educated, perceptive and kind—and soon, irresistible to Kathryn. Their subsequent passionate affair blinds them to the romance developing between Finn's innocent daughter, Rose, and Kathryn's pious son, Colin. Meanwhile, the unsolved murder of an unscrupulous priest on the manor grounds puts everyone in jeopardy, and Finn's secret sympathy with John Wycliffe and his Lollard followers, who champion an English translation of the Scriptures, endangers his livelihood, not to mention his life. Kathryn's plainspoken fortitude and warring loyalties to lover and sons make her a compelling figure, and Vantrease's secondary characters are brilliantly sketched as well: confused Colin; his carousing brother, Alfred; Agnes, Lady Kathryn's cook and confidante since childhood; Half-Tom, a courageous dwarf. In Vantrease's medieval England, justice is determined by the powerful; violence is a first, not a last, resort; and love must take second place to duty. This is an absorbing, expertly told tale, plainly and forthrightly written and embroidered with plenty of homespun detail. Agent, Harvey Klinger. Foreign rights sold in 10 countries.

April 4, 2005
Narrator Jones approaches this mesmerizing tale of medieval England with a dignity more befitting Masterpiece Theater
than the muck and violence of a 14th-century feudal society. His very proper British inflections sound most appropriate when he portrays members of the nobility, like Lady Kathryn of Blackingham Manor, or her lover and adversary, Finn, the illuminator. However, Jones's attempts to mimic the lower-class intonations of peasants such as Agnes, the cook, or her remarkable scullery maid, Magda, prove grating, and distract from this truly delectable tale of passions deferred, loves tested and society shifting. Though the abridgement captures the spirit of Vantrease's novel, it cannot conceal bald spots where material was clearly trimmed. Kathryn and Finn's passion for each other, though exquisitely described in places, feels like it brewed primarily off stage. Other plot threads, like Finn's association with the heretic John Wycliffe, who believed in translating the Bible into common English, are regrettably truncated. Indeed, though this is a tidy and spirited audio adaptation, listeners would do better to invest in the unabridged edition. Simultaneous release with the St. Martin's hardcover (Forecasts, Feb. 7).