Wideacre: Book 1 (The Wideacre Trilogy)

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This one looks at what became of the incestuous children of Wideacre, and the narrator is Julia, whom we know to be Beatrice and Harry's daughter although she has never been told. She is an intriguing if frustrating main character. I like it that Gregory did not simply rewrite Beatrice of Wideacre. In fact, Celia-bred Julia is very much Beatrice's antitype, mousy and weak, although not distastefully so. Her brother-cousin is interesting, too, although not exactly well-rounded. Wideacre's Beatrice was mad, but, since she was the main character, you followed her along, albeit wincingly. Since Richard is not the protagonist, however, there's a certain remoteness to him that doesn't work all the way for me. In the end he's just nuts, which is not very interesting. I would maybe have liked the story told from his point of view, but Gregory is once again pushing the feminist angle by giving voice to the woman, which is great, I suppose, politically, but maybe not the best choice creatively. I was pretty disappointed with the other returning characters, Celia, John, and Ralph. They hardly seem to matter, especially John, who acts on the fringes of the plot, at best. This is an 18th century saga about the Lacey family, living on Wideacre, a country estate surrounded by woods and a village that were once bountiful havens, where the wealthy took care of their people, or a least until the obsessive, narcissistic, abusive, perverse and incestuous Beatrice Lacey grew up to literally ruin everything and everyone on the land. Threatened by Harry's presence, Beatrice agrees without thinking when Ralph reveals his intent to take the estate for the two of them. She realises too late what Ralph has planned, and before she can stop him he murders her father and makes it look like an accident. Beatrice clearly loves her father but she is even more devoted to the state of Wideacre. And even as a child, she is determined to live and die on the patch of land. Her dreams begin to shatter when she turns 11 and learns that her brother Harry is poised to inherit the land once her father passes.

The University of Edinburgh is where she earned her doctorate on 18th-century literature. She taught at the Durham University, the University of Teesside, and at the Open University. Philippa was also a fellow at Kingston University. I had a feeling from the beginning that things wouldn't go well for Dandy. How would she have fit in Wideacre life... Fascinating, gripping, sexual, sensuous, grim, incestuous, a little mysterious, horrifying, unrelenting despair (and by comparison, I think Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbeyvilles got off light)—if these adjectives don't discourage you away from this love-it-or-hate-it book, you're in for a real ride.Wideacre is a 1987 historical novel by Philippa Gregory. This novel is Gregory's debut, and the first in the Wideacre trilogy that includes The Favoured Child (1989) and Meridon (1990). Set in the second half of the 18th century, it follows Beatrice Lacey's destructive lifelong attempts to gain control of the Wideacre estate. The story: Beatrice Lacey is passionately fond of the Wideacre estate where she has grown up and of which her father is Squire. So fond of it that she commits incest, murder and fraud to ensure that she stays on the land rather than let ownership pass to her brother Harry. Fortunately for Beatrice Harry is a blubber-butt bundle of appetites and perverted passions, and therefore easily handled, although Beatrice's husband and sister-in-law prove a bit harder to fool. In attempting to secure Wideacre for her son, Beatrice overreaches herself and effectively ruins the land she loves, bringing starvation to the villagers who once adored her. But they have a champion in Ralph, the gamekeeper's son whom Beatrice has loved and maimed, and who is now known as the Culler and is coming to get his revenge... Incest is not good obviously, but usually, the offspring turn out normal. That is until it is incest multiple times over. The pharaohs were inbred like that. King Tut, I'm pretty sure, was a product of some incest and that's why he was weak. In other words, it was ok for Harry and Beatrice to have kids because the kids turned out normal...well, I don't know about Richard, but physically fine. But Richard & Julia should definitely not have had any children together.

This series left me with mixed feelings. As far as historical research and writing style goes, I can see why this author is such a hit. I really enjoyed the pacing of the stories, none got too repetitive (in things that happened around them, the characters they interacted with, etc) Their personalities, on the other hand, could get repetitive, especially Julia.

Publication Order of Anthologies

In The Favoured Child (1989), John and Celia reunite and raise young Richard and Julia, but Richard inherits his mother's destructive desire to claim Wideacre. Meridon (1990) follows young Sarah Lacey, renamed Meridon and raised by gypsies, as she discovers her past as the daughter of Richard and Julia.

As the children grow, Julia has the same love of the land as Beatrice. She's just not evil like her. Richard on the other hand is an evil character who is only out for money has no regard for people or their feelings. I must say, he is the most evil character in a book that I have ever read. Couldn't stand him from the moment his name was mentioned in the book. Richard is always plotting and Julia and Acre are usually at the receiving end of his plans. Now her children, Julia & Richard (who are raised to believe they are cousins - a strange and difficult thing to accept, given Celia and John McAndrews' knowledge and their previous grievances ... I won't spoil it for you if you read book I) are intent on setting things right in Wideacre, and for a time, with the help of Ralph, the mysterious legless gypsy, (a fantastical character who was once in love with Beatrice) things look as though there might be hope for the village. Anything people are currently raving about. I’m a slow reader, and I read old books as often as new ones, so I always feel like a hopeless failure when it comes to keeping up with brand new titles. This is a thought-provoking book but an excellent read. I'm not surprised that it did so well, or, that The Favoured Child and Meridon also became huge successes. Meridon, or Sarah, seems to have a balance of both her mother, and grandmother, and through out the book she discovers that for herself. When it came down to it, she didn't let her demons keep her from happiness.Even more impactful to the story than Ralph, though, is John MacAndrew, a brilliant doctor who falls for Beatrice at the height of her fight to gain control of the Wideacre estate. John falls in love with Beatrice, unaware of the evil residing within her beating heart. Wideacre is a series of historical fiction novels written by Philippa Gregory. The books follow the exploits of a family whose obsession with a grand estate destroys them.

Beatrice Lacey was an unreliable narrator of the finest sort -- a complete psycho in some ways, but startlingly insightful in others. In contrast to Beatrice, Julia Lacey is intended as a positive figure. She doesn't conspire to murder & destroy for personal reasons, nor does she willingly enter into an incestuous relationship with her sibling. But peripheral characters from Book 1 have been burned by Beatrice & her dominating awfulness, & they ruthlessly stomp the smallest signs of willfull behavior (i.e., "Beatrice's witchery") within Julia's veins. The result? An unrepentant doormat of a heroine -- a woman who has no concept of what an abusive relationship is, a woman with absurd expectations of love, a woman who is nowhere nearly strong enough to renew Acre & still defeat her brother Richard. One or the other...maybe. But not both. The most irksome aspect of TFC is Julia's indoctrination into & acceptance of the abusive relationship with Richard -- she believes that indoctrination is a woman's duty, & she accepts Richard's domination as the natural course of their roles, even when his touch starts to repel her & she learns the full extent of his evil. Her voice is a peek into Battered Woman Syndrome, & it's extremely uncomfortable (as it's meant to be). Richard MacAndrew: Son of Beatrice and Harry. He is passed off as John's son by Beatrice and later raised by John and Celia. As deceptive and sociopathic as his mother, Richard is determined to fulfill Beatrice's wish of claiming Wideacre by marrying Julia. When his position is threatened by Julia and others, he murders those who stand in his way, and rapes Julia, resulting in a pregnancy and birth of a daughter, Sarah. The night of his child's birth, Richard is murdered by Ralph. I think that all three women in these books have qualities that can be admirable, yet they all have demons. I think it makes them more real. I like stories of women with the holy trinity; the good, the bad, and the ugly. Philippa Gregory’s sublimely kinky Wideacre trilogy got me excited about the ways in which historical fiction could be a roaring good read yet also have things to say about gender, class and power. My guilty pleasure is Dennis Wheatley novels. Repetitive, preposterous – I can’t defend them at all

Publication Order of Wideacre Books

The third novel of the Wideacre series, Redemption at last! Don’t want to spoil it too much, just going to comment about this last part of the story, but first a little recap. We encounter the daughter of Julia and Richard, Sarah, she was the product of an incest rape, Richard forced his own sister in his mad and twisted belief that it was the only way of obtaining complete power over his birthright, Wideacre, condemning Julia to an very unhappy short life; Julia, in her desperation, wishes not to continue with the Lacey lineage of madness, so as soon she gives birth to her daughter decides to terminate her life; right after having a child, Julia walks barefoot and still bleeding towards the river to only finding herself not being able to drown her little newborn, so she gives her away to a gypsy family who was already parting from the grounds, this is how little Sarah starts out in life. This paragraph is one of the most simplest ways to describe these major theme that places through all three books. It is exactly this message that Beatrice, Julia, and Meridon struggle with in their own way. They think it all about the money, when it's truly not. They struggle to love others and they struggle to love their own land. It's this idea of happiness that both Beatrice and Julia failed at, but Meridon achieves. Books 1 and 2 had unhappy endings. People died and they themselves died. Meridon gets her happy ending with Will and the money means nothing to her in the end. I have to disagree with a lot of people about this series. I absolutly loved it. I will admit that I found the first book, Wideacre, the least enjoyable, but I still rate it a 5. P.G. has become one of my favorite authors, she tells such a vivid story. Her stories may not be everyone's cup of tea, especially this trilogy, but I enjoy them very much. Over time, Beatrice develops an obsession with the Wideacre estate. She learns to view it as a living, breathing organism of which only she has true ownership. This development makes Beatrice cruel and conniving, and she goes to great lengths to secure her control over her beloved home, showing no qualms about crossing every line and breaking every taboo.