Tamsin
Tamsin by Peter S Beagle.
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Firebird (June 17, 2004)
ISBN-10: 0142401544
From Publishers Weekly
Like his enchanting The Last Unicorn, Beagle's newest fantasy features characters so real they leap off his pages and into readers' souls. Tamsin Willoughby, dead some 300 years, haunts ramshackle old Stourhead Farm in Dorset, England, an ancient 700-acre estate that 13-year-old Jenny's new, English stepfather is restoring. Thoroughly American Jenny, miserable at being transplanted from New York City to rural Britain, finds a suffering kindred spirit in Tamsin, a ghost who is mourning Edric, a love she lost during Dorset's punitive Bloody Assizes under King James II. Tamsin leads Jenny through an engrossing night world inhabited by an array of British spiritsAthe Black Dog, a braggart Boggart, ominous Oakmen, the shapeshifting Pooka and a marvelous mystical army-booted Earth Mother. To save Tamsin and gentle Edric from eternal torment, Jenny faces evil personified: demonic Judge Jeffries, who sentenced hundreds of people to brutal execution during the Assizes. Slipping effortlessly between Jenny's brash 1999 lingo, the raw primeval dialect of ancient Dorset and Tamsin's exquisite Jacobean English, Beagle has created a stunning tale of good battling evil, of wonder and heartbreak and of a love able to outlast the worst vileness of the human heart. Fantasy rarely dances through the imagination in more radiant garb than this.
Oh how I wish this book was Hardback instead of paperback!
What a totally enjoyable book!
I know why I put off reading it for so long.. just because it's paperback and the printing not the darkest nor double spaced, so even with my reading glasses it was not the easiest book for me to read. It wound up I had to read one short chapter at a time and set it back down.. but I am most happy that I finally did read it!!
Looking at the cover (and before I knew better) I assumed Tamsin was the ghost cat! heh..nothing like admitting being stupid huh? lol. Of course I found out differently and loved each and every character in the book!... well.. maybe not Judge Jefferies.
This was a most excellent and enjoyable book to read, and of course it makes me want to go to England even more then before! It's not about to happen but it sure makes me *want* to!
I really can't give you any more description then what Amazon does, I can only say: if you haven't read this book and enjoy a good ghost story, then go get Tamsin!
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Firebird (June 17, 2004)
ISBN-10: 0142401544
From Publishers Weekly
Like his enchanting The Last Unicorn, Beagle's newest fantasy features characters so real they leap off his pages and into readers' souls. Tamsin Willoughby, dead some 300 years, haunts ramshackle old Stourhead Farm in Dorset, England, an ancient 700-acre estate that 13-year-old Jenny's new, English stepfather is restoring. Thoroughly American Jenny, miserable at being transplanted from New York City to rural Britain, finds a suffering kindred spirit in Tamsin, a ghost who is mourning Edric, a love she lost during Dorset's punitive Bloody Assizes under King James II. Tamsin leads Jenny through an engrossing night world inhabited by an array of British spiritsAthe Black Dog, a braggart Boggart, ominous Oakmen, the shapeshifting Pooka and a marvelous mystical army-booted Earth Mother. To save Tamsin and gentle Edric from eternal torment, Jenny faces evil personified: demonic Judge Jeffries, who sentenced hundreds of people to brutal execution during the Assizes. Slipping effortlessly between Jenny's brash 1999 lingo, the raw primeval dialect of ancient Dorset and Tamsin's exquisite Jacobean English, Beagle has created a stunning tale of good battling evil, of wonder and heartbreak and of a love able to outlast the worst vileness of the human heart. Fantasy rarely dances through the imagination in more radiant garb than this.
Oh how I wish this book was Hardback instead of paperback!
What a totally enjoyable book!
I know why I put off reading it for so long.. just because it's paperback and the printing not the darkest nor double spaced, so even with my reading glasses it was not the easiest book for me to read. It wound up I had to read one short chapter at a time and set it back down.. but I am most happy that I finally did read it!!
Looking at the cover (and before I knew better) I assumed Tamsin was the ghost cat! heh..nothing like admitting being stupid huh? lol. Of course I found out differently and loved each and every character in the book!... well.. maybe not Judge Jefferies.
This was a most excellent and enjoyable book to read, and of course it makes me want to go to England even more then before! It's not about to happen but it sure makes me *want* to!
I really can't give you any more description then what Amazon does, I can only say: if you haven't read this book and enjoy a good ghost story, then go get Tamsin!
posted by DesLily | 7:06 AM
5 Comments:
Yes... good one this, Pat. Dorset is so lovely and it comes across nicely... along with its otherworldliness I think. Glad you enjoyed it.
This is one of my all time favorite books!! I loved it so much more than I expected to. Took me completely by surprise! I've yet to be disappointed by Peter Beagle. He's just fantastic!!
Sounds like a good read. I love the picture of your kitty fading in and out! It took me a minute to notice that!
kathleen: I tried to make him like the "ghost cat" in the book.
If it helps any, the biggest reason I bought this book was because I thought it was a retelling of 'Tam Lin'.
I have no idea what my mind was thinking with that, no. I'm glad to hear that you've enjoyed the book, Pat! ^-^
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