Lady of the Butterflies, Fiona Mountain
Lady of the Butterflies, Fiona Mountain
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Lady of the Butterflies
A Novel

Author: Fiona Mountain

Narrator: Josephine Bailey

Unabridged: 20 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/20/2010


Synopsis

Eleanor is the daughter of a strict puritan and Roundhead major and lives in a medieval manor on the bleak wetlands of Somerset. Her longing for color and brightness leads to an obsession with butterflies as well as to an illicit passion for charismatic but troubled Richard Glanville. Richard, the son of an exiled Cavalier, embodies all that Eleanor had been taught to despise and distrust, but he also holds for her all the allure of the forbidden. Her first husband dies, seemingly poisoned, freeing Eleanor and Richard to marry. But can their love survive suspicion and prejudice, a bloody rebellion that makes them bitter enemies, and a superstitious community that stirs up hatred toward her for her love of butterflies? It seems the only peace she can find is in her long-lasting friendship with renowned naturalist James Petiver, a clever young London apothecary who is considered the father of British entomology. But when Eleanor and Richard's son becomes apprenticed to James, tragedy strikes, and Eleanor is forced to embark on a dangerous search for her son that is entwined with a personal quest for truth, freedom, and love.

About Fiona Mountain

Fiona Mountain is the author of Isabella, which was short-listed for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 2000, the first debut novel to reach the shortlist. She is also the author of Pale as the Dead and Bloodline, which won the prestigious Mary Higgins Clark Award. She lives in the Cotswolds with her husband and children.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Annette on March 22, 2019

1662, Somerset, England Nine year old Eleanor Goodricke is already known as unusual child: “…climbing trees for birds’ eggs, pond dipping and hunting under rocks for beetles and whatnot.” Keeping “a collection of animal skulls and bones in a little casket in her chamber.” As much as her Puritan father......more

Goodreads review by Amy on July 14, 2011

In Lady of the Butterflies, author Fiona Mountain tackles the life of the spirited and tenacious Eleanor Glanville. Known today as one of the pioneer entomologists of the 17th century, Eleanor was an anomaly among the women of her day and her personal life was no less captivating. Raised by her stau......more

Goodreads review by Deborah on December 02, 2010

This is one of the best pieces of historical fiction I have read in a long time. Impeccably researched and beautifully written, the metaphor of the butterfly is applied brilliantly to this tale of Eleanor Glanville, a woman scientist ahead of her time. Mountain does a very good job of using the avai......more