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Title: The Illuminator
Author: Brenda Rickman Vantrease
Narrator: Simon Jones
Format: Unabridged
Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
Language: English
Release date: 02-17-05
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 103 votes
Genres: Fiction, Historical
Publisher's Summary:
Richly detailed and irresistibly compelling, The Illuminator is a glorious story of love, art, religion, and treachery at an extraordinary turning point in history.
Members Reviews:
Historical Disaster
I always love Simon Jones and even enjoyed most of the story, but the author needs to do a little more historical research. She has confused the 14th Century with the 16th Century. Her idea of period dress goes much better 200 years in the future with laced up bodices, skirts, "petticoats" and snoods. The middle-class land-owners, yeomen, have been reduced to paid servants. The "shilling" makes a surprising introduction about 100 years too early and Laudanum, a tincture of poppy (opium) is way out of place by 400 years (poppy was available, just not as laudanum). There are so many more inacurate historical falsities that it was driving me crazy. I started keeping a list! I will say that some of what she has written about the priest John Wycliffe was well done, but. . . it was not enough to save this book. So if you don't like poorly done history, don't get this book. It will only disappoint you!
extremely enjoyable
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I love this era and already had familiarity with it, yet I still learned more by reading this novel. The overlay of spirituality in the piece also satisfied me, as the specifics of Julian of Norwich's visions and writings were new to me. The novel truly was one that I did not want to put down.
Quite disappointing
I have a keen interest in the time period that this book deals with, the synopsis sounded good and I would listen to the reader read a phone book, but this is book number two that I'm sorry I bought here.
Simon Jones is a favorite of mine, and he reads a mean Dick Francis. However, even he couldn't keep me from turning this one off more than an hour from the end. I liked the characters, and listened for many hours to hear more about them, but the author killed too many of them off. I enjoyed the interplay of the characters, but was frustrated by the amount of excess inner monologue she included in every conversation - effectively doubling the length of the book! I understand the friction between the religions at the time, but I really don't need that stuffed in my face a hundred times in 20 chapters, I get it, the Christians hated the Jews, go back to telling me the story please.
So, despite the fine reader and a love of the time period, by the point at which two different characters had died senslessly in the same location, at the hands of the same *nameless person*, I felt sufficiently insulted to quit listening. Very sad. If you must read this one, try the abridged version if at all. I give first half of the book two stars, as I rather liked it. The rest? Hardly worth a star at all for being such a letdown.
riveting
a view into the lives of a 14th century demesne, and the interaction with the domineering church and nobility of the time. Wonderfully enveloping..you could almost be there! And superbly read...I highly recommend this if you like the period.
Excellent Listen
This definitely kept my attention, it is an engaging story, with great attention to the detail of the time.
