Author - Anna Godbersen
ISBN - 9780061626319
Production Date - 2010
Plot - As complex a plot as their as as point of view in the novel shifts seamlessly from one character to the next, Splendor tells the story of several women growing up and dealing with relationships issues around the turn of the century. The fourth and last in the series of Luxe novels the story is bookended by the character of Diana Holland, trying to catch up with her first love, Henry Schoonmaker as he is supposed to be fighting overseas. When we catch up with Henry, he is not fighting overseas, but rather running drills off of Cuba with his commander who keeps him around something like a pet. Elizabeth Holland is married to her second husband, hiding the fact that she was already with child from her first short lived marriage. Penelope Schoonmaker is trying to to land other foreign men with the knowledge that her husbands care and affections tend toward somewhere else. Finally Carolina Broad is fearing exposure of her past because she did not come from a family with money and inherited it. She has fallen in love with someone but someone else is on her tale threatening to expose the secrets that she had.
As is common with chic lit there is much wringing of hands and subtleties that are being played out behind the scenes with complex resolutions abounding. Elizabeth finds out that her second husband murdered her first to get a hold of some land that was held. And she in turn murders the second husband, somehow getting away with it. Carolina Broad is exposed and the man leaves, but not for the reason she thinks. She it told that he is leaving to work things out because she didn't feel like she could tell him the truth. Penelope Schoonmaker finds that exposing Henry to ridicule is not that much fun and that she is being used by her foreign suitor. Finally Diana decides that despite her love for Henry, and Henry's love for her, that they belong in two different places, and it wouldn't be fair to make the other person be where they did not want to be. At the end she views from a perspective of history, everything that has happened, grateful to have experienced it all despite the pain that might have been caused.
Readers Annotation - Scandal, affairs, misdirection and gossip abound in Splendor, the final novel in the Luxe series.
About the Author - Anna Godbersen, born in Berkeley California, and educated at Barnard College in Massachusetts took up writing with the Luxe series of novels. While very little is known about her past she maintains a blog on her website that she discusses the novels that she is writing and how she relates to any one of the characters.
According to Godbersen, the character she relates to most in the Luxe Novels is Diana. She is the one who is somewhat flighty and younger than the rest of the people involved. She is experiencing love and its wonders as well as its heartaches for the first time. As Anna sees her, there is a kind of wide eyed wonder which she also has about the world, wanting to know its secrets. About her writing, Godbersen describes the excitement of the written as well as the unwritten word. To her, what is unsaid can almost be as fascinating as what is actually put down on paper.
Genre- Chic Lit
Curriculum Ties - Historical Fiction as a genre- Literature
Compare and Contrast The Luxe series with a novel such as War and Peace set in a slightly earlier period if Russia. - Literature
Booktalking Ideas - Talk about what it would have been liked to live around the turn of the century. What was the attire; what were the customs; what did it mean to be wealthy? Address what it was like to have old money versus new money. How much different was it in the United States versus other parts of the world?
Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 9+
Challenge Issues - Affairs, lying, cheating and murder abound in this series.
Overcoming Challenges - Be prepared to compare what is in the novels versus the typical soap opera that exists today.
Why Included - I wanted to include several different chic lit novels, and I was always partial to historical fiction.
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