The Turquoise

Last updated
The Turquoise
TheTurquoise.jpg
First edition
Author Anya Seton
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Historical romance
Publisher Houghton Mifflin
Publication date
1946
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages374 pp

The Turquoise is a novel by the American author Anya Seton which was first published in 1946. [1]

Contents

It is a fictional story of the life of Fey Cameron set against an historical background of the United States and New York society in the mid 19th century.

The book focuses on Cameron, from her humble childhood in New Mexico, through to her high society life in New York, and her eventual return to her roots.

Plot summary

Born in 1850 of a Spanish mother and a Scotsman in New Mexico, and orphaned at a young age in the town for whom she was named, Santa Fe (Fey) Cameron is taken in and raised by dutiful but apathetic neighbors. As a teenager, hot-blooded Fey takes the opportunity to leave town with Terry Dillon, a shifty traveling salesman. As they slowly make their way up the Santa Fe Trail, Fey convinces herself they are in love. Not disagreeable (for the time being), Terry enlists Richens Lacey Wootton to marry them at Raton Pass. Continuing east selling Terry's questionable medicine and utilizing several of Fey's talents to earn extra money, upon reaching Leavenworth, Kansas, they are able to raise train fares to New York.

Fey and Terry arrive in New York City without any prospects and are soon forced to use up their small savings for food and board. Terry soon abandons Fey for greener pastures. Discovering she is pregnant, resourceful Fey seeks assistance at a local infirmary for women and makes arrangements to live there in exchange for helping out with the work. After her daughter Lucita is born, bewitching Fey sets her eyes on New York tycoon Simeon Tower as a means of securing her financial future and wins her way into his heart.

After securing a discreet divorce for Fey, she and Simeon marry and achieve happiness. They endeavor to increase not only their fortune but their social standing over the years, but the year 1877 would be their downfall. Simeon not only finds himself close to losing nearly everything financially, but Terry Dillon reemerges to disrupt their lives. Terry's attempts to woo Fey and blackmail Simeon result in tragedy. Bankrupt and a social pariah, Fey eventually brings an ailing Simeon back to the simple life in New Mexico to live out their days.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews wrote the novel had "a synthetic, but satisfactory, story". [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madrid, New Mexico</span> CDP in New Mexico, United States

Madrid is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, United States. It is part of the Santa Fe, New Mexico Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 149 at the 2000 census and 204 in 2010. Today, Madrid has become an artists' community with galleries lining New Mexico State Road 14. It retains remnants of its history with the Mineshaft Tavern and the Coal Mine Museum.

<i>Ramona</i> Novel by Helen Hunt Jackson

Ramona (1884) is an American novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. Set in Southern California after the Mexican–American War and annexation of the territory by the United States, it explores the life of a mixed-race Scottish–Native American orphan girl. The story was inspired by the marriage of Hugo Reid and Victoria Reid.

Julia B. Cameron is an American teacher, author, artist, poet, playwright, novelist, filmmaker, composer, and journalist. She is best known for her book The Artist's Way (1992). She also has written many other non-fiction works, short stories, and essays, as well as novels, plays, musicals, and screenplays.

<i>The Stars Shine Down</i>

The Stars Shine Down is a 1992 novel by Sidney Sheldon.

Dorothy B. Hughes was an American crime writer, literary critic, and historian. Hughes wrote fourteen crime and detective novels, primarily in the hardboiled and noir styles, and is best known for the novels In a Lonely Place (1947) and Ride the Pink Horse (1946).

<i>Cold Mountain</i> (novel) 1997 novel by Charles Frazier

Cold Mountain is a 1997 historical novel by Charles Frazier which won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. It tells the story of W. P. Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army near the end of the American Civil War who walks for months to return to Ada Monroe, the love of his life; the story shares several similarities with Homer's Odyssey. The narrative alternates every chapter between the stories of Inman and Ada, a minister's daughter recently relocated from Charleston to a farm in a rural mountain community near Cold Mountain, North Carolina, from which Inman hails. Though they only knew each other for a brief time before Inman departed for the war, it is largely the hope of seeing Ada again that drives Inman to desert the army and make the dangerous journey back to Cold Mountain. Details of their brief history together are told at intervals in flashback over the course of the novel.

<i>Jubilee Trail</i>

Jubilee Trail is an American novel written by Gwen Bristow, published in 1950. It follows the adventures of two strong women in the mid-19th century as they travel across the United States to the then-Mexican territory of California. The novel is still in print, with forewords included by Nancy E. Turner and Sandra Dallas.

Cecil Dawkins was an American author who wrote primarily fiction.

<i>Emmeline</i> (Rossner novel) Novel by Judith Rossner

Emmeline is a book by Judith Rossner. Published in 1980, Emmeline details the local legend of a woman who becomes ostracized by everyone in her hometown in Maine after a shocking, long-held secret becomes public. The story is a fictionalized account of the life of Emeline Bachelder Gurney. Both anecdotal and documented evidence have been found about Gurney's life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Crane</span> American journalist

Frances Kirkwood Crane was an American mystery author, who introduced private investigator Pat Abbott and his future wife Jean in her first novel, The Turquoise Shop (1941). The Abbotts investigated crimes in a total of 26 volumes, each with a color in the title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pamela McCorduck</span> British-American writer (1940–2021)

Pamela Ann McCorduck was a British-born American author of books about the history and philosophical significance of artificial intelligence, the future of engineering, and the role of women and technology. She also wrote three novels. She contributed to Omni, The New York Times, Daedalus, and the Michigan Quarterly Review, and was a contributing editor of Wired. She was a former vice president of the PEN American Center. She was married to computer scientist and academic Joseph F. Traub.

<i>The Dragon of Despair</i> 2004 book by Jane Lindskold

The Dragon of Despair is a 2003 fantasy novel by Jane Lindskold. The book is the third in the Firekeeper Saga, happening about a year after Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart.

<i>The Hearth and Eagle</i>

The Hearth and Eagle is a historical novel by Anya Seton. Set primarily in the old New England fishing village of Marblehead, Massachusetts, the story centers on strong-willed, passionate Hesper Honeywood and her search for love and fulfillment at a time when women had few options and the stormy Atlantic often claimed the lives of poor fishermen. Seton started researching her ancestors in the mid-1940s, which led her to Marblehead and the setting for her fourth novel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherri L. Smith</span> American writer

Sherri L. Smith is an American writer. Her novel Flygirl was selected as one of the American Library Association's 2010 Best Books for Young Adults.

<i>Whiskey Tango Foxtrot</i> (film) 2016 film by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is a 2016 American biographical war comedy-drama film, directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa and written by Robert Carlock. It is based on the memoir The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Kim Barker. The film stars Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, and Billy Bob Thornton. It was released on March 4, 2016, by Paramount Pictures. It received mixed reviews from critics who praised the acting, but criticized the predictable screenplay and execution. The movie grossed $24.9 million against its $35 million budget.

John Warren Wadleigh (1927–2013), best known by his pen name Oliver Lange, was an American author, artist, and art critic based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is best known for his 1971 novel Vandenberg.

Jetta Carleton was an American novelist.

Dorothy Rhoads was an American writer of children's literature. Her book The Corn Grows Ripe was a Newbery Honor recipient in 1953.

<i>Like Water</i> (novel) 2017 novel by Rebecca Podos

Like Water is a young adult novel written by Rebecca Podos and published in 2017 by Balzer + Bray. The story, which was the recipient of a Lambda Literary Award, centers on Savannah Espinoza, a teenager from New Mexico who begins discovering more about her sexuality when she becomes enamored with a genderqueer teenager, called Leigh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peggy Pond Church</span> American writer (1903–1986)

Margaret Hallett Pond, known under the pen name Peggy Pond Church, was an American author and poet. She was known as "one of the American west's major poets" and was compared to poet Witter Bynner.

References

  1. "Books: Snake Oil". Time. 1946-02-04. ISSN   0040-781X . Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  2. "Book Review: The Turquoise". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2023-03-23.