Katharine McMahon, The Rose of Sebastopol

The Rose of Sebastopol

Katharine McMahon

Berkley, Feb 2010, $15.00

ISBN: 9780425232224

During the Crimean War, surgeon Henry Thewell and nurse Rosa Longwood are serving in the combat zone. His fianc and her cousin Mariella Lingwood remains in England worried about both of them especially with the letters from them in Turkey.

When Henry becomes severely ill, he is rushed back to Italy for proper medical treatment. Upon learning of her fianc 's illness, Mariella rushes to be with him. However, she is greeted with the name of Rosa on his lips while he is delirious. Hearing that Rosa is missing; out of character for a prim and proper Victorian lady; Mariella heads to the front to find Rosa to learn the truth re the relationship between her cousin and her fianc .

Putting aside the abrupt forced climax, The Rose of Sebastopol is a terrific unusual Victorian romance with a strong look at conditions on the front during the mid nineteenth century Crimean War with Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade coming to mind. The jump back and forth in time needs some adjustment but worth the effort as the cast brings to life the era from the perspective of the war. Rosa appears to be a Florence Nightingale clone of sorts while Mariella is changed by what she observes first in Constantinople and later at the front as she realizes that Love is a Battlefield (Benatar).

Harriet Klausner

The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon is so well written and by using the first person McMahon is able to get 'under the skin' of the Victorian lady and the social set up of the time. Made me want to find out more about the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale and Mary Secole. Perhaps the ending is rather abrubt but can you ever write the perfect ending about the lives and time of people? Well written, good techniques for keeping the reader interested, educational and, I am sure, well researched.

This book opened to me the necessity of noble goals and though having this goal ahead of all your actions can be dangerous, you keep going as it fills your life with real living, when you can easily leave this world and so treasure every minute in it.

I know very well and love places where the novel takes place, but only now, after reading it they became fully sacred to me, because I'm sure these woeful years will never be lost in time along with selfless feat of people on both sides of barricades.