The Testament of Yves Gundron

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An imaginative, captivating first novel

Reading Emily Barton is a joy

Didn't want to leave Yves

Some Strong Points That Don't Hang Together

A Luddite Fable

The Testament of Yves Gundron
Emily Barton
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: B000F6Z540

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Set in an unnamed country, in a village called Mandragora, The Testament of Yves Gundron appears to be one thing but ends up being something else entirely. Narrated by a yeoman farmer, Emily Barton's debut novel opens with a description of daily life that sounds like something out of the dark ages:

Imagine the time of my grandfather's grandfather, when the darkness was newly separated from the light. Society was only a shadowy image of what it would soon become. This was Mandragora before my invention and all that it set in motion. People spoke to one another, but their habits of thought were coarse. People lived in fear. Our forefathers farmed, but with great difficulty; a man used a sharp stick to dig a hole for each seed, and furrowed his fields by dragging his fingernails through them and picking out each small stone. Often a whole spring passed in preparing the ground, and families went hungry or died come winter.

This is a world where carts have but one wheel, and horses choke to death hauling even light loads attached by a rope around their necks. Then one day Yves Gundron has a brainstorm and creates a harness that allows draft animals to pull the heaviest burdens without harm. Before long, his invention catches on across the village and leads to further improvements: ploughs; carts with two wheels and then eventually four; an increase in the crops farmers can take to market and sell; greater prosperity for all. So far Barton has succeeded in imagining what life must have been like somewhere in northern Europe sometime around the start of the first millennium, but wait! Throughout this bucolic narrative she weaves disquieting hints that all is not what it seems. Take, for example, the song Yves's wife, Adelaïda, sings one day:

Well, I love Yves Gundron,
Tell you Lord, I do.
Yes, I love my old man Yves,
Yes, indeed, it's true.
But the fact that he don't listen,
Lord, it makes this woman sad and blue.

A medieval Muddy Waters? The introduction of the blues into the narrative sets the reader's mind to reeling; the sudden appearance in Mandragora of Ruth Blum, an obviously modern anthropologist from Boston, Massachusetts, is the crowning confusion. It is she who supplies the plethora of footnotes that grace the pages of Yves Gundron's testament, and she who inevitably brings about the village's fall from grace. For Mandragora, like Shangri-la or Brigadoon, is a place out of time, an almost magical locale just across the water from Scotland and reachable by airplane, yet wholly untouched by the modern world--until Yves invents his harness and thus apparently invites a serpent into his Garden of Eden.

Barton's novel poses a difficult conundrum and offers no easy answers: before the invention of Yves's harness and the arrival of Ruth Blum, the villagers of Mandragora led hard lives but they were largely unaffected by greed, envy, or doubt. Once the village opens itself up to the outside, it falls prey to all manner of ills. Yves's celibate holy brother literally falls from grace and into Ruth's arms; Yves's wife, daughter, and neighbors come down with the flu, a heretofore unknown disease; more outsiders arrive in the village, "mad with questions" and sending "beams of light tearing through the countryside and our homes, which brightness strikes terror into my heart." This, it would seem, is the price of creativity, curiosity, ambition--whether or not the cost is too high is something readers must decide for themselves. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

Here is the chronicle of the strange events that befall Mandragora, a primitive farming village in the Outer Hebrides. A tale of conflict where there had been none, of lives irrevocably transformed, this is the written testimony of farmer and inventor Yves Gundron, edited and annotated by Harvard academic Ruth Blum. Yet this historical manuscript is not quite what it seems...and neither is the town of Mandragora. When Yves recalls lyrics that are recognizably from a blues song, it begins to seem that Blum is not merely an anthropologist preparing a historical document, but an active participant in Mandragora's battle with the double-edged sword of progress. The Testament Of Yves Gundron is a brilliantly imagined exploration of the pursuit of modernity -- and of the detritus left along the way.

Customer Reviews:

An imaginative, captivating first novel.......2005-08-22

What a fascinating read! Emily Barton's novel is taut, intelligent and just really, really fun. It has some debut-author unevenness, but those bits are forgivable, as the characters come to life and the plot engrosses the reader. I can't believe this book wasn't a best-seller--I do see that it was NY Times Notable Book, which it richly deserves to be. I would give this book four and a half stars if that were possible; since it is not, I rounded up.

Well worth the time.

Reading Emily Barton is a joy.......2005-05-12

Emily's debut novel is startling, inventive and gives the reader opportunities to ask new questions and consider our own lives in the context of history and technology.

I can't wait for her next book, due early next year.

Didn't want to leave Yves.......2005-03-02

I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Barton's debut. It's a fresh take on an old concept, told in such a way that you don't want the story to end. If Mandragora existed, it would be flocked to by tourists trying peer into the future and the past at the same time. It's the perfect example of how no one can observe without participation.

Some Strong Points That Don't Hang Together.......2001-03-25

Most times, when I read a book that I don't really like, I will pretty much swear off the writer, but I won't do that with Emily Barton. The Testament of Yves Gudrun was ultimately a little too uneven for me and left me with too many unanswered questions; it just didn't make sense, when I think it was actually trying to. To her credit, Barton writes well, is imaginative, has a good ear for dialog, and has a certain uncanny knack for getting in these little zingers that make you think here and there in the narrative. The premise of the novel is pretty interesting. We read about a pre-industrial society that, we soon realize, exists in the current day. They are visited by Ruth Blum, a young anthropologist at the same time Yves invents a few technical improvements which begin to change their society. Barton also tells the story from an interesting point of view (instead of from Ruth's point of view, she tells it from that of Yves'.) But--there are also some problems with this novel. First of all, I just don't think the narrative hung together. It almost struck me as a first draft, one that needs a little work to become something wonderful, which was frustrating. Or perhaps it was a short story, that should have ended at page 30. Some things just made no sense, like why did Yves' wife sing the blues? Why did they focus on Ruth's love of toast? I also think this novel would have been improved with some research. It struck me that she just made things up about how a pre-industrial society would operate. The details just seemed a little too inauthentic. That being said, I think Ms. Barton is talented and will try her next effort.

A Luddite Fable.......2001-02-21

Emily Barton sets her Luddite fable, "The Testament of Yves Gundron", in Mandragona, an isolated section of one of the Hebrides Islands off Scotland's west coast. Farmer Yves Gundron, the narrator, lives in a society so primitive that when he invents a harness that allows his horse to pull a wagon or a plow without chocking to death it transforms his community. After Yves shares his invention with his neighbors farming in Mandragora quickly becomes more productive. Next Yves devises a two-wheeled cart to take advantage of the greater load-pulling capacity of the harnessed horse. Yves' neighbors attribute his inventiveness to his grandmother Iulia, a stranger who washed ashore from no-one-knows-where.

Yves' brother Mandrik is the only Mandragonian in memory to have ventured into the unknown world beyond -- and he returned a holy man bearing fruit trees and tales of Indo-China. The reader must accept the peculiar lack of curiosity Mandragonians have about the world outside their tiny fief as normal human behavior -- a heavy suspension-of-disbelief burden to bear.

Yves and his neighbors prosper through the increased produce they can grow and transport to market in Nnms, Mandragora's only town. (In Mandragora, farm surpluses are apparently absorbed more easily than elsewhere) Archduke Urbis of Nnms encourages the commerce by enlarging the market square and starting a road paving project.

It seems to be the dawn of a golden age. Then a stranger arrives from over the mountains -- the first new arrival since Yves'grandmother. Ruth is her name and she speaks a strange form of English and wears strange clothes. (Her C.V. is eerily similar to that of Ms. Barton, herself) Mandragora will never be the same again.

Thomas Pynchon's dust jacket blurb describes the story as "Blessedly post-ironic...deeply respecting the given world even as it shines with the integrity of dream." Ms Barton may respect the given world of Yves Gundron, but I question whether she has had much familiarity with the hard, unending, physical labor and starvation diet of a subsistence farmer. The roseate hue of the lens through which Barton pictures the lives of the primitive farmers of Mandragona bespeaks an innocence of experience. Like Thomas Jefferson, she dreams of an agrarian utopia where "the scythes sing through the rye" -- in the hands of others.

Yves is an attractive creation -- a sort of stoic saint: devout -- and yet clear-eyed, inventive -- yet conservative, sensitive -- yet enduring. There are so many loose ends to this story one wonders if we will hear from him again.

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The Testament of Yves Gundron
Emily Barton
Manufacturer: Canongate Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHGC9C

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The Testament of Yves Gundron
Emily Barton
Manufacturer: Farrar Straus Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OXNZR8

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The Testament of Yves Gundron.(Review)(Brief Article): An article from: The Review of Contemporary Fiction
Alan Tinkler
Manufacturer: Review of Contemporary Fiction
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | Classics | Comic | Contemporary | Literary
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ASIN: B0008HRX50
Release Date: 2005-06-01

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on March 22, 2001. The length of the article is 310 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Testament of Yves Gundron.(Review)(Brief Article)
Author: Alan Tinkler
Publication: The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2001
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: 21 Issue: 1 Page: 201

Article Type: Book Review, Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

LUCKY SANTANGELO

IS BACK IN

Jackie Collins'

SCINTILLATING NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

She's the seductively beautiful, street-smart survivor who fought for fame and power in Hollywood and happiness in marriage. She's the strong, exciting woman who dares to take chances -- and always wins. Now, driven by raw fury when a member of her family is randomly gunned down, Lucky hunts for a killer throughout glamorous Los Angeles. But her quest for revenge is complicated by the sudden return of a man from her past -- a man with a

Dangerous Kiss

...will it destroy everything she has?

Download Description

Collins' wildly popular, bold, and unique heroine Lucky Santangelo returns in "Dangerous Kiss, " a high-powered tale of lust, raw anger, family, and bitter revenge.

Customer Reviews:

great book.......2007-08-30

I thought this was a great book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun and entertaining book

Excellent novel.......2004-12-27

As all the Lucky's novels this one is excellent. You won't be able to put down the book until you finish it, JC has the ability to write five different stories in the book, merge all of them at the end of the book and keep you interested in all the stories and willing to read for more.

such a great book.......2003-07-11

From reading some of the reviews the customers have said i was a little sceptical about reading this book, but once i started it i couldnt put it down. i brought it everywhere even to work (something my boss was not thrilled with). i would deffinatly read this book again. personally i think it was the best book out of the whole lucky series. i hope you enjoy reading it like i did!!

1/2.......2002-07-10

Before Dangerous Kiss, every Lucky novel was an improvement from the last. That's why I was hoping for this to be the best Lucky novel, and Lucky could end at her best. Unfortunately, this one almost makes Chances look better!

This is "A Lucky Santangelo Novel", yet Lucky only plays a secondary part. Lucky's persona we all knew and loved in her prior adventures is much more passive, which is a major letdown. Another thing that I must say is that most of the characters crossing over from other Lucky novels serve no point in the novel, and you almost want to yell at the book, wondering why they are wasting pages.

Lucky has been a lot of fun, but I think it is time to leave her be, and move on to bigger and better things.

absolutely marvelous!!!!.......2001-12-26

Dangerous Kiss is so different from the other Lucky Santangelo novels because it does not feature the Bonnatti family. I really loved that it introduced new characters to the world of Lucky Santangelo and Lennie Golden.

Book Description

Handsome, kind, and unassuming, Mr. Gray seemed the answer to Deborah Weyman's prayers. For once she accepted the position he offered, she would finally be safe from the notorious Lord Kendal, a man she had good reason to believe had murdered her former employer -- and was now after her. But there were certain things about Mr. Gray that Deborah should have noticed: the breadth of his shoulders, the steel in his voice, the gleam in his uncommonly blue eyes -- things that might have warned her that Mr. Gray was no savior, but a very dangerous man....

Too tempting to resist...

Though she posed as a dowdy schoolteacher, Lord Kendal saw right through her disguise to the treacherous beauty beneath. Now, convinced that she alone can tell him the truth about Lord Barrington's murder -- and the whereabouts of Barrington's young son -- he coolly masquerades as the innocuous Mr. Gray. And only when it's too late for Deborah to run will she learn what it means to be at his mercy -- and powerless to resist his seduction....

Customer Reviews:

Awful.......2004-11-24

Oh yes, kidnapping and near rape is great for romance. (NOT.) She's a twit, he's an autocratic pig, they spent most of the time bickering, he did some shocking stuff that made it really hard to like him at all...I can't see what the fuss is with this author.

Marvelous Love Story with Loads of Suspense.......2002-12-31

Deborah Weyman had been running for so many years - always running it seemed so that when she met the handsome, kind and unassuming Mr. Grey she thanked her lucky stars for the respite and knew that she could finally rest for a little while from the notorious Lord Kendal whom she had every reason to believe had murdered her former employer. Mr. Grey, now here was a man she could trust - so gentle and considerate of her every comfort as he transported her to his home near the town of Wells. It was the answer to her prayer as it was there in Wells, that she had brought her young ward, Quentin, to keep him safe from his father's murderer until she could find a safe place for them both. It wasn't long before a chance meeting led her to discover that her `savior' Mr. Grey was actually John Grayson, Earl of Kendal the very man she was running from.

After her attempt to escape, she was brought to house where Grey and company did their best to `break' her into revealing where she had hid Quentin. Even though he was acting beastly, Deborah could not help her physical attraction to Gray, nor his to her even though he thought she was an accomplice to the murder. Once they came to the realization that they were both on the same side and Quentin's welfare was for both of them their utmost concern they began to work together to try to trap the real murderer while the passion that they were feeling for each other sizzled beneath the surface.

As if finding a murderer wasn't mystery enough, Gray had to find out who Deborah really was and what else she was running from, before they could ever find a way to find each other.

Again and again, I find this author comes up with another completely enthralling read - gallant, brave and honorable heroes - brave and resourceful heroines and wonderfully colorful and complex secondary characters to keep the pages from ever getting dull. Top it off with passionate love scenes and exciting suspense with a historical background and you have this reader hooked! From beginning to end this was a marvelous story that will keep you up all night long.

DANGEROUS TO START LATE AT NIGHT.......2001-07-29

A great book from a great storyteller. An exciting beginning to this story pulls you in and doesn't let go. A mystery which you will not figure out until the end. A sexy hero and spunky heroine, great sexual tension and love story. For a change the hero falls in love first. Not the same old same old. Wonderful! A keeper! Try Liz Carlyle, Emma Jensen and Karyn Monk for more exciting reading.

Good story, could have been better.......2000-06-12

After witnessing the death of her employer, Governess Deborah Weyman knows the identity of the murderer and whisks her ward Quentin away to safety. Knowing that the murderer, John Gray, the Earl of Kendal, is named Quentin's guardian Deborah must do everything in her power to protect him.

Gray knows he must do something drastic to find Miss Weyman and get Quentin away from his kidnapper. Unknown to him that Deborah believes he is the murderer, he devises a plan to kidnap Deborah and force her to inform his of Quentin's whereabouts. What he didn't expect was for the elderly governess to turn into a beautiful swan.

After realizing her mistake Deborah goes along with Gray's plan to catch her former employer's murderer. But can she keep her own secrets safe while falling deeply in love with Gray?

After reading WHISPER HIS NAME and STRANGERS AT DAWN I decided to go back and read an older book by Elizabeth Thornton. Unfortunately I wasn't as impressed. A good read but not up to par with her newest works

Love this novel.......2000-03-27

I enjoy Thornton's novels very much because of the good mix of compelling characters, hot romance and twisted mistery (and I do mean "twisted"; do not look at the last page first!)

This book does not quite have the poignancy of my favorites "Whisper Your Name", "Bride's Bodyguard" and "Dangerous to Hold", but it is a very well spent evening regardless. You will have trouble putting it down.

Average customer rating:
Dangerous -- Declassified: Dark Kisses
Sylvia Day
Manufacturer: Ellora's Cave Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Erotica | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Dangerous Kiss
Jackie Collins
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Binding: Paperback

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2 HBs by Jackie Collins: Hollywood Wives the New Generation, Dangerous Kiss
Jackie Collins
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: B000VTSN04

Product Description

Hardbacks

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DANGEROUS KISS
Jackie Collins
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Binding: Hardcover

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Dangerous Kiss
Jackie Collins
Manufacturer: Book Club
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ASIN: B000PDB29K

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Dangerous Kiss

Manufacturer: Recorded Books, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: 078879857X

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Dangerous Kiss
Jackie Collins
Manufacturer: Recorded Books
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Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: 078874979X

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Dangerous Kiss
Jackie Collins
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The Earth Will Shake: The History of the Early Illuminati (The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles)
Robert Anton Wilson
Manufacturer: New Falcon Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Wilson, Robert Anton | ( W ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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Email to the Universe

ASIN: 1561841625

Book Description

They have been with us all through history: The "Invisible College" of wisdom, and their adversaries---the destroyers---who rise from the flames to burn again. The history of the world is their story: a conspiracy as vast and all-encompassing as the riddle of time itself.

In Naples, Italy, in 1764, a young aristocrat is about to stumble onto one piece of the great pattern. Through a heartless murder and his passion for the beautiful daughter of his enemy, young Sigismundo Celine uncovers the mystery of the Rossi brigade, former M.A.F.I.A. assassins, and the secret agenda of the dreaded Inquisition.

In the wind of the raging social storm that will soon tear through Europe and America with the flame of revolution, Sigismundo begins his journey of discovery, joined by the boy Mozart, Dr. Frankenstein, Casanova the spy, lover and magician...and a mysterious violet-eyed assassin who calls him "brother."

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The Earth Will Shake: The History of the Early Illuminati
Robert Anton Wilson
Manufacturer: New Amer Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000NZQXEY

Customer Reviews:

Very good.......2005-12-25

Those who tend to disparage the value of this book are doing a disservice to those of us who want to know more about hermeticism and the hermetic tradition and are new comers to this area. Mr. Freke in his introduction clearly states how influential these writings have been. Yes this was written in late antiquity but it incorporates many teachings that would have come from the Mind of Thoth. This book serves as an ideal introductory book for furthur explorations into the hermetic tradition.

Frodo.......2005-08-15

This is a good place to start if one is interested in this subject. I have a few other books on Egyptian religious traditions which I plan to read. This one seems to depict a generally gnostic tradition with a "godhead" we are all connected to...our common source and connection.

Nothing new.......2005-08-11

With all the hype surrounding this ancient text in Hermetic circles, I felt it was a "must-read". Maybe I could find some new little nugget of sacred knowledge. I didn't.

If you're well read in other ancient sacred texts, you'll find the same old stuff churned out here. Some may marvel at the similarities between, say, the Tao te Ching and this work, but if you're looking for something new forgedaboutit!

Please note that I am not criticising the accuracy or editing of the translation (I am not knowledgable enough) I just think its one of those books that, after finishing, you cannot help but think: "Been there...Done that."

Misinformed.......2004-07-04

I have not read the book itself, but by reading the description on the back cover it is obvious that the publishers, if not the author himself, are misinformed.

The Hermetica is not an ANCIENT Egyptian text, as the description indicates, but was rather written in late antiquity, in the early centuries AD. That said, it WAS written in Egypt.

The writings were highly influential, and many Renaissance Humanists and Neoplatonists studied them closely--Ranaissance scholars DID believe them to be of Ancient Egyptian origins, however as stated previously, this is not the case.

That said, the book itself might be useful and relevant, but the back cover description error throws the rest of the book into serious question, even as a popular as opposed to scholarly take on the subject.

I would strongly recommend that interested people purchase a different translation--there are a number of translations that come up on the search, any one of them would probably be more accurate and useful than this one.

Exercise your powers.......2003-11-26

I have this super-power, you see.... It's called biblio-optical-gnosis....that means that I can judge a book by it's cover. If you guys can't tell this book is a new-age money maker to scam the gullible from just looking at this cheesey, too-bright cartoon cover...then, well, you don't have the same magic power that I do... sorry friends.

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