The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon - Review

The Rose of Sebastopol

by Katharine McMahon

Publisher: Putnam Adult

Publication Date: March 5, 2009

ISBN: 978-0399155468

384 pages

Fiction

Summary (From the Back Cover):

Eager to escape the confines of life as a lady in Victorian London, headstrong and spirited Rosa Barr travels to the Crimean battlefields with Florence Nightingale's nursing corps.

For Mariella Lingwood, Rosa's cousin, such regulation is solace, and the war remains neatly limited to the pages of her scrapbook. But she's soon drawn into the turmoil abroad when she too leaves for the Crimea, to care for her ailing fiance, a surgeon working in the shadow of the guns. Upon her arrival though, Rosa is nowhere to be found. As Mariella's quest to find Rosa leads deeper into the dark heart of the conflict, her ordered world begins to crumble, and she finds she has much to learn about secrecy, fidelity, and love.

My Opinion:

The Rose of Sebastopol is character driven fiction, there's no doubt about it. Slow moving from the beginning, the reader is introduced to the main character Mariella who is the epitome of propriety. She is well-mannered, sedate, and polite. The only thing she likes more than her sewing is chatting with the man she has worshiped since she was a little girl.

Her life seems to be planned out for her from beginning to end, much like the sewing patterns that she follows, and that is just the way Mariella likes things - predictable and unexciting. All of that changes when Mariella's cousin Rosa comes into her life.

Rosa is vibrant, mischievous, fun-loving and disobedient. Rosa's story is really the story of this novel.

The timeline jumps back and forth and we get to see Mariella and Rosa's relationship when they were children, and then their friendship as adults ten years later. For the first 180 pages of this book I was mystified as to the true nature of Rosa's character. In that first section of the book I found that I could relate more to Rosa than to Mariella, but it was hard to determine if Rosa was to be a heroine or a villain.

I had so many questions about Rosa. Here are some of the questions I jotted down as I was reading: Who is Rosa? Is she selfish or selfless? What is the nature of her relationship with her stepbrother and stepfather? What is the nature of her relationship with Mariella? And what in the world happens to Rosa and Henry in the war?

After jotting down these questions I realized that Rosa is really at the heart of this book. The mystery of this novel is not just about why Rosa disappeared and what happened to her, it is about who Rosa is. At this point in the book (about page 182 - this is also the point where Mariella finally leaves for Crimea) I was enthralled - I just had to know what it was that made Rosa tick! From that point on the book didn't seem slow to me anymore.

I also wanted to see Mariella's character develop, but her emergence from her shell of Victorian propriety was a long time coming. If I had any complaint about this book it would be that Mariella's character seemed flat at times. I think this may have been done on purpose though as a contrast to Rosa's invigorating personality.

I loved this character-driven novel, but like I said it was a little bit slow in the beginning. If you are going to pick up this book, don't give up on it in the first half. Just savor the beautiful writing, and pay attention to all of the details about Rosa from the beginning of the book. Those details will help you to understand more about her as the book comes to a conclusion.

If you like character-driven fiction then I think you will enjoy this book.

Rating: 4/5

Author Information:

For Information about Katharine McMahon and her books, please visit her website.


*I received a free copy of this book for review*