Virgin Earth: First Edition

by Gregory, Philippa

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St. Martin's Press, 1999. First Edition. Hard Cover. Like New/Good. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING HARDCOVER. 'First U.S. Edition: December 1999' stated with full number line (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1) on copyright page, $26.95 list price on dust jacket flap. Like new hardcover in very good dust jacket. Remainder mark on page base, light crease down rear dust jacket flap, otherwise dust jacket looks attractive under fresh mylar. "John Tradescant the Younger has inherited his father's unique collection of plants along with his unerring ability to nurture them. But as gardener to Charles I, he confronts an unbearable dilemma when England descends into Civil War. Fleeing from the chaos, John travels to the Royalist colony of Virginia in America. But the virgin land is not uninhabited. John's plant hunting takes him into the world of the native people--a world he learns to value just as it comes under threat from the colonial settlers. In both the new world and the old, the established order is breaking down and every family has to find its own way to survive. For the Tradescants, through the upheavals of the Commonwealth and the Restoration, this means consolidating their reputations as the greatest gardeners in the country. In this enthralling, free-standing sequel to Earthly Joys, Philippa Gregory again delivers a tour-de-force of powerful politics, personal discovery, and glorious gardening, brilliantly evoking the uncertainties and emotions of these turbulent times." "In the stand-alone sequel to her Earthly Joys, Gregory follows royal gardener John Tradescant the Younger back and forth across the Atlantic between colonial Virginia and war-torn England. When John first travels to Virginia to collect exotic plants in 1638, his guide is a beautiful young Indian girl named Suckahanna. After transporting his specimens to England, he plans to return and marry her, but once at home, he learns that his father has died, leaving a letter suggesting that John marry the efficient Hester Pooks. Needing someone to care for his two children by a previous marriage, as well as for the Tradescant collection of rare objects and the Ark, the family's famous garden, John weds Hester. Meanwhile, the foolish, tyrannical King Charles I is dragging England into a civil war, and John, as a trusted servant, is pulled unwillingly into his service. To avoid having to fight for a cause he does not believe in, John returns to Virginia and Suckahanna, leaving Hester and his children back in England. In Virginia he tries to start a plantation, but having no idea how to live off the land, nears death before he is rescued by the Powhatan, Suckahanna's people. Once again John must choose sides in a war, this time between the Powhatan and the English. John is torn between them, just as he is torn between the two women in each of those separate realms. This hefty epic illuminates the conflicts of the 17th century with clear prose and a believable cast of characters, and will draw in casual readers and lovers of history alike." -- Publishers Weekly