Reviews

Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan

texreader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is a fictional account of the lives of Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny, told from her perspective. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to read Treasure Island, and really don’t have any great desire to read his books. Even so, this book was fascinating! It explored his very sickly life and his very independent wife who quite literally saved him by taking to the high seas despite her awful sea sickness. And it’s a story of Fanny’s own traumatic life experiences and frightening health scare. Ultimately, moving again and again to find a place where RLS will not just survive but thrive, they build a home in Samoa. This was a well-written and very interesting novel that I highly recommend even for those who are not RLS fans. 

lisagray68's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

lace_m_3's review against another edition

4.0

Horan's words bring Robert Louis Stevenson into living color. His relationship with his wife, Fanny, is both endearing and quite romantic. I suppose that was the overall feeling of the book for me- romantic. Despite severe illness, extensive traveling, fame and insanity they stuck it out together. I had to keep reminding myself that this was a novel- mostly because Horan sews so many facts seamlessly into the storyline. I spent about an hour online researching the two of them just to find out what was real! I also feel compelled to read Treasure Island for the first time.

apple0loving0shinigami's review against another edition

2.0

A tale of the life of Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife, Fanny. This is actually the first book of semifiction, real love story I've ever read and it's safe to say that, It will probably be the last. I believe that Horan kept true to the real, historical facts, but even though a lot of things happened in the book, I felt like nothing really happened. In a way, this book just served the purpose to teach me historical things I didn't know (about Stevenson's wife). It is a classic story of a strong woman who is forgotten by history. While everyone knows the works of Stevenson, no one knows that his wife was a writer as well. She was also an artist. Her life was turbulent and intricate. Stevenson was kinda passive in the story.
There were a couple of instances where I thought there will be more tension and action (for example: when Fanny's lover came to America to see her while she was still with her husband, or when after her divorce she married Louis and had to meet his parents), but it ended up being meh. She was 11 years older than Stevenson and had a couple of children from her previous marriage, so meeting his parents at first sounded like a dreadful idea. Despite that it was just that, the difficult parts and the conflicts were kinda skipped or brushed over. It was a boring read for me and I was anxious to finish it. .


"My mother is my father’s wife. And the children of lovers are orphans." - N. Horan

jgtruesdell's review against another edition

3.0

Faithful to history and Robert Louis Stevenson's "Story" but it was just missing something for me. I felt no connection to the characters at all.

illusie's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed this book, but it is a bit too long. In the end it feels like it is dragging on.

chapita4's review against another edition

1.0

Life is way too short to plod through a book that doesn't hold your interest. This one did nothing for me and I quit about 1/2 way through...mostly because it was a library lend and the due date was coming up soon. I don't really have a specific complaint about the book, just wasn't my cup of tea and I felt nothing for the characters.

booksrockcal's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is the story of Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife, Fanny Osborne. They met in France where Fanny and her children had fled to escape her philandering husband in California and Stevenson was spending time in an artists and writers colony attempting to follow his dream of becoming a writer despite just having completed a law degree at his wealthy and proper Edinburgh parents’ behest. RLS became smitten with Fanny, a strong and independent woman ten years his senior who returned to California after her husband visited France - Stevenson follows her when the marriage falters and after her divorce they get married and spend the rest of their days traveling in search of better health for RLS. In the meantime he writes the books that make him famous helped by Fanny- from England to Hawaii and finally to the South Pacific, where Stevenson died at age 44 from a brain hemorrhage.  I’m not sure how I missed this book because I have loved Stevenson and his books - and have been fascinated with his life- since I visited his house in Monterey where he stayed while waiting to Fanny’s divorce when I was 9. And I loved his poetry especially the children’s verse. I listened to this book on audio part of the time and the performer said Nevada wrong -using the East Coast pronunciation, not the one used by Nevadans (IYKYK) and she also said Edinburgh wrong. That did bother me. 
And here is the epitaph on Stevesnon’s grave , I have always loved  this poem

Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

book_concierge's review against another edition

2.0

Book on CD performed by Kirsten Potter.
2.5**

This work of historical fiction tells the story of the relationship of Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne and Robert Louis Stevenson. It begins when Fanny leaves her philandering husband in San Francisco, and sails to Belgium with her children and their nanny, so that she can study art. Eventually she finds herself in an artists’ community in France, where she meets Stevenson, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I really liked Horan’s earlier book - [book:Loving Frank|898885] - about Mamah Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright. Once again Horan turns her attentions to a man who was difficult to live with, and a woman who was conflicted about her life with that man. It should have been interesting, but this book somehow failed to capture me. I didn’t really care about either Fanny or Louis, and got tired of their many travails while I waited for them to get on with life. They finally get to Samoa in Chapter 65, just over 100 pages from the end of the book. I know that it was but a short period in their lives, but I would have liked much more about their lives in Samoa.

Kirsten Potter does a fine job narrating the audio book. She has good pacing, and sufficient skill as a voice artist to bring the characters to life. Four stars for her performance.

be_art's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0