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Anya Seton

Avalon Hardcover – June 1, 1965

by Anya Seton (Author)

494 ratings

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During the period of conflict and exploration in the late-tenth century, a shipwreck brings a French prince into the life of a Cornish peasant

Print length

440 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Houghton Mifflin
Publication date

June 1, 1965
ISBN-10

039508170X
ISBN-13

978-0395081709
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Houghton Mifflin; Book Club Edition. (June 1, 1965)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 440 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 039508170X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0395081709
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.41 pounds

Best Sellers Rank: #260,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,977 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #14,228 in Historical Romances
- #26,085 in Historical Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
494 ratings

About the author

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Anya Seton

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Anya Seton (January 23, 1904 – November 8, 1990) was the pen name of Ann Seton Chase, an American author of historical romances, or as she preferred they be called, "biographical novels".

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

5 star		53%
4 star		27%
3 star		14%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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tilla

I Had No Idea

Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2018

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Honestly, you start a book called Avalon and what do you think you'll be reading? I imagined something about Arthur or one of his descendants - in other words a fantasy. Instead, I got a brilliantly written history lesson that didn't feel like a lesson at all. It's part history, part romance and part geography. Pay attention and you may learn more than you'd think and not feel like you're sitting through a class.

It's a fascinating book and one I'll probably pick up and read again.

54 people found this helpful

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Steven R. Lindahl

A wonderful historic novel set in Viking era England, Ireland, Greenland, and a brief stay in North America

Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2016

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Years ago I read two books by Anya Seton: Katherine and My Theodosia. I remember loving both of those and I'm currently working on my own novel set in tenth century Sweden and England. I decided to read Avalon partly as research and partly because I knew I would enjoy it. In my memory, the other two Seton novels were more powerful than this one, but that could be due to the span of years since I read them. In any case, this is a five star read.

The plot tells the story of Rumon, a French nobleman, and Merewyn, a young Cornish woman, whom we first meet as a teenager. Rumon, whose formal name is Romieux de Provence, is on his way to serve in the court of Edgar I, the current King of England. He encounters Merewyn, whose mother has just died. Rumon agrees to bring the young woman to her Aunt Merwinna, the current Abbess of Romsey Abbey.

As with Anya Seton's other novels, this is fiction based on historic fact. Many of the characters are historic figures. I believe Merewyn is fictional, but Rumon has some connection to a real character. The story also includes King Edgar I, King Edward (Edgar's son), Queen Alfrida, King Ethelred (Alfrida's son by Edgar – known as “the unready”), Dunstan (the Archbishop of Canterbury), Erik the Red, and Leif Erikson (Erik's son). The settings include England, Ireland, Greenland, and a brief stay in North America. The history of this era has conflicts and voids, but I felt that Anya Seton did an excellent job of resolving those. Avalon feels accurate in historic fact, portrayal of the hardships people faced at that time, and in the personalities of the characters, both fictional and real.

Steve Lindahl – author of Hopatcong Vision Quest, White Horse Regressions, and Motherless Soul

65 people found this helpful

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Meme

Not for me

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2018

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Too much animal cruelty for me and very unnecessary. Book would have been much better without. Doubt that I will buy another book by this author.

36 people found this helpful

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Good Quality Historical Fiction

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2014

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What a pleasant surprise this was! A very entertaining book, well written, well researched, and with generally realistic characterizations.

I only knew Anya Seton through two works: a very bad 1946 movie version of Dragonwyck and the (in my opinion) highly-overrated “Katherine.” Dragonwyck may be a good novel, I don’t know, but it was a very confused, choppy movie (a major character disappears midway through the movie and is never mentioned again). “Katherine” was about Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, and I found it to be shallow and trite (Katherine is so beautiful that men either lose control and rape her, or almost lose control and rape her), and sadly laughable in its view of romanticism (she falls in love with a man who raped her).

I owned Avalon for quite some time before I started reading it, what with two loser Setons on my record. However, once I started, I couldn’t put it down. It starts as a very conventional romance. Handsome Romieux de Provence, descended from royalty, leaves his home in Normandy to seek Avalon, a peaceful paradise he has dreamed of, as well as to escape the pressures to become a warrior knight. He is shipwrecked and manages to reach the shore in Cornwall, but he has lost most of his possessions and now he himself is lost. He comes upon a young woman returning home with her servant from a pilgrimage. He shares their road.

The young woman is Merewyn, who also is believed to be descended from royalty, and not just any royal, but the blessed King Arthur himself. She now lives in isolated poverty with her crippled and ailing mother, for whose sake Merewyn had been on pilgrimage. Rumon (as Romieux is now called) accompanies her home and Merewyn’s dying mother exacts a promise from him to take Merewyn to her only living relative, an abbess. Rumon grudgingly agrees; he would rather be on his way, and he resents being delayed from his quest.

Rumon is always exquisitely attired, and he is artistic, educated, intelligent, and spiritual. Merewyn, of course, is in awe of the elegant and refined Rumon, and soon is hopelessly in love with him. Rumon is above such things, and certainly above the illiterate and shabby Merewyn. He expects great things to happen in his life and yearns to find his Avalon, his paradise.

Will he find Avalon? Does it exist? Will he ever return Merewyn’s love? How long will she wait?

Here the conventional romance story of (potentially) star-crossed lovers grows into a fascinating historical novel. They arrive at the court of the English king Edgar, where Merewyn is to meet her aunt. Rumon all but forgets Merewyn, and, instead, becomes first infatuated and soon obsessed with Edgar’s beautiful young second wife, Alfrida. Alfrida encourages his interest, but she has other things in mind. Let’s just say she’s not very nice. She does, however, take an interest in Merewyn, and asks her to stay at court as one of her ladies.

Nothing goes as either Merewyn or Rumon planned.

This is a fascinating, but little known, period of English history. Rumon, Edgar, Alfrida, and Merewyn’s aunt are all historical figures. So I will talk a little about the history, since most people don’t know it, and it’s good to know some of it before reading the book. Edgar died, leaving Edward, the son of his first wife as his heir. A few years later (in the year 978), when Alfrida’s son was about ten to twelve years old, King Edward was murdered. Alfrida was blamed by the chroniclers of the age, in part because it is always convenient to blame a woman. Alfrida certainly may have been part of the plot as her son was then left to inherit the throne, but she certainly was not solely responsible. In this book, Alfrida is pure evil, but in real life, she appears to have been pious and responsible for many charitable acts and donations. That’s not to say she’s sweet innocence.

Alfrida’s son, Ethelred, became king (“Ethelred the Unready”), and his reign was a disaster. How much of that was actually the fault of Ethelred is debated. A major incident in his reign was the St. Brice’s Day Massacre. Many Danes and other “Viking” people were living peaceably in England; however, the Danes sometimes still conducted raids in England. Ethelred chose to pay the leaders to stay away, essentially paying tribute. In return, the Danish king left his sister and her family in England as hostages. Then, on St. Brice’s Day in 1002, Ethelred ordered the extermination of the Danes living in England. The Danish king’s sister was among the murdered, and the Viking raids on England began again in earnest.

These events and many more affect the lives of Rumon and Merewyn. Their stories are intertwined with the real-life characters mentioned (and Rumon himself is a historical figure, although the early events of the real Rumon’s life are unknown and completely fictionalized in this novel). Many other historical figures are involved as well, including the Vikings Erik the Red (who founded colonies in Iceland) and his son, the explorer Leif Erikson (who explored North America). All of these figures affect the paths on which Merewyn and Rumon find themselves.

Except for Alfrida, who is two-dimensional evil, and Erik the Red’s daughter, Freydis, who is an evil pervert, the characters are well drawn and believable. Freydis is herself a remarkable character about whom history has left conflicting stories. There’s no doubt she was one tough cookie.

This is a sweeping saga that brings to life a little-known and exciting (sometimes in a good way and sometimes in a bad way) period of history. It seems very well-researched and authentic. It is an intelligent and entertaining read and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys good quality, factually-based historical fiction.

56 people found this helpful

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Kathleen M. Newman

OK to read if you don't like happy endings.

Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2017

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I hate books where everyone always makes mistakes that screw up their lives. And in this book, every character makes mistakes from the minute they are introduced. However, Seton has an excellent sense of the time period and her writing is beautiful.

28 people found this helpful

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Jen

Uneven book

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2019

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This was honestly not what I was expecting. It wasn't bad exactly, but there were several points where I wasn't sure where the story was going and who the "romance" was supposed to be between. This story follows Merewyn and Rumon, who meet when Merewyn is just a young teen, and I suppose they are supposed to be the love story...except that they never seem to be in love with each other. First, Merewyn pines while Rumon carries on an affair with the queen, then Rumon goes chasing after Merewyn when she's kidnapped by Vikings, only to find her happily married...so he becomes a monk. Honestly, this story was all over the place plot and character-wise. That said, it gets an extra star for the section about Merewyn's life on Iceland and Greenland, which I would have preferred a whole book of.

10 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Gwenrichardson

Avalon

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 1, 2022

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Avalon by Anya is a very interesting story about the history of the Vikings and the Norse men and women I love history especially from them early century 10 and 11

One person found this helpful

Kindle Customer

A jewel of a book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 8, 2021

Verified Purchase

Narrated with the flavour of Icelandic sagas, this book was a joy to read and a shame to reach the end of

One person found this helpful

Pat 142

Great story, well written.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

This was the first historical novel I read in my teens long ago. Loved it and started on a lifetime of reading hundreds of good (and bad!) authors. Bought this as a gift for my great niece who struggles to finish a book.

One person found this helpful

Elizabeth Frazer

Corny, but she knows how to get you turning the pages.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2018

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Corny, but she knows how to get you turning the pages.

Glo

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 5, 2016

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