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Janeeny (200 KP) rated The Illumination Of Ursula Flight in Books

May 8, 2019

The Illumination Of Ursula Flight

Anna-Marie Crowhurst | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Humor & Comedy

9.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

The strong female characters (0 more)

Even though this book has a nice looking cover I can’t say that it is a book I would have picked up myself
The Goodreads blurb reads

“Born on the night of an ill-auguring comet just before Charles II's Restoration, Ursula Flight has a difficult future written in the stars.

Against the custom of the age she begins an education with her father, who fosters in her a love of reading, writing and astrology.

Following a surprise meeting with an actress, Ursula yearns for the theatre and thus begins her quest to become a playwright despite scoundrels, bounders, bad luck and heartbreak.”

On the face of it it sounds like a ‘coming of age’ historical drama, which it essentially was, and not in an era I really have much an interest in. So it was nice to read something a little out of my comfort zone.

As the blurb says, Ursula is a young girl with aspirations of the stage. Unfortunately for Ursula her parents have a life planned for her and being a lowly actress is not one of them. The story follows Ursula's struggles to follow her parents wishes whilst trying to stay true to herself.

I loved the way this was written, its told from Ursula's point of view and interspersed with little snippets of play writing by Ursula. Ursula is a very strong character that is way ahead of the era she lives in. What I loved most about this book was near the end, i won't spoil it, but suffice to say I think the author was very clever with the ending she chose.

To summarise, it’s a well written well reserached coming of aged historical drama with a strong female lead and an admirable feminist message.