The Virgin Blue

Description

Meet Ella Turner and Isabelle du Moulin—two women born centuries apart, yet bound by a fateful family legacy. When Ella and her husband move to a small town in France, Ella hopes to brush up on her French, qualify to practice as a midwife, and start a family of her own. Village life turns out to be less idyllic than she expected, however, and a peculiar dream of the color blue propels her on a quest to uncover her family’s French ancestry. As the novel unfolds—alternating between Ella’s story and that of Isabelle du Moulin four hundred years earlier—a common thread emerges that unexpectedly links the two women. Part detective story, part historical fiction, The Virgin Blue is a novel of passion and intrigue that compels readers to the very last page.“A beautifully crafted story shot with vivid colors.” —The Times (London)

“Such an achievement for a serious writer that you feel it deserves an award.” —The Independent (London)

"I was born and grew up in Washington, DC. After getting a BA in English from Oberlin College (Ohio), I moved to London, England in 1984. I intended to stay 6 months; I’m still here.

"As a kid I’d often said I wanted to be a writer because I loved books and wanted to be associated with them. I wrote the odd story in high school, but it was only in my twenties that I started writing ‘real’ stories, at night and on weekends. Sometimes I wrote a story in a couple evenings; other times it took me a whole year to complete one.

"Once I took a night class in creative writing, and a story I’d written for it was published in a London-based magazine called Fiction. I was thrilled, even though the magazine folded 4 months later.

I worked as a reference book editor for several years until 1993 when I left my job and did a year-long MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia in Norwich (England). My tutors were the English novelists Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain. For the first time in my life I was expected to write every day, and I found I liked it. I also finally had an idea I considered ‘big’ enough to fill a novel. I began The Virgin Blue during that year, and continued it once the course was over, juggling writing with freelance editing.

"An agent is essential to getting published. I found my agent Jonny Geller through dumb luck and good timing. A friend from the MA course had just signed on with him and I sent my manuscript of The Virgin Blue mentioning my friend’s name. Jonny was just starting as an agent and needed me as much as I needed him. Since then he’s become a highly respected agent in the UK and I’ve gone along for the ride."

Tracy Chevalier is the New York Times bestselling author of six previous novels, including Girl with a Pearl Earring, which has been translated into thirty-nine languages and made into an Oscar-nominated film. Her latest novel is The Last Runaway. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., she lives in London with her husband and son.

INTRODUCTION

Before she introduced the world to Griet, the heroine of her New York Times bestselling novel Girl With a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier wrote another book, never published in the United States. “A beautiful story shot with vivid colors,” (The Times, London) The Virgin Blue is a novel of passion and intrigue that compels readers to the very last page.

The Virgin Blue, Tracy Chevalier transports us back to 16th-century France during the development of the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent persecution of the Huguenotsfollowers of John Calvin’s preaching of the “Truth.” Isabelle du Moulin—called “La Rousse” for her copper-colored hair—is tormented and shunned by her hardworking, God-fearing Huguenot community, suspicious of her lingering adoration for the Virgin Mary, her skills at midwifery, her mysterious association with wild wolves, and her fiery red hair. Pregnant with an illegitimate child, Isabelle marries above her station—into the severe Tournier family, outwardly stoic followers of the Truth who covertly adhere to older, pagan superstitions.

More than four centuries later, Ella Turner, an American, and her husband Rick move to a small town in France. While in France, Ella hopes to brush up on her French, qualify to practice as a midwife, and start a family. Village life turns out to be less than idyllic when dreams of a disturbing color blue get between her and her plans. Her nightmares of the color blue, and her father’s suggestion, lead Ella investigate her French Huguenot ancestry, trace their flight into Switzerland following the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, and unearth the sinister secret the family has buried for four hundred years. However, this task is not an easy one. Ella, knowing little more than her family’s original surname, Tournier, begins her research at a local library, finding only a negligible amount of information on her ancestry. During her quest, she befriends Jean Paul—a dark, handsome, Byronic librarian, whose magnetism becomes increasingly difficult to resist—and discovers too many parallels with the past to dismiss as coincidence. The one afternoon, Ella discovers her brown hair inexplicably begun to turn red…

Alternating between the stories of Ella and Isabelle, The Virgin Blue is a haunting tale of ancestral legacies set against a dazzlingly descriptive portrait of French provincial life today, as well as of the hardships—and harsh beauty—of life in the sixteenth century.

 

ABOUT TRACY CHEVALIER

Tracy Chevalier is the New York Times bestselling author of Girl With A Pearl Earring and Falling Angels(both available in Plume editions). Born and raised in Washington, D.C., she earned her undergraduate degree from Oberlin College in Ohio and holds a graduate degree in creative writing from the University of East Anglia. She lives in London with her husband and son.

 

AN INTERVIEW WITH TRACY CHEVALIER

What kind of research did you do for this book?

I read a lot about the growth of Protestantism in the 16th century and the plight of the French Huguenots, who were forced to flee in two waves from France—after 1572 and after 1685. Then I spent a few weeks in southern France, finding a town for Ella to live in, wandering in the mountains of the Cevennes, searching for Nicolas Tournier’s paintings in Toulouse, and also for traces of my own family in the archives of the Cevennes. I even had a raucous evening in the jazz bar where Jean-Paul takes Ella—though alas, I found no handsome piano player.

What inspired you to set the setting for The Virgin Blue?

My Chevalier ancestors are from Moutier in Switzerland—in fact my father was born there and I still have relatives in the area. The family story is that we are Huguenots originally from the Cevennes, so I thought I would set the story there, even if the story is not actually about the Chevaliers. I found no trace of them in the Cevennes, in fact, but I loved the area.

Is the character of Jean Paul based on anyone you have known?

Ha! No, just the usual fantasy of the tall dark stranger. Actually I made him look like a Spanish friend of a friend, a man I only met once very briefly. I often do that—I will borrow characteristics and looks from people I don’t know very well—not from close friends.

Do you identify with either Isabelle or Ella?

Both, I would say; though I don’t have an obsession with the Virgin Mary! (I do love the color blue.) I also feel I’ve grown a lot since writing this book, and am much more comfortable living as a foreigner in England than Ella is living in France. But I understand their feeling of otherness, of standing apart from the societies they live in.

What are you working on now?

I’ve just finished a novel set in 15th-century Paris and Brussels, about a set of medieval tapestries, called The Lady and the Unicorn. So it’s back to France again.

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Discuss the commonalities between Isabelle and Ella. Do you feel that they mirror each other?
 

Compare Isabelle’s 16th century France to Ella’s modern day France. Are there any similarities? Differences?
 

Do you think Ella is harsh on Rick for his inability to understand her? Do you think she is justified in her behavior?
 

Does your opinion of Jean Paul fluctuate throughout the novel?
 

How Ella’s goal of getting pregnant interrupted? What does the interruption say about her feeling toward Rick?
 

How do the locals in France receive Ella? Does Rick have the same experience? Would Ella have known what the locals were saying about her without Jean Paul telling her?
 

Describe Ella’s relationship with her cousin Jacob like? How do he and his wife help Ella feel “at home”?
 

Discuss the significance of Ella’s hair gradually turning red. Discuss her reaction. What is Rick’s reaction?
 

Who do you consider to be the heroine of this novel?
 

What was your reaction to Ella finding Marie? What was your reaction to Ella showing Sylvie Marie’s bones?
 

Why does Ella get psoriasis? What does it represent? How does it make her feel about herself? How does Rick react to it?
 

Hannah’s last audible words are “we are safe”. Why does she stop speaking?
 

How does Ella know that the baby she conceived is Rick’s and not Jean Paul’s? Do you think she’d rather be pregnant with Jean Paul’s baby?
 

Why does Ella steal Jean Paul’s blue shirt? How does this link them metaphorically?
 

Discuss Rick’s reaction to Ella’s affair with Jean Paul.
 

Overall, do you consider this to be Ella’s story or Isabelle’s story?

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