Rating: 
Summary: Contrived coincidences of the French connection
Review: Well, it's not Girl with the Pearl Earring, that's for sure, but still, I liked this one. Perhaps it's the lure of midwifery that pulled me in (I'm a midwife and author of BABY CATCHER: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife, Scribner 2002), but I found the parallel stories of Ella and Isabelle captivating. Ella's story is told in present-day 1st person, while Isabelle's is told in 16th Century 3rd person. Both women are midwives, struggling with displacement and parallel desires. Ella is driven by a recurrent dream in blue, the typical blue color in which the Virgin Mary's robes are painted, to delve into her past and finds many coincidental connections with Isabelle.
Worthwhile; not stellar.
Rating: 
Summary: Uneven story of two women 400 years apart
Review: I was disappointed with this novel because Chevalier had a pretty good premise, and the stories of both Isabelle and Ella could have been much better developed to make them more intriguing and compelling. I suppose that it is disappointing because Chevalier did such a good job in her novel "Girl with a Pearl Earring", even though I thought that she missed by a wide margin with "Falling Angels".
I consider "Virgin Blue" uneven because she does not really develop the stories nor the characters of Isabelle and Ella very well, and does even less with the secondary characters in the stories. For example, she never really makes it clear why Ella leaves her husband. All is well until Ella and her husband move to France. Granted, a move to a foreign country, even if the language is familiar, can still be unsettling and it takes time to adapt, not just to the language but the culture, the way of life, the way of thinking, etc. My impression of Ella is that she did not feel that she fit in (she really did not give it much of a chance), was not working, became very interested in things briefly, then dropped them, and had an affair not because anything was really wrong with her marriage but out of boredom! I could understand her decision to research her family background, but not her sudden decision to become more French by changing the spelling of her surname! It is not that easy.
The way Chevalier developed Isabelle and her storyline also puzzled me. Like one of the other reviewers, I too wondered why she married Etienne. She would have inherited the farm, and this would have been an attraction for other suitors--she would not have been limited to Etienne. I could not understand why she would have sex with and later marry someone who made fun of her because of the color of her hair, feared her for the same reason, demonstrated only cruelty towards her, mocked her faith (in Catholicism), forbid her from practicing both her religion and her trade (as a midwife), etc.
The novel was uneven in other ways. Chevalier pulls no punches when she writes about Etienne's brutality towards Isabelle (sexually and physically) and his own daughter (who also has the same red hair as Isabelle), yet I completely missed the part in which Isabelle becomes pregnant by the shepherd! I understood that they met by chance, but there was nothing to indicate that there was anything more intimate to their meeting....yet Chevalier describes very graphically an encounter between Isabelle and Etienne, as well as how cold and brutal he was to her when they first began having sex...
I also felt that the death of Marie, Isabelle's daughter was vague. Did the wolf kill her? Did her father kill her, then bury her body in the hearth? Perhaps Chevalier did this deliberately, to leave readers guessing, and normally I love a good mystery or novel that leaves issues open, but this was not leaving a well-written, fully developed story with complex characters and issues--it was as if Chevalier could not decide how she wanted the story to go, so she left it as it was, uneven and unfinished.
The story had a great premise, and she handled the parallel stories of Ella and Isabelle well, threading them together nicely. It is too bad that the rest of it (characters, plot, themes, etc.) were done so poorly.
If Chevalier was recommended to you, try "Girl with a Pearl Earring" instead for a much better developed and written story.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling
Review: The Virgin Blue was Tracy Chevalier's first novel and I found it to be a pleasurable read. She is very descriptive without being long-winded and creates such an intimate atmosphere that you are captivated for the entire book.
Some may say the modern day heroine Ella is only concerned with trite problems and due to this trait she's not a likeable character. I argue that we are all like Ella in the sense that we are consumed with finding our niche in society. That is what makes Ella a realistic character. Ella didn't move to a small village in France and have everything fall into place right away. She had to struggle and she had to acclimate to the new lifestyle that she had. Of course she is going to feel whiney and absorbed with herself. Sometimes the smallest problems can make a person feel like the world is ending.
Ella's ancestor Isabelle's story takes place 400 years ago. Her husband is distant, abusive, and hard and like Ella, Isabelle did not fit in with society. I could feel her pain and isolation with every betrayal. Isabelle and Ella share so much in common that it is eerie especially as Ella digs more and more into her families history.
Tracy Chevalier has grown to be one of my favorite authors and I have read all of her books and never has one of them disappointed me. The Virgin Blue should be followed by another one of her novels such as Fallen Angels.
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT READ, DESPITE A FEW FLAWS
Review: This is a marvelous story of two women, Isabelle and Ella, separated by four hundred years, but connected familially, professionally, emotionally, and spiritually. Each in her own time has a story to tell, of troubled marriages, desires, religious connections, and living as an outsider. Ultimately their two stories collide, bringing to the surface each woman's essential truth. I found myself very connected to these women, and their stories. In some respect this book reminded me of "The French Lieutenant's Wife," a favorite of mine from long ago. I do have one objection. The reader learns more about Isabelle than does Ella (our modern day heroine)and yet, at the end, Ella knows more about Isabelle than she should have known, if you follow the storyline. As one example, there is nothing to suggest that Ella should have known that Isabelle's mother-in-law was mute, and yet she depicts this woman as such. There are a half dozen such inconsistencies in the book, which makes the reader ultimately feel that the book was not as well crafted as it could have been. That objection aside, the storyline was fluid and this was an altogether great read.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful premise, annoying characters.
Review: In Tracy Chevalier's first novel she shows more skill in creating a premise than in creating believable characters. Ella Turner comes from America to France with her husband and discovers a powerful connection to her Huguenot ancestor that leads her to a farmhouse in Switzerland. The story is great. Unfortunately Ella is shallow and annoying. She lives in fear that the French residents of her small town might be able to figure out that she is American. She is insulted by even the most innocent behavior. She has no better explanation for her growing estrangement from her husband than comparing it to the facination a teenager has, and then loses, with a new album. (By the way, she also can not define metaphor). The husband in question is so two-dimensionally perfect that he belongs on the cover of a romance novel. Isabelle, Ella's ancestor is more interesting; at least she has real conflict in her life and does not have to manfacture drama out of self-absorption. But she does not act in ways that are consistent with her character. She is strong and independent, trained by her mother as a midwife and encouraged and supported by a loving father when, for no reason imaginable, she marries a brutal, abusive bore and settles in with a family that openly despises her. Chevalier does not give Etienne and single positive trait: charm, good looks, intelligence, that might draw Isabelle. His family is slightly more well off, but Isabelle, as the sole heir to her father's farm, is not destitute and, moreover, she does not appear to be motivated by money. I couldn't stand Ella. I wanted to like Isabelle but she made no sense. I found the book frustrating and unsastisfying.
Rating:
Summary: Strange title
Review: This book has a strange title. The book is about a young Catholic girl growing up in France when it was mostly Protestant, and the trials and tribulations of this. The books also tells the tale of a girl who moves to France and searches for her family and how they intertwine. Not my favorite from this author but not the worst I ever read either.
Rating: 
Summary: A Beautiful mixture of Genres
Review: In Tracy Chevalier's first novel (previously unpublished in the US), she has created a beautiful mystery that seems an intersection of the historical, the romantic, the mysterious, and the artistic. Ella and Isabel are are wonderfully complex characters. It is the similarities and dissimilarities in their charactrization (and in their stories...) that drive the novel to it's mysterious and wonderful conclusion. This is a book that you will want to read again just to see what you missed the first time. The only shortfall in the book is my own lack of skill with the French language. Chevalier often translates through her characters, but there are points in the novel that need clarification.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Tracy Chevalier's The Virgin Blue portrays the story of Ella Turner (turned Tournier) and Isabelle du Moulin - two women with similar paths. Chevalier uses the backdrop of quaint French villages to support the evolving mystery behind the women's journeys. The plot is wonderful, as well as the developed characters. I recommend this book to anyone who likes France, feminist topics, or genealogy. Or to anyone looking for a good thoughtful read.
Rating:
Summary: Chevalier never ceases to amaze me
Review: Having read "Girl With A Pearl Earring" before this (and loving that), I was unconsciously comparing the two while I was reading this book. I tried to stop myself from doing that (comparing two books from the same author) but it's an unconscious act that I find hard to control. So knowing what I was getting myself into, I read Virgin Blue. And the final verdict? Tracy Chevalier never disappoints. Her writing style is impeccable. It's just so vivid you feel as if everything was happening right before your very eyes. And I appreciate the fact that her novel is well-researched and I learned something new, historically, when I read her books. The story is good. It's about trying to find your identity, trying to find out who you really are. A topic that all of us can appreciate. It's quite an easy read, an entertaining, educational and enlightening read. It's a good read for anyone and everyone but especially for women out there who have experienced a loss and who wants to be found.
Rating:
Summary: A Virgin Novel
Review: Having never read Chevalier's work I was very pleased with this novel, which is her first. The interesting thing to me was that the story took place at two different times in history but in the same geographic area. The first chapter introduces us to Isabelle, a girl who lives in France in the 1600s during a religious upheaval. Isabelle is seen as odd by her town because of her red hair, which was uncommon at the time. In chapter two we meet Ella, an American who has moved to France with her husband. Over the course of the novel Ella searches out her family history and finds that her family originated near where she now lives. The story is historical fiction while also discussing changes in relationships, personal revelations, and major life changes for many of the characters. I especially found the story changes by chapter interesting, and the way that Chevalier integrates the two main characters' stories toward the end. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in historical fiction and world literature. I would suggest that someone who does not know European religious history well read the Historical Note at the end before beginning the story though.
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