Rating: 
Summary: An Amazing Book! I couldn't it put down
Review: 'Green Darkness' was recommended to me by a friend and I loved it. This is the first Anya Seton book I have read, and I enjoyed it so much that I hope to read all of her books. 'Green Darkness' portrays the life of a young girl in the mid 1500s. Ms. Seton captures the time so well that, while reading it, the reader will feel that he or she is actually there at Cowdray Castle, agonizing over whether to become Protestant, or to remain Catholic. 'Green Darkness' starts out in 1968, in London, England, with an American girl, Celia, and her fiancé, Richard, driving through the countryside, stopping occasionally to look at old castle ruins. While in a particular castle, Celia gets a strange feeling that she had been there before, though she had never even been to England, much less to a castle ruin. Richard tells her to disregard the feeling (typical!) and go on with life. Celia tries, until Seton magically transports her back to the sixteenth century living the life of a beautiful, young, medieval, orphan girl living with her Duchess aunt. If you love historical fiction you will most definitely enjoy reading this book. By Anya Seton's mystical story telling, you will be transported along with Celia, and find yourself as out of your time as is she. I enthusiastically recommend 'Green Darkness' to you, as a friend, especially if you need to get away from it all!
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Book! I couldn't it put down
Review: 'Green Darkness' was recommended to me by a friend and I loved it. This is the first Anya Seton book I have read, and I enjoyed it so much that I hope to read all of her books. 'Green Darkness' portrays the life of a young girl in the mid 1500s. Ms. Seton captures the time so well that, while reading it, the reader will feel that he or she is actually there at Cowdray Castle, agonizing over whether to become Protestant, or to remain Catholic. 'Green Darkness' starts out in 1968, in London, England, with an American girl, Celia, and her fiancé, Richard, driving through the countryside, stopping occasionally to look at old castle ruins. While in a particular castle, Celia gets a strange feeling that she had been there before, though she had never even been to England, much less to a castle ruin. Richard tells her to disregard the feeling (typical!) and go on with life. Celia tries, until Seton magically transports her back to the sixteenth century living the life of a beautiful, young, medieval, orphan girl living with her Duchess aunt. If you love historical fiction you will most definitely enjoy reading this book. By Anya Seton's mystical story telling, you will be transported along with Celia, and find yourself as out of your time as is she. I enthusiastically recommend 'Green Darkness' to you, as a friend, especially if you need to get away from it all!
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant Concept but not the best romance that I have read
Review: Actually I would give Green Darkness 3.5 stars rather than 3. Anya Seyton has created a very atmospheric and tragic period novel, but I feel that she could have focused the story more on the emotions and anguish of two lovers. The novel has alot of potential and started out pretty good. However Celia and Stephen come across at times as as rather 2-dimensional characters. It is a good read if you like lengthy descriptions.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning!! This should get 10 stars!!
Review: After many, many recommendations, this was the first Anya Seton book I read. This story of reincarnation has been in my possession for many years so I don't know why I had procrastinated for so long. I had even picked up a hardback edition when I visited the bookstore capital of the world, Hay-on-Wye in Wales last year. Somehow, I knew once I read it that it was going to become a keeper. At any rate, I am sorry I didn't read it earlier, because I certainly savored every page. The first portion of the book is set in 1968. American heiress Celia Taylor has married Richard Marsdon after meeting the young British nobleman on a cruise. They are blissfully happy and living on his Sussex estate when, during a visit to nearby ruins of a cathedral, she experiences some rather bizarre visions and her husband begins to be rather distant. Then, after a visit and tour of Ightham Mote, a manor house in the next county, she rather mysteriously faints. Her friend Dr. Akananda is worried. And he, but only he, knows what is going on. When Celia lapses into a catatonic state after hosting a dinner party, her future is very much at risk. It appears she needs to relive the events of her prior life before she can find happiness in the present. At this point, the next 400+ pages of the book is set in the 1550s beginning with a visit of the young King Edward VI to the estate where Celia, now 15-year-old Celia Bohun, is living with her aunt Ursula. There she meets Stephen Marsdon, the young monk who has become the house priest for the estate, albeit covertly in the now protestant country, as decreed by Edward's father, Henry VIII. Celia is immediately smitten. The book is intricately detailed with history of the period and characters meet and have conversations with Edward and then Mary and other historical figures of the time as the political and religious structure of the country has gone from Catholic to protestant and then back to Catholic again. It is interesting to discover who the counterparts of the dinner guests of Celia and Richard Marston in 1968 are in the 16th C. It is clear early on that Ursula is Lily (Celia's mother) and Julian, the Italian physician, is Dr. Akananda. Some of the other characters aren't as apparent until later and it would be seen as a spoiler to reveal them here. A small warning, don't do as I did and put names of some of the secondary characters into an internet search engine. Doing this with one character revealed a major spoiler nearly 100 years before the book told of it. It was also very interesting to discover that two of the secondary characters were ancestors of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. So, for those who want to know more about the historical figures - major and minor - of the 16 C., I urge you to do so but wait until the book is completed. Even though some of the details were a mystery, the eventual outcome of Stephen and Celia was pretty much known from the beginning. That said, the next to the last portion of the book where their 16th C. destinies are played out is some of the most dramatic of the entire book. I'm not much into re-reading books - but this one is certainly going on my keeper shelf.
Rating:
Summary: A book you will read again and again.
Review: As other reviewers have mentioned, this is a book I came back to read after a number of years had passed, and will, I'm certain, reread again sometime in the future. Seton's treatment of the workings of reincarnation are excellent, yet smoothly folded within the story of the principal couple whose forbidden love and its consequences throw them together in a contemporary lifetime. And not just them. Many others around them have returned this lifetime and play a part in resolving the injury previously suffered. One, who is our guide, a soul whose connections to two characters and need to resolve a failure to aid them from an even earlier time. Anyone who wondered about some of the tenets of theosophy will find this book a great primer. (Seton explains in a foreword that she learned many of the ideas the plot moves on through her mother her was a theosophist.) When I first read this book, I was young and completely immersed in the love story. Today, older, I still enjoyed that story but I truly appreciated the wonderful details that gave a feel for what it was like to live through this tumultous period of English History. There are many books on the experience of living during the reigns of Henry and Elizabeth--here is a chance to get a view of what it was to be a lord, lady, or commoner when Edward and Mary each went to extremes to enforce their view of what religion should be in England!! Think of this book as an investment--if you love historical novels with a bit of the fantastic, you will be reading this book many times and urging family and friends to do the same! (It is among a few of my books I WON'T lend out.)
Rating:
Summary: I keep going back to this book!
Review: Green Darkness is one of those rare books that I keep rereading year after year. I just read it again after seeing "Elizabeth" and am reminded of what an excellent book this is. It is truly one of my favorites!
Rating:
Summary: ...masterfully meshes forbidden love & spiritual exploration
Review: Green Darkness is, to date, one of the two best books that I have ever encountered. It is only matched in my eyes by another of Anya Seton's works, Katherine. Rich in forbidden romance and spiritualism, the novel takes readers on a journey that questions what we believe to be both moral and possible in our world. It follows the lives of a troubled couple in the present day, who readers slowly comes to discover, were actually the reincarnation of a forbidden love affair that took place ages ago. By examining their tortured past, they come to discover the love that still exists and is hard-pressed to fade. I could not put it down or go to sleep until I had finished. A copy of the novel will always remain on my bookshelf as one of my most respected possessions. Ms. Seton had a true gift for capturing the intensity and struggle that permeate the deepest of loves in such a way that the reader can actually experience the feelings firsthand, without ever having to leave the chair.
Rating:
Summary: Reading all night !
Review: I came to Canada on four vacations, 1973, 1975 ( I was 28, started art classes in september on the Royal Academy in The Hague and had never been further than the touristic Monschau in Germany and Dinant in Belgium) 1977, 1980. Quickly felt at home in Winnipeg, browsing second book shops and got to know Cole's Bookstore. Pockets were cheap. Had never head of Anya Seton before, but got attracted by Green Darkness'es alluring cover. At the deep of night, when my elder sister's family dreamed, I met all the characters in the book one by one as if they came to me in person. I could feel them agonized by their powerlessness against their natural inclinations,hereditary shortcomings and uncertainties. Nothing seemed to be able to turn fate, and only in future was there a chance to redeem. They were captives of their lives, like I was a prisoner of this book: it only let me go but at the end, like the characters in the book !
Rating:
Summary: Reading all night !
Review: I came to Canada on four vacations, 1973, 1975 ( I was 28, started art classes in september on the Royal Academy in The Hague and had never been further than the touristic Monschau in Germany and Dinant in Belgium) 1977, 1980. Quickly felt at home in Winnipeg, browsing second book shops and got to know Cole's Bookstore. Pockets were cheap. Had never head of Anya Seton before, but got attracted by Green Darkness'es alluring cover. At the deep of night, when my elder sister's family dreamed, I met all the characters in the book one by one as if they came to me in person. I could feel them agonized by their powerlessness against their natural inclinations,hereditary shortcomings and uncertainties. Nothing seemed to be able to turn fate, and only in future was there a chance to redeem. They were captives of their lives, like I was a prisoner of this book: it only let me go but at the end, like the characters in the book !
Rating:
Summary: a magical blend of history and fiction
Review: I first read this book when I was 15, I'm now 38 and have just re-read it after 23 years, it still has the power to immerse me into the story. It is a masterful telling of history and yet the personal lives of Stephan and Celia as well as the rest of the characters are so real, this book is a treasure.
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