Description

[from dust jacket flap]

The Russia of the Tsars -- a world of jewelled splendor and squalor, beauty and violence. To St. Petersburg, in 1860, Sophia Johnson goes as English governess to the daughters of Prince Rasimov, owner of great estates and some fifty thousand sers. In the Prince -- his hand scarred by the claws of a bear -- Sophia sees a man at once wild and primitive, enlightened and civilised. Gradually she is inescapably drawn towards him, each recognising the strength of the other.

On the country estate violence erupts in a serf uprising. Together facing the danger Sophia and the Prince know that they are deeply in love. But scars of events in the Prince's past are revealed to Sophia. They become adversaries -- locked in a conflict in which one or the other must yield.

In the background is the Prince's former mistress, the beautiful ballerina; the French governess; the Prince's cousin Elena; each is affected by the conflict. On its outcome depends the happiness of all.

Sylvia Sark has written the story of a confrontation between a man and a woman as harsh and tender as the landscape itself.

Notes

Republished by Harlequin Books (Harlequin Historical line) in 1978 as Sophie and the Prince. If you like Dinah Dean's Russian series (also published mainly in the Harlequin Historical line) you'll enjoy Thunder in the Valley/Sophie and the Prince. It's more romance-oriented than Dean's early ones -- Flight from the Eagle and The Green Gallant (written as Jane Hunt and -- warning -- no HEA), in particular -- where, far from wallpaper fare, romance is just a light sprinkle of seasoning in the heavily-researched historical main dish. Thunder is much closer to The Ice King, even to the sharing of a key story element.

Vintage historical romances are fun because there are three time periods at play in the experience: the historical setting, the time the book was written and through whose cultural understandings and concerns the setting is filtered, and the time in which the book is being read -- the present -- the reader bringing to bear both her own time's perceptions and her knowledge of the two preceding periods. Whew. Even with light fiction, it's layered stuff!

It's no surprise Thunder in the Valley was republished by Harlequin it definitely works within the framework of their 60s/70s genre take: the prince is powerful, dominating, and largely inscrutable. In a way, though, this gives it a bit more believability than, perhaps, the same story told through today's romance genre lens might have. Without giving too much away, one of the prince's key decisions really doesn't fit comfortably with our modern sensibilities and it feels like a book written today would, almost by necessity, take Dean's Ice King route rather than this one. Read it and tell me what you think.

Sophie is a strong, principled character -- huge plus for that. And, a real bonus, is learning about the Russian (esp. northern/Siberian) folk belief, "the fortieth bear", which I'd never heard of, but descriptions of which, I've found, were, indeed, already circulating in English-language writings as early as the 1850s. It's an evocative thought and Sark deploys it well. Overall, quick read, and I enjoyed it.

Tags

1800s, other, 1960s, English, Europe, Russia, Russian, athletic, beautiful/handsome, big, brave, courageous, calm/tranquil, can't help loving you/love despite, culture clash, disciplined, dominant, f/m, female, governess/paid companion, idealistic, independent, intelligent, interclass, landowner, never love again, noble/aristocrat, political philosophy, poor, practical, principled, quiet, reserved, rich, romance, single, tall, third-person, widowed

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