num_pages: 317
description: Francisca de Luarac, the daughter of a poor Spanish silk grower, is a dreamer of fabulous dreams. Marie Louise de Bourbon, the niece of Louis XIV, dances in slippers of fine Spanish silk in the French Court of the Sun King and imagines her own enchanted future. Born on the same day - in an age when superstition, repression, and the Inquisition reign - the lives of these two young women unfold in tandem, barely touching. Each hoards the memory of her adored lost mother like an amulet. Francica's obsession with her lover, a Catholick priest, will shaper her fate. Marie Loouise is yoked by political expediency to the mad, imptoent Carlos II of Spain. But even as their twin destinies spiral inexorably toward disaster, both Queen and commoner cultivate a dangerous, secret life dedicated to resistance, transcendence, and love. Written in gorgeous prose that has the sheen of silk, Kathryn Harrison's Poison vividlyreminds us of the persistence of desire, the passion that exists between mothers and daughters, and the sorcery of dreams.
language: English
title: A Thousand Orange Trees
titlecomplete: A Thousand Orange Trees
characters: Marie Louise d'Orleans, Louis XIV of France, Charles II of Spain
genres: 17th Century, Spain, Historical, Historical Fiction, Novels, Adult Fiction, Literature, Fiction, Contemporary, France
ratings_count: 867
places: Paris, Versailles, Madrid
publisher: Fourth Estate