My Love, My Love: or The Peasant Girl
YA A modern fable set on a Caribbean island that is inhabited by wealthy merchants and poor peasants and is subject to violent changes of nature at the whim of vain gods. Desiree Dieu Donne, a black peasant girl, saves the life of Daniel Beauxhomme, a wealthy mulatto whose family has renounced its black origins. Daniel is returned to his home, but Desiree, convinced that it is the will of the gods, sets out on an arduous quest to find the Palace Beauxhomme. The two fall in love. The peasant girl is not acceptable to the island aristocracy, however, and Daniel consents to wed a woman of his own class. [...] This allegory abounds in vivid, sensual images and symbols, many of which parallel Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid , on which it is based. [...] Some young adults who enjoy the fast-paced realism and memorable characterizations of the author's other books may be disappointed in the allegorical romantic mood and the story's illusive and allusive symbolism. Other readers, however, will find the message particularly relevant and will be moved by the tragic love story so eloquently captured by Guy's lilting prose. Jackie Gropman, Fairfax County Pub . Lib . , Va.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.