The Red Queen

by Margaret Drabble | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 014101816x Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingshnedwardswing of Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on 4/10/2007
Buy from one of these Booksellers:
Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon IT | Bol.com
11 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingshnedwardswing from Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on Tuesday, April 10, 2007
"The tale of how a young girl in eighteenth century Korea is picked from obscurity to be consort to the Crown Prince. Though inhabiting a jade, silk and jewelled world, the Crown Princess must also contend with the murderous impulses of her husband, Sado, who is touched by madness.

"Two hundred years later, the Crown Princess's story has a deep and far-reaching effect on Dr Babs Halliwell, an academic on her way to a conference in South Korea. Haunted by the Red Queen's ghost, Babs feels that she must do something to keep her story alive... but what is it?"

Has its moments of intrigue, romance and farce, but I found its self-consciousness jarring. Gets an extra point for mentioning one of my favourite London pubs, the Lamb near Great Ormond Street Hospital. If you're ever in the area, drop in and have a Young's Double Chocolate Stout!

Reserved for bookray
Mailing order:

LindyLouMac, Italy
Jolanda, Netherlands
rapturina, Netherlands
stubee, UK
KT-J, UK
NICNIC2, UK
perfect-circle, UK
Goddess-of-fire, US
Bibliocrates, US
GateGypsy, Canada <---here
Sherlockfan, NZ
taniazed, Australia

Journal Entry 2 by wingshnedwardswing from Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on Thursday, May 24, 2007
On its way to LindyLouMac. Hope you enjoy it!

Journal Entry 3 by LindyLouMac from Tywyn, Wales United Kingdom on Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Thankyou shnedwards for this Bookray just starting its long journey, arrived here with me in Italy on Monday. Good timing as I will be able to start it this afternoon as almost finished my current read.

Journal Entry 4 by LindyLouMac from Tywyn, Wales United Kingdom on Tuesday, June 19, 2007
It is some years since I last read a Margaret Drabble novel, so I am pleased to discover she is still writing novels of a high literary standard.
It is important to read the prologue to enable one to understand the author's inspiration for this novel.
A story written in two parts, based on historial memoirs narrated first by a Korean Princess in Ancient Times, then in Modern Times through British Academic Dr Babs Halliwell.
A very cleverly constructed narrative as the 'dead' Princess tries to ensure her story is not forgotten through Babs Halliwell's eventual affinity with the Princess.
An intriguing read.

Released 16 yrs ago (6/25/2007 UTC) at To the next participant in Bookring/Bookray, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- Canada

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

En route to The Netherlands

Journal Entry 6 by Jolanda from Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland Netherlands on Sunday, July 1, 2007
Arrived yesterday in the mail. Looking forward to the read, it's definitly going to keep me company during my upcoming holiday.

It sure was an interesting read. It took me a while to get into the story, but once there I couldn't stop reading. I already have the next address and will drop the book off next week.

Journal Entry 7 by rapturina from Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland Netherlands on Friday, November 16, 2007
Arrived today in an explosion of bookrings! Funny how that works, I don't get any for weeks on end and today there's three in my mailbox... I will try my best to get to this one quickly! :D

I just adore the bookplate ("I've Fallen For You") used in this book, by the way!

Journal Entry 8 by rapturina from Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland Netherlands on Thursday, November 29, 2007
I finished this book a week ago and I find it hard to say whether I actually liked it. It took me a while to get into it, but then I also read it rather fast when the story got going a bit. What I really didn't like about this book is that there were no chapters, it was just two big chunks of text. I know it sounds silly, but I'm very much a chapter reader, I tend to stop reading at the end of chapters and I hate having to stop in the middle of a chapter. So that made this book a little annoying. :D

The first part about the Korean queen was a bit tough to get through, mostly because of the way it was told - just the queen telling her story from her point of view, and really only just summing up everything that happened to her. I think if the format had been different, the story might've come to life a bit more for me, as now it was kind of boring at times.

The second part was a bit easier, but I didn't really understand the significance of the whole Jan van Jost story and it kind of irritated me.

So basically I have a few criticisms, but I was still fairly intrigued by the book, so I can't say it was all bad. :D I did enjoy reading it and some parts were really gripping. I'm just not sure if I would recommend it to anyone. :D

I'm sending it to stubee tomorrow!

Journal Entry 9 by stubee from Bury, Greater Manchester United Kingdom on Wednesday, December 5, 2007
It's arrived safely; it will be read after the other bookrings I have in my possession. Thanks rapturina for passing this on to me and also as always to Shnedwards for continuing to provide me with endless 1001 books to read :-]

Journal Entry 10 by stubee from Bury, Greater Manchester United Kingdom on Friday, February 8, 2008
I’ve just finished Part One: Ancient Times, this is my second Margaret Drabble book (the first being The Seven Sisters) and I must say I’m enjoying the read. I’m fascinated by the orient and their culture and this is an enthralling story. The Crown Princess writing her memoirs from beyond the grave does seem a bit weird to me but it’s an interesting and intense tale!

I'll also admit that I was daunted by this book because there are no obvious chapters or breaks until after Part One which is 166 pages long!!!! I like books to have frequent breaks, gaps and chapters so that I can pick them up and put them down and edge my way through a story. I find reading endlessly for hours a painful task!!!!

Hopefully I’ve have this finished, if not by, this weekend at least by the 1st half of next week, when I’ll pass this on to KT-J.

:-]

Journal Entry 11 by stubee from Bury, Greater Manchester United Kingdom on Tuesday, February 12, 2008
I finished this Today, just a moment ago infact - while sat in my hotel room. I must say Part Two was very interesting, I enjoyed reading about the adventures of Babs Halliwell, the Crown Princess's emisary, during her vist to Seoul and how she became consumed by the story of the Crown Princess and Prince Sado. The characters of Jan van Jost and Dr Oo were also delightfully interesting. I wasn't sure how the story was going to develope over the 2nd part of the novel and the more I read the more it intrigued me as it went along.

It was a surprise (an interesting one) to see my place of employement mentioned a couple of times (I worked for the British Council) in this story.

Thanks Shnedwards again for sharing, I'll be handing this over to KT-J when I arrive back in Manchester on Friday.

Journal Entry 12 by KT-J on Sunday, February 17, 2008
Received from Stubee, I'll be getting on to this shortly.

Journal Entry 13 by KT-J on Sunday, March 9, 2008
I am a bit in two minds about this book. I really like history and reading about different periods in different countries so I really enjoyed the historical part of this book with the Crown Princess telling the story of life in the Korean Court. I enjoyed the modern story as well to an extent although I have to admit I completely failed to find the significance of the Chinese baby aspect in relation to the Crown Princess.

I did find the book quite hard to read for the first half as there were no chapters or breaks, but as I got more into the book I found this less of a problem.

Overall I did really enjoy this book and would be interested to actually read the Crown Princess' memoirs following this. Thanks shnedwards for sharing this. I've got NICNIC2's address so will be posting this on this week.

Edit: this was posted on 11/3/08

Journal Entry 14 by NICNIC2 from Glasgow, Scotland United Kingdom on Thursday, March 13, 2008
Arrived today and I'm sorely tempted to take it on holiday with me on Monday but I have got 3 other bookray books to get through first. I've wanted to read this for ages :) I'll get to this ASAP and get it moving again.

Journal Entry 15 by NICNIC2 from Glasgow, Scotland United Kingdom on Wednesday, April 30, 2008
I was a little bit disappointed with this since I'd been looking forward to reading it so much. I found the lack of dialogue erally slowed the story down. It is an intersting story though and I'm glad I got to read it. Maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind for reading it - who knows?! :)

Will send this on as soon as I have perfect-circle's address. Thanks for sharing!

Released 15 yrs ago (5/8/2008 UTC) at By mail in Exchange/Trade, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:


Journal Entry 17 by perfect-circle from Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear United Kingdom on Friday, May 16, 2008
Arrived safely today, perfect timing as I've just finished a book, so this is next.

Journal Entry 18 by perfect-circle from Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear United Kingdom on Monday, May 19, 2008
Like some of the others, I found the lack of chapters irritating - I also much prefer to stop at the end of a chapter and there were no suitable places really in either section of the book.

I did, however, find the story of the Crown Princess fascinating and it's definitely something I want to read more about. Whilst the character of Babs in the second part was interesting, I just didn't connect to it in the same way.

I have PMd Goddess-of-fire so this will be on its way once I have an address.

Thanks shnedwards for another book crossed off the 1001 list.

Released 15 yrs ago (5/28/2008 UTC) at By Mail in By mail / post / courier, By Mail/Post/Courier -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:


Journal Entry 20 by Goddess-Of-Fire from Springfield, Missouri USA on Tuesday, June 24, 2008
This arrived at my parent's house while I was away and I'm just now getting it. I have a couple books in front of it, but I'll read it as soon as possible.
Thanks!

Journal Entry 21 by Goddess-Of-Fire from Springfield, Missouri USA on Wednesday, August 6, 2008
I really liked the first part of the book, but the second part didn't do as much for me. It was still interesting, I just thought it moved really slow, and I found that I didn't really care much for Babs.
Thanks for sharing!

PMing Bibliocrates for her address.

Journal Entry 22 by Bibliocrates from Pueblo, Colorado USA on Tuesday, August 12, 2008
I was happy to find this book in my mailbox here in Trinity, Alabama this afternoon! Thank you for sending it Godess-Of-Fire, can't wait to read it!

I have several in front it, but will get it moving as soon as I possibly can. I will send a PM to GateGypsy for her address now...

Journal Entry 23 by Bibliocrates from Pueblo, Colorado USA on Monday, September 29, 2008
I should be finished reading this book within the next couple days, it's really good so far...

Journal Entry 24 by Bibliocrates from Pueblo, Colorado USA on Saturday, November 22, 2008
Thank you for sharing shnedwards. I will be sending this book on to GateGypsy on Monday.

Journal Entry 25 by Bibliocrates at Whitehorse, Yukon Canada on Monday, November 24, 2008

Released 15 yrs ago (11/24/2008 UTC) at Whitehorse, Yukon Canada

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This book is on its way to GateGypsy to continue the ray. I hope you enjoy it :)

Journal Entry 26 by GateGypsy from Ladysmith, British Columbia Canada on Thursday, December 11, 2008
Gack! A bookray book! I'm pleased to see this, and look forward to reading it, but I forewarn you that I won't get to it very soon. Please expect a delay, but I'll add it to the stack of "waiting to be read" and get it on as quickly as possible!

Are you sure you want to delete this item? It cannot be undone.