Meridon

By Philippa Gregory

The third volume in the bestselling Wideacre Trilogy of novels. Set in the eighteenth century, they launched the career of Philippa Gregory, the bestselling author of The Other Boleyn Girl and Three Sisters, Three Queens.

Meridon, a desolate Romany girl, is determined to escape the hard poverty of her childhood. Riding bareback in a travelling show, while her sister Dandy risks her life on the trapeze, Meridon dedicates herself to freeing them both from danger and want.

But Dandy, beautiful, impatient, thieving Dandy, grabs too much, too quickly. And Meridon finds herself alone, riding in bitter grief through the rich Sussex farmlands towards a house called Wideacre – which awaits the return of the last of the Laceys.

Sweeping, passionate, unique: 'Meridon' completes Philippa Gregory's bestselling trilogy which began with 'Wideacre' and continued with 'The Favoured Child'.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Nov 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9780007370115

Philippa Gregory

Philippa Gregory is an internationally renowned author of historical novels. She holds a PhD in eighteenth-century literature from the University of Edinburgh. Works that have been adapted for television include A Respectable Trade, The Other Boleyn Girl and The Queen's Fool. The Other Boleyn Girl is now a major film, starring Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana. Philippa Gregory lives in the North of England with her family.

Reviews for Meridon

[a9shelf9apart · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The least incest-y and murder-y of the trilogy.

I didn't think the characters were as strong - Bea was terrible but compelling, Julia was insipid but entwined with the hateful Richard, while Merry was a bit meh by comparison.

[juva_3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The final installment of the Wideacre trilogy follows the infant heiress who was given to gypsies. Meridon grows up in a hard-scrabble life where she is never sure where her next meal is coming from. Her only friend is her sister Dandy. Even though the wandering life of a gypsy is all she knows, Meridon has haunting dreams of a beautiful place she calls "Wide". Somehow she knows that she belongs there, if only she can find her way home.The writing is very evocative and I could not help but root for Meridon. Midway through the book, however, the author really lost me. Once Meridon returns to Wideacre, everything goes off the rails. Suddenly the sharp-as-tack gypsy child becomes dumb and allows herself to be manipulated. It was pathetic how quickly she fell into the clutches of her neighbor. I had no patience with her inexplicable obsession with Perry. The whole second half of the book was nonsense and every plot twist was seen coming for miles. Tedious.

[marlene9nl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

On Saturday, December 30, 2006 I wrote:

This book was given to me by Xeyra. She was so generous ,she bought all 3 of the Wideacre series for me.
She bough them on Ebay but when I opened the package we discovered one book was missing.
Wideacre, book 1.

Now I treated myself and bought Wideacre last week in Scotland. What a great book.
I can't get enough and am reading book 2 The Favoured Child right now.

On Monday, January 08, 2007 I wrote:

This was the last book of the wideacre series and I was glad to learn that this book was a bit different than the first 2. (Otherwise I would have gotten bored).
No incest this time ;), and most of the story was not really involved around wideacre.

Good book!
Finished reading this at about January 5/6th of 2007

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Philippa Gregory's Wideacre trilogy is my guilty pleasure. Written by a lesser author, and lacking Gregory's flawless and flowing grasp of eighteenth century social history, these novels could easily be dismissed as romantic potboilers. Indeed, Wideacre, The Favoured Child and Meridon contain all the ingredients of a soap opera in prose form - red-headed heroines, gypsies, love affairs, rape, incest, murder ... And yet somehow, Philippa Gregory gets away with it. Meridon nearly tipped the scales for me, but once again, I was gripped and had to keep reading. Meridon Cox, raised by a gypsy and sold to a showman, knows she doesn't belong in the bare and brutal life of a traveller's daughter. She dreams of a large golden house and a place known to her only as 'Wide', and of a broken-hearted woman by a river calling 'Her name is Sarah!' This vision of her destiny, and the love of a beautiful dark-haired sister called Dandy, is all that keeps Meridon going through the hard work and hardships of her early years. But when Meridon, who was not born to the land like her mother and grandmother before her, comes to reclaim her birthright as squire of Wideacre, she finds that money and power come at a great cost.Meridon - Sarah Lacey, daughter of Julia - is the product of two incestuous unions between brother and sister, so she should probably have three eyes and webbed fingers, but the sins of the ever-decreasing Lacey family tree are more internalised than that: the girl has serious issues. I itched to slap her throughout, especially when she ran away from the circus and 'found' her place at Wideacre. What was so special about Dandy, who obviously wasn't her sister and was a slapper to boot, that made Meridon worship her? Why should the villagers of Acre have to pay for her massive grudge against men and the world at large? She was also rather too free with her whip. And then I realised that my reactions were being skilfully crafted by the author, who wants the reader to turn against Meridon, so that when she finally fights back, we are cheering her on! I swallowed the tragedy on the trapeze, and the mythical connection with the land, and the deathbed chicanery, all because I knew Meridon/Sarah would get her own back in the end. And that's when Meridon - and Philippa Gregory - let me down. The ending is ridiculous, even for this trilogy. Women dressing up in breeches and a cap and being taken for a man is the worst kind of cliched, unbelievable plot device in historical romance, and yet the denouement of the novel is hinged on just such a gimmick. No one, least of all her husband and a room full of con artists, would believe that Sarah was a man, just because she cut her hair short and spoke with a deep voice. Perhaps the author was pushed for time, or couldn't think how else to rescue Sarah from her mother-in-law's clutches, but the last few chapters were a complete let down for me. The whole novel was basically reduced to Meridon working through her grief and learning a valuable moral lesson about the evils of wealth. I enjoyed the rest of the saga, learning about horses and aerial performers at the circus - and at least Meridon had more spine than her mother, Julia - but what a disappointing finale!I would definitely recommend Wideacre to the unsuspecting reader, but neither of the two sequels match up to the first novel, and both Julia and Meridon are inferior to Beatrice for sheer cunning and audacity. But that's inbreeding for you.

[stacyinthecity · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Finally, the conclusion of the multi-generational saga of Wildacre.This book was a sharp departure from the previous two both in mood and setting. Most of the book took place off of the Wildacre estate. It also had little of the pagan and gothic elements that were prominent in the other two.I felt that the character development was much weaker than the first two, but it did bring the series to a comfortable conclusion, and I liked the modern economic themes as the worki...more Finally, the conclusion of the multi-generational saga of Wildacre.This book was a sharp departure from the previous two both in mood and setting. Most of the book took place off of the Wildacre estate. It also had little of the pagan and gothic elements that were prominent in the other two.I felt that the character development was much weaker than the first two, but it did bring the series to a comfortable conclusion, and I liked the modern economic themes as the working class tried to overthrow the gentry and the gentry tried to keep them down.

[tekajust · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Go figure! I read this one first not knowing it was a trilogy. Picked it off the shelf in an rv camp library and thought it was a great novel. Can't wait to read the first two and hopefully I will remember enough to tie them all together. I do remember that it was a very large book and prefer reading fewer pages however it kept my interest til the very end.

[damsel58_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Despite being a fan of some of Gregory's other novels, most particularly The Other Boleyn, this series crushed a lot of the enjoyment I have for her writing. I did read the entire series, growing both more disgusted with the main characters and more apathetic. This book was the most uninteresting one of the bunch, with most of the action taking place away from Wideacre. Sarah's disregard for the land until it is taken away from her undercut the subtle theme about ties to the land that were major themes of the first two. She does seem to resemble her grandmother more in spirit, however she lacks the charisma and ruthlessness that at least made Beatrice interesting, if not sympathetic.

[kiwiflowa · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book was satisfying because it tied up the loose ends from the previous two books in the trilogy. I always like to keep reading about characters just like I enjoy tv series more than movies - it's longer. However as a stand alone book or compared with Philippa Gregory's other books it wasn't as good.