Bride of Fortune

by Harnett T. Kane

Rating: 4/5
Grade: C - 14 and up (weighty themes involving war, slavery, and childhood death)

This book is a what I consider a fictional biography of Varina Howell Davis. She was the wife of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy. I was highly impressed by the amount of research, and first-hand sources that went into the writing of the book. Ten years of research, studying diaries, letters, etc., visiting all of the places in the book, interviewing surviving family members; all combined to make a novel with a very real sense of setting and character. The book was well written, and carried me along swiftly, I finished it off today while I should have been cleaning the house, and finishing Christmas preparations. I gained a new appreciation for the ideals, admirable personages, and struggles of the south during this time. Growing up in Idaho, and with all of my ancestors coming from Northern states, I'm afraid I haven't given much thought to the the views that led the southern states to succeed. The book was very much a view of Jefferson Davis, through the eyes of his wife. I would have appreciated a bit more insight into the life of the family, and more said about the couples children, but the book was written by a man who was trying to stay very true to the facts he had before him, and, presumably, not much was written about the children.