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This is a beautifully written novel set against Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. It is the story of Valentina, the Countess Grunowska, a Polish patriot trapped into a marriage with a vindictive and violent husband. She meets a French officer, Colonel de Chavel (we never learn his first name) at a ball and they fall in love with a passion that I have rarely ever seen equalled in fiction.
He joins the march to Russia although he is an independent thinker amongst the political intrigue and espionage at the Polish Court - a true French patriot and not just one of Napoleon's minions. She follows him, fearing the wrath and sadism of her husband and, incredibly, she finds him during the freezing, snowy and tragic retreat from Moscow. Wounded, de Chavel has lost his right arm and is near death when Valentina finally locates him in a scene of such emotion that I have always remembered it. She nurses him tenderly, joining the French army as it retreats back to Poland.
Finally, they settle quietly and blissfully happy on one of her properties in rural Poland until she becomes pregnant with his child. Despite the handicap of his lost sword arm, de Chavel challenges Valentina's husband to a pistol duel in order to kill him and thus make her free to marry him. However, fate intervenes and one of Valentina's old and faithful retainers murders Count Grunowski before the duel can take place. And so de Chavel returns to Valentina, now heavily pregant and fearful for his life, in a shimmer of summer light and poignant, tender love.
I shall NEVER, EVER, forget this book, reread it from time to time and guard my two tattered copies well. Do try to find a copy and read it - it is magical. I would give it 10 stars if I could.
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