rose of sebastopol - help!

[overthemill]

has anybody else read this? I finished it last night and felt really cheated - what on earth happens at the end? Is Rosa dead? is she weeping on max's lap? did she have an affair with henry? I found it all rather vague.

I took a while to warm to this book and it was a bit irritating but found the history really interesting - knew nothing about it other than vague notion that Florence Nightingale won fame nursing there. It was really amazing to me to see that still in 1855 wives and camp followers were out there within touching distance of the enemy! Is this really what happened?

I haven't read it. Saw it in a shop, but remembered it was a R&J choice so it was almost bound to be pretty crap! Skimmed the first few pages and thought it was going to be relatively difficult to enjoy and would probably cop out somewhere along the line.

I don't think it's worth worrying about this sort of thing tbh. Wipe the characters and story from your mind and remember the history. That way, it's not a complete waste.

yeah! maybe taht's what i'll do - got out the atlas and followed the story on that so learned a bit of geograpghy - my didnt they travel far in those olden days - now have to find a GOOD book about the crimea - fascinating stuff

It is certainly true that some of the wives followed their husbands. Don't have time to look up many links but this was one I came across.

Crimean War Women

There are some great stories about women's contributions while in the Crimea and not just as nurses, and also how highly they were thought of by the men.

I read this a while back and haven't got it anymore as it was leant to me, but if I remember correctly Rosa didn't have an affair with Henry ( he imagined that in a wishful thinking way) but she was in love with Mariella. I think at the end she was not dead but travelling further into Russia to carry on nursing soldiers.

I enjoyed the book as well with all that history that i didn't know much about

I finished this last night and like overthemill was left feeling like it hadn't really ended.......though my interpretation was that Rosa died? Maybe? Too unravelled an ending for my liking but I did enjoy the historical aspects - have also recently read 'The Water Horse' (think it's by Jane Gregson/Grigson?)which is again about a young girl who goes out to the Crimea and quite enjoyed that - more conclusive ending!

I read, and loved, The Rose of Sebastopol. Also felt the ending was a let down. Definitely thought that Rosa died. Keep meaning to read another of the author's books also set in Edwardian times, can't remember whats its called. ADORE the name Mariella and was pregnant with our DD at time of reading. Unfortunately DH and just about everybody else disliked it so we called her another -ella name instead!