Product Description
Set in Normandy, France, in the 1960s, RED STAG is a lush, rich novel. Nineteen-year-old bastard Vincent has just returned from boarding school to work on the Count's estate, where his uncle is gamekeeper, where Vincent himself was raised, where his mother, until her early death, was the Countess's maid. Shortly after his return, his uncle is viciously murdered. Vincent vows revenge.
It is also deer hunting season, and the village is wild with anticipation about this year's ritualized Royal Hunt for the giant red stag. This red stag defies all hunters, outsmarting them, and then outrunning their horses and hounds.
The Count's daughter, Nicole, returns to the estate as well. She, too, is nineteen These childhood friends haven't seen each other in years. As the search for the murderer's identity intensifies, and the Royal Hunt approaches, Nicole and Vincent find themselves inexorably drawn to each other. The three-pronged plot gains momentum, reaching a thrilling, violent, graphic conclusion, which reveals startling truths about Vincent's patronage and the potential for both extreme cruelty and friendship within the human heart.
RED STAG is wonderfully atmospheric and exotic, full of rich descriptions of wildlife and the rivers and woods of Normandy. It is beautifully written, near cinematic in its clarity, highly suspenseful, and utterly unforgettable.
Average Customer Review:
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
vividly descriptive character study with a mystery, 2004-05-01
Vincent was born to an unmarried maid working on the estate of the Count and Countess of Costebelle. He has no idea who his sire was, but his Uncle Serge Lebuison, who also works as the gamekeeper, serves as his male role model as he becomes a young man. When he was nineteen, someone kills his beloved Serge. Count Costebelle hires Vincent to replace his late uncle. Vincent blames poachers who he believes were chasing the famed RED STAG and he vows vengeance.However, Vincent forgets his need for revenge when his childhood friend Nicole Costebelle returns from Paris. Nicole and Vincent begin to fall in love, but they will soon learn why they can never be more than friends even while a hunt for the RED STAG has been set in motion...
Though this tale is set in the late 1960s early 1970s, it feels more like a Victorian novel due to the setting, poaching, and the privileged aristocracy. The story line seems subdivided between a murder requiring resolution against insight into the upper and working classes (including professional poachers). Though feeling out of time, readers will appreciate this vividly descriptive character study of the interaction and great divide between isolated social classes.
Harriet Klausner
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Getting to the essence, 2004-01-10
Guy de la Valdene's "Red Stag" is a marvelous and very knowing book. Unlike much which currently passes for outdoor literature, this book resonates with seasoned and deeper truths, both of the woods and of the heart, that bespeak a wellspring of authenticity.
It is very much an "unpastuerized" novel and as such, will likely appeal to all who like their experiences vital, direct and without denaturing.
Valdene should be congratulated for so accurately conveying the essences. A wonderful read.