≫ PDF Jubilee Trail Gwen Bristow 9780690467505 Books

Jubilee Trail Gwen Bristow 9780690467505 Books

Download As PDF : Jubilee Trail Gwen Bristow 9780690467505 Books

Jubilee Trail Gwen Bristow 9780690467505 Books

I first read Gwen Bristow's Jubilee Trail in high school and it quickly became a beloved book. Over the years I read the book 2-3 more times. Of course I remembered the storyline and the characters, but the novel is so fascinating that I enjoyed the multiple reads as much as I did the first time.

Adventurous eighteen year-old Garnet Cameron, a member of New York's society families, has just graduated from finishing school and is trying to find a direction for her life now that her schooling days are over. She meets a young man, Oliver Hale, who has come to New York from California. California at this time is still part of Mexico and not yet a US state. Oliver, a frontier trader, and his brother, own a large tract of land, a rancho, in California and he has come to New York City to buy supplies to bring west with him. Garnet meets him at a society function, and is immediately drawn to him. He tells her about the journey to the unknown territory of California. Garnet is riveted by Oliver's tales of adventure and excitement and longs to see the things he tells her about. Oliver proposes marriage and Garnet happily accepts. She is thrilled about her new marriage and the thought of their exciting trip west.The plan is that Garnet will travel to California with Oliver while he closes up his business out west and they both will return to New York the following year.

Traveling beyond St. Louis, Garnet and Oliver set out to cross the Great Plains. The trail is hard-going, but Garnet enjoys it with wide-eyed wonder. They arrive in Santa Fe after several months to replenish supplies and begin their journey on the Jubilee Trail. Between 1821 and 1880, the Santa Fe Trail was primarily a commercial highway connecting Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Along the way to California they meet some very fascinating and original characters, many of whom will accompany Garnet on her journey throughout the novel. On the trip to California, Garnet and a new friend, Florinda, endure harsh temperatures, lack of water, and other such hardships with stoicism and bravery

The narrative takes the reader along the ride with the characters an, ultimately to California where happenings are definitely not what Garnet expected. I won't write anymore because I don't want to spoil the plot for prospective readers.

Let it suffice to say, if you enjoy adventurous historical novels, this one is for you. A real winner!


Tags : Jubilee Trail [Gwen Bristow] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Book Club Edition,Gwen Bristow,Jubilee Trail,Ty Crowell Co,0690467508,Historical - General,Historical fiction.,Fiction,Fiction Historical,Historical fiction

Jubilee Trail Gwen Bristow 9780690467505 Books Reviews

I enjoyed the story, but found the characters personas to be quite dated. It read like an old screen play, and then I read that it had been made into a movie back in the day! The writing could have been much better, but the story was good and the history really taught me something. I even googled some of the names and places, and found them to be accurate. There was an unspoken "gap" in the friendship between Garnet and Florinda. I would have liked for them to have shared more of their feelings and become emotionally closer, but I guess that wasn't done back in that time. It was a good story, but a little too 1950's movie scripted for me.
The book is well written and enjoyable, but any sections involving Native Americans is difficult for me to read because of the very prejudiced/racist language/perception. I get it, this book was written a long time ago and the author absorbed the culture of her time or the culture/language she found in her research, but it is still surprising and upsetting to read sections such as the following coming from a present-day perspective

“Their filthy hair streamed over their faces, and behind their hair they had nasty little eyes and big drooling mouths. Their bodies were squat and pot-bellied. As they waited for the white men’s food they kept picking up creeping things from the ground and eating them. They gave forth a nauseating stink.”

I am trying to put this into context, be forgiving and understanding of the worldview of the author, and keep reading because of the many other positive aspects about this book.

It might even be a good exercise for teenagers to have them read through these kinds of passages and then go research “Utahs” and “California Diggers” to see what evidence there is to support or reject this portrayal, learn about prejudice, changing world perspectives over time, etc.

Anyway, off I go to keep reading...
I really enjoyed Jubilee Trail. It's the story of Garnet, a woman who leaves New York and travels to California on a wagon train in the early 1840s before the Gold Rush. Since I live in California, I really liked the imagery of what California was like when only a few 100 Americans lived here. Garnet had amazing adventures. I'm not into romance, but there was a little of that, too. Not enough to bother me. I hadn't done much research into the book before I started it. I knew it was historical fiction about California and that it got a good rating on Goodreads. I was stunned when I finished the book and found out it was written in 1950!! The book truly holds up to the test of time. It could have been written yesterday!
Choosing and reading this book on the App on my phone, I was delighted to discover what I thought was a contemporary "old style" sweeping western. Gwen Bristow writes a fast-paced plot, managing to encompass settings, class structure, politics -- the good and the bad -- of America in the 1840s. The plot zips along quickly, but with the journey beginning in New York and continuing to New Orleans, Independence, MO, Santa Fe, and on to Los Angeles there is ample opportunity to smell the flowers and buffalo chips. Bristow's colorful array of characters include two very different heroines whose lives are slowly transformed through the course of their travels. I kept thinking it would make a great movie. It wasn't until the end I discovered Jubilee Trail HAD been made into a movie -- in 1954. No matter. The story, written in 1950 about America on the verge of tremendous western expansion, holds up well.
I first read Gwen Bristow's Jubilee Trail in high school and it quickly became a beloved book. Over the years I read the book 2-3 more times. Of course I remembered the storyline and the characters, but the novel is so fascinating that I enjoyed the multiple reads as much as I did the first time.

Adventurous eighteen year-old Garnet Cameron, a member of New York's society families, has just graduated from finishing school and is trying to find a direction for her life now that her schooling days are over. She meets a young man, Oliver Hale, who has come to New York from California. California at this time is still part of Mexico and not yet a US state. Oliver, a frontier trader, and his brother, own a large tract of land, a rancho, in California and he has come to New York City to buy supplies to bring west with him. Garnet meets him at a society function, and is immediately drawn to him. He tells her about the journey to the unknown territory of California. Garnet is riveted by Oliver's tales of adventure and excitement and longs to see the things he tells her about. Oliver proposes marriage and Garnet happily accepts. She is thrilled about her new marriage and the thought of their exciting trip west.The plan is that Garnet will travel to California with Oliver while he closes up his business out west and they both will return to New York the following year.

Traveling beyond St. Louis, Garnet and Oliver set out to cross the Great Plains. The trail is hard-going, but Garnet enjoys it with wide-eyed wonder. They arrive in Santa Fe after several months to replenish supplies and begin their journey on the Jubilee Trail. Between 1821 and 1880, the Santa Fe Trail was primarily a commercial highway connecting Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Along the way to California they meet some very fascinating and original characters, many of whom will accompany Garnet on her journey throughout the novel. On the trip to California, Garnet and a new friend, Florinda, endure harsh temperatures, lack of water, and other such hardships with stoicism and bravery

The narrative takes the reader along the ride with the characters an, ultimately to California where happenings are definitely not what Garnet expected. I won't write anymore because I don't want to spoil the plot for prospective readers.

Let it suffice to say, if you enjoy adventurous historical novels, this one is for you. A real winner!