Jewels

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

On the eve of Sarah Whitfield's 75th birthday, she stands at the window of her chateau in France, waiting for her family to join her. Her memories take her back to the 1930s in New York, to her early marriage and subsequent shameful divorce. She is persuaded by her parents to join them on a trip abroad in the growing turmoil of pre-war Europe.

There she meets Wiliam, Duke of Whitfield. Older than Sarah, and fourteenth in line to the British throne, he sparks her intellectual curiosity and makes her laugh. They make their home in a beautiful crumbling French chateau until they are parted by the war. Afterwards they are able to return to the chateau and establish the jewel collection which leads to the House of Whitfield, jewellers to the crowned heads of all Europe. Together they produce a family of four, each of whom is drawn into the family business.

JEWELS is the story of a great house of gems, a rare family, and an extraordinary marriage. Once again, Danielle Steel explores the lives of people facing challenges we recognise as our own, against the backdrop of war, passion and international intrigue.

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Chapter One The air was so still in the brilliant summer sun that you could hear the birds, and every sound for miles, as Sarah sat peacefully looking out her window.  The grounds were brilliantly designed, perfectly manicured, the gardens laid out by Le NÙtre, as Versailles' had been, the trees towering canopies of green framing the park of the Ch,teau de la  Meuze.  The ch,teau itself was four hundred years old, and Sarah,  Duchess of Whitfield, had lived here for fifty-two years now.  She had come  here with William, when she was barely more than a girl, and she smiled at the  memory as she watched the caretaker's two dogs chase each other into the  distance.  Her smile grew as she thought of how much Max was going to enjoy the  two young sheepdogs. It always gave her a feeling of peace, sitting here, looking out at the grounds they had worked so hard on.  It was easy to recall the desperation of the war, the endless hunger, the fields stripped of everything they might have had to give them.  It had all been so difficult then. . . so different. . . and it was odd, it never seemed so long ago. . . fifty years. . . half a century.  She looked down at her hands, at the two enormous, perfectly square emerald rings she almost always wore, and it still startled her to see the  hands of an old woman.  They were still beautiful hands, graceful hands, useful hands, thank God, but they were the hands of a seventy-five-year-old woman.  She had lived well, and long; too long, she thought  sometimes. . . too long without William. . . and yet there was always more, more to see, to  do, to think about, and plan, more to oversee with their children.  She was  grateful for the years she had had, and even now, she didn't have the sense  that anything was over, or complete yet.  There was always some unexpected turn  in the road, some event that couldn't have been foreseen, and somehow needed  her attention. It was odd to think that they still needed her, they needed her  less than they knew, and yet they still turned to her often enough to make her  feel important to them, and still somehow useful.  And there were their  children too.  She smiled as she thought of them, and stood, still looking for  them out the window.  She could see them as they arrived, from here. . . see their faces as they smiled, or laughed, or  looked annoyed as they stepped from their cars, and looked expectantly up at  her windows.  It was almost as if they always knew she would be there, watching  for them.  No matter what else she had to do, on the afternoon they were to  arrive, she always found something to do in her elegant little upstairs  sitting room, as she waited.  And even after all these years, with all of them  grown, there was always a little thrill of excitement, to see their faces,  hear their tales, listen to their  problems. She worried about them, and loved them, just as she always had, and in a way, each one of them was a tiny piece of the enormous love she had shared with William.  What a remarkable man he had been, larger than any fantasy, than any dream.  Even after the war, he was a force to be reckoned with, a man that everyone who knew him would always remember. Sarah walked slowly away from the window, past the white-marble fireplace, where she often sat on cold winter afternoons, thinking, writing notes, or even writing a letter to one of her children.  She spoke to them frequently on the telephone, in Paris, London, Rome, Munich, Madrid, and yet she had an enormous fondness for writing. She stood looking down at a table draped in an ancient, faded brocade, a beautiful piece of antique workmanship that she had found years ago, in Venice, and she gently touched the framed photographs there, picking them up at random to see them better, and as she looked at them, it was suddenly so easy to remember the exact moment. . . their wedding day, William laughing at something someone had said, as she looked up at him, smiling shyly.  There was so much happiness evident there, so much joy that she had almost thought her heart would break with it the day of her wedding.  She wore a beige lace-and-satin dress, with a very stylish beige lace hat with a small veil, and she had carried an armload of small, tea-colored orchids.  They had  been married at her parents' home, at a small ceremony, with her parents' favorite friends beside them.  Almost a hundred friends had come to join them for a quiet, but very elegant, reception.  There had been no bridesmaids this time, no ushers, no enormous wedding party, no youthful excess, only her sister to attend her, in a beautifully draped blue-satin dress with a stunning hat that had been made for her by Lily DachÈ.  Their mother had worn a short dress in emerald-green.  Sarah smiled at the memory. . . her mother's dress had been almost exactly the color of her own two extraordinary emeralds.  How pleased with her life her mother would have been, if only she had lived to see it. There were other photographs there as well, of the children when they were small. . . a wonderful one of Julian with his first dog. . . and Phillip, looking terribly grown-up, though he was only eight or nine, when he was first at Eton.  And Isabelle somewhere in the South of France in her teens. . . and each of them in Sarah's arms when they were first born.  William had always taken those photographs himself, trying to pretend not to have tears in his eyes, as he looked at Sarah with each new, tiny baby.  And Elizabeth. . . looking so small. . . standing beside Phillip in a photograph that was so yellow, one could hardly see now.  But as always, tears filled Sarah's eyes as she looked at it and remembered.  Her life had been good and full so far, but it hadn't always been easy. She stood looking at the photographs for a long time, touching the moments, thinking of each of them, gently brushing up against the memories, while trying not to bump into those that were too painful.  She sighed as she walked away again, and went back to stand at the long French windows. She was graceful, and tall, her back very straight, her head held with the pride and elegance of a dancer.  Her hair was snowy-white, though it had once shone like ebony; her huge, green eyes were the same deep, dark color as her emeralds.  Of her children, only Isabelle had those eyes, and even hers weren't as dark as Sarah's.  But none of them had her strength and style, none of them had the fortitude she had had, the determination, the sheer power to survive all that life had dealt her.  Their lives had been easier than hers had been, and for that, in some ways, she was very grateful.  In other ways, she wondered if her constant attention to them had softened them, if she had indulged them too much, and as a result had made them weaker.  Not that anyone would call Phillip weak. . . or Julian. . . or Xavier. . . or even Isabelle. . . still, Sarah had something that none of them had, a sheer strength of soul that seemed to emanate from her as one watched her.  It was a kind of power one sensed about her as she walked into a room, and like her or not, one couldn't help but respect her.  William had been like that, too, although more effusive, more obvious in his  amusement about life, and his good nature.  Sarah had always been quieter, except when she was with William.  He brought out the best in her.  He had given her everything, she frequently said, everything she had ever cared about, or loved, or truly needed.  She smiled as she looked out over the green lawns, remembering how it had all begun.  It seemed like only hours ago. . . days since it had all started.  It was impossible to believe that tomorrow was going to be her seventy-fifth birthday.  Her children and her grandchildren were coming to celebrate it with her, and the day after that, hundreds of illustrious and important people.  The party still seemed foolish to her, but the children had absolutely insisted.  Julian had organized everything, and even Phillip had called her from London half a dozen times to make sure that everything was going smoothly.  And Xavier had sworn that, no matter where he was, Botswana or Brazil, or God only knew where else, he would fly in to be there.  Now she waited for them, standing at the window, almost breathlessly, feeling a little flutter of excitement.  She was wearing an old, but beautifully cut, simple black Chanel dress with the enormous, perfectly matched pearls that she almost always wore, which caused people who knew to catch their breath the first time they saw them.  They had been hers since the war, and had they sold in today's world, they would have surely brought well over two million dollars.  But Sarah  never thought of that; she simply wore them because she loved them, because they were hers, and because William had insisted that she keep them.  "The Duchess of Whitfield should have pearls like that, my love." He had teased her when she first tried them on, over an old sweater of his she had borrowed to work in the lower garden.  "Damn shame my mother's were so insignificant compared to these," he had commented, and she'd laughed, and he had held her close to him as he kissed her.  Sarah Whitfield had beautiful things, she had had a wonderful life.  And she was a truly extraordinary person. And as she began to turn away from the window at last, impatient for them to come, she heard the first car coming around the last turn in the driveway.  It was an endless black Rolls-Royce limousine, with windows so dark, she wouldn't have been able to see who was in it.  Except that she knew, she knew each of them to perfection.  She stood smiling as she watched them.  The car stopped directly in front of the main entrance to the ch,teau, almost exactly below her window, and as the driver stepped out and hurried to open the door for him, she shook her head with amusement.  Her eldest son was looking extremely distinguished, as always, and very, very British, while trying not to appear harassed by the woman who stepped out of the car just behind him.  She wore a white silk dress and Chanel shoes, her hair cut short, very stylishly, with diamonds glittering  in the summer sun absolutely everywhere she could find to put them.  She smiled to herself again as she turned away from the scene at the window.  This was only the beginning. . . of a mad, interesting few days. . . . Hard to believe. . . she couldn't help but wonder what William would have thought of all of it. . . all this fuss over her seventy-fifth birthday. . . seventy-five years. . . so much too soon. . . . It seemed only moments since the beginning.  .  .  . From the Paperback edition. Excerpted from Jewels by Danielle Steel All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

In the Steel collectionoeuvre, which means works of art, is awk with following jewel metaphor , Jewels is merely a semiprecious gem. Set in the WW II era, the novel depicts the travails of its to elim dangler heroine, Sarah, Duchess of Whitfield. The beautiful debutante daughter of a wealthy American family, Sarah has endured the disgrace attending her divorce of her caddish first husband. Eventually she marries the charming and very rich Duke of Whitfield, who buys her a chateau in France. The rest of the novel follows the self-satisfied course of their usually happy since he's in prison camp at one point union. WW II offers Steel a chance to pump drama into this bland narrative, but she misses it. Sarah spends the war comfortably ensconced on the grounds of her chateau, looked out for by a solicitious German commander so polite she doesn't guess he has fallen in love with her. Meekly, he leaves the moment Sarah learns her husband, the duke, ? has survived a Nazi prison camp. After she nurses William back to health, their idyllic marriage placidly resumes. They are rich and envied. They eat well, dress well, live well, have or else mention first child above? children and open a jewelry store for amusement. The narrative's greatest conflict comes in the final chapters, when widowed Sarah has to deal with her unruly offspring. Costume jewelry has more sparkle than this uninspired tale. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

The duchess of Whitfield reflects upon her past on the occasion of her seventy-fifth birthday. She recalls her first marriage to a cad and her second and far more successful marriage to William, which brought her a chateau in France, buckets of jewels, and five children. Unlike most romance novelists, Steel spends far more time describing the birthing than the begetting. Between Sara's five children (and one miscarriage) and her offsprings' procreative experiences, the book is filled with squalling infants. There is also space devoted to the development of Whitfield's Jewels--exclusive shops that evolved from the benevolent post-World War II purchases of jewelry by the duke and duchess from locals in France who needed money to migrate or simply survive. Steel means to tell of a mother's heartache as she watches her children marry into difficult situations, but her shallow characterization leaves those interesting conflicts as unplumbed as the origin of the jewels that launch the family business. (Reviewed Apr. 1, 1992)0385304900Denise Perry Donavin

Kirkus Book Review

At the start, Steel seems to nick Barbara Cartland's preserves: lovely lass is wooed by English duke. But, here, the lass is a divorced American, and the duke has no wicked gleam in the eye. Once they're wed, it's Steel puff-pastry romance time. There's a stretch of true love and noble sacrifice during WW II in France, then troubles with bothersome offspring, the blossoming of a family jewelry business--and, of course, luxury digs and great duds. Sarah is in Europe--with her divorce from a playboy drunk already in the works--when she meets William, Duke of Whitfield, 14th in line to the throne. William falls in love, but how could Sarah say yes right after Edward VIII had to abdicate (in 1936) to marry a Divorced Woman, and thereby plug up William's conduit to the crown? Love wins, however, and Cousin Bertie (George VI) gives his blessing. No doubt royalty cares--it's the ex-king and his bride who get word to Sarah in her French chateau during WW II to tell her that William is missing in action. By this time Sarah has had two children, one (whom she will lose) delivered by the decent German officer in charge of requisitioning her house. The war ends. Will William return? Of course he will, and then Emanuelle, the village girl, suggests that the Whitfields help the refugees by buying their jewels. What a grand idea! Soon, though, jewels are piling up everywhere. Why not open a store! Wonderful! Eventually, the four surviving children will be involved: stuffy heir Phillip; kind Julian; headstrong Isabelle; jaunty Xavier. Except for the last, all marry disastrously, recoup, and produce kids. At the close, now-widowed Sarah beams on all at her 75th. Much of this airy nonsense is background--thin and threadbare (Steel does best on home shores). But fantasies with dukes, jewels, and French chateaux--plus the Steel name--can be counted on to shoot off the shelves. (Literary Guild Dual Selection for June)