Rating: 
Summary: Delightful starter on civil war history for foreigners
Review: Apart from the reading plaesure "Mary's World" provides, I immensly enjoyed this book for the following reasons: foreign history, in this case the American Civil War history, can be daunting for outsiders. Mary's World eases the foreigner not only into the life of the Pringle family but also into history of southern plantation life years prior to the war. This circumstance greatly facilitates the amateur's understanding of the time leading up to the war and the war itself. What I particularly appreciated was the southern view of that history. Even in Switzerland we are familiar with the northern issues of industrialism vs. agriculture (prominent geographically in Europe at that time also), the slavery issue etc. Rarely do we hear about the life and thoughts of Southerners other than the great military men. The history of Mary Pringle written by Richard Cote transports you into a Charleston household in two seconds flat. It is all so lively and easy to imagine that it is hard to put down the book. I felt I knew Mary Pringle and her children! And I felt I had never learned more about the South.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful starter on civil war history for foreigners
Review: Apart from the reading plaesure "Mary's World" provides, I immensly enjoyed this book for the following reasons: foreign history, in this case the American Civil War history, can be daunting for outsiders. Mary's World eases the foreigner not only into the life of the Pringle family but also into history of southern plantation life years prior to the war. This circumstance greatly facilitates the amateur's understanding of the time leading up to the war and the war itself. What I particularly appreciated was the southern view of that history. Even in Switzerland we are familiar with the northern issues of industrialism vs. agriculture (prominent geographically in Europe at that time also), the slavery issue etc. Rarely do we hear about the life and thoughts of Southerners other than the great military men. The history of Mary Pringle written by Richard Cote transports you into a Charleston household in two seconds flat. It is all so lively and easy to imagine that it is hard to put down the book. I felt I knew Mary Pringle and her children! And I felt I had never learned more about the South.
Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ
Review: FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN ANTEBELLUM CULTURE AND THE CIVIL WAR, THIS IS A MUST READ. EVEN FOR THOSE WHO AREN'T A STUDENT OF THE ERA, "MARY'S WORLD" IS STILL A FASCINATING GLIMPSE OF THE LIFE OF AN ELITE SOUTHERN PLANTER FAMILY. TAKEN FROM FAMILY PAPERS, THE STORY OF THE PRINGLES IS A FIRST HAND ACCOUNT OF THEIR INNERMOST THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS.
THE READER GETS TO WATCH WILLIAM BULL AND MARY ALSTON PRINGLE'S CHILDREN GROW UP. BY THE END OF THE BOOK YOU FEEL AS IF YOU HAVE KNOWN THEM ALL. I DREADED FINISHING THE BOOK BECAUSE I FELT AS IF I WAS LEAVING OLD FRIENDS.
DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND MAKE TIME FOR THIS BOOK. REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU ARE AN "ANTEBELLUM-OPHILE" LIKE ME OR NOT, THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I found this book in Charleston on vacation after touring this home. I loved this book! Now I want to visit again because I am so much more invested. I read this book for pure pleasure, and di it deliver! One doesn't need to visit the south to enjoy, the book takes you there. It gives such insight to the era and history the reader gets pulled right in.
Rating:
Summary: The Best and Most Personal Account of Life in the Old South
Review: I just finished reading Mary's World last night at 2:00 A.M. I couldn't put it down. I had long searched for a book that told about the actual lives of an Antebellum family. I had bought it while in Charleston, and it was my best book buy of the year!Many other books I have read about the same topic have been good, yet they are explained as mere facts. Mary's World was indeed portrayed as if it were fiction, yet it was a true and researched account of Mary's World, an amazing glimpse into a bygone era. It was well written and very enjoyable. If I could get my hands on more books of this type, I would certainly do so. There are many books about the Old South, but none that I know of that allow such a close and personal look and feel into the real lives of those persons having lived in the years leading to, during, and after the Civil War. There is an amazing national interest in Antebellum life told through the "voices" of those having lived during these actual times - and Cote has done a great job of sharing the true stories and lives of the Alston, Pringle, Frost, Middleton, and many other families/persons in this wonderful book. I have studied old southern families for years, and I know a great deal about several families from Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans. The real life stories about which Cote writes in Mary's World are so fascinating that anyone reading the book will fall in love with Mary Pringle and Old Charleston. Mr. Cote, thanks again for a most wonderful book, and please keep similar books coming. By the way, for those of you whom read and loved Mary's World, Cote's next book about Mary Pringle's sister-in-law, Theodosia Burr Alston will be out soon.
Rating:
Summary: Mary's World
Review: I live on the grounds of two of the former rice plantations mentioned throughout Richard Conte's wonderful book and am in the process of writing my own book about the history of these plantations. Needless to say, I was already very familiar with the subject matter and the great Allston/Alston family when I purchased "Mary's World." But Conte's easy to read, moving style made the individuals within that family come alive for me. Even though I often visit a number of the graves of those mentioned in the book, Conte's insight has enabled me to feel even more connected to the family than I did before. I couldn't recommend "Mary's World''more highly.
Rating:
Summary: A SOUTHERN PORTRAIT
Review: I picked this book up in a bed & breakfast in Savannah during a recent trip to the south. I was absolutely charmed by it. I am a civil war buff, and truly enjoyed the glimpse of life as it was, in the words of one who lived it. I couldn't put it down, and felt like an adopted member of the family. The author has done a remarkable job of assembling this wonderful material and tieing it into a very readable package. I highly recomend this for anyone with any curiosity about the southern lifestyle of that period. My thanks to Richard Cote for providing me with this authentic slice of life, and also a wonderful Christmas gift for several friends!!
Rating:
Summary: Mary's World: A Review
Review: In Mary's World Richard N. Cote has succeeded admirably where so many others have tried and yet missed the mark. With his succinct style and exceptional organizational skills he has laid bare the thoughts,emotions and lives of Mary Pringle, her family and their slaves, and done so in a way that has given us a book
that is informative as well as enjoyable. By putting their lives
into context with the times Mr Cote has given the reader not only the opportunity to learn what they thought and felt but the ability to understand why they thought and felt the way they
did. This book will appeal to historians and the average reader
alike.
It took me only 2 days to read Mary's World and I found myself
so absorbed that when interrupted I was momentarily confused to find I wasn't in 19th century Charleston.
Rating:
Summary: A Goldmine for the Antebellum South Fan
Review: Mary's world draws from personal letters of the Pringle family of Charleston to illustrate the life of an elite family before, during and after the Civil War. The book is immensely interesting for the social history/women's history buff, as it details the life of a wealthy planter's wife and her day to day activities in one of the most important Southern cities of the Civil War. The story is complimented by many period photographs and drawings. Sure to please.
Rating:
Summary: Step back in time and make some new friends!
Review: Mary's World is a well-written, wonderfully researched narrative of a wealthy and prominent family in nineteenth century South Carolina. The backdrop is the family's generational home, Charleston's Miles Brewton House, built in 1765, where family members wrote many of the letters used by Mr. Côté to reconstruct their lives. A chapter devoted to this historic site, now restored, plus frequent references, literally bring the reader into the Pringle home to observe the many lives that began and ended there. Mary Motte Alston Pringle (1803-1884) is the focal point of the story and the vehicle the author uses to familiarize the reader with the extended family and their various adventures. Mr. Côté draws on a rich mixture of personal letters, journals, and business and family records, plus a variety of secondary sources to piece together the lives of multiple generations and branches of this aristocratic planter family. His informed insight and objective analysis of Mary's fascinating world allows family members to speak for themselves and the reader to become virtually acquainted with them across the years. Their personal accounts reveal their lives in the antebellum South and how the Civil War affected them during and after the conflict. Interspersed throughout the book is information about their relationships with and attitudes toward their slaves before the war and the Freedmen after the war. Through this woven tapestry of emotions, beliefs, activities, customs, and culture people long dead speak again, explaining what it was like to live in their world, now long past.
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