The captivating New York Times bestseller that brings to life the passionate, adventurous men and women who transformed San Francisco during the California gold rush
Kendra comes to San Francisco, a sleepy town of nine hundred people, because her stepfather, an army colonel, is charged with overseeing its defenses during the Mexican War. Marny arrives from Honolulu to set up a gambling hall. … set up a gambling hall. Neither expects to be swept up in one of history’s greatest adventures, which begins when tiny flakes of gold are discovered in the California hills.
As both young women follow their dreams into the mining camps and back to a rapidly growing San Francisco, they encounter ambitious settlers, sailors, miners, ranchers, and mysterious drifters, men who will offer them love or friendship or will break their hearts. Yet Kendra and Marny’s lives stay centered on the Calico Palace, the little gambling operation in a tent in Shiny Gulch that becomes the most opulent gambling house in California.
Thrilling and rich in authentic historical detail, Calico Palace is first-rate historical fiction that informs and entertains.
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I love all Gwen Bristow books. I’ve read all of therm several times. I find them well researched and true to life. Calico Palace gives you a true view of the early days in California. You are totally caught up with Kerndra and her friends as they live their lives in the daily challengers they encounter in a new society.
Easy reading but very informative book on San Francisco during the Gold Rush. Would recommend this for all ages. I loved the strong minded women characters that chose non traditional paths.
Excellent historical novel about the California Gold Rush, first published in 1970
I first discovered Gwen Bristow’s historical novels in 1970, when Calico Palace was initially released. It was the last novel that Gwen Bristow published. It covers the time period of 1848-1851 in San Francisco, California. This famous era, frequently portrayed in books and films, immediately follows the years represented in her earlier novel, Jubilee Trail, which is another historical novel about California that Bristow first published in 1950. Unlike Jubilee Trail, which was made into a western movie in 1954, Calico Palace has not yet been made into a movie.
Similar to Jubilee Trail, the core focus of this story is the intertwined lives of a virginal, 19-year-old Good Girl, in this novel, Kendra Logan, originally from New York State, and a 23-year-old Bad Girl, in this novel, Marcia “Marny” Randolph, originally from Philadelphia. These two young women both arrive in San Francisco via separate voyages on the same sailing ship, the Cynthia, during 1848, a few months before the beginning of the California Gold Rush in Northern California.
The primary story goal of Kendra, and the goal of her entire life, due to being abandoned by her parents and raised by a rather cold-natured grandmother, is to find love and acceptance, especially in marriage. Marnie’s primary goal in the story, and the goal of her entire life, is to be allowed to live her life, free from the oppressive interference of family and society, as the unique and independent woman she is, in a world where women of her and Kendra’s upper-middle-class background are routinely forced to live within the conventional mold of female gentility.
During the course of this novel, the most consistent and important relationship that Kendra and Marny have is with each other. Men come and go in their lives, and across the course of the novel, each has three significant romantic relationships, which may be rather disconcerting for fans of typical, modern romance novels. However, such readers will be happy to know that Bristow does wrap up this book by finally permitting both women to arrive in the safe harbor of HEA true love with admirable, male characters who have been consistently present throughout the entire book.
This historical novel is extremely long compared to the typically 90,000 to 100,000 word novels of today. But similar to modern women’s fiction, it is written by a woman, for women, about women. Since it was conceived in a much more conservative era than the current one, it is primarily G-rated. There is no onstage sexuality at all, no coarse language, and only a small amount of PG-level violence. As such, fans of modern day, sexually explicit historical romances, which contain action-adventure, “woman in danger” subplots, may find this book a bit tame. There is a certain amount of danger to the two heroines, but it is not the nail-biting type, and it is generally resolved fairly quickly. Also, the only real romance in this novel that would fit the mold of an HEA type romance of today is that which occurs in the last three or four chapters of this very long book. On the other hand, those of us who get quite tired of the anachronistic sexcapades of the heroines and heroes of modern-day historical romances may find the focus on historically accurate portrayals of female behavior in this novel rather refreshing.
It is frequently remarked that there are four main types of conflict possible in any popular-fiction novel. These include: protagonist vs antagonist, protagonist vs herself, protagonist vs society, and protagonist vs nature. This book, as is the case with most historical novels, utilizes primarily the two conflicts, protagonists vs nature and protagonists vs society. Marny does have one significant male antagonist who appears several times within the book as a subplot, but he is not a major focus of the book. And Kendra does have one female antagonist who is a minor subplot of the story. Kendra and Marny, however, are always confidantes and allies and never antagonists to each other. They are both consistently strong, active, admirable, sympathetic protagonists.
This book is written primarily in omniscient point of view, but the only heads the author hops into are those of Kendra and Marny, with primary emphasis on Kendra.
Toward the last quarter of the book, there is a fantastic subplot with an adorable cat named Geraldine. It was one of the highlights of the book for me. Geraldine is quite the heroic defender, with a significant part to play in the resolution of an important subplot of the story.
There are many terrific examples of healthy, supportive, male/female, platonic friendship throughout this book, as is the case with her novel, Jubilee Trail. I personally see those types of relationships as one of Bristow’s literary strengths.
I rather enjoyed the fact that this is a very long book by modern standards, with 20.6 hours of narration in the audiobook, compared to usually no more than 9 to 10 hours for modern historical romances. The story held my interest throughout. I found it quite entertaining.
I experienced this book simultaneously in both Kindle format and audiobook format. I got the Kindle book through Amazon Prime Library, and I got the audiobook through Hoopla. The audiobook narrator is the talented actress and romance-fiction author, Gabra Zackman. She has a rich, sonorous voice and does an excellence job with characters of different ages, both genders and different regional accents.
I rate this book as follows:
Dual Heroines: 5 stars
Male HEA Romantic Interests: 5 stars
Subcharacters: 4 stars
Geraldine the Cat: 5 stars
Gold Rush Setting: 5 stars
San Francisco Setting: 5 stars
Sisterhood Plot: 5 stars
Male/Female Platonic Friendship Plots: 5 stars
Writing: 4 stars
Audiobook Narration: 4 stars
Overall: 5 stars
Loved it.
I liked the book. A good read.
A fun interesting book about the origins of San Francisco and the gold rush.
I have always loved historical novels, especially the 1800’s and 1900’s. Gwen Bristow is a great writer. I read them all when I was veery young. It is my plan to read them all again.
An unconventional love story set in the fledgling Gold Rush city of San Francisco. I enjoyed this a rich piece of historical fiction filled with the “pluck” and resilience of a ragtag group of friends.
What a historical novel is meant to be.
This book is wonderful! I have read this author before: “Celia Garth”. I want to read all of her historical novels I recommend it highly five stars!!! I am a huge fan of Gwen Bristow!!!
Hadn’t read much about the Gold Rush and early San Francisco before this one. Especially from a female point of view.
life and struggles of the gold rush era
One of the best writers I have read. So life like are her stories and characters. Fictional believeable history
Read this as a teenager and re-read later – wonderful historical book.
I read this when I was in high school (a thousand years ago), and I just fell in love with it. It came to my mind a time or two through the years, but it just never came to mind when I would order books on Amazon. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it on BookBub! Excellent!
If you love history you will love this one.