Hal, the Young King, who lives in the shadow of his father, expects his due to come easily and never learns to stand on his own two feet. Richard, distrustful of his father, ineffectual in the protection of his mother, grows angrily possessive of Aquitaine, his inheritance. Geoffrey, enigmatic and more like Henry than Henry would care to admit, takes advantage of his brothers’ discontent to further his own ends. John, the son Henry fatally underestimates, lives in their shadows, growing increasingly malcontent. Eleanor, wife, mother, queen, gives 16 years of her life for one mistake, and yet rises above them all in the end.
I enjoyed Devil’s Brood, as I enjoy most of Sharon Kay Penman’s novels. She is a gifted storyteller with the ability to make you like – or at least sympathize with - historical characters you might otherwise disdain. The history is never a mere backdrop, but a full course meal of authenticity, romanticism and imagination. The author’s historical note at the end helpfully explains where she embellished or changed historical fact.
If you like Elizabeth Chadwick, especially the William Marshal novels, you’ll like Devil’s Brood, in which Marshal appears throughout. Rating: Excellent! Note: This review is based on the Advanced Reading Copy.
A classic novel of the gay experience during the post-Depression era, The City and the Pillar deserves praise for its candid portrayal of homosexuality during a time when being gay was considered shameful and immoral. The book originally appeared in 1948, making it contemporary fiction rather than a historical novel.
While I used to devour mysteries as if they were a source of life’s sustenance, I have not read more than a few over the past couple of years. They became too formulaic, if not entirely predictable. Many of the historical mysteries just didn’t offer enough history to hold my attention. Thus, when I read that An Instance of the Fingerpost was hailed as a literary mystery set against the background of the English Restoration, I was intrigued.
relates the life of his friend and lover from the time of his arrival in England as a teenager until his murder during the early years of Edward’s reign. Edward’s attraction is immediate.
Stealing Athena tells the story of the deconstruction of the Elgin Marbles during the early 19th Century. Originally belonging to the Parthenon, the Elgin Marbles comprise marble sculptures created, or supervised, by the Greek sculptor Pheidias. In 1801, Thomas Bruce, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, received permission to remove them to England. He did so over the course of several years at great expense and not without mishap.
Now a well-to-do has-been writer in his mid-50s, Brian Botsford is haunted by events of the late 1930s when fascism was on the rise in parts of Europe. In 1936, he was 22 years old and living at home, though his parents had died recently. He depended financially on a wealthy interfering aunt.
Born of The Aeneid, Black Ships retells the story of Aeneas, the last prince of Troy, from the point of view of a female oracle. Known variously as Gull, Linnea, Pythia and Sybil, she walks with Persephone, the Lady of the Dead, serving as her voice when she communicates with the people.
In 1818, Théodore Géricault began painting his masterpiece on the shipwreck of the Medusa. It was a politically sensitive subject at the time in that the government-appointed captain of the ship abandoned its crew and passengers to die, fleeing to safety on a lifeboat. The God of Spring – so titled, explains the author, in accordance with the concepts of “self-sacrifice, celebration and death” that stem from the Aztec God of Spring - tells of Géricault’s obsession with his work. Indeed, obsession may not be a strong enough word to describe the artist’s state of mind. Several times while reading this tale, I wondered if he bordered on insanity.