4 posts tagged “historical fiction”
The Last Boleyn: A Novel, by Karen Harper, is the story of Mary Boleyn (Bullen), Anne Boleyn's older sister. Much like The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory, this story describes Mary's life as a pawn in elaborate French and English court intrigue. Mary, through her father's political ambitions, is placed in a position where she is pressured to be the mistress of both Francis I and Henry VIII at different times in her life. She is married to William Carey, who is also thoroughly embroiled in court politics, and eventually falls for William Stafford, one of the king's right-hand men. In the story, she watches as Henry puts her aside for her younger sister Anne, and struggles to assert her own independence in a time where that was simply unheard of.
What I liked about this book is that it wasn't depressing. A lot of historical novels, particularly those centering around women, end up with everyone dead and/or brokenhearted. This version of Mary Boleyn's story has her grow from an eight year old child to a thirty-something woman who is able to negotiate her place in the world, long after she was passed around as a sexual pawn and married off. This is not to say that Mary is one of those ridiculously strong, assertive heroines that would be completely out of place in the early 16th century. Instead, Mary is, in my humble opinion, a very realistic person: she has her own mind and desires, but she is also indelibly marked by her training at court. She can be silly and weak and frustrating at times, and she can be independent and bold at others. Mary's character often submits to the men in her life, because that is simply what women did in that era - but that makes the times where she tells everyone to shove off more impressive. I found myself wanting her to find her happiness.
I thought this book did a great job of telling the Boleyn story without focusing on Anne, although the portrayal of Anne was pretty good - she was that classic neglected little sister who overcompensated, and it became the death of her. I also liked the portrayal of Henry VIII, as Harper was able to subtly negotiate his transformation from hearty young man on top of the world, to panicked king focused on dynastic succession at any cost. All in all, I thought the characters were well done, the story was well-told, and if there were any glaring historical inaccuracies, I was too caught up in the book to notice.
I definitely recommend this book.
Oh, Margaret George. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I'm happy to report that I picked up this book, expecting a fantastic story, and was not disappointed in the least.
Before this book, George wrote historical fiction based on real people. This book is a bit of a departure, since there's currently no conclusive proof that Troy or Helen ever existed. But the story that we are all familiar with - Helen, Menelaus, Paris, Achilles, and the rest - all come alive under George's retelling. In The Iliad, Helen is either completely absent or portrayed as weak and helpless. In Helen of Troy, she is a completely human woman who lives under the mantle of prophesized doom, but risks everything for love anyway.
What is absolutely remarkable about this book is how George manages to make you feel as though there might be a happy ending after all. Up until the very sentence describing Paris' death, you think the lovers might actually escape to Egypt and live a quiet existence together. You root for them, as obnoxious as both can be, and you understand why they make the choices they do. You want their all-consuming love to continue on, which makes the horrific fall of Troy that much worse.
This is a story that should appeal to men, too: it's not a "chick book" focusing on the love between Paris and Helen. True, the story is told from Helen's point of view, but it explores every aspect of humanity you can imagine: vanity, passion, wrath, war, jealousy, treachery, family, hospitality, choice, and consequence. Best of all, George does it well. It is a 600-page book, so all of these subjects are written about in depth.
I'm also pleased to note that George included a partial bibliography at the very end of the book to describe where she got her information, why she set it in the time period she did, and how she reconciled the inclusion of the gods of Olympus with her realistic approach. This book does not include as much historical information as The Memoirs of Cleopatra did, but it is grounded in research.
When I think of The Memoirs of Helen of Troy, a book I read earlier this year by Amanda Elyot, there is simply no comparison. Helen of Troy is far superior in every way--in particular, I was relieved that George didn't make Helen a martyr and deprived her of all friendships, as Elyot did. George's characters are unflinchingly human, good or bad; Elyot's are simply unlikeable.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Read it!
Over the last couple of days, I've been devouring books like...well, like a college graduate who's only read somewhat dry prose for the last six months. Browsing the new book section at the library, I came across The Last Wife of Henry VIII: A Novel by Carolly Erickson. It looked intriguing (who writes about Catherine Parr, anyway? Answer: practically no one), so I picked it up.
This book was not disappointing in the least. I breezed through it in several hours: the story and Erickson's writing style are captivating. It was such a pleasure to read such truly "readable" prose that I was sorry when the story had to come to an end.
As for a summary, the title is pretty self-explanatory. Catherine Parr is often described as the wife that was the most loyal and kind to Henry VIII when he was stricken with gout, old age, and heavily overweight. Erickson does a wonderful job of combining historical reality with invented characters to give the reader an idea of how it must have been like for Catherine--to me, it was completely believable, which makes all the difference in a historical novel (please see my review of The Memoirs of Helen of Troy for an idea of what makes a historical novel crappy). The story begins with Catherine as a young girl and ends at her death. Her progression from semi-noblewoman to Queen of England and stepmother to Elizabeth I is extremely compelling.
I enjoyed this book so much that I picked up The Hidden Diary of Marie-Antoinette: A Novel, also by Erickson, today, which I finished in about two hours. This one was a little less readable, as it is truly in diary format (which hampers the narrative a bit), but Erickson has done a remarkable job of marrying fact and fiction to tell a moving story. It is not often that a book makes me sniffle, but the end of this one did. The idea of facing revolution, upheaval, and a rather cruel death is portrayed in very humanistic fashion here. Marie-Antoinette, who is so often written as a caricature of a woman, is easily relatable in this book (much like Catherine Parr).
The book itself could have been approached on a deeper, more moralistic level, but it works the way it is because the reader really feels like this is a diary of a person, not a philosophical treatise on the hypocrisy of the French Revolution--but that point does come across rather well.
I love historical novels because it's so easy to lose the human spirit in dry historical fact (which I'm guilty of writing myself). Erickson is a wonderful writer who has obviously done her research, and let it capture her imagination as her books have captured mine. I'm really looking forward to reading more from her in the future.
The Memoirs of Helon of Troy caught my eye in the new books section of the library, so I rewarded myself for completing the LSAT and picked it up to read this weekend. I love mythology, I love the story of Helen, and I love history - and the reviews on the book said this was a well-researched book.
The book is written in first person, and follows Helen from her childhood up until the writing of her memoirs, long after Paris is dead. What bothered me about this book is that while Helen feels very three-dimensional - she does good and bad things - is that when it was all said and done, I kind of hated Helen. She abandoned her children for a man she'd known only a few days, she loved the four children she had with Paris more than the others, and she wrote a memoir to her daughter Hermione trying to justify these acts? That didn't sit so well with me. The ending, also, was half-assed, but I won't elaborate on that in case you'd still like to give it a try.
I loved the first half of the book, though - it was full of adventure and Helen as a girl was much more appealing than Helen as an adult. When Helen is kidnapped by the Athenian Theseus and she falls in love with him, the ensuing scenes are hot. It's a little Stockholm Syndrome, sure, but Amanda Elyot writes it well - Helen didn't like her home in Sparta and this was exactly what she had been hoping for - a way to get away from it all. Helen settles into her Athenian life quite easily and her love affair with Theseus is woefully short.
It was also hilarious when Helen, who had children with three men, accused a slave girl of not being able to keep her legs shut, near the end of the book. Come on. COME OOOON.
I can't comment on the historical accuracy of this book, as my ancient mediterranean knowledge is pretty rusty, but it seemed fairly well done. I don't like Elyot's style of using Greek words in dialogue and then defining them in the same sentence. This is supposed to be a memoir to her daughter, who would ostensibly know the language Helen is using.
All in all, I would give it maybe 3 out of 5 stars. It's a fun read, but nowhere near the quality of Anya Seton's Katherine (which I finished, and was quite good) or any of Margaret George's historical fiction novels.
