Historical Fiction

Teaser Tuesdays

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so other participants know what you’re reading.

I took a few days off to spend time with my husband who is traveling almost non-stop in July.  I think he’ll actually spend more time out of town and on planes than he will at our house this month.  I thought I’d spend the couple days he was in town with him which is was why things were quiet here.

Getting back into things, I’m sharing a few lines from The Darling Strumpet by Gillian Bagwell this week.

“When the rehearsal was done, Nell sat still for a few moments, not wanting to let go of what she had experienced. She felt drained and yet exhilarated, and as if she was changed in some way.” (page 55 of 329 on Nook)

Review – Poison

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Poison: A Novel of the Renaissance

By Sara Poole

St. Martin’s Griffin

ISBN: 9780312609832

3.75 stars

In an attempt to branch out in my historical fiction reading, I’ve been auditioning time periods outside of 14th – 19th Century England which encompasses a large portion of my historical fiction reading.  On finding out Poison was set during the Italian Renaissance, I quickly added it to my list.  It also helped the Borgia family had a role as I find their abhorrent behavior highly fascinating.  Unfortunately, it didn’t impress as I wanted it to.

Francesca Giordana is grieving the death of her father, a man whose murder remains unresolved and a man who happened to be the poisoner of Rodrigo Borgia — a notorious and well-known man in the city of Rome.  In an attempt to keep her place in the Borgia household following her father’s death, Francesca makes a bold move by killing the new poisoner in a most unusual way causing Borgia to hire her on the spot.  Unfortunately for Francesca, Borgia has a plan to become Pope and it involves her abilities as a poison master to bring about his Papal reign.  Her involvement in the conspiracy to kill Pope Innocent will send in her into the depths of the Jewish Ghetto and the bowels of the Vatican endangering everyone she loves.

There was a good combination of elements: conspiracy to poison Pope Innocent for Borgia to have a chance at the Papacy, the murder of Francesca’s father, and a high up attempt to expel the Jews out of Rome by a mad priest bent on having his demented way.  In some ways it felt as if the story was moving in too many directions though.  I enjoyed the plot to poison Pope Innocent and Francesca’s role in it but all her other interests were too much and it began to burst for me.  At the end of the story, some plots were wrapped up but several others were still in play for the sequel which I’m actually all right with.

Another problem I had was the dialogue — it felt entirely too modern for the time period and at times I wanted to google the language used to see if it was appropriate.  Francesca was another issue for me.  She is a poisoner yet faints at the sight of blood.  Yes, I get trying to have her be the poisoner with a heart but she was too much for me.  If you’re going to plot killing people, willingly and knowingly, get rid of the heart or at least compartmentalize your feelings.  You can’t have it both ways; it’s not believable.  The second problem was her love life.  Sadly, the love element which was small was something I wanted more of and it was only hinted at here.  I’m guessing it will come about in book two, The Borgia Betrayal.

If you’re familiar with the Borgia family this isn’t bad but I think I was expecting something entirely different.  Even though I wasn’t totally sold on the book, it was a fast read and if you’re looking for historical fiction set in the Renaissance, it’s a nice change of pace.

Review – Northanger Abbey

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Northanger Abbey from The Complete Works of Jane Austen

By Jane Austen

Douglas Editions

BN ID: 2940000816981

4.5 stars

On a quest to finish reading all of Austen’s works this year, I bring you my Northanger Abbey thoughts.

Seventeen year-old Catherine Morland is excited to be on holiday with family friends, Mr. and Mrs. Allen.  Her first visit to the resort town of Bath, she befriends Isabella Thorpe, a young woman much like herself with many of the same interests and the two becomes quite close in a very short time, attending balls and gossiping about the town’s visitors.  While waiting for her love interest, Henry Tilney, to return, Isabella’s brother John Thorpe begins to pursue Catherine.  She manages to keep him at bay and at the same time make friends with Henry’s sister, Eleanor, who invites her back to their estate — Northanger Abbey — for an extended visit.  Catherine, a reader and enthusiast of gothic novels, lets her imagination run wild envisioning the Abbey to be more thrilling than the tranquility it exudes and she starts looking for exotic explanations for simple human reactions to tragedy.

Northanger Abbey is Jane Austen’s take on a gothic novel.  Each time I pick up one of her books I have a certain expectation —- there will be a heroine, a love interest, a blossoming love story, a love-laced blunder, and true love found at last.  All of that happened but there was a little more to this one; the gothic tale.  I’m not familiar with the novel The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne Radcliff which the main character Catherine adores, however, since reading this book I have downloaded it to my Nook and plan to take a look soon.  It’s really a wicked little jab at these horror stories and Catherine’s love of these types of books and her insistence on how well-written there are goes against the proclamations of others and is obviously Austen’s opinion of this genre made very clear.

As for characters, she once again delivers.  Catherine — a naïve, very likable person unwilling to believe a friend could do her wrong or that a dark side of life can exist.  She’s really lovely if somewhat absorbed in a world of fantasy.  I also very much enjoyed John Thorpe.  He’s brash, annoying, disagreeable, unlikeable, and spot on.  In no way do you want Catherine to acknowledge him let alone fall in love with him.  Henry, for me, was slightly boring (he’s no Mr. Darcy but who is?) but I found him endearing and a good fit for Catherine.

I waited a long time for the story to move to Northanger Abbey and was slightly disappointed with it, much like Catherine herself, but I loved her enthusiasm in uncovering what she believes to be the truth about the old Abbey.  It did follow a regular arc I’ve come to expect and love from Austen and I found Northanger Abbey to be a worthwhile addition to her collection and one I think I might read again.

Mansfield Park is next in my Austen reading but I probably won’t slip into it until later this year but I’m looking forward to it.

Teaser Tuesdays – Poison

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so other participants know what you’re reading.

This week I’m reading Poison: A Novel of the Renaissance by Sara Poole.

Beyond the city, spies were at work in the markets, brothels, trading houses, the Vatican itself, ferreting out whatever morsels might be useful to Borgia.  All this in service to the one great goal: Tte preservation and advancement of La Famiglia. (page 85)

Review – The Mistress of Nothing

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The Mistress of Nothing

By Kate Pullinger

A Touchstone Book

Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 978-1-4391-9386-0

4 stars

I love historical fiction and the longer the better which is why I was surprised by this little book and how much I did like it even if I did feel as though there could have been more in terms of the historical.  In the end, it was about the characters more than the place and I came to terms with that over the course of 250+ pages.

When Lady Duff Gordon makes the decision to move to Egypt permanently for the sake of her health, her maid, Sally Naldrett, is excited, joyous even at the prospect of a new life.  Always a woman of low means, Sally is happy with the idea of being her Lady’s mistress but when they finally arrive at their destination in Luxor, the formalness of England begins to dissipate and she finds herself more a friend and confident than a servant.  Her relationship with Lady Duff Gordon is not the only thing in her life to dramatically change — she falls in love with Omar Abu Halaweh, the dragoman brought on to assist Lady Duff Gordon.  Unfortunately, he is already married with children.  Their relationship becomes too much for Lady Duff Gordon and Sally finds herself alone and abandoned in a country not her own but one she loves as if it were.

As I said, this is a very short book and oddly, when I finished, I found myself furious.  Lady Duff Gordon ruins Sally for what she considers a betrayal.  But the irony in that is she has helped servants in the past who have been in the same position as Sally so after being fascinated by this person and the way she defined her role as woman, mother, and wife, I found her intolerance towards Sally hateful.  I want to say she ruined the story for me but she didn’t (although I would have liked to have seen more about Egypt itself and what was happening at the time — it’s hinted at but not discussed).  These two women, how their lives changed and how they were in many ways forced to not only accept but manufacture their own endings is really what this story is.  My annoyance with Lady Duff Gordon quickly turned to a sort of understanding.  I say sort because her treatment of Sally was truly hateful and a way to transfer her pain to another without having to deal with it.

Lady Duff Gordon was a real person and while I know nothing of her, she was an interesting person to revolve this story around.  What it also gave me was an interest in more historical fiction about Egypt which I will be looking for in the near future.

Review – Madame Tussaud

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Madame Tussaud

By Michelle Moran

Crown Publishers

ISBN: 978-0-307-58865-4

4.5 stars

Michelle Moran crept up my list of favorite authors with The Heretic Queen and I very much enjoyed Nefertiti and Cleopatra’s Daughter.  When I heard she would be writing about the French Revolution I’m sure I screamed with joy.  Knowing how well she handled Egypt, I had all the faith in the world she would do Marie Antoinette’s France proud.

Maria Grosholtz is a wax sculptor living and working in her family’s small museum.  Marie is extraordinarily talented when it comes to creating lifelike models of people, including the aristocracy, and her skills are in demand from well to-do patrons who want to see themselves immortalized.  Her family has always considered their work to be a means for the public to look at and admire not just royalty but the newsmakers of their day which included Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson among the long list of French men and women making a name for themselves through good works or bedroom antics.  When whisperings of the Revolution begin she worries about business, and when the full out assault on the King and Queen begins, she does her best to stay afloat in business and keep her head attached to her neck in a time when everyone is being beheaded.

Before becoming Madame Tussaud, Marie was a woman tied to her business and because of that she lets the love of her life escape France without her.  The emotional outpouring she has in that moment is the reason I enjoy Moran’s books so much.  She takes someone we know and re-creates that person in a way that makes you unable to put the book down.  In this case, it helped so much was going on in the background too — it kept me wondering who was going to walk through the door of the wax museum next and whether or not Marie would be off to once more create a plaster impression of a newly beheaded traitor to the Revolution.  She found the work disgusting but wanting to keep her family safe, agrees to do it anyway.  In some ways she becomes a bit of a walking zombie torn between her work and sad life she lives during her country’s darkest days.  (In real life, I think this may have been exactly the opposite because from what little I know, Madame Tussaud was supposedly quite the show person when it came to her work.  But don’t quote me on that, I haven’t confirmed it with the internets as of this writing.)

I have a soft spot for books set in this time frame and I think it has much to do with the fact that I have a not so secret desire to visit France.  I want to walk the halls of the Palace of Versailles and be awed by the sheer number of mirrors, experience the gardens, and stroll the Champs-Elysees.  Madame Tussaud was a satisfying little diversion for the France trip dream and if you’re new to Michelle Moran’s work, I’d recommend this one.  She does a good job creating a fantastic corner of France during the Revolution.

 

Today’s Book

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The Red Wolf Conspiracy…I don’t think we were meant to be.  I’ve tried reading you twice now and really, there’s nothing wrong with you.  In fact, there are many things right with you that I’m beginning to believe it’s me.  Maybe I’m not in the mood for fantasy at this moment in time.  Epic adventure — perhaps I’m craving something on a small scale.  Conspiracies, war, a ship hundreds of years old on a journey with a child aboard who can read languages he doesn’t even know.  The possibilities were good, but alas, I think we need to go our separate ways for now.

Last night, I began The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger.  It’s historical fiction and seems to be sticking.  After all, maybe I was in the mood for something more historical rather than fantastical.  Who knows…

Reading anything good today?

Review – The Forever Queen

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The Forever Queen

By Helen Hollick

Source Books

ISBN: 1402240686

4.5 stars

Emma was 13 years-old when her brother, the Norman King, married her off to the English King Æthelred.  Besides her being anointed Queen in her own right, it’s a terrible match that at times humiliates and terrifies Emma.  Her husband, who spent his life being ruled by his mother, has no idea what it takes to be a king let alone a decent man.  When Danish invaders take control, he capitulates and later dies a sad and very lonely death.  Not knowing what will become of her or her children now that the Danish king is in control of her land, Emma offers herself in marriage to Cnut, the Danish King, making him through her the new English King.  Her second marriage is much happier than her first and she and her country spend many content years with Cnut as their king.

When Cnut dies, Emma fears the loss of her crown and understands deeply the threat her country faces the day that Cnut’s son from his first marriage appears to lay claim to the thrown which he believes to be rightly his.  When her son with Cnut, Harthacnut, does not return to England to fight for the crown, she recalls her long abandoned sons from her first marriage, Edward and Alfred, to return with disastrous consequences forcing Emma to once again fight to keep her crown and position as Queen.

I usually don’t write such long descriptions in my reviews but I felt this one, being as long as it is (793 pages on my Nook) and the length of Emma’s rule, deserved a longer than normal introduction.  Emma, while not a likable character — she’s disgusted by her husband and her sons from her first marriage, isn’t motherly, is outwardly cruel to her husband and sons (the husband deserving though), and cares in some cases more for her crown and title as Queen above all else — is intensely interesting.  Her life is anything but boring; sad yes, horrid in some cases, lonely, and when she finds happiness there is always something that threatens it (another wife, more sons).  While I still don’t know if I liked her, I couldn’t put this book down wondering what would happen to her next.

Hollick is a great writer of historical fiction and since reading her Arthurian legend trilogy last year, she’s shot up my list of favorite authors.  While there were a few slow parts and an incredible list of characters to keep track of, I still liked this book a lot.  She picks subjects and characters whose parts in actual history may have been forgettable but gives them a fictional voice that makes them unforgettable.