tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88958698779437284812024-03-13T04:45:11.886-07:00Historical NovelsW C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-79007551983890049672023-08-11T20:37:00.001-07:002023-08-11T20:37:42.322-07:00Booth (2022)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi--H95A2E3g1aHsnkYMZxjrhMC-eQhLPKYiDq7HbrJT-Fm2Pw3PB9JiHllXH_YlLzq_j8l46rzd-Lb09QrCCtc2Act0BnLeo6KlJkLSoAL4A6hReKTnaPCV5yTt9a-0V0rR9HHN_zzte-uhOA6jC6nfxNwq25a_1eA8OdOt0jDUHs6aGP8zzceZPYu5hGq/s2560/Booth%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1696" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi--H95A2E3g1aHsnkYMZxjrhMC-eQhLPKYiDq7HbrJT-Fm2Pw3PB9JiHllXH_YlLzq_j8l46rzd-Lb09QrCCtc2Act0BnLeo6KlJkLSoAL4A6hReKTnaPCV5yTt9a-0V0rR9HHN_zzte-uhOA6jC6nfxNwq25a_1eA8OdOt0jDUHs6aGP8zzceZPYu5hGq/s320/Booth%20cover.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br />Before beginning <i>Booth</i>, Karen Joy Fowler's masterful 2022 historical novel, a reader might fairly assume that the central character of <i>Booth</i> will be Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth. Fowler surprises us, however. The central role is given to the entire <i>family</i> as a unit, and John Wilkes is actually one of the lesser figures in this drama. The assassination itself is not a central focus - this novel is very much a family saga. From father Junius Booth down to the several Booth children who died young, the members of the famous American acting family each take roles to form a company in the telling of this tale. <p></p><p>John Wilkes' brother Edwin and sister Asia - both prolific journal and letter writers - provided much of the primary research material for Fowler. Little known sister Rosalie, however, plays the central role as the oldest sister who sees it all play out. Fowler is able to fill in the blanks in Rosalie's life, making her narrative the one that ties all the other family member stories together. </p><p>To place the Booth story in its historical context, Abraham Lincoln is included as an off-stage presence, his political life outlined in third-person sections interspersed among those of various Booths, all following a chronological presentation.</p><p>Thanks also to Fowler for adding a detailed "Author's Note" at the end, explaining the many and sundry sources consulted. I hope to see more historical fiction from this author. Highest marks across the board!</p>W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-19085179341949901452023-03-04T21:01:00.006-08:002023-03-04T21:02:51.916-08:00The Song of Achilles (2011)<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5U7o_UfH8AxNTE3ug_uV9TlUnQB9jh91oPAfQIWPrLz7Q6wHBm_65AC-aMGJ_9SquE4iMYMDWC5JOX3goljoOz-npZOh28QMz0NVp6Uun05AXgt1PaO2CXkwEMsXKn22tSv8Ip3P6RyF1no5oLuUthRyyuRPkbirslgRybZJ2VH8sLgRjDXxxQPPj5w/s2409/The-Song-of-Achilles_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2409" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5U7o_UfH8AxNTE3ug_uV9TlUnQB9jh91oPAfQIWPrLz7Q6wHBm_65AC-aMGJ_9SquE4iMYMDWC5JOX3goljoOz-npZOh28QMz0NVp6Uun05AXgt1PaO2CXkwEMsXKn22tSv8Ip3P6RyF1no5oLuUthRyyuRPkbirslgRybZJ2VH8sLgRjDXxxQPPj5w/s320/The-Song-of-Achilles_cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></i></div><i><br />The Song of Achilles</i> (2011), the first novel by classics scholar Madeline Miller, retells Homer's ''The Iliad'' from boyhood to Achilles' death on the battlefield of Troy. Homeric events after that are skimmed over at the end. The first-person straight-narrative viewpoint is that of Patroclus, Achilles' best friend and lover. Being a minor character in ''The Iliad'' lets the Patroclus character be more accessible, with a more modern viewpoint than other more-familiar names in the story. At the same time, the unenlightened historical setting means the two boys have to begin from cluelessness to work out what it means to have and respond to homosexual feelings.<p></p><p>Starting so young makes this a coming-of-age story, as the two boys grow up and have to face the greed and power-lust of the adult world, while dealing with its opposition to their feelings for each other. Complicating matters are Achilles' half-divine nature, his sea-nymph mother, the always-feuding Greek gods, and the war against Troy instigated by the gods' constant meddling in mortal affairs (if only we could still blame "the gods" for our screwups!).</p><p>Miller obviously knows her Homer, so the persons and events in <i>The Song of Achilles</i> are faithful to <i>The Iliad</i> and selected supporting mythology. Miller also chooses to ignore some familiar Achilles lore, notably the story of his famous heel. <i>The Iliad</i> certainly can't be read as straight history, so this is not exactly a historical novel, but it reads like one and Miller earns high marks for faithfulness to her sources. </p>W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-38156431052460711202023-01-08T23:11:00.000-08:002023-01-08T23:11:28.771-08:00A Dangerous Business (2022)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Tp2dvvIQo1TaUayYg9MgMLbJ1i_RWV4TqGBbrd6a3XddpxPg2kbqC7Q6bttEsjEGF4F-VHF0t33it0R7UPTR8x6P1uEWptSa_Yg61TujhDyd4h2yUloYd0G_NyHOMFqAlq-keAAMyFFaFYrqFWfqV-URRqE4JKyzaerowUUZ_HFpk9RHdW2l8kT4NA/s2560/A-Dangerous-Business_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1730" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Tp2dvvIQo1TaUayYg9MgMLbJ1i_RWV4TqGBbrd6a3XddpxPg2kbqC7Q6bttEsjEGF4F-VHF0t33it0R7UPTR8x6P1uEWptSa_Yg61TujhDyd4h2yUloYd0G_NyHOMFqAlq-keAAMyFFaFYrqFWfqV-URRqE4JKyzaerowUUZ_HFpk9RHdW2l8kT4NA/s320/A-Dangerous-Business_cover.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><br />Jane Smiley won a Pulitzer Prize for a different historical novel - <i>A Thousand Acres</i> - but I was attracted to <i>A Dangerous Business</i> because it is set in Monterey, California; a town I'm pretty familiar with, not too far from where I live. The murder-mystery plot unfolds over a short span of years from 1850 to 1853, and falls into a category Amazon calls "amateur sleuths". Eliza was brought from Michigan to California by her new husband who dreamed of striking it rich in the gold fields, but he never makes it out of Monterey - killed in a barroom shooting. Eliza is left to fend for herself, and eventually finds employment at a local brothel. She makes a friend, and the two of them set out to find the killer of several other women from Eliza's profession. Along the way, Eliza learns a lot about life, and about herself. The climax comes, of course, when the killer is revealed.<p></p><p>Monterey itself is a character, and Smiley puts considerable effort into conveying a sense of its geography and climate, although a number of small details give away the fact that the author herself has not lived there. Only some very general Monterey history is included, and no historical persons - just general descriptions of the types of people that would have been found there in 1850: Californios, sailors, ranchers, etc. Many of the old streets and a few historical places make cameo appearances - as when Eliza and her friend follow a local lawyer to the courthouse in Colton Hall, but neither the building nor its namesake Walter Colton are described. </p><p>The novel is well-written and enjoyable, but oddly low key for a murder mystery. The murder story seems to be mainly a plot device whose twists and turns allow Eliza room for some adventure and self-discovery. I was disappointed that the plot didn't incorporate more actual history (a la David Liss), which keeps this novel below my highest ranking, but it was fun to read a story set in old Monterey. </p>W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-78001326791406953552021-06-19T09:56:00.001-07:002023-01-08T22:21:27.320-08:00The Years of Rice and Salt (2002)<p><b><br /></b></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WwVipqvuWYQ/YM4hMKX8PRI/AAAAAAAAFNc/U40UWMuor30DFqA_Ml_-5hNmzyfyMsDsACNcBGAsYHQ/s666/Screenshot%2B2021-06-19%2B9.52.08%2BAM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WwVipqvuWYQ/YM4hMKX8PRI/AAAAAAAAFNc/U40UWMuor30DFqA_Ml_-5hNmzyfyMsDsACNcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screenshot%2B2021-06-19%2B9.52.08%2BAM.png" /></a></b></div><b><br />The Years of Rice and Salt</b> is a 2002 novel by Kim Stanley Robinson. Not exactly what is usually considered to be a historical novel, this work instead belongs to a science fiction sub-genre known as 'alternate history' - Robinson's only venture into this area. When the actual history is treated with respect, however, such novels allow the author to examine historical forces and how events lead to subsequent events. This novel does that by positing a change to one crucial historical event.<p></p><p>The 'Black Death' was a pandemic that began around 1345 CE and eventually killed a third of all Europeans. In Robinson's alternate history, it is imagined instead as a much more deadly event - killing over ninety percent across Europe, effectively destroying Christian influence over world events. The dominant remaining and familiar world cultures are Islam, China, and the Indian subcontinent. </p><p>The destruction of incipient colonial empires in Spain, Portugal, France, and England has far-reaching effects in many parts of the world. India never falls under British influence. The Middle East never sees Crusades from Europe. In the Western Hemisphere, the native cultures are given more time to develop and resist colonial pressures. While political history changes radically, however, science and technology develop along similar lines to our own history.</p><p>To tie the stories together over the book's 1400 projected years, beginning in the reign of 'Temur the Lame' (Tamerlane), Robinson uses several ideas borrowed from reincarnation theories to have the same small group of 'souls' appear over and over. In between mortal lives, the characters meet in the "bardo", a place where souls go after death to await their assignments to new bodies. While together there, the story's characters can discuss their spiritual evolution, and that of the physical world to which they will soon return.</p><p>A lot of actual history is used to set up the alternate story, and the historical research is well-done. Alternate history is not usually very attractive to me, but this one is well done and thought-provoking.</p>W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-43363880094933814592020-12-03T15:40:00.001-08:002021-06-19T08:56:59.410-07:00The Mirror and the Light (2020)<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vf9L4SzLFy4/X8l3Jo2osVI/AAAAAAAADpI/n-_sbbDgpHUgDyEddSjhdPkGZfJ71T-ZwCNcBGAsYHQ/s500/The-Mirror-and-the-Light_cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vf9L4SzLFy4/X8l3Jo2osVI/AAAAAAAADpI/n-_sbbDgpHUgDyEddSjhdPkGZfJ71T-ZwCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/The-Mirror-and-the-Light_cover.png" /></a></i></div><i><br />The Mirror and the Light</i> (2020), by Hilary Mantel, concludes the trilogy of historical novels about Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Henry VIII of England. It lives up in every way to the high standards set in the previous two novels, <i>Wolf Hall</i> (2009) and <i><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8895869877943728481/8478337066836755828" target="_blank">Bring Up the Bodies</a></i> (2012), earning straight 5's in my five criteria. The gap between 2nd and 3rd novels has been much longer than the three years between 1st and 2nd, even though it covers a period of only four years. <p></p><p>Those were Cromwell's last four years in this life, of course, which filled them with dramatic tensions that Mantel captures so expertly. More childhood back-story is included, as well, which seemed appropriate as Cromwell progressed into later middle age. As Henry descended into a mid-life crisis that became dangerous to all around him, Cromwell meditated on the personal history that shaped him and brought to the position of second-most-powerful person in England, before it was all suddenly snatched away.</p>It's probably just me and/or the recent times we've been living through in the US, but it seemed that as the events of 1536-1540 unfolded in the novel's pages, Mantel's portrayal of Henry VIII's reign came more and more to resemble the presidency of Donald Trump, which has been unfolding in parallel with the end of her writing about Henry. And Cromwell's ultimate failure to please his king could be compared to numerous appointees who departed the administration because they failed to please Trump. Fortunately, their penalties for failure did not include beheading. W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-78653229942946916312019-03-22T23:21:00.001-07:002021-06-19T08:57:39.167-07:00The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington</b> (2019) is a work of history by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch. Far from the stereotypically dry history tome, however, this book reads like a fast-paced historical wartime spy novel. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/First-Conspiracy-Secret-George-Washington/dp/1250130336/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=" target="_blank">Amazon's descriptive blurb</a> says:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><br />Taking place during the most critical period of our nation’s birth, The First Conspiracy tells a remarkable and previously untold piece of American history that not only reveals George Washington’s character, but also illuminates the origins of America’s counterintelligence movement that led to the modern day CIA.</i></blockquote>
The heart of the narrative takes place during the year-plus that newly-appointed commander General George Washington spent in New York City, 1775-76, preparing for the inevitable and overwhelming British assault against his ragtag Continental Army.<br /><br />
As if that weren't daunting enough, Washington learns of a treasonous plot within his own elite guard unit. The ensuing effort to expose the traitors and foil the plot has enough surprising twists-and-turns to satisfy the most demanding spy novel fan. New York legislator John Jay leads the investigation, and in the process lays the groundwork for future counterespionage and counterintelligence agencies in the US. Well-written and researched, and highly recommended.<br />
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Note: a good chronological follow-up to this history would be <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington%27s_Spies:_The_Story_of_America%27s_First_Spy_Ring" target="_blank">Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring</a></i>, by Alexander Rose, which was adapted into the AMC TV series <i>Turn: Washington's Spies</i>.W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-10549605033641824702018-08-19T14:30:00.001-07:002021-06-19T08:57:55.373-07:00Island of the Mad (2018), by Laurie R. King<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Island of the Mad </i>is the fifteenth and latest (2018) novel by Laurie R. King featuring her lead character Mary Russell as partner (both marital and investigative) of Sherlock Holmes. The series, which began more than twenty years ago, has always attracted (most) Holmes fans, but this one includes a healthy dose of history as well.<br />
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It's 1925, and a missing-person case takes the sleuthing duo to Venice. Mussolini had recently taken power in Italy, and his all-black-clad police were in evidence. In a subplot, brother Mycroft has asked Sherlock to do some casual spying to determine the country's mood under the new fascist regime. As a national-security adviser to Downing Street, Mycroft is concerned about similar sentiments beginning to be felt in Britain--beginning with the "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotha_Lintorn-Orman" target="_blank">British Fascisti</a>" established in 1923 by Rotha Lintorn-Orman.<br />
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While Mussolini was still getting started, the real 1920s action in Venice was the social scene, led by American expats <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsa_Maxwell" target="_blank">Elsa Maxwell</a> and Mr. and Mrs. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cole_Porter" target="_blank">Cole Porter</a>. All three are substantial characters in the novel. Several historical Venice locales have important roles, including the beach-resort island of Lido with its <a href="https://www.hotelexcelsiorvenezia.com/" target="_blank">Hotel Excelsior</a>, and the extravagant palazzo <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ca%27_Rezzonico" target="_blank">Ca' Rezzonico</a>, rented by the Porters when in Venice--now a museum. Also, before leaving for Venice, Mary and Sherlock paid a visit to Bethlem Royal Hospital in south London, the fourth iteration of the infamous "Bedlam" (now housing the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_War_Museum" target="_blank">Imperial War Museum</a>).<br />
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No criteria rating for this one--the Mary Russell novels are not intended to be read as historical fiction. My gratitude to author Laurie King, however, for investing enough research time to give the novel a surprisingly large dose of historical interest and authenticity.<br />
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For another history-lite but well-written novel set in the same milieu, Try <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_from_Venice" target="_blank">The Girl From Venice</a> </i>(2016), by Martin Cruz Smith.W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-77804525043250600752017-11-12T21:38:00.004-08:002021-06-19T08:58:16.372-07:00Justinian (1998), by H. N. Turteltaub<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><i>Justinian</i></b> is an earlier historical novel by Harry Turtledove, under his favorite nom-de-plume. The summary below, from Library Journal, gives the basics.<br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span> <span style="text-align: center;">Written four years before the first book of the Hellenic Traders series, </span><i style="text-align: center;">Justinian</i><span style="text-align: center;"> lacks several elements that make those books so enjoyable. Mainly, it's the character of Justinian, whose lack of depth offers little insight into the bases of his unpleasant personality. As noted above, the "asides" of the faithful soldier </span>Myakes<span style="text-align: center;"> are better, but still lacking depth. Development of an author's writing skills from one book to the next is interesting to track and, although the newer Greek novels are much better than </span><i style="text-align: center;">Justinian</i><span style="text-align: center;">, this earlier effort is still worth reading for the hist-</span>fict<span style="text-align: center;"> fan. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <br />
<div>
<span style="color: #fce5cd;">The five criteria:</span></div>
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #fce5cd;">Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?</span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: #fce5cd;">Yes. This was my first novel set during the Byzantine Empire - not because it's an uninteresting historical period, but because I've found no other such novels. If nothing else, the development of the mighty imperial city of Constantinople from the earlier Byzantium would be a good subject for someone like Edward Rutherfurd (we can hope).</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #fce5cd;">Score = 5</span></b></div>
<ol start="2" style="font-style: italic;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="color: #fce5cd;">Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: #fce5cd;">Yes. The author's ability to read the original Greek was undoubtedly helpful. More detail would, however, have made the descriptions more compelling - even if it had to be based largely on educated conjecture.</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #fce5cd;">Score = 4</span></b></div>
<ol start="3" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="color: #fce5cd; font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical events accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: #fce5cd;">Yes. The history is well-researched, although the lack of detail and/or embellishment makes it somewhat dry.</span><br />
<span style="color: #fce5cd;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 4</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></span></div>
<ol start="4" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="color: #fce5cd; font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: #fce5cd;">Yes, as far as it goes. The author notes that little can be learned from the historical record about the lives of the principal figures of this era, which seems odd after the literary outpouring of the earlier Roman era.</span><br />
<span style="color: #fce5cd;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 4</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></span></div>
<ol start="5" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="color: #fce5cd; font-style: italic;">Were the fictional or fictionalized plot and characters plausible?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: #fce5cd;">Maybe. Justinian himself is the least plausible. It's hard to believe that he could have been as single-minded and lacking in self-doubt as he is portrayed. For me, Robert Graves' fictionalized Claudius remains the gold standard of hist-fict character development, and Justinian could have been more interesting with some of that psychological speculation.</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #fce5cd;">Score = 3</span></b><br />
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From Library Journal</h3>
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While not as well known as his namesake, the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, Justinian II certainly bears investigating. Treacherous, vicious, driven, and self-serving, Justinian took the throne in 685 at the age of 15. Overthrown in 695, he was cruelly mutilated and exiled across the Black Sea, where he languished for years with his bodyguard Myakes as his only companion. Although the bulk of the story is told from Justinian's point of view, the more interesting bits are found in the asides by Myakes, who, after the death of his emperor, was blinded and sent to a monastery. In spite of lengthy and tedious descriptions of military campaigns and an underpopulated cast of characters, the reader is drawn into a Byzantine world where the glory of God and the glory of earthly power are two sides of a glittering gold coin. Turteltaub is the pseudonym of sf author Harry Turtledove.<br />
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.<br />
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W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-16906026867227199882017-10-09T22:52:00.001-07:002021-06-19T08:58:36.227-07:00Conclave, by Robert Harris (2016)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Conclave</i> is not a typical historical novel. Although there's a historical background for the novel's fictional events, the events themselves are presented as present-day. Historical characters are also used to provide historical background, but none appear in the story's events. The setting (Vatican City in Rome) is certainly steeped in history, as are all the myriad details of the process by which the Church of Rome elects a new Pope - known as a conclave.<br />
<br />
The novel's structure is more that of a crime/mystery novel. Like Harris' earlier <i>An Officer and a Spy</i>, the main protagonist is faced with a mystery (several interconnected mysteries, actually) whose successive solutions build to a dramatic climax, followed by the denouement. Agatha Christie would be proud.<br />
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The investigator is the Dean of the College of Cardinals, the Vatican official charged with running the papal election. No spoilers here, so suffice it to say that the mysteries involve the various leading papal candidates, and the writing is so skillful that it's unlikely readers will see the surprise ending coming.<br />
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The five criteria:<br />
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?</i></li>
</ol>
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Yes. No matter how you feel about the Church, its byzantine history makes for great storytelling. More than historical events, however, <i>Conclave </i>made me want to visit Rome again.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 4</b></div>
<ol start="2" style="font-style: italic;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?</li>
</ol>
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Yes. Harris provides a wealth of historical background that makes the fictional characters and conclave events seem entirely plausible.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical events accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
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Yes. Harris was granted extensive access to the people and places inside the Vatican, which he turned into accurate detailed descriptions of papal elections past and (fictional) present.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="4" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
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Yes. None of them were more than background, however, so not much detail was required. Many readers will prefer this approach to the type of historical novel where the writer has to invent fictional dialog for historical characters.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 4</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="5" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Were the fictional or fictionalized plot and characters plausible?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes, very plausible, although becoming progressively more unlikely as the drama builds toward its climax.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b></div>
W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-23075735330020753432017-10-06T23:10:00.000-07:002017-10-09T21:40:14.679-07:00Helenic Traders series (2002-2015), by H. N. Turteltaub<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Until recently better known to me as the science fiction writer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove" target="_blank">Harry Turtledove</a>, H. N. Turteltaub (one of several pen names) is a fine historical novelist. In the four-book <i>Hellenic Traders</i> series, two cousins from the isle of Rhodes sail (and row) the Mediterranean in pursuit of trading profit, finding adventure and meeting many people both famous and infamous.<br />
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1. <i>Over the Wine Dark Sea</i> (2002). Set in the year 310 BC, cousins Menedemos (captain) and Sostratos (supercargo) embark from Rhodes with a hold full of luxury goods, including a troublesome but rare and therefore valuable peacock and several hens. Menedemos, though not a scholar, loves to quote from Homer - hence the novel's title. Menedemos is also the more amorous of the two, with a particular weakness for other men's wives.<br />
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Quieter and more introspective, Sostratos has studied in Athens at the feet of successors to Aristotle, and loves to confound his more traditional cousin with "scientific" ideas. Dialogues between the two give Turteltaub opportunities for exposition on ancient Greek philosophers and historians.<br />
<br />
Those were perilous times for traders, with warfare between two or more of the generals (collectively known to scholars as the Diodochi) who had divided the extensive empire of the departed (323 BC) Alexander the Great. Even more dangerous for sea traders, the general disorder had allowed pirates to flourish all over the eastern Mediterranean. The traders discover that things are no better in the west, when they reach the Bay of Naples just in time to be attacked by part of a Roman flotilla on its way to raid Samnite-held Pompeii. Deciding, after a perilous escape, against proceeding farther north, the cousins head back south to go back around the horn of Italy - just in time to become embroiled in the siege of Syracuse (Sicily) by Carthage, in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Wars#The_Third_Sicilian_War_.28315.E2.80.93307_BC.29" target="_blank">Third Sicilian War</a>.<br />
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2. <i>The Gryphon's Skull</i> (2002). In the following sailing season, spring of 309 BC, the cousins set out again from Rhodes, with a new cargo of Rhodian perfume, silk from Cos, wine from Chios, and Palestinian balsam obtained from Phoenician traders. Soon added to the normal trade goods is something Sostratos finds irresistible - the fossilized skull of a horned dinosaur. Having no knowledge of either dinosaurs or fossilization, Sostratos theorizes that the skull might have belonged to the legendary Gryphon. Since no one has seen such a thing, Sostratos resolves to take the skull to Athens, to hear what the great philosophers think of it.<br />
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War, in this year between Diodochi rivals Antigonus and Ptolemy, again adds danger to the voyage, along with the ever-present pirates. Circumstances conspire to prevent the traders from reaching Athens, but the resourceful cousins still survive several scrapes and still manage to return home with a tidy profit.<br />
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3. <i>The Sacred Land</i> (2003). Dealings and conversations with a Phoenician trader living in Rhodes convince the cousins that their next trading voyage should head south and east to trade with the Phoenicians at their home port city of Sidon. Sostratus prepares by learning some of the Aramaic language spoken in that country. Once there, Menedemos trades in the local markets of Sidon while Sostratos mounts an overland expedition to the territory of the mysterious and insular Ioudaians (Judeans), to trade for rare and expensive balsam. The journey leads to Jerusalem and on to Engedi, an oasis at the southern end of the Dead Sea, where the best balsam is grown and processed. Adventures ensue, and readers are introduced to another corner of the ancient Greek world.<br />
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4. <i>Owls to Athens</i> (2015). The title is the ancient Greek equivalent of "coal to Newcastle" or "ice to Eskimos". Also, a bit of a pun - the coins minted in Athens at that time featured the image of an owl. In this fourth sailing season of the series, the cousins finally reach Athens, where Sostratos studied philosophy for a time before economics required him to return to Rhodes and take his place in the family trading business. Most of this novel takes place in Athens, where the cousins witness a sudden and nearly bloodless invasion by the forces of Antigonos, who seize the ancient city from the rival general Cassander. Once again, the cousins navigate the perilous times and return successfully to Rhodes with a cargo of silver profits.<br />
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Expecting more entries in this series, possibly culminating with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Rhodes_(305%E2%80%93304_BC)" target="_blank">305-304 BC siege of Rhodes</a>. All 4s and 5s in the '5 criteria' so far.W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-26154135356727875012017-04-20T16:36:00.000-07:002017-04-20T16:39:32.900-07:00The Bronze God of Rhodes (1960), by L. Sprague de Camp<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-laKWerrjjv4/WPk7vCcGQsI/AAAAAAAABno/uSHWf-w6SPcyTDISSAYfM7Gy3YgRmn0IgCLcB/s1600/Bronze%2BGod%2Bof%2BRhodes%2Bcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-laKWerrjjv4/WPk7vCcGQsI/AAAAAAAABno/uSHWf-w6SPcyTDISSAYfM7Gy3YgRmn0IgCLcB/s320/Bronze%2BGod%2Bof%2BRhodes%2Bcover.jpg" width="213" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-laKWerrjjv4/WPk7vCcGQsI/AAAAAAAABno/uSHWf-w6SPcyTDISSAYfM7Gy3YgRmn0IgCLcB/s1600/Bronze%2BGod%2Bof%2BRhodes%2Bcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-laKWerrjjv4/WPk7vCcGQsI/AAAAAAAABno/uSHWf-w6SPcyTDISSAYfM7Gy3YgRmn0IgCLcB/s1600/Bronze%2BGod%2Bof%2BRhodes%2Bcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
Even though it's a relatively old novel, I was excited to discover <i>The Bronze God of Rhodes</i>, by L. Sprague de Camp - for two reasons. First: its subject had only recently caught my interest. Second: I knew de Camp as a very good science fiction writer, and so expected to also find a very good historical fiction writer. I was not disappointed.<br />
My interest in the post-Alexander history of Rhodes was roused while reading <a href="http://historicalnovels-wcc.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-seven-wonders-by-steven-saylor-2012.html" target="_blank">The Seven Wonders</a> and <a href="http://historicalnovels-wcc.blogspot.com/2016/11/wrath-of-furies-2016-by-steven-saylor.html" target="_blank">Wrath of the Furies</a>, by Steven Saylor. Those novels included a brief recounting of how the city of Rhodes (capital of the island of the same name) successfully withstood a multi-year siege, then erected the world's largest statue in honor of the sun god Helios. The statue became known as the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.<br />
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The novel's protagonist is a sculptor named Chares, creator of the Colossus. Chares was a real person, though little is known about him apart from his famous creation. That makes him a perfect historical fiction character and first-person narrator, leaving the author free to invent a history and personality for him. De Camp does something with the Chares character I've seen in no other novel.<br />
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The narration is written as a memoir by a man of middle-age, but as Chares returns to the days of his youth to begin, he also returns to his youthful personality: brash, boastful, arrogant, impatient. The transformation was so convincing that, for the first couple of chapters, I wasn't sure I could tolerate Chares for an entire novel. Experience humbles and matures him, however, as it (hopefully) does to all of us.<br />
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The introduction by Harry Turtledove (another fine science fiction writer) ends with the information that he too has written historical fiction set in the same era - more titles for my wishlist.<br />
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This novel aced the five criteria:<br />
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?</i></li>
</ol>
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Yes. At a minimum, the Turtledove novels seem worthy of a read. Maybe it's time also to move a bit farther back in history to Alexander the Great.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b></div>
<ol start="2" style="font-style: italic;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes. The siege of Rhodes (305 BC) is the main historical event, but many preceding and corollary events are described as well, fitting the Rhodian events into their context. In addition, the plot contrives to send Chares on several trips away from Rhodes, notably to Egypt. The itinerary of travels there is very similar to that in the Saylor novels, leading me to wonder if perhaps this novel provided a partial plot model for Saylor. <br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b></div>
<ol start="3" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical events accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes. The farther back in history you go, the less reliable documentation you find. Anything before late Republican Rome is very misty indeed. That said, the novel doesn't stray from known events, or manipulate dates unnecessarily. Settings and speculations seem plausible. There's lots of interesting info on the evolving technology of the time. The lengthy <i>Author's Note</i> following the novel adds a lot of background history that didn't make it directly into the story.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="4" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
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Who knows? Let's say they seem entirely plausible, with the usual caveat about imposing modern thinking on ancient characters - which is unavoidable. The large cast of characters includes many historical names, although most - including the protagonist/narrator, are supported by very little historical evidence.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="5" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Were the fictional or fictionalized plot and characters plausible?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes. Nothing in the story caused me to question the author's grasp on the history. Can't ask for more than that.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b></div>
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<br />W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-12902600471415807372016-12-12T15:52:00.000-08:002017-02-06T00:57:40.130-08:00The Last King (2004), by Michael Curtis Ford<i><br /></i>
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<i>The</i> <i>Last King</i>, subtitled <i>Rome's Greatest Enemy</i>, is a clever bit of titling misdirection. This fictionalized biography of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridates_VI_of_Pontus" target="_blank">Mithridates VI</a>, 6th King of Pontus by that name, is told from the viewpoint of his illegitimate son Pharnaces. Spoiler alert: the last King of Pontus was Pharnaces; not his father.<br />
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As noted in the review of <i><a href="http://historicalnovels-wcc.blogspot.com/2016/11/wrath-of-furies-2016-by-steven-saylor.html" target="_blank">Wrath of the Furies</a></i>, by Steven Saylor, that book inspired me to read more about Mithridates and his multiple rebellions against Rome in the 1st century BC. This novel was a good find, and the first I've read by Michael Curtis Ford. Somewhat in the Bernard Cornwell school - heavy on battlefield gore and glory, Ford failed to match Cornwell's depth of research and historical detail but delivered a good read and a credible plot. The reader's feelings toward Mithridates evolve along with his son's - from absolute devotion to creeping doubt to recognition of the ultimate futility of 25 years of near continuous warfare against the Roman armies that never stopped coming.<br />
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The historical Pharnaces apparently failed to learn that lesson, however. Despite this novel's narrative of increasing disillusionment, the son led his own rebellion against Rome a few years later, only to meet Rome's greatest general - Julius Caesar. Caesar's crushing defeat of the last King of Pontus yielded his famously terse post-campaign report: "Veni, vidi, vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered).<br />
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The early sources for information on Mithridates VI are mostly Roman, and suffer from the normal cultural biases. When writing about formidable enemies, two standard slants were 1) the enemy's total barbarism and depravity (contrasted with the wholesome heroism of opposing Romans), and 2) his freakish physical abilities (how else could he have lasted so long against far-superior Romans?).<br />
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Ford chooses to split the difference in his portrait of Mithridates. While painting a more sympathetic picture of the King than Roman authors, he goes all in for the nearly superhuman abilities. For a heroic-protagonist sort of novel, that's standard stuff, so no discredit to the author.<br />
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The five criteria:<br />
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?</i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes. I found a recent biography of Mithridates: <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8977.html" target="_blank"><i>The Poison King</i>, by Adrienne Mayor</a>. Also, I picked up <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/28/spqr-history-ancient-rome-mary-beard" target="_blank">Mary Beard's <i>SPQR</i></a>, a concise and thoughtful 1-volume history of ancient Rome (highly recommended).<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b></div>
<ol start="2" style="font-style: italic;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes. Rather battle-heavy, as noted, and with little detail on anyone outside Mithridates' inner circle.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 3</b></div>
<ol start="3" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical events accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Basically. The names and dates are drawn mainly from early Roman writings, as noted in the author's Acknowledgements. More attention to archaeology could have improved the accuracy of many details. For instance, Ford commits the movie-Roman sin of depicting Republic-era soldiers as wearing "Imperial Gallic" helmets (with red horsehair crests), that weren't adopted until after Julius Caesar. <br />
<br />
<i>The Poison King</i> alerted me to a few places where Ford made artistic choices not necessarily supported by fact. One such is a scene where Mithridates and the remnants of his army elude the pursuing Romans by traversing a region of sheer cliffs bordering the eastern end of the Black Sea. Although it's possible that they took that route, Mayor argues convincingly that it was unlikely.<br />
<br />
In Ford's narrative of that treacherous crossing, an event occurs that contradicts historical evidence. Mithridates' "Amazon" companion Hypsicratea falls into a glacial crevasse and perishes. Mayor notes, however, that her name appears inscribed on a stone monument years later. These are minor liberties, however, that take little away from the overall veracity.<br />
<br />
A more intriguing speculation from Mayor, that would have fit right into Ford's novel, is the idea that Pharnaces conspired to fake his father's death and spirit him away to safety in the north. It makes a much more romantic end to the story of the unconquered king who defied the Romans for so many years, as opposed to the standard tale that Pharnaces revolted and offed dear old dad (or allowed him to kill himself).<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 3</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="4" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Probably not, but who knows? Roman generals are universally depicted as sneering, insulting and cruel. Mithridates is caring and heroic. Standard 20th-century-Anglo novel types throughout. <br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 3</b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="5" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Were the fictional or fictionalized plot and characters plausible?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Mostly. Pharnaces is a credible son wanting to be like Dad. Motivations given are not improbable. Overall, not bad as Roman novels go (admittedly a low bar). <br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 4</b></div>
W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-80450625179932425252016-11-05T20:09:00.001-07:002016-12-11T22:18:33.728-08:00Wrath of the Furies (2016), by Steven Saylor<br />
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The third novel in <a href="http://www.stevensaylor.com/" target="_blank">Steven Saylor</a>'s trilogy <i>A Novel of the Ancient World</i> is titled <i>Wrath of the Furies.</i> The earlier two, reviewed here previously, were <i><a href="http://historicalnovels-wcc.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-seven-wonders-by-steven-saylor-2012.html" target="_blank">The Seven Wonders</a> (2012)</i>, and <i><a href="http://historicalnovels-wcc.blogspot.com/2016/01/raiders-of-nile-by-steven-saylor-2014.html" target="_blank">Raiders of the Nile</a> </i>(2014).<br />
<br />
The end of book two left the young Gordianus living a low-key twenty-something life in Alexandria, in love with his beautiful slave Bethesda. Lured by a cryptic message hinting at danger to his old tutor Antipater, Gordianus and Bethesda set out on a ship to Ephesus (on the west coast of modern Turkey).<br />
<br />
The ship makes a stop at the island of Rhodes, where Gordianus looks up a friend of Antipater who hosted the pair during their earlier adventures in <i>The Seven Wonders</i>. Here the stage is set for later skull-and-dagger work, as a fellow house-guest is revealed to be Gaius Cassius Longinus (later an assassin of Julius Caesar). Cassius is on a fact-finding mission from Rome, and wants to know what Mithridates is doing. He recruits Gordianus to be eyes-and-ears while in Ephesus.<br />
<br />
So off they sail again, arriving at Ephesus just in time to become involved in one of the most dramatic and tragic incidents of the late Roman Republic. King Mithridates VI (the Great) of Pontus had recently rebelled against Roman control of Asia Minor, sweeping west and south through the Roman-controlled cities along the coast of modern-day Turkey. On a single day, Mithridates orchestrated the slaughter of an estimated 80,000-150,000 Romans living in a number of those cities, including Ephesus. The incident is opaquely known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiatic_Vespers" target="_blank">Asiatic Vespers</a>. <br />
<br />
Redundancy in names and events make it difficult to keep the facts straight. The massacre occurred during the first of three wars between Rome and Mithridates VI, and many Kings of Pontus took the name Mithridates. The King's wife at this time was Monime, third of six wives (long before Henry VIII). There were also a number of royal concubines and a total of well over twenty children - including three named Mithridates.<br />
<br />
In this climactic installment, Saylor includes all the history that was missing from <i>Raiders of the Nile</i>. That makes it - from a history geek's perspective - a much weightier and more satisfying read. I read the Kindle version, which was attractive and well produced.<br />
<br />
The 5 criteria:<br />
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?</i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes. First, by returning to Roman history, I was inspired to pick up a new one-volume history of ancient Rome, <i>SPQR</i> by Mary Beard. Second, Mithridates VI is such a fascinating character that I picked up a recent (2010) biography titled <i>The Poison King,</i> by Adrienne Mayor.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Score = 5</b></div>
<ol start="2" style="font-style: italic;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes. Most of it is concentrated in the city of Ephesus, but is set within the larger story of Mithridates VI.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Score = 5</b></div>
<ol start="3" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical events accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes, at least in the big picture. It's a novel, so there's a lot of speculation and invention in descriptions of smaller-scale events. Saylor is always scrupulous to make sure artistic license doesn't get carried away. Also helpful (as always) is the Author's Note at the end, which lists a number of ancient sources.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Score = 5</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="4" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes, as far as is known. None of the historical character are central except the poet Antipater of Sidon, who was also a main supporting character in <i>The Seven Wonders</i>. King Mithridates, his queen Monime, and the captive Egyptian prince Ptolemy all have speaking roles. Others are mere cameos, necessary to complete the historical record but remaining in the background.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Score = 4 </b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(it's nearly impossible to get a 5 here when the subject is ancient Rome)</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="5" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Were the fictional or fictionalized plot and characters plausible?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Barely. Plausible characters are not Saylor's strongest suit, especially his main protagonist Gordianus. He often seems unbelievably dense and gullible, especially in these novels of his younger days, but does provide occasional comic relief. The improbable plans and motivations of Gordianus give rise to implausible plot developments, but it's all in good fun, and Saylor doesn't mess with the history.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Score = 3 </b></div>
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W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-63136955507015577812016-08-07T23:30:00.000-07:002016-08-21T12:50:30.506-07:00A Place of Greater Safety, by Hilary Mantel (1992)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A common habit among fiction readers is, when impressed by one novel, to seek out others by the same author. That process, after greatly enjoying <i>Wolf Hall</i> and <i><a href="http://historicalnovels-wcc.blogspot.com/2012/07/bring-up-bodies-by-hilary-mantel.html" target="_blank">Bring Out the Bodies</a></i>, led to <i>A Place of Greater Safety</i>, Hilary Mantel's earlier novel of the French Revolution.<i> </i><br />
<br />
Seeking out earlier work can be a risky proposition; authors often need several tries before finding their mature voices. Such was not the case, however, with this novel. Mantel had already penned eight previous novels, and her character-focused style was already in full flower.<br />
<br />
The French Revolution is a perfect subject for Mantel, who loves to develop characters. Indeed, there are so many varied and interesting characters that the reader can be overwhelmed. The extensive Cast Of Characters section at the end is very helpful in that regard. Also confusing is the way characters changed roles as the revolution progressed. One year's hero often became the next year's traitor and guillotine victim. Again, the Cast of Characters helps by noting these changing circumstances. Following that is a <i>short</i> list of characters who survived past 1794.<br />
<br />
There was a point, about a quarter of the way in, when it seemed that Mantel's fictionalized French characters bordered on British caricature. I was reminded of the scene in <i>Monty Python and the Holy Grail</i> when the questing knights approach an unknown castle, to find it occupied by unknown defenders. Using their best parodies of French-accented English, the defenders challenge the approaching party. Puzzled, King Arthur asks "What are you, then?" To which the reply is "I'm French! Why do you think I have this outrageous accent, you silly king?"<br />
<br />
Anyway, that impression soon passed as the characters' non-Anglo thinking and behavior settled into the rhythm of the story. And what a story it is! The bloody lunacy of the French Revolution was, in a way, a foreshadowing of the madness to come in the 20th century.<br />
<br />
Note: this review is based on the Kindle version, which is nicely done and a bargain at $4.95.<br />
<br />
The five criteria:<br />
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?</i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes, especially the people. For starters, I sought out a biography (<i>My Lady Scandalous</i>, by Jo Manning) of the mysterious courtesan Grace Elliott, purported to be a British spy. The bio shed no light on the truth of that claim, but provided some interesting social history background. Many of the other characters merit similar exploration.<br />
<br />
Mantel herself, in her Author's Note (a much-appreciated feature, as always), apologizes for the brevity of space devoted to Dr. Marat, who (she says) deserves his own novel (here's hoping that happens).<br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b></div>
<ol start="2" style="font-style: italic;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes, although the focus is necessarily very narrow, and events outside of Paris get mentioned only in passing, if at all. For example, the revolutionary/reactionary wars between France and its neighbors are simply topics discussed in Paris, usually less interesting to the principal characters than the day's debates in the Committees.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 4</b></div>
<ol start="3" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical events accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes, it seems so - as far as possible. The author notes the uncertainty surrounding those times, especially with regards to characters never prominent before the Revolution. Mantel's research is typically very thorough. and this novel is no exception. <br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="4" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes - as far as possible. Even less is known about the historical characters than about the events. The author takes responsibility for her portrayals, made even more challenging by the lack of major fictional characters. Among historical novelists, I rate Hilary Mantel #1 in character development, and her Danton, Camille, Robespierre and many others (including many fascinating women) really come alive. If the real people weren't much like Mantel's characters, they should have been.<br />
<br />
Update: this novel inspired me to re-read the grandfather of all French Revolution novels - Dickens' <i>A Tale of Two Cities</i>. Mantel pays homage to Dickens by including in her novel two of his famous fictional characters - Monsieur Defarge the wine-shop keeper, and his wife who non-stop knits into her never-finished work the names of those she judges worthy of death.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 4</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="5" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Were the fictional or fictionalized plot and characters plausible?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
There's so little of this that the question may not have much relevance. The one area where plausibility usually suffers in historical character portrayals is motivation. We know at least some of <i>what</i> they did, but very little of the <i>why</i>. Mantel always does a commendable job with characters, making them as complex, contradictory, and maddening as real people.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b></div>
<br />W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-1927691709140160772016-06-18T10:02:00.001-07:002016-06-20T10:22:51.173-07:00The Master of Monterey, by Lawrence Coates (2003)<br />
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Not long ago, I was lamenting to a fellow local history buff the paucity of factually-accurate early-California historical novels. Good writing set in the 20th-century isn't hard to find (e.g. the ninety-year-old <a href="http://historicalnovels-wcc.blogspot.com/2016/05/oil-by-upton-sinclair-1926.html" target="_blank"><i>Oil!</i>, by Upton Sinclair</a> is still relevant today). However, novels set in the pre-U.S. period have tended toward overly romantic views of Spanish California.<br />
<br />
"Have you read <i><a href="http://lawrencecoates.com/the-master-of-monterey-home/" target="_blank">The Master of Monterey</a>?</i>", my acquaintance asked. Admitting that I had never heard of the 2003 novel by Lawrence Coates, I was happy to find it at my local public library, and am now happy to have read it. What fun!<br />
<br />
The postmodern historical fiction of American writers including John Barth and Thomas Pynchon breathed new life and literary quality into the genre, and Coates' novel falls squarely into that tradition. One of the more absurd episodes in California history provides a perfect setting for an irreverent and humorous tale of frustrated idealism, oddball personalities and competing agendas.<br />
<br />
In 1842 Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones sailed into Monterey, capital of Mexican <i>Alta California</i>. Mistakenly believing the United States and Mexico to be at war, Jones captured the defenseless port and ran up the stars and stripes. One day later, another U.S. ship arrived with dispatches proving that no state of war existed. Jones quietly took the flag back down and departed. Monterey returned to its somnambulant state for another four years, until it was once again seized without a struggle in the opening days of the Mexican-American War. Jones' navy career continued after this embarrassing fiasco, but he was never again trusted with a position of such responsibility.<br />
<br />
Coates signals early-on his intention to treat the historical events as merely a jumping-off point into larger themes. The name of Jones' flagship is changed from <i>United States</i> to <i>National Intention</i>. A fictionalized unrequited love affair allows Jones to project a garbled idealism onto his mission, and so on. A postmodern approach also dictates healthy doses of absurdist humor, and Coates does not disappoint.<br />
<br />
A Barthian touch is the idea that historical narrative not only influences later readers' understanding of events but, if written concurrently, may actually direct the course of those events. Coates creates two characters who record this historical episode, with very different ideas about its story line. The two gradually and independently conceive the notion that their writing has the power to influence the <i>future</i> course of events.<br />
<br />
One writer is a teenage aspiring poet named William Waxdeck (with a wink, Coates introduces Waxdeck as "a fifteen-year-old who could trace his ancestry to the Pyncheons of Salem, Massachusetts") who Jones orders "to compose an epic poem in heroic couplets on the theme of a ship carrying out the intentions of a great nation to spread freedom to the very logical ends of the continent". Waxdeck, whose classical education taught him how these stories are supposed to go, proceeds at first with enthusiasm. As the adventure unfolds, however, he becomes less and less sure where it should end up.<br />
<br />
The other writer is Jones' ex-slave steward Hannibal who, while creating fair copies of the chronically-seasick poet's scribbled pages, sees and doesn't like where this story is heading. Hannibal begins to insert subversive ideas into Waxdeck's narrative, while also starting his own prose narrative of a quest to find in California a haven of freedom and equality. Neither narrative matches up with reality, of course, and other characters attempt to impose their own visions on the course of events.<br />
<br />
Jones himself is filled with self-doubts, growing increasingly conflicted and confused about his direction and purpose. He begins to depend on each daily dose of poetry for guidance in setting the day's agenda, and becomes ever more confused as the two narrators and others all compete to be masters of their own fates - perhaps even Master of Monterey. <br />
<br />
The standard five criteria don't really yield an accurate evaluation of this very enjoyable novel, but for what it's worth:<br />
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?</i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes. Although the main events were familiar, this retelling brought up new questions and avenues to be researched.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 4</b></div>
<ol start="2" style="font-style: italic;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes, just barely. History is used mainly as metaphor, and evidentiary detail is lacking. Still, there are events in the novel that actually happened, and I found no conflicts with verifiable history. The geography and topology of old Monterey are accurate.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 3</b></div>
<ol start="3" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical events accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes and No. Coates lets readers know early on that the novel's purpose is not to tell "what really happened". Indeed, one of the tenets of postmodern historical fiction is that attempts to present fiction as "elaborated" and/or "revealed" truth are inherently dishonest. Rather than aiming to induce in readers a "willing suspension of disbelief", Coates leaves the documented history in its natural sketchy state and uses it only to serve broader novelistic aims.<br />
<br />
A couple of odd, unnecessary and seemingly incorrect California place names are included. At one point, a group of locals ride off into the "San Gabriel Mountains". At another point, reference is made to an Ohlone <i>rancheria</i> called "Temecula". Neither of those real places is anywhere near Monterey.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 2</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="4" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
No. Again, Coates is not trying for accurate characterization. A number of historical characters appear in the novel, but in highly fictionalized forms intended to convey some philosophical point of view, or to illustrate some particular aspect of the social realities existing in that time and place.<br />
<br />
The reader may recognize other historical names in addition to Jones, but in heavy disguise. The fictional "Don Ignacio Castro" represents the California landed gentry - the <i>rancheros</i>, and the Castro family was indeed prominent in the Monterey area. The shadowy character of "Mr Lurkin" is an even-more fictionalized version of Thomas O. Larkin, an American merchant who, shortly after the events of 1842, was appointed the first and only U.S. consul to Alta California.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 3</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="5" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Were the fictional or fictionalized plot and characters plausible?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
No. Plausibility is not one of the goals in postmodern historical fiction, so this criterion has limited relevance to an evaluation of this enjoyable novel. The follies and foibles of the very-human characters were, however, all too plausible.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 3</b></div>
<br />
P.S. After complaining about the dearth of local history novels, I must give a shout-out to S. L. Hawke, whose historical mystery <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Gulch-Evergreen-Cemetery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00TPSY96E/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466442782&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Ghosts in the Gulch</a></i> (2014) is set in 1860s Santa Cruz County.W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-77045607160584316792016-05-15T12:19:00.001-07:002016-05-21T23:57:44.875-07:00Oil! by Upton Sinclair (1926)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1vQSpszEnuA/VzjJRf7wlpI/AAAAAAAABXs/DbvvcGaFqwIsF8WBwI7X32dvShiy5g7YQCLcB/s1600/Oil%2521_%2528Upton_Sinclair_novel_-_cover_art%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1vQSpszEnuA/VzjJRf7wlpI/AAAAAAAABXs/DbvvcGaFqwIsF8WBwI7X32dvShiy5g7YQCLcB/s320/Oil%2521_%2528Upton_Sinclair_novel_-_cover_art%2529.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
The history of California is a particular interest of mine, and the shortage of good historical novels set in my native state is distressing. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to find this 1926 Upton Sinclair novel about early petroleum industry history.<br />
<br />
Nearly everyone of a certain age read <i>The Jungle</i> during high school in California, but Sinclair's other novels are less well known. I suspect that <i>Oil!</i> was still a bit too left-ish for 1960s school curriculum, but well worth reading today. In fact, the topical relevance of a 100-year-old novel about near-contemporary events of that time is startling.<br />
<br />
Of course, the history recounted in <i>Oil!</i> was very recent history in 1926. The tale begins early in the second decade of the 20th century, and ends with the 1924 presidential election that gave us Calvin Coolidge. The stock market crash, Great Depression and World War II were still in the future, although Sinclair's novel predicted with deadly accuracy how events following WWI would lead inevitably to another world war.<br />
<br />
The fictional protagonist of <i>Oil!</i> is J. Arnold Ross, Jr., about 10 years old when we first meet him, and forever known to all by the strange-to-modern-ears nickname "Bunny". J. Arnold Ross senior is an oil man, one of a new breed who arose from hardscrabble beginnings to become titans in the new petroleum industry.<br />
<br />
Bunny is like the stock cartoon character who has an angel sitting on one shoulder and a devil on the other, each giving contradictory advice. Except that, in Bunny's case, it's not so easy to tell which is angel and which is devil. Bunny grows up idolizing his father, a larger-than-life, take-charge entrepreneur who seems capable of surmounting any obstacle and overcoming any objection in pursuit of his business ambitions. As both get older, of course, Bunny learns that real life isn't black-and-white, and a boy's uncritical admiration for his father is gradually tempered by a man's understanding of the wider world.<br />
<br />
The other angel/devil in Bunny's life is his unlikely friend Paul, rebelling against a poor rural upbringing to become a self-educated labor organizer; eventually a communist and defender of the Bolshevik revolution. Remember again that, in 1926, the dream of a "workers' paradise" in Russia was still very much alive - before the rise of Stalin.<br />
<br />
Bunny's inner struggle between loyalty to his father and Paul's appeal to his youthful idealism create much of the dramatic tension in the novel. It also gave Sinclair plenty of opportunity to "compare and contrast" worker solidarity with unfettered capitalism. Another of Bunny's "radical" friends is the more moderate socialist Rachel, who shows him a middle way (think Bernie Sanders).<br />
<br />
The few named historical characters are not part of the story except as a frame of reference. For instance, presidents Harding and Coolidge are named but have no actual scenes in the drama, while the oil tycoons who conspired in the Teapot Dome scandal are central characters and pseudonymous.<br />
<br />
Many of the fictional characters, however, are very thinly disguised versions of historical counterparts. In that regard, Sinclair's historical fiction style was somewhat different from most novels today. Modern authors would probably be advised by their publishers to be careful of libel lawsuits when writing about still-living people and events.<br />
<br />
The historical places of the southern California oil boom also get fictional names, for less apparent reasons. "Beach City" is obviously Long Beach, and "Angel City" is even more obviously Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
There's also a lot of interesting social history in Bunny's coming-of-age story. During this period, straight-laced Victorian mores gave way to more independent and pleasure-centered ("decadent") upper class youth, WWI disillusionment, and the "lost generation" of the Roaring Twenties.<br />
<br />
One other note: The 2007 feature film <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469494/" target="_blank">There Will Be Blood</a></i> purported to be based on <i>Oil!</i>. Although it borrows some bits from the novel, however, it's an entirely different story.<br />
<br />
The five criteria:<br />
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?</i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes. Many historical parts of this story were unfamiliar to me. As a native Californian, I know where the oil fields are, but not much about how they got there. Also, Sinclair's account of the Allied Expeditionary Forces (including Paul's first-hand story) supporting the "Whites" in Russia after the 1917 revolution has inspired me to read more about that turbulent period. The crazy story of the Czech Legion would make a great novel on its own. <br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b></div>
<ol start="2" style="font-style: italic;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes. Major events of the time are followed closely and accurately. Readers' main disagreements will be with Sinclair's interpretations of those events.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b></div>
<ol start="3" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical events accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes. Same as above. Take a point off for the subjective nature of "accurate".<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 4</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="4" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Hard to say, as always, but probably as much as in any historical fiction. Fictional naming of characters based on historical persons gives an author more-than-usually-wide latitude for embellishment. However, Sinclair's accounts of events and the people involved in them seem accurate and, as Jesus said, "By their deeds shall you know them".<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 4</b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="5" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Were the fictional or fictionalized plot and characters plausible?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Mostly. The only part that Sinclair failed to explain to my satisfaction was Bunny's early and strong attraction to Paul. Not many 10-year-olds would feel such immediate affinity with another boy from a totally different economic and social world. Seen as a plot device to introduce Bunny's internal moral struggles, however, Paul makes perfect sense.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 4 </b></div>
W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-17174321580361716882016-03-18T23:41:00.000-07:002016-03-20T08:31:35.322-07:00The Mongoliad, by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear et al (2012-2014)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-THTo3BgFn5Y/VuzqJI0PwnI/AAAAAAAABWY/pAzkl2Q0bKszanOWL2CA9AEeyXjsGiRtA/s1600/Mongoliad_splash_screen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-THTo3BgFn5Y/VuzqJI0PwnI/AAAAAAAABWY/pAzkl2Q0bKszanOWL2CA9AEeyXjsGiRtA/s200/Mongoliad_splash_screen.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
<br />
Waiting to finish all five books in the <i>Mongoliad</i> series led to a longer-than-usual break between posts, but was a wise decision. Anytime <a href="http://www.nealstephenson.com/" target="_blank">Neal Stephenson</a> is involved, it's best to wait and see how things tie together in the end. There are bound to be myriad unexpected plot twists and turns, and <i>Mongoliad</i> did not disappoint. <i>The Mongoliad Cycle</i> is just one part of an ambitious "transmedia" project called <i><a href="http://foreworld.com/" target="_blank">The Foreworld Saga</a></i>. BTW - all five novels were read on the Kindle "Cloud Reader" platform.<br />
<br />
Stephenson was just one member of an accomplished writing team assembled for this project, including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Bear" target="_blank">Greg Bear</a> and son Erik, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Galland" target="_blank">Nicole Galland</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Teppo" target="_blank">Mark Teppo</a> and others. Stephenson's past historical fiction accomplishments with <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon" target="_blank">Cryptonomicon</a></i> and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle" target="_blank">The Baroque Cycle</a></i> had me eagerly anticipating the application of his talents to the medieval world of the Mongols, Kievan Rus and the Holy Roman Empire in the pivotal years 1241-1244<br />
<br />
Digression: Stephenson's no slouch with science fiction, either. His latest, <i>SEVENEVES</i>, is a knockout.<br />
<br />
Overall, the team writing approach produced a coherent and enjoyable tale, although marred by occasional jarring shifts in writing style that make switches between writers obvious. Various medieval mythical traditions were introduced along the way, serving as a "shadow" narrative that ties together all the historical events. Thus it becomes possible to enjoy <i>The Mongoliad</i> on two different levels. There's plenty of accurately reported history for me, and generous helpings of mythology, knightly chivalry and divine destiny for the King Arthur enthusiast.<br />
<br />
A perhaps too-keen interest in medieval combat styles and weapons led to, in my opinion, overly detailed and hard-to-follow blow-by-blow descriptions of numerous single and group combat operations. Bernard Cornwell does that sort of writing more skillfully, though with less technical understanding. <br />
<br />
It's impossible for a modern novelist to imagine the thinking of a person living eight hundred years ago, especially in relation to superstition and mythology. The authors take an interesting approach, creating some characters who are believers and are participants in various supernatural events. Other characters are skeptics who see none of the magical happenings witnessed and/or created by their compatriots. <br />
<br />
One extra fun thing: I always enjoy it when a historical character from one author's novel shows up in another's, especially more than one, and especially when the novels are not about the same events. In this case it was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_VII,_Count_of_Toulouse" target="_blank">Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse</a>. In Book 5 of <i>The Mongoliad</i>, Raymond is a Godot-like character who is expected but never arrives.<br />
<br />
This same Raymond ("Raimond" in French) was a minor character in Bernard Cornwell's <i>Grail Quest</i> series, when the quest takes the fictional protagonist Thomas of Hookton to the south of France where he becomes embroiled in the Albigensian Crusade against Catharism.<br />
<br />
Raymond's mother was a major character in Sharon Kay Penman's novel <i><a href="http://historicalnovels-wcc.blogspot.com/2015/03/a-kings-ransom-by-sharon-kay-penman-2014.html" target="_blank">A King's Ransom</a></i> - she was Joan (or Joanna), sister of king Richard I (Lionheart) of England.<br />
<br />
See <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mongoliad#Historical_events_and_persons_depicted_in_the_Mongoliad_series" target="_blank">the Wikipedia article</a> for a partial list of historical and mythical events and persons depicted in the ''Mongoliad'' series, along with a listing of the individual novels and authors.<br />
<br />
The five criteria:<br />
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?</i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes. I had not previously read much on this pivotal period in medieval history. A remarkable number of significant events happened in a short period of time, in widely separated locations.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b></div>
<ol start="2" style="font-style: italic;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes. The history was somewhat front-loaded - the first three novels included more than the last two - but all five had plenty of genuine historical interest.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b></div>
<ol start="3" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical events accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Yes, and/or who knows? Events of eight hundred years ago are, at best, shrouded in a thick fog of time. Events happened when and where the novels place them; so, as far as can be ascertained, the history seems pretty accurate. It's overlaid, of course, with fictionalized and fictional characters, and with various mythical narratives.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 5</b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="4" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Again, who knows? Genghis Khan didn't have a Facebook page. All we can ask from historical fiction authors is that they don't mess with the history. Creating plausible and compelling fictionalized versions of historical characters is a bonus. The quality of the numerous characters in <i>The Mongoliad</i> was uneven, but pretty high overall.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 4</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
<ol start="5" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Were the fictional or fictionalized plot and characters plausible?</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Depends. The plot tying all the history together involved heaping helpings of several different medieval mythical traditions. Do I believe that the Holy Grail is/was real? No. That doesn't prevent it from working as a plot device and as part of the metaphysical underpinnings.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Score = 4</b></div>
W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-17809510743113337212016-01-23T16:26:00.002-08:002016-11-04T14:40:12.204-07:00Raiders of the Nile, by Steven Saylor (2014)<a href="http://www.stevensaylor.com/" target="_blank">Steven Saylor</a>, creator of <i>Gordianus the Finder</i>, has written a trio of prequel novels that fill in some of the earlier adventures of a young Gordianus. The trilogy title is <i>A Novel of the Ancient World</i>, and the first of the three novels, titled <i>The Seven Wonders</i>, was reviewed previously.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The second book is <i>Raiders of the Nile</i>, and readers of <i>The Seven Wonders</i> will remember that Gordianus ends up in Alexandria (90 B.C.), where he decides to stay awhile in order to avoid the mayhem back home in Rome. <i>Raiders of the Nile</i> opens two years later with Gordianus still in Alexandria, situation unchanged.<br />
<br />
Having read previously about the revolt against Rome by its neighboring Italian states, and the concurrent revolt led by Mithridates VI in faraway Pontus, readers might expect Gordianus to somehow become ensnared in one or both of those struggles. What we get instead is closer to an Indiana Jones romantic adventure, with exotic locations, fabulous treasures, bloodthirsty pirates, narrow escapes and improbable plot twists.<br />
<br />
Which is all fine, unless you were expecting a historical novel containing lots of history - not just a historical setting. I confess to increasing disappointment as I read farther and farther without encountering either historical characters or events. It wasn't until the closing "Author's Note" that it became clear what Saylor was trying to accomplish. In researching ancient Alexandria, Saylor became interested in the novels written by the ancient Greeks - few of which survive today. <i>Raiders of the Nile</i> is Saylor's tribute to those Greek novels of old.<br />
<br />
In the end, it's an entertaining story, featuring many of the same locations in ancient Alexandria that were introduced in <i>The Seven Wonders</i>, but the upcoming big events in Egypt's story are still just over the historical horizon. I assume Saylor doesn't intend to switch permanently to this history-lite style, so I'm going to give him a pass on the 5 criteria and move on the conclusion to the trilogy - <i>Wrath of the Furies</i>. Gordianus has to end up back in Rome by the end of this prequel, and I'm counting on Saylor to make that journey interesting.W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-64748147693646615612015-12-31T21:45:00.000-08:002015-12-31T21:45:22.374-08:00The Seven Wonders, by Steven Saylor (2012)<br />
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After the Wars of the Roses novel marathon, a little trip back to the Roman Empire is just the thing to clear the history palate. Steven Saylor's long-running series of historical-whodunnit novels starring <i>Gordianus the Finder</i> are great fun, and good history. Saylor has now penned a trio of prequel novels that fill in some of the earlier adventures of Gordianus. The first of the three is titled <i>The Seven Wonders: A Novel of the Ancient World</i>.<br />
<br />
Gordianus fans will remember that his official detective career began in late-republican Rome in 80 B.C. with the novel <i>Roman Blood</i>. <i>The Seven Wonders</i> takes readers back twelve years to 92 B.C. Eighteen-year-old Gordianus sets out on a tour of the Greek world, tagging along with his father's old friend <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipater_of_Sidon" target="_blank">Antipater of Sidon</a>, a celebrated poet whose bucket-list goal is to visit (or revisit) all <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Wonders_of_the_Ancient_World" target="_blank">Seven Wonders of the Ancient World</a>.<br />
<br />
The grand tour begins in Ephesus (now on the west coast of Turkey) with the:<br />
<ol>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Artemis" target="_blank">Temple of Artemis</a>. A short boat ride from Ephesus got them to </li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_at_Halicarnassus" target="_blank">Halicarnassus and the Mausoleum</a>. Next it's back to Greece to see the</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Zeus_at_Olympia" target="_blank">Statue of Zeus at Olympia</a>, just in time for the 172nd Olympiad. The travelers board ship again to the island of Rhodes, where they visit the wreckage of the</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_of_Rhodes" target="_blank">Colossus of Rhodes</a>, felled by an earthquake. Then it's on to Babylon and the</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylon" target="_blank">Hanging Gardens</a>, and also the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate" target="_blank">Ishtar Gate</a>, only remaining (at that time) section of the walls that enclosed the ancient city. Last stop is Egypt, to see the </li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza" target="_blank">Great Pyramid of Giza</a>, only one of the seven wonders that is still standing. The tour ends in Alexandria, where once stood the </li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lighthouse_of_Alexandria" target="_blank">Pharos of Alexandria</a>, the famous lighthouse that replaced the Ishtar Gate in later lists. </li>
</ol>
Of course, young Gordianus gets plenty of chances to use his blossoming detective talents, and also has his first sexual adventures (in several flavors). Saylor doesn't neglect the political turmoils of the times, weaving in a subplot related to the uprising of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridates_VI_of_Pontus" target="_blank">Mithridates VI of Pontus</a>. Remaining in Alexandria, Gordianus misses the bloody rise in Rome of the dictators Marius and Sulla, but Colleen McCulloch has covered those stories extremely well.<br />
<br />
As always, Saylor's style includes a lot of historical detail without ever getting pedantic - the downfall of many a lesser historical novelist. Wry humor and a lighthearted approach also help to keep things from bogging down. It's not the breakneck do-or-die action pace of a Dan Brown, but a more relaxed and cerebral sort of storytelling - one reviewer described Gordianus as a "Roman Sherlock Holmes". That's a pretty good comparison, if you imagine a modern American novelist's version of Holmes.<br />
<br />
We'll save the "five criteria" evaluation for the conclusion of the trilogy, but it's safe to say that Saylor's novels always get high marks.<br />
<br />
BTW - I realize that not all of the Wikipedia articles these links take you to are of high quality. You can do something about that - become a Wikipedia editor!W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-26400759048420991442015-12-04T21:40:00.000-08:002017-05-06T23:34:19.735-07:00Wars of the Roses: Margaret of Anjou, by Conn Iggulden (2015)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This second novel in Conn Iggulden's <i>Wars of the Roses</i> series brings this series of reviews up to date on recent historical fiction about this period of English history. Since this volume ends with a brief epilogue to the battle of Mortimer's Cross in 1461, we know there's at least one more book to come. The first volume, <a href="http://historicalnovels-wcc.blogspot.com/2015/03/wars-of-roses-stormbird-by-conn.html" target="_blank"><i>Stormbird</i>, was the first Wars of the Roses novels reviewed here</a>.<br />
<br />
Since then, a number of interesting side notes have come to my attention. One is that the ancient battle over Richard III's reputation is still very much alive. Sharon Kay Penman, Philippa Gregory and the Richard III society have worked to rehabilitate the king Shakespeare destroyed, but the Tudor narrative that inspired the bard also lives on. A recent book review, titled <a href="http://new.spectator.co.uk/2015/12/richard-iii-a-bad-man-and-even-worse-king/" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Richard III: a bad man - and even worse king</a>, heaps scorn on the efforts of the Richard III Society, while calling attention to a new biography that seems to hew closer to the Tudor line.<br />
<br />
The most important recent Richard III event was, of course, the 2013 discovery of Richard's remains in Leicester. Subsequent study of the skeleton has cleared up at least one controversy - the exact nature of the king's spinal deformity. Forensic investigations identified the condition as adolescent-onset scoliosis.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, Conn Iggulden seems to have composed his brief portrayal of the child Richard in this novel without seeing the forensic results. The portrayal presented is of a young child wracked with pain and nearly crippled by his spinal deformity, which would not have been the case with adolescent-onset scoliosis.<br />
<br />
That early picture of a suffering child Richard, added to the sympathetic portrayal of Margaret of Anjou, seem to indicate that Iggulden leans more toward the Tudor school of thought. It will be interesting to see how the fictional Richard York develops in the remainder of this series, and whether the questions about Henry Tudor's fatherhood are mentioned, even as slanders (some have speculated that Henry VI mental condition made fatherhood unlikely).<br />
<br />
A judgment made in my earlier review of <i>Stormbird</i> needs re-examination. I stated that Iggulden's style in that first volume was "closer to Sharon Kay Penman than the more military-centric Bernard Cornwell". In <i>Margaret of Anjou</i>, the style has definitely shifted more toward Cornwell. That may simply be a consequence of the increased number of battles contained in the period 1454-61, or it may have been a conscious effort to inject more battlefield action.<br />
<br />
Other than the inaccurate childhood picture of Richard, factual accuracy seemed to be on a high level. Iggulden has come a long way in that regard since the execrable <a href="http://historicalnovels-wcc.blogspot.com/2015/07/emperor-series-by-conn-iggulden.html" target="_blank"><i>Emperor</i> series</a>, possibly aided by the story's location on home turf. So far, this a well-written series, and I look forward to the next installment.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Update: May 6, 2017</u>. My library only had the audiobook version of <i>War of the Roses: Bloodline</i>, third novel in the series. It worked well in passing the time of a long car trip, but only got me halfway through. Back home, frankly, I lost interest (never a big audiobook fan). Iggulden's writing is fine, but not as good as either Cornwell or Penman. There wasn't enough difference in historical interpretation to make it work another trip across those years. Time for a change of scenery.</b>W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-29734077246399323842015-12-02T22:19:00.002-08:002015-12-03T08:18:16.529-08:00The Sunne in Splendour, by Sharon Kay Penman (1982)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As promised, this "Wars of the Roses" novel roundup now goes way back to 1982 for a reread of Sharon Kay Penman's <i>The Sunne in Splendour</i>. The central character of Penman's tale is Richard York, whose reign as King Richard III of England was the penultimate chapter in the "Roses" bloodbath - giving way on the battlefield of Bosworth Field to the Tudor dynasty.<br />
<i><br /></i>
Penman's aim was to undo the damage long done to Richard's reputation by Shakespeare's unflattering portrayal - which was based on writings of contemporaries bent on promulgating an unflattering portrayal. The recent discovery of Richard's remains in Leicester supports at least one of those reforms - we now know that he was short, partly because of <a href="http://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/science/spine.html" target="_blank">adolescent-onset scoliosis</a> (spine curvature), but not Shakespeare's "hunchback". This condition may have been progressive, which in turn may have contributed to a deterioration of his mental state as he aged. <br />
<br />
While agreeing that Richard ordered the death of the captive Henry VI, Penman successfully (to my mind) refutes the claim that Richard murdered his two young nephews in the Tower of London (in agreement with Philippa Gregory). With somewhat less success, she also takes on the slander that Richard committed incest with his niece (who later became Elizabeth Tudor - <i>The White Princess</i>). The first acquittal is more convincing than the second, but there's really no way to know about either one - that's what makes this period so much fun for novelists. <br />
<br />
Other than Richard and his wife Anne, the other main characters get more-or-less equitable treatment. With the exception of the inscrutable Henry VI, they all come across as supremely ambitious, charismatic, talented leaders but with feet containing large quantities of many varieties of clay.<br />
<br />
Richard's depression and fatalism following the deaths of his son and wife Anne supply a plausible explanation for his reckless behavior leading up to that final battle. Such behavior could even explain the desertion of allies who might have begun to doubt Richard's capacity to lead. Again, we'll never know for sure, but it works in a novel.<br />
<br />
<i>The Sunne in Splendour</i> is still my favorite of all the "Wars of the Roses" novels, and gets straight 5's on the criteria, except perhaps for the last - plausibility. It's rather unfair, however, to criticize <i>any</i> novelist for failure to come up with entirely plausible (to the modern mind) explanations for inexplicable actions that occurred 600 years ago.<br />
<br />
Still, the goal of a good (as judged here) historical novel is to tell a ripping good yarn without obvious abuse of recorded facts. Sharon Kay Penman accomplishes that feat as well as anyone. W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-91734098885806441432015-11-28T00:10:00.000-08:002015-11-28T00:12:20.462-08:00Stone's Fall, by Iain Pears<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><b>Stone's Fall</b></i> is a 2009 historical-mystery novel by [[Iain Pears]]. The following was originally written in 2011 as a Wikipedia article - the first WP article I ever attempted. The double brackets around around some words were "wikilinks" - hyperlinks to other articles. I left them in the text in case anyone wants to read more on Wikipedia (as I did) about any of these people, places, and events. <br />
<br />
The level of historical detail in <i>Stone's Fall</i> is remarkable, and inspired me to compose the "historical references" sections. This novel remains the gold standard for the first of the <i>five criteria</i>: "Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?".<br />
<br />
I now understand that such material is not really appropriate for a Wikipedia article about a novel, and it was finally deleted by another editor (November, 2015). Someone commented that the material was more appropriate for a blog. So it is, so here it is.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Synopsis</h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">An aging BBC reporter approaching retirement in 1953, Matthew Braddock is on a farewell tour, visiting the old Paris bureau. Chancing upon a familiar name in the obituary notices, he decides to attend the funeral of an acquaintance he has not seen for many years. </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">After the service, he is approached by a stranger who introduces himself as the deceased woman's solicitor. He surprises Braddock with the information that the firm has been holding a package for many years, addressed to him, with instructions to deliver it only after this woman's death. </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Later, on his trip back to London, Braddock reminisces about those days of his youth in 1909, when he met the beautiful and mysterious Elizabeth. Equally mysterious was the death (and life) of her husband, Baron Ravenscliff, born John William Stone. </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Later, Braddock opens the long-delayed package to find a pair of extraordinary manuscripts. These two documents, written accounts of events occurring in 1890 and 1867 respectively, follow Braddock's recollections to form the three-part structure of the historical-mystery novel ''Stone's Fall''.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">The next article section, '''Historical references''', lists existing and/or historical persons, places, and events mentioned in quotations from ''Stone's Fall'', with citations or internal links to other Wikipedia articles. Page numbers are from the hardcover edition.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">The final section, '''Historical liberties''', includes a listing of inconsistencies found between historical facts and the same "facts" as presented in ''Stone's Fall.''</span><br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
Historical References (direct and indirect)</h3>
<h3>
Prologue - Paris, 1953</h3>
<br />
<ul>
<li>p.3 [[Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés|Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés]] - site of Elizabeth's funeral </li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
Part One - London, 1909 – Matthew Braddock's story: London</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li>p.11 "[[St. James's Square]]...an impressive townhouse" – Ravenscliff's residence. </li>
<li>p.25 "[[Mornington Crescent (street)|Mornington Crescent]] trial" – the name given to a fictional(?) murder trial. The name suggests a reference to the "[[Camden Town murder]]" of 1907. Painter [[Walter Sickert]] lived on Mornington Crescent at the time, and later renamed a group of his paintings ''[[The Camden Town Murder]]''. </li>
<li>p.32 "[[Bow Street Magistrates Court]] or the [[Old Bailey]]" – two primary sources for Braddock's crime reporting </li>
<li>p.33 "[[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Kaiser Wilhelm]]", "[[King Edward VII|King Edward]]". Wilhelm II was the last German Kaiser, 1888-1918. Edward VII became king after the death of [[Queen Victoria]], reigning from 1901 to 1910 (see also the p.306 reference below, where Edward visits Biarritz before he was king). </li>
<li>p.34 "The Prime Minister, [[H. H. Asquith|Asquith]], and his chancellor, [[Lloyd George]]" - leaders of the Liberal government from 1908 to 1916.</li>
<li>p.37 "[[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]]...Paradise Walk...[[Tite Street]]" - Paradise Walk runs parallel to [[Tite Street]]. </li>
<li>p.38 "Sargent" - The American painter [[John Singer Sargent]] lived on [[Tite Street]].
:: "Henry MacAlpine" - a little joke here; MacAlpine is a fictional painter in [[Iain Pears|Pears’]] novel ''The Portrait''. </li>
<li>p.41 "Chelsea Library" - the old library was on Manresa Road. In 1980, it was acquired by [[Chelsea College of Art and Design]]. </li>
<li>p.42 "[[Fleet Street]]" – synonymous with London journalism in the 20th century.
:: "[[Reform Club]]" - a gentlemen's club "for [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] grandees", still in existence </li>
<li>p.50 "...[[Carlos I of Portugal#Assassination|King of Portugal]] was assassinated..." - refers to King Carlos I, assassinated in 1908 </li>
<li>p.54 "at the Exchange" - refers to the [[London Stock Exchange]], located (in 1909) in Capel Court, off Bartholomew Lane across from the [[Bank of England]]. Capel Court is now gone, along with the rest of the block. </li>
<li>p.57 "[[Cazenove (stock broker)|Cazenove]]…acting for [[Barings Bank|Barings]]" - two of the leading London [[merchant bank]]s at that time.</li>
<li>p.64 "[[Jean-Jacques Henner]]" - Elizabeth volunteers the artist's name after observing Braddock's admiration of a portrait of her, dressed in "a golden red dress". Henner was a prominent French painter in Paris when Elizabeth lived there in the 1880s. </li>
<li>p.75 "[[The Ritz London Hotel|Ritz Hotel]]" - The famous [[Piccadilly]] hotel, still in existence at the north-east corner of [[Green Park]], was the upscale residence of the fictional Theodore Xanthos. Note: the fictional Xanthos bears some resemblance to real-life arms dealer [[Basil Zaharoff]].</li>
<li>p.83 "...out of the Ritz and up [[Bond Street]]" - Braddock catches a bus (horse-drawn) and makes his way to his former editor's home in [[Camden Town|Camden]]. On the way, he passes the "great houses of Portman Place" (not found, but maybe part of the [[Portman Estate]]? Or did the author mean [[Portland Place]]?) Later, Braddock passes the "even greater establishments of [[Regent's Park]]". </li>
<li>p.83 "furniture from [[Heal's]]" - a venerable department store on [[Tottenham Court Road]] </li>
<li>p.90 "The [[Hotel Russell|Russell Hotel]] in [[Bloomsbury]] was a fairly new building"(completed in 1898, still in existence) </li>
<li>p.138 "...an agent for the [[Dual Alliance, 1879|Dual Alliance]]...the thanks of the [[Wilhelm II|Kaiser]]...". Elizabeth jokes about being a spy for Britain's current continental rivals, the alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary, negotiated in 1879 by [[Otto von Bismarck|Bismarck]]. </li>
<li>p.149 "The Anarchist Club, 165 Jubilee Street". Apparently fictional, but similar to historical places and events. For example, see: [[Walsall Anarchists]]. Jubilee Street, Commercial Road, Turner Street,and Newark Street are all located in the old [[East End of London]] (now part of the [[London Borough of Tower Hamlets|Tower Hamlets]] district) </li>
<li>p.151 "[[Prince Kropotkin|Comrade Kropotkin]]" - refers to Peter Kropotkin, the exiled Russian anarchist </li>
<li>p.160 "Wine Office Court, past the Cheshire Cheese". The venerable pub ''[[Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese]]'' is still open for business, just off [[Fleet Street]]. </li>
<li>p.170 "[[Rothschild family|Rothschild's]] at Waddesdon". [[Waddesdon Manor]] was the Rothschild family seat in England, and the most opulent of the many [[Rothschild properties in England]]. </li>
<li>p.170 "Natty Rothschild". A nickname for [[Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild|Nathaniel Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild]], head of [[N M Rothschild & Sons]], principal rivals to Barings in London [[merchant bank]]ing. </li>
<li>p.172 "{{Citation/make link|http://www.royalstationhotel.com|Royal Station Hotel}}". Braddock takes a train to [[Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]] and checks into this Victorian hotel, still in business opposite the main station. </li>
<li>p.174 "...the Beswick Shipyard..." - fictional name, but similar to an historical shipbuilding yard at [[Elswick, Tyne and Wear|Elswick]] (a ward of the city of [[Newcastle upon Tyne]]). The facility (no longer in existence) was part of [[Armstrong Whitworth]], the manufacturing company founded by [[William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong]]. </li>
<li>p.175 "HMS Anson, a dreadnought, 23,000 tons." The {{HMS|Monarch|1911|6}}, built in Armstrong's shipyard, is a close match for the fictional HMS ''Anson''. There was a real {{HMS|Anson|1886|6}}, but it was an older and smaller (10,600 tons) battleship that was sold in 1909. </li>
<li>p.177 "When we launched ''Intrepid'' last year..." - there were eight versions of {{HMS|Intrepid}}, but this one is fictional. </li>
<li>p.194 "Tom Baring himself..." - refers to [[Thomas "Tom" Baring (1839-1923)]], brought in as one of the Managing Directors of [[Barings Bank|Baring Brothers and Company, Ltd.]] after the [[Panic of 1890]]. Tom was, in 1909, the eldest of the Barings in the banking partnership, but his nephew {{Citation/make link|http://www.baringarchive.org.uk/barings_people/biographies|John}}, 2nd [[Baron Revelstoke]], was senior partner. </li>
<li>p.195 "...the disaster twenty years ago..." - refers to the [[Panic of 1890]] </li>
<li>p.204 "to Cowes…for the week" – refers to the annual [[Cowes Week]] regatta </li>
<li>p.208 "[[Whiteleys]] department store in [[Bayswater]]..." The site is now Whiteleys Shopping Centre, on [[Queensway (London)|Queensway]]. The building existing in 1909 is gone. </li>
<li>p.208 "...to [[Waterloo Station]] and caught the 1:45 to [[Southampton]]". The station was completely demolished and rebuilt starting in 1904, but never completely closed. The official reopening was not until 1922. </li>
<li>p.208 "Henley and Ascot" "Henley" refers to the [[Henley Royal Regatta]]. "Ascot" refers to Royal Ascot, the famous thoroughbred race meeting held annually since 1711 at [[Ascot Racecourse]] in [[Berkshire]]. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Cowes, Isle of Wight</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li>p.211 "Mrs. [[Sir Godfrey Baring, 1st Baronet|Godfrey Baring]]'s bal masque". Godfrey Baring was soon to be a Baronet and MP for the Isle of Wight (1911). </li>
<li>p.211 "the [[Solent]]". The body of water separating the Isle of Wight from the main island of Great Britain. </li>
<li>p.212 "up the Esplanade to Egypt House..." The Esplanade is a long, paved waterfront footpath, paralleling Queen's Road and running west ("up") from Cowes. "{{Citation/make link|http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-419062-egypt-house-cowes|Egypt House}}" was built c.1880. </li>
<li>p.212 "the ''[[HMY Victoria and Albert III|Victoria and Albert]]''". HMY Victoria and Albert III, the Royal Yacht, entered service in 1901. </li>
<li>p.212 "There is no bridge, just a strange contraption which looks like a floating wooden shed that is pulled this way and that across the water by chains…", The [[Cowes Floating Bridge]] is still in daily operation, connecting [[Cowes]] and [[East Cowes]]. Nowadays, it resembles an ordinary ferry, but in period photos it does indeed look like a "floating wooden shed". </li>
<li>p.215 "...up Egypt Hill, a road that...skirted the gardens of the Baring house". The house (now demolished) was known as Nubia House; residence of [[Sir Godfrey Baring, 1st Baronet|Godfrey Baring]]. </li>
<li>p.221 "The Tsar of all the Russias. [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]]". The last Tsar, as it turned out. </li>
<li>p.221 "the imperial yacht, the ''Sandrart''". This is a misspelling; the correct name is ''[[Standart (yacht)|Standart]]''. </li>
<li>p.222 "Osborne...up York Avenue to the main gate." Prince Albert designed [[Osborne House]] as a summer home and rural retreat for himself and Queen Victoria. There are two entrances off York Avenue. The Royal Entrance has a gated archway. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
Part Two – Paris 1890</h3>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Henry Cort's story: London</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li>p.242 "a lovely [[Adam style|Adam]] house in [[Scottish borders|the Borders]] in the summer." - refers to the areas along the border between England and Scotland.
:</li>
<li>p.244 "[[Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol]]..." - Balliol College is at Oxford.
:p.244 "... a Fellow of [[Trinity College, Oxford|Trinity]]..." - refers to Trinity College, Oxford. </li>
<li>p.245 "[[Athenaeum Club, London|the Athenaeum]]". Another distinguished "gentlemen's club", still in existence. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
Paris</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li>p.250 "train to [[Dover]]...crossed the [[English Channel|Channel]] by steamer to [[Calais]]...arrived at the [[Gare du Nord]]...". Cort travels to Paris in the days before the Chunnel, or even the [[Golden Arrow (train)|Golden Arrow]]. </li>
<li>p.251 "Fifteen rue Poulletier...[[Île Saint-Louis]]" Just upstream from, and connected by bridge to the famous [[Île de la Cité]], is the less well-known Île Saint Louis. </li>
<li>p.263 "the [[Vickers]], the [[Krupp]]s and the [[Schneider Electric|Schneiders]]" - a trio of families; British, German and French respectively, that made their fortunes in arms manufacturing. </li>
<li>p.265 "[[Nancy, France|Nancy]]...much closer to the German border than it wanted to be." This refers to the post-[[Franco-Prussian War]] border. After World War I, Nancy ceased to be a border town (see also p.267 in the 'Historical Liberties' section below). </li>
<li>p.284 "Lord Revelstoke, the chairman of Barings…" - refers to [[Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke]]. </li>
<li>p.291 "Theatre only if Bernhardt is involved" - refers to [[Sarah Bernhardt]], the French actress. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
Biarritz</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li>p.292 [[Biarritz]] "…Hotel du Palais to the north…" - refers to the [[Hotel du Palais]], built in 1854 by [[Napoleon III]], as a beach palace for his Empress, [[Eugénie de Montijo|Eugénie]] </li>
<li>p.292 "Princess Natalie of Romania" [historical or fictional?]
:p.296 "[[Maurice Rouvier]]". Rouvier was Finance Minister from 1889 to 1892.</li>
<li>p.306 "Prince of Wales" - before he became [[King Edward VII]].
:p.307 ''"[[Almanach de Gotha]]"''. A respected directory of Europe's highest nobility and royalty. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
Paris</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li>p.313 "facade of the [[Crédit Lyonnais]], just visible on the boulevard beyond.". The bank's headquarters was on [[Boulevard des Italiens]]. </li>
<li>p.318 "[[Chamber of Deputies of France|Chambre des Députés]]". The lower house of parliament from 1875 to 1940, during the [[French Third Republic]].</li>
<li>p.318 "England...bought the [[Suez Canal]]...to strangle France's Empire". Great Britain bought the Egyptian share of Canal ownership in 1888. Prior to this, British troops occupied the Canal following the [[1882 Anglo-Egyptian War]]. </li>
<li>p.319 "the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas" This was an important French [[merchant bank]] in 1890; now part of [[BNP Paribas]]. </li>
<li>p.327 "Hotel du Louvre" - this Paris hotel fills a prominent block between the [[Palais Royal]] and the [[Louvre Palace]]. </li>
<li>p.330 "Lapérouse" - the [[Left Bank]] restaurant. </li>
<li>p.337 "all the way up to [[Belleville, Paris|Belleville]]" - Belleville was annexed by the City of Paris in 1860. </li>
<li>p.343 "[[Longchamp Racecourse|Longchamp]]". Longchamp Racecourse is a horse-racing facility located in the western end of the [[Bois de Boulogne]], which is also the western edge of Paris. </li>
<li>p.348 "the American railroad collapse" - probably refers to the [[Panic of 1873]]. </li>
<li>p.349 "back across the [[Bois de Boulogne]] to Paris". One of two huge urban parks in Paris, part of the 19th century redesign of Paris by [[Baron Haussmann]]. </li>
<li>p.350 "Avenue de la Grande Armée". One of the twelve grand avenues radiating away from the [[Arc de Triomphe]]; also part of Haussmann's design. </li>
<li>p.355 "[[Bank of England]] wouldn't have enough gold..." - these were the days of the "[[gold standard]]". </li>
<li>p.359 "No market [for automobiles in Britain] until the government allows them to go more than four miles an hour." This situation finally changed with the [[Locomotives on Highways Act 1896]]. </li>
<li>p.366 "a [[Mayer Alphonse James Rothschild|Rothschild]] or a [[Jacques de Reinach|Reinach]] or a [[Barings Bank|Baring]]". Three of the top families in European banking at the time. </li>
<li>p.368 "British Embassy". Then and now, located at 35 [[Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré]]. </li>
<li>p.368 "Next came the Russian Embassy". A bit of a walk to Rue de Grenelle, across the [[Seine]] in the [[7th arrondissement of Paris|7th arrondissement]]; now part of the [[Minister of National Education (France)|Ministry of National Education]] complex. </li>
<li>p.392 "nearby English church" - refers to St. Michael's. The "{{Citation/make link|http://www.saintmichaelsparis.com/origins_2.html|imitation of an English Gothic building}}" has been replaced. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
London</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li>p.394 "arrived at [[London Victoria station|Victoria]]...then drove directly to the [[Foreign Office]]" - refers to the building on [[Whitehall]], constructed in 1868. </li>
<li>p.395 "[[Williams & Glyn's Bank|Glyn Mills]]". A private London bank, established in 1753; it is part of [[RBS Group]] today. </li>
<li>p.395 "[[Argentina]] is in a virtual state of war." The [[Revolución del Parque]] began in July, 1890. </li>
<li>p.396 "Just round the corner was Downing Street...past the [[10 Downing Street|Prime Minister's house]]...knocked on the door of [[11 Downing Street|Number 11]]" </li>
<li>p.396 "Three men were already there: [[Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke|Lord Revelstoke]]; [[William Lidderdale]], Governor of the [[Bank of England|Bank]]; and [[George Goschen]], the [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]]." The purpose of this meeting was to attempt to avert the financial disaster that later came to be known as "The [[Panic of 1890]]". </li>
<li>p.400 "head of the English branch at this time was Natty Rothschild". His full name was [[Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild|Nathaniel Mayer de Rothschild]]. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
Paris</h4>
<br />
<ul>
<li>p.403 "the Rothschild mansion in the Eighth Arrondissemant" - refers to the {{Citation/make link|http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B4tel_de_Saint-Florentin|Hotel de Saint-Florentin}}, Paris residence of [[Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild|Alphonse de Rothschild]], Natty's cousin and head of the French branch of the family business. </li>
<li>p.404 "M. Magnin...[[Bank of France]]". Pierre Magnin was [[Governor of the Bank de France|Governor of the Bank of France]] from 1881 to 1897. </li>
<li>p.406 "rue Daru...[[Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe|Alexander Nevski Cathedral]]". The cathedral was and is the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox church in western Europe. </li>
<li>p.410 "Bismarck has gone. The [[Reinsurance Treaty|treaty]] you [Russia] had with Germany went with him." German Chancellor [[Otto von Bismarck]] was forced to resign in March 1890, some months before the events against which this chapter is set. </li>
<li>p.432 "construction of the port of Nicolaieff [sic] on the Black Sea". The [[Black Sea Shipyard]] was established at [[Mykolaiv|Nikolaev]] in 1897.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Part Three – Venice 1867 – John Stone's story</h3>
<br />
<ul>
<li>p.435 "Hotel Europa". The hotel was later the location of the original [[Harry's Bar (Venice)|Harry's Bar]]. </li>
<li>p.444 "Macintyre". The British expat engineer (no first name given) is a fictional character; perhaps loosely based on [[Robert Whitehead]], inventor of the self-propelled (or "automobile") [[torpedo]]. </li>
<li>p.444 "Sottini's in [[Mestre]]". Mestre is near Venice, on the mainland. </li>
<li>p.446 "as the Venetians themselves abandoned [[Torcello]]". The natural island of [[Torcello]] was the oldest and once the most populous area of Venice. Today it is almost deserted except for tourists. </li>
<li>p.473 Dunbury scandal: "a foolishly conceived scheme…railway built across a two-hundred-mile swamp in Russia" – historical or fictional? This incident is mentioned twice in the novel. </li>
<li>p.485 "Laird's in Liverpool" Technically, the British ship builder was located in Birkenhead, across the [[River Mersey|Mersey]] from [[Liverpool]]. Laird's later became part of [[Cammell Laird]]. </li>
<li>p.536 "you remember the [[CSS Alabama|Alabama]]?" The infamous Confederate raider was built by Laird's during the [[American Civil War]]. </li>
<li>p.545 "[[San Servolo]]. The island lies between San Marco and the Lido". - An early Benedictine monastery was established on the island, which later became a psychiatric hospital. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<h3>
Historical liberties</h3>
<br />
<ul>
<li>p.33 Kaiser Wilhelm is mentioned as being the grand-nephew of Queen Victoria. He was, in fact, her grandson. </li>
<li>p.267 "the occupied part of Alsace...". The author probably meant [[Lorraine (region)|Lorraine]] rather than [[Alsace]]. The [[Treaty of Frankfurt (1871)]] ending the [[Franco-Prussian War]] ceded all of Alsace and northern parts of Lorraine to Germany, forming the new German imperial territory of [[Alsace-Lorraine]]. [[Nancy, France|Nancy]], the capital of Lorraine, was close to the border between the two sections of divided Lorraine. Nancy is not so close to any part of Alsace. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
Possible plot holes</h3>
In the opening chapters, the actual business of the administration of estates, obtaining probate of a will, the publication at the Principal Probate Registry of wills that are so proved, and the ability of executors to set aside funds for missing beneficiaries, are completely ignored. In this novel, the supposed inability of the executor to administer the estate (as long as there is a missing beneficiary) is no inability at all; it seems to have been portrayed as such for plotting.<br />
:p.240 "Your account of the events you took part in was impeccable ..." A curious statement, written by Cort in 1943; the evidence in the novel is that Braddock's "account" existed before 1953 only in the form of private notes, which Braddock "digs out" after Elizabeth's funeral. This is not a problem related to any historical information - only a lack of internal consistency in the fictional history. However, Cort might be referring to Braddock's ''oral'' account that he offers to Cort during their one meeting in the hospital of 1910, not to the ''written'' account. Alternatively, as Cort is a very skilful spy, he may have gained access to Braddock's notes secretly around that time.W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-89502143951362120262015-11-14T23:42:00.000-08:002015-11-14T23:42:04.067-08:00The Cousins' War: "The White Princess" (book 5), by Philippa Gregory <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is a continuation of earlier reviews of books 1-4 in Philippa Gregory's six-novel series known as <i>The Cousins' War</i>. As noted in the review of book 4 of this series, <i>The Kingmaker's Daughter</i>, novelist Philippa Gregory used the contrasting personalities and viewpoints of prominent female members of the competing Plantagenet family lines to illustrate the rivalries that produced the "War of the Roses". And, as promised, book 5 converges those lines in the story of Elizabeth Tudor - <i>The White Princess</i>.<br />
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Elizabeth's conflicting loyalties and emotions mirror those of the rival families as she goes from princess to outcast to political pawn and finally to Queen of England, but with a crown never allowed to sit comfortably. Because of the tortuous path to the crown, Henry Tudor - King Henry VII of England - never felt secure wearing that crown. But he survived all challenges, as did his queen. The resulting Tudor dynasty utterly failed to smooth the troubled royal waters, but produced much more great material for historical novelists. Henry VIII gets all the attention, but <i>The Cousins' War</i> is a worthy prolog.<br />
<i><br /></i>
Out of all the dynastic furor, Philippa Gregory reserves greatest sympathy for the three generations of Woodville women - Jacquetta, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth again. In these novels, they lack the arrogance and ambition of the noble families, perhaps owing to their more humble English lineage coupled with descent from a French goddess. It makes for a good theme to tie the series together.<br />
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The mother of all "War of the Roses" novelists, Sharon Kay Penman, presented yet another very different picture of the Woodvilles, Yorks, Lancasters and Tudors. Next - a look at <i>The Sunne in Splendour</i>. <i> </i>W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-17905155512754638722015-10-11T16:11:00.000-07:002015-10-11T16:11:38.206-07:00The Cousins' War: The Kingmaker's Daughter (book 4), by Philippa Gregory <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="tr_bq">
This is a continuation of an earlier review of books 1-3 in Philippa Gregory's six-novel series known as <i>The Cousins' War</i>. As explained before:</div>
<br />
<blockquote>
"Cousins" refers to the fact that the rival royal claimants involved in England's War of the Roses were great-great-grandsons of King Edward III. The rival families of Lancaster and York were branches of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet" target="_blank">Plantagenet line</a> that produced all of England's monarchs from 1154 to 1485. This series covers the end of the Plantagenets and the beginning of the Tudor dynasty. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Philippa Gregory's approach to historical fiction in these novels, each one a first-person account of a female "insider" in one of the royal families, yields a unique perspective on the events of the day.</blockquote>
While reading <i>The Kingmaker's Daughter</i>, I realized that what Gregory has done is to narrate the same span of years and events from at least three completely different perspectives. Margaret of Anjou, born in 1430 and queen of Henry VI, Elizabeth Woodville, born in 1437 and queen of Edward IV (<i>The White Queen</i>), and Margaret Beaufort, born in 1443 and mother of Henry VII (<i>The Red Queen</i>) were contemporaries and competitors for the throne of England.<br />
<br />
<i>The Kingmaker's Daughter</i> introduces yet another competitor - Richard Neville, Earl Of Warwick - sometimes called "The Kingmaker" because of his power to favor first one claimant, then another. In keeping with her focus on female lead characters, Gregory shows Warwick to us through the eyes of his younger daughter Anne, only fourteen years old when the story begins. Gradually, we come to understand that Warwick's ultimate aim is to gain the throne for his own family. Having no sons but two daughters, his ever-shifting plans involve marrying one or the other of the daughters to the most likely royal contender, then promoting that man's campaign to become king.<br />
<br />
Although the three queens and The Kingmaker lived through most of the same troubled times, their viewpoints could not be more different. Gregory showed readers what she was up to in <i>Lady of the Rivers</i>, when Elizabeth Woodville's grandmother introduced her daughter Jacquetta to the concept of the "wheel of fortune". The wheel never stops turning, and we are all fixed to a point on it, so at any given time our fortunes may be rising or falling. Whether rising or falling now, a wise person remembers that what rises on the wheel now can later fall, and those who fall may yet rise again.<br />
<br />
When one of the three queens rises to the top, another falls, while a third may be holding steady - not knowing whether the next motion will be a rise or a fall. That's the whole dramatic arc of <i>The Cousins' War</i> in a nutshell.<br />
<br />
It might be fun to attempt a reading of these novels in parallel, switching between them to follow a chronological narrative. Or maybe it would just be a lot of unnecessary work that would ruin Gregory's clever setup.<br />
<br />
Scores for the 5 Criteria remain consistent with books 1-3, but I should add a point somewhere in appreciation of Gregory's overall series concept in <i>The Cousins' War</i>. Next - all the threads finally come together in <i>The White Princess</i>.W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8895869877943728481.post-67294088544398720162015-09-05T22:49:00.001-07:002015-09-06T09:41:52.333-07:00Unlikely Allies, by Joel Richard Paul (2009)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Every so often, there's a straight history book written in such compelling style that it reads like fiction, and thereby earns a mention in this blog. Such a book is <i>Unlikely Allies: How a Merchant, a Playwright, and a Spy Saved the American Revolution</i>, by Joel Richard Paul. Once the reader gets past the overly wordy subtitle, this book is indeed "wildly entertaining", as proclaimed in the book review quote featured on the cover.<br />
<br />
The factual story related in <i>Unlikely Allies</i> is itself so unlikely that it probably would never work as fiction, except perhaps in the hands of someone like Gore Vidal - a black humor genius who understood all too well the darkest corners of human nature. To get an idea how outlandish this tale really is, consider the cast, who at the beginning of this book knew nothing of each other:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The Merchant: Silas Deane, self-made successful merchant in pre-Revolution Connecticut. His fatal flaw - an idealistic faith in the concept of an independent America. Again and again, he found those ideals sorely lacking in most of his fellow revolutionaries.</li>
<li>The Playwright: Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, a successful French inventor and playwright who wanted to be an international statesman.</li>
<li>The Spy: One of the most fantastic characters of the time, the Chevalier d'Eon was a cross-dressing social climber fascinated with the hidden world of political intrigue. </li>
</ul>
<i>Unlikely Allies</i> tells the unlikely story of how these three stumbled and bumbled together to create a convoluted Rube Goldberg-esque (or maybe Jacques Tati-esque, since two of the three were French) scheme whereby France supplied arms, supplies and ammunition to the fledgling American Revolution - at the critical moment just before the tide-turning rebel victory at Saratoga. Paul makes a compelling case that, without that French aid, the outcome of British General Burgoyne's campaign would have been reversed. No Saratoga victory; no French alliance; and much less likelihood of American independence.<br />
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In addition to the three main characters, there's a large supporting cast. The well-known names are there: Franklin, Adams, Lee; but also some fascinating lesser lights. British radical John Wilkes deserves to be better known among Americans. Arthur Lee, Edward Bancroft and Charles Wentworth probably deserve to be forgotten (except as moral lessons), but play crucial roles in this story. Lots of names for future reading!<br />
<br />
I can't recommend this book highly enough. Joel Richard Paul joins David Hackett Fischer on my short list of historians whose writing is <i>better</i> than fiction.<br />
<br />
<br />W C Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086467236440159058noreply@blogger.com0