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In Harold the King, Helen Hollick deals with the seldom-fictionalized Anglo-Saxons, which I enjoyed very much. She is very historically accurate throughout, creating well-fleshed-out characters that I can believe existed and had motives for the occasionally horrendous things that they did. The story moved at a fair pace, considering the book covers approximately 20 years, and I was never bored. For readers who know little of English history beyond the famous Battle of Hastings, this book provides a painless recounting of how such a conflict came to be.
The characters even suffer internal conflict, and one can trace the development of, for example, Edith, from a spoiled young girl to a twisted, selfish queen. It is fairly easy to see where the characters are coming from. This is one of the things that I’m always looking for; are characters believable? Do I understand their doubts and fears? This book pulls that off nicely.
The prose, however, is a bit awkward. Hollick is a great storyteller, but she could do with a better editor. She seem to omit subjects from sentences when two or more sentences have the same subject, which is something I’ve never noticed elsewhere. Her transitions can be strange and her dialogue occasionally unrealistic. In general, the novel’s prose doesn’t have that polished feel which most books published by major publishing houses do. Her grammar is not incorrect, it just doesn’t flow perfectly.
I wouldn’t let that keep me from enjoying the story, though, because Hollick really does have something going here. It’s easy to get emotionally attached to her characters and to really feel for them; she also has the ability to create suspense when the conclusion of the book is already known. I’m looking forward to reading more of her Anglo-Saxon historical fiction, not only because it’s good but because there isn’t enough of it out there.
This book just broke my heart. Beautiful, meaningful, absolutely amazing.
Mr Stevens is a butler at Darlington Hall and has spent most of his life serving Lord Darlington. Now that an American has bought Darlington Hall, he must begin to accommodate himself to these changes. When the American leaves on a short trip, Mr Stevens undertakes a journey of his own, while reflecting on his life and changes and lost opportunities.
It’s hard to describe what is amazing about this book. The prose is beautiful and perfectly in character; Stevens never slips for an instant, yet somehow in the midst of this proper, gorgeous yet unemotional prose, Ishiguro conveys a world of meaning and feeling that is nearly unsurpassed. The reader aches for Stevens so often, can almost feel what he is feeling, and is overall completely drawn into this fading world. This is one of those books that causes me to pause after reading, unwilling to start another, because I don’t want to ruin the feeling or profane such a phenomenal book with another.
I think it’s the best I’ve read all year. Again, moving, meaningful, emotional, absolutely beautiful; everything fits and everything works and the book is literally flawless. There isn’t a high enough rating for it.
Duchess covers much of the life of Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. The book chronicles her friendship and influence with Anne Stuart from childhood to middle age, her relationship with her husband, and eventually their fall from grace.
Miss Sarah Jennings, thirteen, has very little money to her name thanks to her father’s gambling debts. She accepts a position in the Duchess of York’s household in order to earn money and get away from her mother. Through this position she meets Princess Anne and John Churchill, the two figures who are to have massive influence on the rest of her life.
I enjoyed that this book stayed extremely close to the actual recorded history. Wherever there is history, Ms. Scott does not mess with it and instead keeps to the books. Sarah’s life is well documented, so any errors would be blatantly obvious. She does an excellent job of portraying Sarah’s stubborn character. She is ambitious and she has plenty of flaws; she’s really out for no one but herself and her family, and in that she’s matched well by her husband. The fact that they rose from very minor players at court to have such great influence is astounding, and Scott shows this ambition and drive. I’m very satisfied by her Sarah Churchill, as I think she matches excellently the woman I’ve read about in various other sources.
I did think the idea that Sarah and Princess Anne were physically intimate a bit strange. I’d not seen that suggestion elsewhere, and considering the book mentions how hard it is to keep secrets in court, it doesn’t seem to fit. I am able to accept the theory though, since no one can ever know what happened between them when they were alone. It just seems off. It is true that they were very close, I just am not entirely comfortable with the idea that it led to sexual activity.
Overall I suspect Queen Anne may have suffered a bit, but I don’t really know much about her reign so I can’t comment. If anything, she was certainly very dependent on Sarah and later on Abigail Masham, as well as all her advisors, so perhaps this image of her is not entirely unfair.
The writing is good, no cultural errors or colloqualisms, everything is in line. It is fairly obvious at times that the author is a romance novelist, considering how she writes the romance between Sarah and John. Not that I mind much, considering their love was a huge part of Sarah’s life, and a romance novelist is well qualified to cover that. I think it’s a great achievement for Scott (also known as Miranda Jarrett) to step out of her genre and try this, and she does an excellent job. Sarah’s resistance to John’s wooing is expertly done.
The real Sarah Churchill was a phenomenal woman, seizing power for herself and her family in a time when no woman besides a sole reigning queen ever had any. I’m glad that she has a good fiction novel based on her life so she can become more accessible to the world at large.
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