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lisa_setepenre's review
3.0
J. Davis’s Duke Humphrey: A Sidelight on Lancastrian England is a biography of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the son of Henry IV, brother of Henry V and uncle to Henry VI, by “a shy and diffident scholar with no academic qualifications as such”. Davis died with the first draft completed, but unedited, and it was Mary P. Lucy, a “journalist and amateur historian”, who took on the task to edit the manuscript and see it published posthumously in 1973.
I really shouldn’t like this book. As a history book, it’s practically useless. It’s heavy on speculation, there is no referencing (occasionally Davis will make a comment about a “writer” or “Victorian historians” but rarely names them, this often includes when she actually quotes them), and while there is a bibliography, it is very roughly formatted. Additionally, there are a lot of unintentional hilarious moments, such as the second paragraph where Davis concludes that the wealth of the Lancaster duchy “built up a power that simply bulldozed over King Richard the Second”.
In fairness, Davis’s death most likely played a role in this roughness, and in other matters too. There is no index and a section at the end dedicated to the likenesses of the various personages involved seemed to conclude with a list of illustrations/images that Davis would have liked to be included in her book, but the publisher gives her list instead of the images.
The datedness of the texts does show through at times, both in her information and her attitudes. When talking about “Harry” (the future Henry V) staying with Richard II during his father’s exile, Davis states “Richard’s household was said to be an unhealthy place for a young boy, but Harry had a mind of his own and could be trusted to keep out of mischief”, which is, sadly, a presumably negative reference to Richard II’s queerness.
But, largely, this was like reading a book about how someone saw things happening. It’s not especially reliable but it is fascinating. You get a real sense of the personalities and the relationships between various figures. Sure, it might not be a “trustworthy” account, but it’s invocative in a way that a more straight forward biography typically isn’t. I cared about Davis’s Humphrey, Harry, John, Eleanor and so on.
I really shouldn’t like this book. As a history book, it’s practically useless. It’s heavy on speculation, there is no referencing (occasionally Davis will make a comment about a “writer” or “Victorian historians” but rarely names them, this often includes when she actually quotes them), and while there is a bibliography, it is very roughly formatted. Additionally, there are a lot of unintentional hilarious moments, such as the second paragraph where Davis concludes that the wealth of the Lancaster duchy “built up a power that simply bulldozed over King Richard the Second”.
In fairness, Davis’s death most likely played a role in this roughness, and in other matters too. There is no index and a section at the end dedicated to the likenesses of the various personages involved seemed to conclude with a list of illustrations/images that Davis would have liked to be included in her book, but the publisher gives her list instead of the images.
The datedness of the texts does show through at times, both in her information and her attitudes. When talking about “Harry” (the future Henry V) staying with Richard II during his father’s exile, Davis states “Richard’s household was said to be an unhealthy place for a young boy, but Harry had a mind of his own and could be trusted to keep out of mischief”, which is, sadly, a presumably negative reference to Richard II’s queerness.
But, largely, this was like reading a book about how someone saw things happening. It’s not especially reliable but it is fascinating. You get a real sense of the personalities and the relationships between various figures. Sure, it might not be a “trustworthy” account, but it’s invocative in a way that a more straight forward biography typically isn’t. I cared about Davis’s Humphrey, Harry, John, Eleanor and so on.
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