cjdawn236's review against another edition

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4.0

This is a great resource for reading through the history plays. I read it alongside the plays each month. Each play covered has at least two chapters - one that gives an overview of the actual history, and one that looks at the play itself. I really enjoyed having this to read with the plays this year.

sophronisba's review

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dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

If you want a brisk recap of 150 years of English history, this is the book for you. It is framed around Shakespeare's history plays, though, so if you are not familiar with them some of the allusions will be lost on you. They were often lost on me, and I have read the history plays and seen them performed -- in some cases, more than once! But Norwich assumes that they are as known to you as they are to him, and he knows them very well.

Norwich does keep the book lively; he has many opinions and he is not afraid to share them. He despises Henry VI, to the point that I was beginning to feel a bit sorry for the unfortunate king. Norwich regards Henry's reign as "perhaps the saddest half-century in English history," and even after Henry dies he cannot resist getting in one last jab: " One would love to think the doomed King showed as much spirit at his end as his last great vituperative speech suggests; alas, it seems unlikely." 

I wished he had not confined himself to such a narrow theme. For example, Margaret of Anjou is much more interesting than her husband, the hapless Henry VI, and I really wanted to hear more about her. For the record, I was also  not impressed with Norwich's dismissal of Elizabeth of York's claim to the throne because she was an "eighteen-year-old girl." She might have been very capable -- did he not read his own discussion of Margaret of Anjou? -- and she could hardly have been worse than Henry.
 

crankylibrarian's review against another edition

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5.0

Which family members did Richard III bump off again? Which Henry gave that pep talk on some battlefield about all the grunts being his brothers? If you find yourself wishing that the parents of all those Henrys and Margarets and Johns and Edwards had picked more distinctive names for their kids, then this book is for you. Each chapter gives a readable overview of the key events of a monarch's reign; then outlines the plot of the corresponding plays. Norwich helpfully points out where the plays diverge from the reality.

poirotketchup's review against another edition

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4.0

This history of Shakespeare's Plantagenet kings contrasts the way the Bard told the stories with the way historians believe they actually happened. It praises Shakespeare's choices at times, recognizing his worth as a storyteller, and shining light on why he wrote his characters the way he did.

beckyg1016's review against another edition

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4.0

A very interesting read. Each section alternates between a recounting of the history of the persons and period in question, followed by an analysis of how accurate (or not) Shakespeare was in his plays regarding that period. The overall conclusion being that while Shakespeare was not wholly accurate, those times when he fudged the truth were clearly intended to improve the pacing of the play or served some other artistic reason - and not merely to make things more entertaining.

wwhyte's review

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5.0

To be clear, I'm rating this five stars not because I have any idea how correct it is historically, but because it's an entertaining and opinionated read that engages good-humoredly with Shakespeare's somewhat loose representation of the actual historical facts. Always fun to come to after seeing a Shakespeare history play to get more context, and fun to read cold for, you know, fun.
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