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maplessence's review
4.0
Dagglebelt almost snatched the held-out pumpkin in his eagerness. His big chance had come.
"Now just watch me a minute,"he pleaded.
He planted his feet in an open fourth. He threw up one pumpkin. He threw up another. He threw up the third.
"Juggler, "explained the Master of the Revels.
Breathing heavily Dagglebelt caught the first pumpkin. He clutched at the second. He missed the third.
"A bad juggler," said Burghley disappointed.
"It was an accident," said Dagglebelt. He picked up the pumpkins. He tried again.
"Dolt," cried a raw voice from an upper storey. "Run away and practice while you still have hands to do it with."
Dagglebelt gave one glance. He abandoned his pumpkins. He ran.
Elizabeth of England withdrew from the window. She was smiling.
If this strikes you as funny (or like in my case, mildly amusing) this might be the book for you! There were only a couple of parts that I laughed out loud (the best one was Elizabeth of England choosing her outfit for the day) but I read most of it with a smile.
A wild mixture of Shakespearean fact & the authors' equally wild imagination (they were both Fire Wardens during WWII when they wrote this) , until near the end when this tale started to drag a bit.
I was curious what a pantoble was. Some of the characters threw one quite a bit. Sounded like a small piece of furniture. The (uninformative definition) I googled said it was another name for a pantofle. (which sounds like a pastry)
It is actually;
a type of footwear.
Good fun!
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rosh's review
funny
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
vickie's review
4.0
Comments in <20 words: Hard-to-track paperback. "Gleeful frivolity" accurate description; just read at wrong time in life. Only maybe 1/3 about Sharkspaw.
smcleish's review
2.0
Originally published on my blog here in June 2000.
Unusual though a book written to a large extent in the second person might be, You Were There fails for one major reason - I wasn't. Since the "there" in question is London in the twenties, you would now need to be at least eighty to remember the incidents the book mentions.
Apart from the second person gimmick, the style of the novel is like the far better known - and greatly superior - [b:No Bed for Bacon|749399|No Bed for Bacon|Caryl Brahms|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178005101s/749399.jpg|735539] and [b:Don't, Mr Disraeli!|2065141|Don't, Mr Disraeli!|Caryl Brahms|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nocover/60x80.png|2070361]. It is a humorous, 1066 and All That style take on historical events combined with a romantic plot. Here, however, the history is less amusing and the romance less interesting, and it is hardly surprising that You Were There is even frequently omitted from lists of Brahms and Simon novels at the front of reprints of others.
Unusual though a book written to a large extent in the second person might be, You Were There fails for one major reason - I wasn't. Since the "there" in question is London in the twenties, you would now need to be at least eighty to remember the incidents the book mentions.
Apart from the second person gimmick, the style of the novel is like the far better known - and greatly superior - [b:No Bed for Bacon|749399|No Bed for Bacon|Caryl Brahms|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178005101s/749399.jpg|735539] and [b:Don't, Mr Disraeli!|2065141|Don't, Mr Disraeli!|Caryl Brahms|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nocover/60x80.png|2070361]. It is a humorous, 1066 and All That style take on historical events combined with a romantic plot. Here, however, the history is less amusing and the romance less interesting, and it is hardly surprising that You Were There is even frequently omitted from lists of Brahms and Simon novels at the front of reprints of others.
ricardoreading's review
4.0
So I bought this on a whim. Basically because because some of the blurbs called it the basis for Shakespeare in Love — one of my favorite movies — and, while they do share some uncanny superficial similarities (a girl boy-player named Viola falling for a stressed-out Shakespeare, the gleefully irreverent nature, blah, blah, blah), it is, for the most part, NOTHING AT ALL like Shakespeare in Love. I mean, despite his name being in the subtitle, Shakespeare's story is mostly a subplot, and the bulk of the book focuses instead on a handful of several other historical characters of the period, with most of the attention given to the Queen and her merrie (so merrie) band of cohorts.
I'm still really glad I picked this book up though! Mostly because it is the most charming thing ever to have been charming. The writing style is Spartan and funny and quirky and so self-aware. So self-aware, in fact, that I was actually pretty surprised to learn that this book was written in the early 1940s, the humor seeming so, you know, modern. All the recurring jokes sprinkled throughout the book — the unnamed commoner's journey through ever-changing careers, Sir Walter Raleigh's doomed search for fashionable cloak, people complaining about spelling — were definite highlights for me. The book does falter a bit, towards the end (of course an otherwise excellent book would falter towards the end) but overall a pretty fun read!
I'm still really glad I picked this book up though! Mostly because it is the most charming thing ever to have been charming. The writing style is Spartan and funny and quirky and so self-aware. So self-aware, in fact, that I was actually pretty surprised to learn that this book was written in the early 1940s, the humor seeming so, you know, modern. All the recurring jokes sprinkled throughout the book — the unnamed commoner's journey through ever-changing careers, Sir Walter Raleigh's doomed search for fashionable cloak, people complaining about spelling — were definite highlights for me. The book does falter a bit, towards the end (of course an otherwise excellent book would falter towards the end) but overall a pretty fun read!
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