A review by rosekk
The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. by William Makepeace Thackeray, William Lyon Phelps

3.0

It was... ok. Getting used to the way the 1st person narrator referred to himself in third person took up most of the reading time. Then, from the midpoint of the book, I found myself struggling to adjust to the thought that the narrator was in love with his half sister. I know it was a different time, and during that era it was fairly common for cousins to marry, but even so, a half-sister is just a bit too close, especially when he knew her growing up. The pace of the story went slack far to often, and made parts of the book a drag to get through. I also struggled with the political/monarch-related aspects, because I'm not that familiar with the political situation at the time, but the book assumes the reader will be well versed in the intrigues of the age, so I had to do a lot of googling to keep up. The book did have some enjoyable sections though, and at no point was I tempted to give up and stop reading, so that's a plus.