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bisha 's review for:
The Sunne in Splendour
by Sharon Kay Penman
This book was lent to me by a colleague at the chocolate shop. I hadn't ever really been much interested in historical fiction before but we got to talking and she brought it in for me one day. I think the reason I disliked historical fiction was because I was worried I would read a book and struggle to separate the historical from the fiction and end up with a warped view of the past. That said, it's not like I was reading history books to get an accurate opinion on it either. So I gave it a go.
The plot follows the rise and fall of the House of York from Richard, 3rd Duke of York, through to his sons Edward IV and Richard III. The only history I knew from this period was the dark mystery behind the vanishing Princes in the Tower and the nursery rhyme, Grand Old Duke of York. History suggests Richard III was behind the plot to put the sons of his late brother Edward IV to death in order to claim the throne. Penman argues that this may well be a case of history being written by the victor.
In The Sunne in Splendour, Richard III admires his older brother with a reverence that is at times excessive, particularly in the first half of the book. As a reader, their later clashings of opinion were welcomed and their bond felt stronger and more believable for it. According to Penman, it was the machinations of the court, particularly Elizabeth Woodville's scheming and Henry Stafford's betrayals that led to Richard's tarnished legacy. Penman makes a convincing case on behalf of Richard III's innocence claiming the murder of the Princes was unnecessary for securing Richard's kingship. They had already been declared illegitimate, he was a seasoned battle commander and the country was tired of civil war. Things don't end well for Richard and the successor to the throne, Henry VII of the House of Tudor may well be credited for the discredit done to both Richard's body and legacy.
In my search for a suitable quote to headline this review, I noticed the little attention paid to landscapes or scenery in this book. Personally, I tire very quickly of descriptions of settings so this was not a problem to me but for a book of 900+ pages it was strange not to get any passages detailing place or backdrop. However, one reference that does stick in mind was Raby Castle, birthplace of Cecily Neville, mother of Edward VI and Richard III. That's largely because it's about 8 miles away from where I'm currently sitting. I chose to include a review of this book because I spent six years in Lancaster and thought a book on the Wars of the Roses would help me stick to the plan of reviewing books that linked to places I'd been. In fact, it ties in better with the place I've spent the last six months, a market town in Country Durham.
A strange trait that every character seemed to possess was the ability to read minds. With the smallest look or word or silence, characters seemed to know exactly what another was thinking or feeling and there was as much left unsaid as what was given speech marks. What was lacking in scenery was compensated for in the plains of psychology that the characters could traverse, often with two, three or even four layers of bluffing.
One of the sadnesses in reading historical fiction is that you know how it ends, unless it's heavy on the fiction side of things. Throughout the book, the reader is placed on the side of York and of Richard. The loss of his son, wife and his own death in the last 100 pages accelerates the pace of the book, but it didn't feel rushed. Richard's romance with Anne is a plot point wound all through the narrative. Once she dies, Richard is broken, therefore the reader's narrative anchor begins to break. When Edward died, the reader could latch onto Richard, but at the end of the novel there are no 'good guys' with enough substance left for the reader to identify with. That said, there are characters like Francis Lovell and Bess, Richard's niece and Edward's daughter who are relegated to a post script. The novel has to end somewhere and it would be impractical to follow the lives out of every character. Nevertheless, I did feel some sorrow that their stories couldn't be told in full. Maybe that's the joy of historical fiction, there is always going to be a sequel.
The plot follows the rise and fall of the House of York from Richard, 3rd Duke of York, through to his sons Edward IV and Richard III. The only history I knew from this period was the dark mystery behind the vanishing Princes in the Tower and the nursery rhyme, Grand Old Duke of York. History suggests Richard III was behind the plot to put the sons of his late brother Edward IV to death in order to claim the throne. Penman argues that this may well be a case of history being written by the victor.
In The Sunne in Splendour, Richard III admires his older brother with a reverence that is at times excessive, particularly in the first half of the book. As a reader, their later clashings of opinion were welcomed and their bond felt stronger and more believable for it. According to Penman, it was the machinations of the court, particularly Elizabeth Woodville's scheming and Henry Stafford's betrayals that led to Richard's tarnished legacy. Penman makes a convincing case on behalf of Richard III's innocence claiming the murder of the Princes was unnecessary for securing Richard's kingship. They had already been declared illegitimate, he was a seasoned battle commander and the country was tired of civil war. Things don't end well for Richard and the successor to the throne, Henry VII of the House of Tudor may well be credited for the discredit done to both Richard's body and legacy.
In my search for a suitable quote to headline this review, I noticed the little attention paid to landscapes or scenery in this book. Personally, I tire very quickly of descriptions of settings so this was not a problem to me but for a book of 900+ pages it was strange not to get any passages detailing place or backdrop. However, one reference that does stick in mind was Raby Castle, birthplace of Cecily Neville, mother of Edward VI and Richard III. That's largely because it's about 8 miles away from where I'm currently sitting. I chose to include a review of this book because I spent six years in Lancaster and thought a book on the Wars of the Roses would help me stick to the plan of reviewing books that linked to places I'd been. In fact, it ties in better with the place I've spent the last six months, a market town in Country Durham.
A strange trait that every character seemed to possess was the ability to read minds. With the smallest look or word or silence, characters seemed to know exactly what another was thinking or feeling and there was as much left unsaid as what was given speech marks. What was lacking in scenery was compensated for in the plains of psychology that the characters could traverse, often with two, three or even four layers of bluffing.
One of the sadnesses in reading historical fiction is that you know how it ends, unless it's heavy on the fiction side of things. Throughout the book, the reader is placed on the side of York and of Richard. The loss of his son, wife and his own death in the last 100 pages accelerates the pace of the book, but it didn't feel rushed. Richard's romance with Anne is a plot point wound all through the narrative. Once she dies, Richard is broken, therefore the reader's narrative anchor begins to break. When Edward died, the reader could latch onto Richard, but at the end of the novel there are no 'good guys' with enough substance left for the reader to identify with. That said, there are characters like Francis Lovell and Bess, Richard's niece and Edward's daughter who are relegated to a post script. The novel has to end somewhere and it would be impractical to follow the lives out of every character. Nevertheless, I did feel some sorrow that their stories couldn't be told in full. Maybe that's the joy of historical fiction, there is always going to be a sequel.