Historical Fiction

[Loveday]

1 hour ago, WiseGirl said:

I am blaming you all for the huge stacks of books I'm leaving library book sales with, lol. Adding another book to the list.

It's actually still in print, so you can probably find it on Amazon or at your bookshop, if you don't find it in the library sales. I'd say just borrow it from the library, but you're going to want to own it, trust me. 

[viii]

I bought it on my kindle. Excited to read it!

[Seahorse Wrangler]

On 7/15/2019 at 9:36 AM, JordynDarby5 said:

One of my favorites is Katherine by Anya Seton on Katherine Swynford mistress of John of Gaunt. Its really good, well written and a great story. She did a good glimpse of what life was like way back then.

I first read that when I was a wee nipper. I re-read it again about 3 years ago and wasn't too impressed.  I now have Weir 's biography of Katherine so I'll probably read that and then Katherine again.

[acheronbeach]

On 8/9/2019 at 7:01 PM, Seahorse Wrangler said:

I first read that when I was a wee nipper. I re-read it again about 3 years ago and wasn't too impressed.  I now have Weir 's biography of Katherine so I'll probably read that and then Katherine again.

I disliked both of those books.  There was so much speculation.  I suppose it's expected since details of Swynford's life are fairly sparse.

[EmCatlyn]

On 7/15/2019 at 8:36 AM, JordynDarby5 said:

One of my favorites is Katherine by Anya Seton on Katherine Swynford mistress of John of Gaunt. Its really good, well written and a great story. She did a good glimpse of what life was like way back then.

Coming in very late to this, but just finished Alison Weir’s (non-fiction) account of Katherine Swynford, Mistress of the Monarchy.  It was very nicely done, I thought.  Responsible notes and citations, but telling a good story.

I love Seton’s Katherine and although many things in Weir’s book show that Seton was misinformed (for example, Katherine was probably the older sister, not Phillippa , and Katherine was not educated in a nunnery but brought up at court), but Weir’s book didn’t annoy me because the personalities of John of Gaunt and Katherine were handled intelligently and sympathetically.  I recommend it (if no one else has done so already).

On 8/11/2019 at 9:20 AM, acheronbeach said:

I disliked both of those books.  There was so much speculation.  I suppose it's expected since details of Swynford's life are fairly sparse.

Oh well, not everyone is going to like the same things.  ?  I don’t mind speculation when it is clearly labeled speculation.  I appreciate it when Weir makes it clear that she is speculating instead of pretending she has the answers. (I disliked Weir’s book about the Princes in the Tower because she wasn’t always as clear or as critical of some of her sources.  But then, I have mild Ricardian leanings. ?)

[viii]

I used to love Alison Weir but her fictional series Six Queens pisses me off to no end. 

[EmCatlyn]

8 hours ago, viii said:

I used to love Alison Weir but her fictional series Six Queens pisses me off to no end. 

I think her straight history is more palatable because she (usually) tells the facts and explains her history.  I may disagree, but I know where she got her ideas from.  With the fiction she clearly lets her imagination run ahead of her substance, so it’s easy to fault her if you know the history. (I have a similar problem with Phillippa Gregory.)  

BTW, not so good with the “history,” but a very effective character development, I thought, Norah Lofts’s The Concubine deals creatively with Anne Boleyn.  Old book, but I liked it. (Read it a long time ago.)  Have you run into it?

[viii]

No, I haven’t. I’ll add it to my list. 

[Seahorse Wrangler]

On 7/24/2021 at 5:14 PM, EmCatlyn said:

I think her straight history is more palatable because she (usually) tells the facts and explains her history.  I may disagree, but I know where she got her ideas from.  With the fiction she clearly lets her imagination run ahead of her substance, so it’s easy to fault her if you know the history. (I have a similar problem with Phillippa Gregory.)  

BTW, not so good with the “history,” but a very effective character development, I thought, Norah Lofts’s The Concubine deals creatively with Anne Boleyn.  Old book, but I liked it. (Read it a long time ago.)  Have you run into it?

I've always found Weir to be biased against both Anne and her daughter Elizabeth in both fact and fiction.

 

As for PG...shudders.. Loved her early fiction  works in the Georgian era, which is how  she gained her PhD. Personally I find she coasts on her advanced degree to shit on an era she appears to have only studied with a huge degree of pre-determined pseudo-historical basis. 

On 7/25/2021 at 12:28 AM, viii said:

No, I haven’t. I’ll add it to my list. 

I'd add "Sow the Tempest" by Jane Lane if you are looking for mid 20th C books.

[viii]

Thanks! I'll check it out. It's daunting to write a Tudor novel - you want to breathe new life into a story that has been told how many times but still remain close to historical accuracy. Such a slippery slope and the bane of my current existence, ha. 

[Seahorse Wrangler]

8 minutes ago, viii said:

Thanks! I'll check it out. It's daunting to write a Tudor novel - you want to breathe new life into a story that has been told how many times but still remain close to historical accuracy. Such a slippery slope and the bane of my current existence, ha. 

If you want a beta reader, Just shoot me a pm. I'm happy to read and and offer you resources I've come across.

[viii]

5 minutes ago, Seahorse Wrangler said:

If you want a beta reader, Just shoot me a pm. I'm happy to read and and offer you resources I've come across.

Thank you so much for the offer; I will keep it in mind! I finished the first draft and let it sit for a few weeks and now I'm doing a complete re-write for Draft 2. So much work to do, ha. 

[Seahorse Wrangler]

1 minute ago, viii said:

Thank you so much for the offer; I will keep it in mind! I finished the first draft and let it sit for a few weeks and now I'm doing a complete re-write for Draft 2. So much work to do, ha. 

The reason I only publish on AO3.

[Topaz]

Not a Tudor novel, but I enjoyed Norah Lofts The Lost Queen about Caroline Matilda, sister of George III. You don’t seem to find as many historical novels set in that time period. Most of it takes place in Denmark so it is nice to see a different court in the story.

[SoSoNosy]

Has anybody read The Roselynde Chronicles by Roberta Gellis?  There are about nine of them, and I used to read them once a year.  Then, of course, the internet came out to play.  I don't even know if they are in print anymore, but I totally loved them.

Edited July 27, 2021 by SoSoNosy