Saturday, July 2, 2011

Historical Fiction

So I've read two historical fiction books recently and I have mixed feelings about them. I read The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory and The King's Mistress by Emma Campion. I believe it's safe to say what king and time period Gregory's book is from--if you know nothing of King Henry VIII that's pretty sad. The other one is in the mid 1350s through 1370s and King Edward II.

Both were great stories, in their own way, but I very disliked the way the main characters were treated. I know that it was the way things were back then, but still. Henry VIII throws mistresses away faster than a hotcake and washes his hands of them immediately. Edward II loves his mistress until the end of his days, but when he dies everyone believes that it was because of her that all their money was gone and she had something to do with his death. And I absolutely hated the ending of that book. Don't ask me why. She ends up with the man she loves with all her surviving children by her side and she doesn't die at the end. But there were a lot of deaths in that book, most of them were either related to her or to King Edward II.

Even though I haven't been completely moved by those books, I've found a few more that I'm interested in reading. Secrets of the Tudor court : Pleasure Palace by Kate Emerson and To Serve a King by Donna Russo Morin. If you are wondering, yes, I like reading about the Tudor family--which both of those books are mainly about or affiliated with.

If there is a book like the ones that I've mentioned and you know of one that you enjoyed, please comment it. I would love to give it a try.


Here are the covers of the books that I was talking about:





No comments:

Post a Comment