Better than the new stuff
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This is the first book I have read by Ms Penman and I have to say- I am sold! Much better than Ms Gregory as Ms Penman knows her history, and clearly Sandra Worth enjoyed this novel so much that she felt she just had to copy it but in a watered down version!
The only problem I have with this book, is why, the Duke of York does not come into it. That makes no sense to me. Overall, a fantastic read.
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Excellent, Fascinating Read
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I first read this book when it was published but have just re-read it and feel that I must express my delight and praise for it.
I have a particular love of this period (up to 1603-death of Elizabeth 1st.) and the portayal here of Richard of Gloucester is absolutely excellent; I am one of those who, having read about him for many years, believe that he was much maligned and was not a cripple, and did NOT, in fact, have a hump back. Most of the bad press about him stems from Shakespeare's play, when after all, he (Shakespeare that is) had to be careful what he said about the last deposed dynasty and, obviously, the worse they appeared the better for the Tudors.
The mystery of his two nephews in the Tower is deftly dealt with here, and, I believe, Penman very likely has arrived at the truth. It simply does not ring true that Richard would have had them murdered when they were the sons of his beloved elder brother, Edward IVth.
Much of what is written here by Penman stands up to historical enquiry and I have visited the various castles, etc., which are still in existence,where the family lived.
The fact that Richard was apparently a faithful husband to Anne Warwick is well known, as it was an almost unknown phenomenon in those times and much commented upon; the fact that they knew one another from childhood is well attested. It is also quite true that Richard was greatly loved and respected by the people of York and the surrounding countryside.
The whole panorama of those unsettled times and the larger than life characters is so beautifully portrayed here . The great sadness and very little joy in those times is brought vividly to life.
All in all a great book - well worth the read (you actually don't want to put it down).
I highly recommend it, along with all of Penman's book - they are ALL excellent and meticulously researched.
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Wonderful book
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This book is Sharon Penman's magnum opus - none of her other novels equal it in sheer size - and it is one of her best. I have read it so many times I have lost count, and it still moves me to tears in certain places. She plunges us into the midst of the Wars of the Roses, introducing us immediately to Richard, youngest son of Richard, Duke of York. In quick succession we meet the other sons of York - golden Edward, the eldest; quiet, more intense Edmund; and teasing George, closest in age to Richard himself. We are also introduced to their mother, Cecily Neville, one of the most admirable characters in the book - pious, intelligent, loving and deeply loyal to her family. Within a very short time we find ourselves observing the Battle of Wakefield and its awful aftermath from Edmund's point of view. Though Lancaster won the battle, it was a turning point for York, as Edward was flung into the spotlight by his father's death. A large part of the novel deals with Edward's reign as Edward IV, and Richard's interactions with him and with the other dominant figure of the period, his cousin, Warwick the Kingmaker. Penman shows Richard as the youth remaining loyal to his brother despite his fondness for the Nevilles and his love for Warwick's daughter, whom he later married after the conclusive battles of Barnet and Tewksbury re-established Edward on his throne. Rather than the hunchbacked, evil man of Shakepeare and Tudor historians' depictions, we are presented with a man dealing with conflicting loyalties, an able battle commander, deeply loving and utterly trusted by his older brother, who effectively gave the north of England into Richard's control.
It is after Edward's ddeath that matters become complicated. Richard is presented as a man doing the best he can in troubled times, and having to be persuaded into taking the crown as the best course of action for the good of England.
In a time when the medieval age was giving way to the early modern, Richard is presented as the medieval ideal of chivalry, ruled by conscience and by his heart rather than his head. He becomes the victim of treachery from those near to him, and his final fatal charge at Bosworth Field harks back to older feats of warfare. He very nearly ended Tudor hopes for the throne then and there, coming literally within a few axe swings of Henry Tudor before treachery overtook him. He inspired such loyalty in his closest friends that they joined him in that suicidal charge and continued to fight for his memory. In the north, years after Bosworth Field, the Earl of Northumberland, who had refused to aid the King at the battle, was stoned to death by a Yorkshire mob shouting for York and Richard.
Penman gives an interesting slant on the great mystery of this short and fascinating reign - the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower, Richard's nephews. I won't give away her solution to the mystery here, you'll have to read the book to find out, but it is a fairly fresh perspective. Although the historians of the Tudors revelled in presenting Richard as a foul child-murdering monster, we should remember that Henry Tudor, Richard's rival, never actually accused the latter of the murders.
Penman always fills her books with wonderful period detail and this is no exception. She manages to make sense of this most confusing period of history, when loyalties shifted almost daily, and the reader is able to see clearly major events of the time, from battles to council chamber wrangling.
I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone - you don't even have to be that interested in history to find yourself engaging with these fascinating characters.
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Rich and seamless- awesome antidote to depressing, navel-gazing modernity
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Sharon Penman is an incredible storyteller. The Sunne in Splendour is a good 900 pages long and yet it never gets old. You can tell that Penman was fascinated by the 1400s; she creates such a strong sense of place, even down to the food and the herbs that would grow in the gardens and be used to frangrance a bath, as well as the education that men and women in different layers of society would have received. And, amazingly, it is all completely seamlessly woven in. The detail is rich but never bogs the plot down - it just makes it more vivid so as to draw the reader in.
I knew nothing about the Wars of the Roses or Richard III before picking up this book, but I never got lost; Penman writes so fluently and engagingly about what could be dry details in the hands of a less skilled writer. After all, every battle and every political move is deeply personal to Edward and Richard, which makes for a coherent and emotionally satisfying novel.
There's a wide cast of well-drawn, diverse characters (the real historical players, fleshed out), so the plot is constantly fed from all directions but somehow never gets tangled or reaches an impasse.
Before buying this book, I skimmed through the reviews here, going straight to the least complimentary in order to be prepared for the worst. As it happens, I obviously liked the book very much, but there are aspects of it which some readers may not like.
Richard and Anne's love scenes are unashamedly romantic - very helpless maiden and her knight in shining armour - but the writing is never cliched and I found myself swept away in the sweetness of it all. It's a much-needed relief in the midst of bloodshed in battle and the struggles for power.
It's fair to say that there are 'bad' and 'good' characters, as well as some in between; still, I didn't notice any cardboard villains or dull saints. I do have to agree with the reviewer who suffered from an overdose of "Jesu". On the whole, I found the dialogue very well written and lively, thankfully not too dependent on cod-mediaeval language, but there were a couple of times when it veered incongrously between "It be" and "Jesu", and 20th century American-style therapy talk: "Do you want to talk about it?" and "We need to talk, Anne, and this time you're going to hear me out.". Those were the only times when my suspension of disbelief momentarily faltered.
Overall, though, I think The Sunne In Splendour is an ideal book to get completely lost in curled up in front of the fire or on a long train journey. It's intelligent and meaty, but smoothly written and a pleasure to read; a page-turner.
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Plantagenet Tragedy
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Autumn 1459. A seven year-old boy gets lost in the forest. His easy-going eldest brother has had better things to do than watch over him, that is to say seducing a pretty servant girl. After a prolonged search the lad is found, having bravely fought his fear, and despite being afraid of punishment he doesn't even think of informing against his sibling. A fiercely loyal and earnest boy, he is the youngest of his family, small, dark and intense and very different from his three tall and fair brothers. He is Richard Plantagenet, who, as King Richard III, will go down in history as the epitome of evil.
The reader wonders what happened to turn this earnest child into a murderous usurper. Murderer he wasn't, claims Sharon Penman. Believable and compelling, the story of the four sons of Richard, Duke of York unfolds with all the relentlessness and inescapability of a Greek tragedy.
"The Sunne in Splendour" is a magnificent book. Intimate family scenes alternate with bloody battles, scenarios of betrayal and murder are followed by tender love scenes. A host of unforgettable characters populates it. There is the lovable Edmund, the first of the four Plantagenet princes to die; proud foolish Warwick and his tragic brother John Neville; the icily beautiful Elizabeth Woodville, Edward's queen; Bishop Morton, the snake in the grass; sweet-natured Elizabeth of York and Richard's dignified mother Cecily. All of them are complex, and stay with the reader for a long time.
Ms. Penman does not make the mistake to present Richard. Although far from being the monster More and Shakespeare described, her Richard is shown partly responsible for his nephews' fate. In her version he does not order their killing, of course, but he does not realise that by his taking the throne the children become pawns in other people's power games and pay for his thoughtlessness with their lives. Ms. Penman's explanation of the princes' disappearance and Richard's strange silence is as good and plausible as others. Her Richard is brave and loyal, but he can also be aloof and stubborn to the point of inflexibility. He can display subtle irony, but also biting wit, and is capable of considerable aggression, yet lacks the ultimate ruthlessness to secure his power. Reflecting upon his decision makes him admit his guilt - that he yielded to the temptation the Crown of England represented - and for the last months of his life he fells bitter remorse. Ms. Penman describes his depressed state of mind with such chilling accuracy, that his mother's fear for his immortal soul is almost tangible and very painful, and the ending leaves the reader bereaved as though he had lost a loved one.
The drama that was Richard's life and the way it is elucidated here makes one wonder why it hasn't been filmed yet. There is a cinematographic quality to many of Ms. Penman's scenarios; look for instance at the council meeting leading to Lord Hasting's execution, or at solitary young Richard riding in blazing sunshine towards Warwick's army camp to win Clarence back - these just beg to be filmed! Certainly, the ending is tragic and would leave the audience aching, but a skilled screenwriter may find a solution. A similar problem has been handled very well in "Braveheart".
Wherein now lies Richard's attraction? The Tudors, commonly associated with the beginning of the Modern Age, superficially appear more interesting as opposed to the Plantagenets who seem to symbolise the superstitions-ridden, unenlightened Middle Ages. Richard was born on the brink of the Modern Age and grew up in a world that witnessed the death throes of the medieval system of values, and yet, at a time when all conventional notions of loyalty and feudal allegiance had become a sham, there survived in him a core of chivalrous conduct that is very appealing, apparent for example in his just administration of the North and his legislation as King - supporting the weak as demanded by the knightly code of conduct. He seems a man born too late, and trying to adhere to such a strict code of behaviour needs must clash with the attitudes of more opportunistic characters who felt more at ease in this era of change.
Richard's physical courage, praised even by his detractors, originates in his chivalrous ideals, and his last ferocious charge down Ambion Hill to challenge Henry Tudor to single combat evokes heroic tales of earlier centuries, and indeed his decision to die a King rather than to flee was mentioned in a contemporary ballad.
Close to the end Richard's niece and nephews mourn their uncle's death and discuss their future, still hoping for fair treatment; future judicial murders and the destruction of Richard's reputation are only mentioned in the epilogue. However, learning about their fate is chilling. On the road to glorious Elizabeth I the Plantagenet blood seeped away as Henry VII and Henry VIII got rid of all potential heirs of the old dynasty.
To a modern observer this policy of merciless extermination appears depressingly modern. For all the beauty, progress and enlightenment the Renaissance brought, the Modern Age was setting out on a road that would lead to the atrocities of the 20th century. Gradually, dynastic wars were replaced by ideological ones, with ever more terror wrought on the common, civilian people who were included in the ideological and/or religious struggles. Already the atrocities of the Thirty Years' War and Cromwell's campaigns in Ireland, not unlike today's ethnical cleansing, loom in the future, premonitory of the final triumphs of secular humanism in the 20th century.
Richard Plantagenet died at thirty-two, his promising reign cut short by rebellion and treason. Ms. Penman brings him gloriously back to life for us, to be seen in a benevolent light at last. It is painful for the reader to lose him again, but the great achievement of this book is to show that there was nobility in Richard's cause as well as in his failure.
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