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As I’ve gone about feeding my obsession for collecting older
out of print historical fiction books,
I’ve managed to acquire quite a few. But
recently I’ve realized how many of them I still haven’t read as they’ve been
pushed aside in favor of more recent releases and so I decided to make a
concentrated effort to change that. And
although I’m sure most will pale in comparison to the Penmans and Chadwicks of
today and some will be downright horrible, finding out what's behind some of those cheesy covers is part of the fun!
The Black Plantaganet (sic) is one of the few books focused
on the eldest son of Edward III, Edward, the so-called Black Prince. Published in 1969, the book covers Edward’s
early life quickly and focuses most of its 250 pages on the prince’s military
exploits in France and concludes right before his marriage to Joan of Kent. Particular emphasis is given to Edward’s
reactions in various situations, painting him as a noble and chivalric knight
but he remains somewhat of an enigma. The
long stretches of “telling” narrative do little to help.
A bit of romance comes in the form of Joan of Kent. In love with her cousin from an early age,
she is frustrated when he fails to take notice of her and manages to wind up
with two husbands which only further alienates her from Edward – at least for a
while. This is basic historical fiction
fare for its time and similar in style to Jean Plaidy or Norah Lofts and if
this was history I was more familiar with, I might have been somewhat bored by it. But although the story is not overly
detailed, the author pulls out all the stops when it comes to describing the
pageantry of the era with some of the scenes appearing as little movies in my
mind as I was reading. I have several of
Bennett’s historical novels and now that I’ve read two of them (the other is
her book about Isabella of France which I liked quite a bit),I think she might
also resemble Plaidy and Lofts in being a little hit or miss.
In case the FTC asks: bought it used
This author is on my list of older authors to try eventually. Our library system has Envoy from Elizabeth and Richard and the Knights of God. Maybe I should finish my Plaidy's first though. Like you, I collected all the Plaidy's and all the Heyers and they've been just sitting there because I've been reading all newer stuff.
June 13, 2012 at 5:35 PM