Godiva by Nerys Jones

[Melisende]

"Godiva" is the story of the legendary Lady Godiva, Countess of Mercia.

The story opens in 1045 - Edward the Confessor has been on the throne for barely two years, and has just married Edith, daughter of Godwin of Wessex. The Anglo-Saxon Earls are in the ascendant - for the moment.

The first half of the novel deals with the political machinations of the English court - the jostling for power as the new King takes over the government of the Kingdom in the aftermath of the rule of the Danish Kings.

The next part of the story picks up the conflict between Edward and his Earls as the House of Godwin reaches its zenith - and then is brought to heel. We also read about Godiva's "legendary" ride through Coventry in order to relieve the harsh taxation imposed upon it citizens.

The story concludes after the "ride" and with the death of Leofric, Godiva's husband.


Two important points to consider when reading this book:
(1) A knowledge of Anglo-Saxon England, pre-Norman Conquest, is not essential but it does help.
(2) The novel reads as if events take place over a period of one to two years, when in actual fact, events take place over a period of over ten years. Hence the need for some basic background knowledge.

The characters of the novel are real: Edward, Edith, Leofric, Godiva, Godwin, Siward - however, the "true" natures of these characters is open to conjecture. Much of what we know about Edward and Godiva (the two antagonists or protagonists) can be interpreted many ways. The author has adopted a particular stance and has used this to explain certain events. Which, she does in a plausible manner.


Nerys Jones has published widely on Celtic and Welsh medieval topics. However, this is her only fiction novel - she passed away during its publication.

All in all - I did enjoy the novel.

[Vanessa]

Thanks for that review, Melisende. I have this on my TBR pile. I didn't realise that the author had died. That is so sad.

[Tanzanite]

I've been wondering if this was any good. Looks like another one to add to the pile!

[Perdita]

I'm just reading this one at the moment and it's so good. All the characters, especially Lady Godiva and Edward the Confessor are brought to life and the story itself is un-put-downable. It was the author's first novel so it's such a shame that she died during the publishing of it.

[EC2]

I'm so glad this list exists!
I went to look at Godiva at Amazon UK and there's no synopsis and the only review doesn't mention when it's set. The cover looks Edwardian - if it has an era. I would have guessed it was Anglo Saxon, but the Edwardians had a penchant for this sort of name too. So many thanks for the information and the comments!

[Misfit]

I'm intrigued too. I recall Godiva being mentioned briefly as an aunt or something of Harold Godwinsson's wife Aldith in Harold the King and Anand's Gildenford trilogy. I'd like to read more of that period from another point of view.

[EC2]

The 'original' Godiva (wife of Leofric of Mercia) is very famous in English folk history and urban myth for that ride in the nuddy, but the Amazon detail doesn't say whether it's about this particular Godiva or not. So it's good to know that it is about her. If you go to Google images and click on 'Lady Godiva' you'll see what I mean :eek: This url will probably work:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hl=en&q=Lady+Godiva&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

[Misfit]

thanks for the link EC, it works. Although probably not the best for looking at when at the work PC :D:o:eek:

I'll look at it later when I'm home and there's no one likely to pop in and see what's on the screen :p

[EC2]

thanks for the link EC, it works. Although probably not the best for looking at when at the work PC :D:o:eek:

I'll look at it later when I'm home and there's no one likely to pop in and see what's on the screen :p

Sorry about that:):eek:

I am going to get a bad reputation as someone who sends out rude urls :eek:

Seriously, if you mention Lady Godiva to anyone of my age, and above, or 10 years younger, everyone knows that she supposedly performed the stunt of riding starkers through the streets of Coventry to protest over taxes. So well known has that story become, it's now a part of the national psyche. Protestors today, as well as those looking to history for a topical entertainment angle, will put some naked young woman up on a horse, drape her in a long wig and do the Godiva thing. The pre-Raphaelites seem to have loved her too!

[Misfit]

I am going to get a bad reputation as someone who sends out rude urls

:D:D Oh well.

[boswellbaxter]

There's a great picture of a splendidly bad Godiva cover on Sarah's blog (http://readingthepast.blogspot.com/2008/11/tacky-tuesday.html).

[LCW]

There's a great picture of a splendidly bad Godiva cover on Sarah's blog (http://readingthepast.blogspot.com/2008/11/tacky-tuesday.html).


Oh my :eek: ! That is bad! As are all those covers! Makes you wonder what people will say about our covers in 50 years.

[LCW]

[QUOTE=Melisende;1540
The novel reads as if events take place over a period of one to two years, when in actual fact, events take place over a period of over ten years. Hence the need for some basic background knowledge.

[/QUOTE]

Wouldn't this be considered a serious flaw in the writing or editing? As a reader I'd be awfully confused if the story suddently skipped years and years without alerting the reader somehow with a chapter break, a date, or something. The story sounds interesting but this makes me hesitant to read it!

[Ariadne]

Thanks for the review, Melisende! I bought this book from Book Depository based on the blurb alone - I haven't yet gotten to it.

As for the book with the supremely tacky cover on my blog, it's as trashy as it appears.

[EC2]

Thanks for the review, Melisende! I bought this book from Book Depository based on the blurb alone - I haven't yet gotten to it.

As for the book with the supremely tacky cover on my blog, it's as trashy as it appears.

My goodness, there are some beauties there. What IS the woman looking at on the cover of The Purple Conquest. Does it have purple prose too? :D

[boswellbaxter]

My goodness, there are some beauties there. What IS the woman looking at on the cover of The Purple Conquest. Does it have purple prose too? :D

Maybe the man painted something else purple, which might explain her worried look.

[EC2]

maybe the man painted something else purple, which might explain her worried look.

rotflolmao!

[Misfit]

Maybe the man painted something else purple, which might explain her worried look.

:D:D:D

You ladies are bad, unbelievably bad. Shameless, but I agree with you :p

[Ariadne]

Maybe the man painted something else purple, which might explain her worried look.

ROTFL! Plenty of not-so-subtle double entendres in the back cover blurb too. :eek:

[Telynor]

There's a great picture of a splendidly bad Godiva cover on Sarah's blog (http://readingthepast.blogspot.com/2008/11/tacky-tuesday.html).

Oh the glory days of the 60's and 70's, when the term cheap paperback ruled, and the covers were atrocious. Thank you for that link, i really needed a good laugh today.

[Ludmilla]

I actually have that book in my library, but the dust jacket was fairly rotted when we acquired it. I'll have to take a look at it and make sure that is the cover. For some reason, I don't remember it being quite that bad. I haven't read it, though. It belonged to my husband's grandmother, and we grabbed several boxes of her books after she died. I've been meaning to slowly start reading some of them.

[Perdita]

Wouldn't this be considered a serious flaw in the writing or editing? As a reader I'd be awfully confused if the story suddently skipped years and years without alerting the reader somehow with a chapter break, a date, or something. The story sounds interesting but this makes me hesitant to read it!

The way I read it, the events in the story happened over just one summer. I didn't notice any jumps to a different year.. Now I'm confused. :confused: It was a really enjoyable read though and I'd recommend it to anyone.

I love those old book covers btw!

[SonjaMarie]

Has anyone else read this book? I'm thinking of requesting it as my "ship now" at BF because it's labelled "low" but if others didn't enjoy it, I won't bother.

SM

[Nefret]

Thats something I ordered recently. Should be getting my copy soon. :)

[Misfit]

Has anyone else read this book? I'm thinking of requesting it as my "ship now" at BF because it's labelled "low" but if others didn't enjoy it, I won't bother.

SM

I put in a purchase request at King County (I believe that's your jurisdiction as well), but I still don't see them as having ordered any. Patiently waiting.

[SonjaMarie]

I put in a purchase request at King County (I believe that's your jurisdiction as well), but I still don't see them as having ordered any. Patiently waiting.

Yeah, I'm King County, but I don't use the library system here. Not sure why it's Low at BF, it came out Jan 1st, newer books usually become "medium" and then "high".

SM

[Misfit]

Yeah, I'm King County, but I don't use the library system here. Not sure why it's Low at BF, it came out Jan 1st, newer books usually become "medium" and then "high".

SM

You should give them a try, it saves a ton of money. You place your holds online and all you have to do is walk in and scan it and you're out the door.

[SonjaMarie]

You should give them a try, it saves a ton of money. You place your holds online and all you have to do is walk in and scan it and you're out the door.

Unfortunately I owe them money from books I lost years ago, and also where the library is on our island mom would have to walk too far from it to the store (we're always together when we go uptown) and it's just not worth it, so I'll stick with BF.

SM

[annis]

I just recently read Nerys Jones' "Godiva" and I have to admit that I was in two minds about it. Godiva herself is well-drawn as a character- she's a strong person in her own right under traditional Anglo-Saxon custom (http://www.hullwebs.co.uk/content/c-anglo-saxon/home-life/anglo-saxon-women.htm), and runs her own lands and affairs, though she often clashes with her husband Leofric, Earl of Mercia, (here spelt as it's pronounced, Lovric), who would prefer her to be rather more complaisant.

A large part of the story focuses on the loss of a whole way of life and tradition, already being whittled away before the invasion of William the Conqueror by Edward the Confessor. Edward , although by line of descent the rightful king of England, was brought up in Normandy and has little understanding or sympathy for the customs and rights of his English subjects.

Godiva, (Godgifu in Anglo-Saxon) though famously beautiful and a likeable person, is reaching middle-age and at odds with her husband, who plots with Earl Godwin of Wessex to overthrow the hated Norman influence taking precedence in England.. She falls for the charms of a devious hunstman- this seduction is part of a wider plot put in place by King Edward to create dissension, discredit Leofric and lessen the Earl's influence. This affair seems a little unlikely in someone of Godiva's strength of character, someone who places a high value on personal honour, but I'm being charitable and remembering that menopause can make the strongest person feel depressed and act bizarrely! Her actions lead to her being forced as a form of blackmail to undertake the legendary naked horse ride as a penance, for the sake of her family and people.

My main complaint with "Godiva" was that Edward was presented as such a total villain. Although we can accept that Edward's childhood probably left him a damaged person, he really was painted too black to ring true and to some extent this compromised the story for me. Edward seems almost to take on the role of the Trickster (Loki (http://www.octavia.net/vikings/loki.htm)in Norse mythology) His pleasure is to create discord through malice and he delights in watching others struggling to untangle themselves from the snares he's set for them. There is a general, rather simplistic "Anglo-Saxons good, Normans bad" scenario depicted throughout.
An unmistakable air of sadness and melancholic nostalgia permeates this tale set at an end-of-an-era period.

A page or two of historical notes at the back makes an interesting and useful addition. One thing the author mentions is the recent discovery of medieval glass at Coventry which depicts a beautiful fair-haired woman, thought to be a representation of Godiva.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1338227/Archaeologists-take-the-wraps-off-Lady-Godiva.html


The Historical Godiva (http://www.octavia.net/books/godgyfu/historicalgodiva.htm), an article by Octavia Randolph
All things Godiva (http://lighthousepatriotjournal.wordpress.com/2008/06/16/myth-blaster-lady-godiva)

[EC2]

I just recently read Nerys Jones' "Godiva" and I have to admit that I was in two minds about it.

Thanks for the report Annis. I think this is one I will read if it turns up at the library and then decide if I want to buy.

[Misfit]

Thanks Annis. I'm willing to give this one a whirl, and glad that the library popped for a few copies. Much easier to give up and move on when I haven't paid dearly for it :o:)

[annis]

Apart from anything else, "Godiva" (pronounced "Goodeeva", btw- I didn't know that before!) is certainly worth reading for its picture of the life of an Anglo-Saxon aristocratic household, and particularly the life of an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman. After the Norman Conquest an aristocratic woman would never again have the power and freedom of choice which Godiva exercised as of right. Under the Normans a woman might exercise power in some situations as her husband's agent, but not on her own behalf.

Many of the restrictions on women would come from the imported Norman variety of Roman Catholicism, much more rigid and dogmatic than the English Church, which was still influenced by the older, more tolerant Celtic Church that first converted the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity.

[Misfit]

My main complaint with "Godiva" was that Edward was presented as such a total villain. Although we can accept that Edward's childhood probably left him a damaged person, he really was painted too black to ring true and to some extent this compromised the story for me

I just bailed on this book and for that very reason. I am certainly not a historian of any period but the way Edward was portrayed is so completely different from Anand and Hollick's versions that I just wasn't buying into it. Not quite a wall-banger but certianly a DNF.