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In search of Henrys IV, V and VI

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princess garnet
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Post by princess garnet » Mon October 5th, 2009, 1:24 am

[quote=""Chatterbox""]

Jean Plaidy has a few books in her Plantagenet series devoted to this era. Epitaph for Three Women deals with Henry VI's minority, then Red Rose of Anjou with Margaret of Anjou. The STar of Lancaster deals with Henry IV. I"m not aware of any book that deals directly with Henry VI (a hard subject, let's face it), other than one for children by Hilda Lewis, Here Comes Harry. [/quote]

Does Plaidy's The Queen's Secret count too? Each of these Henrys appear in the novel.

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Nefret
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Post by Nefret » Mon October 5th, 2009, 2:41 am

[quote=""princess garnet""]Does Plaidy's The Queen's Secret count too? Each of these Henrys appear in the novel.[/quote]

I was going to say that. Suppose it does, even though it's really about Queen Catherine.

Juliet Barker has a non fiction book about Henry V and Agincourt.

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diamondlil
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Post by diamondlil » Tue October 6th, 2009, 9:49 am

Thanks everyone!
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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Tue November 9th, 2010, 6:45 am

Just finished reading Edith Pargeter's A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury, and highly recommend it (see review). There are really four main characters: Prince Hal (the future Henry V), Henry "Hotspur" Percy, Henry IV, and a fictional Welsh woman. They're all beautifully drawn characters, each very different, and all but Henry IV have deeply admirable qualities - something that seems a bit out of style in fiction lately, and I miss it - but who come into conflict nonetheless. Henry IV is not so admirable, but he's a sympathetic character even so.

The opening chapter put me off, and I set the book aside for a couple of weeks, but picked it up again, and I'm very glad I did. By chapter 2, I was absorbed, and the novel never lost steam for me again. Pargeter spends several paragraphs on each of several major characters at the very beginning, doing descriptive character sketches, which kept the story from getting off the ground as quickly as it might have. I like Pargeter's introductory character sketches (there's an absolutely brilliant one of Ralf d'Isambard in The Heaven Tree), but to have so many piled on top of each other at once was a little too much for me. If it's a flaw, though, it's one of very few in the novel.
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Post by annis » Tue November 9th, 2010, 8:09 am

Funny, I thought I'd mentioned this novel here before as being the book of the three Henries, but it must have been somewhere else. I'm pleased to see that it has been reissued - it's a small but intense and poignant novel and as you say, Pargeter excels with characterization and motivation. I agree with you about her ability to create word portraits - I always see Ralf d'isambard in terms of one of those sombre yet glowing Renaissance paintings.
Last edited by annis on Tue November 9th, 2010, 5:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Wed November 10th, 2010, 12:18 am

sombre yet glowing
Perfect.

And it said I have to lengthen my message to at least 10 characters, so that's what I'm doing.
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