Welcome to the Historical Fiction Online forums: a friendly place to discuss, review and discover historical fiction.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Spain

User avatar
Margaret
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 2440
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
Location: Catskill, New York, USA
Contact:

Post by Margaret » Sat August 1st, 2009, 9:06 pm

Thanks, Jack. I still haven't read The Prisoner of Tordesillas, but did recently read Schoonover's Queen's Cross (and reviewed it here). I thought the portrayal of the homosexual King Henry of Castile, Isabella's predecessor, was a bit cartoonish, but the novel came out in 1955 when gay men and women were still firmly in the closet, so I suppose one can't be too hard on him. Otherwise, it was quite an interesting novel, which seemed well researched.

Schoonover fans might like to know that Fountain City Publishing Company (operated by one of Schoonover's relatives, I believe) is bringing out new editions of his work, beginning with Queen's Cross and Gentle Infidel.
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info

Chatterbox
Bibliophile
Posts: 1667
Joined: April 2009
Location: New York

Post by Chatterbox » Sat August 1st, 2009, 10:33 pm

Juana does appear in Crown of Aloes, I recall, also in Jean Plaidy's books -- especially Daughters of Spain (just been reissued in the big Plaidy reprint bonanza in the UK.)

There's a French book all about Juana, Un amour fou by Catherine Hermary-Vielle, who is probably the closest French equivalent to PG.

annis
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 4585
Joined: August 2008

Post by annis » Sat August 1st, 2009, 10:45 pm

Gioconda Belli, whose novel about Adam and Eve "El infinito en la palma de la mano" was recently published in English as "Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand" wrote a novel about Juana "El pergamino de la seducción" translated into English as "The Scroll of Seduction"

User avatar
Amanda
Compulsive Reader
Posts: 910
Joined: August 2008
Location: Sydney, Australia

Post by Amanda » Sun August 2nd, 2009, 9:07 am

There is also Seek the Darkness by Anne Marie Dennis (IRC) about Juana. I haven't read it, but would like to get my hands on it one day.

There is also another one that I have on my shelf, but haven''t read as yet....it is The Other Juana by Linda Carlino. She also went on to write one on Charles V, and another on Phillip II. I keep meaning to read the Juana one, but it keeps getting bumped down the TBR pile by something else that is demanding my attention!

User avatar
MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Sun August 2nd, 2009, 7:00 pm

I have Seek the Darkness. The writer goes at it with a foregone diagnosis of Schizophrenia, and the family history in both directions does tend to bear that out. But the same genes run in families with all the 'spectrum disorders' -- the latest term for this genetically linked cluster of diseases which include bipolar disease, schizophrenia, autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder and ADHD.

Juana definitely had something on that spectrum. But the book was very heavily weighted towards making the Catholic Church in Spain look much better than it was. I preferred Bethany Aram's book on Juana, which presented more documentation and less opinion.

User avatar
emr
Compulsive Reader
Posts: 840
Joined: January 2009
Location: Castilla

Post by emr » Sun August 2nd, 2009, 8:15 pm

[quote=""Margaret""]I was surprised to find relatively few novels about Ferdinand and Isabella. You'd think there would be more. Norah Lofts' Crown of Aloes is about Isabella, as is Lawrence Schoonover's Queen's Cross, which deals with the reconquest of Granada. There is also a YA novel about Isabella, Carolyn Meyer's Isabel, Jewel of Castilla. Does anyone know of any I have missed?[/quote]

I have a little list of books bookmarked although it is in Spanish. The part about Isabel and Fernando says:

Para finalizar con Castilla como no referirse a los Reyes Católicos. Isabel tiene sus novelas como Yo, Isabel la Católica de Cesar Vidal, la trilogía de Angeles de Irisarri con Isabel la reina, probablemente el mejor sobre ella, Isabel la Católica de Cristina Hernando, Isabel la Católica, confesion de una reina de Aarón Yanko. Sobre su infancia Una doncella de Castilla de Angel G. las Navas. En su torno el juvenil La dama de la reina de Cesar Vidal.
Sobre su enemiga la Beltraneja tenemos Yo, Juana la Beltraneja. La reina traicionada de Miguel Carrillo de Albornoz y La Beltraneja de Almudena de Arteaga, regular nada mas.
Sobre Fernando el Catolico tenemos Las mujeres del rey católico de Vizcaino Casas, entretenido, Yo, Fernando de Aragón, el único rey de las Españas de Manuel Ayllón y Yo, Fernando el Católico de Vaca de Osma.
Sobre ambos Fernando e Isabel de Hermann Kesten, bueno, y la trilogía romántica de Jean Plaidy Los Reyes Católicos.
En esta época se encuadran Conjuro para la eternidad de Javier Gimeno sobre un auto de fe en la Valencia del momento y La abadesa de Toti Mtez. de Lezea sobre una hija ilegitima del rey católico. El sitio de Granada se toca en El mercenario de Granada de Eslava Galán.


I can translate if you feel lost lol
This is the original link:
http://www.abretelibro.com/foro/viewtop ... =3&t=28953

I've been very recommended La Abadesa (The Abbess) by Toti Martinez de Lezea. Maybe one of these days I can catch up...

User avatar
Jack
Reader
Posts: 80
Joined: September 2008
Location: California

Post by Jack » Mon August 3rd, 2009, 4:52 pm

[quote=""Margaret""]Thanks, Jack. I still haven't read The Prisoner of Tordesillas, but did recently read Schoonover's Queen's Cross (and reviewed it here). I thought the portrayal of the homosexual King Henry of Castile, Isabella's predecessor, was a bit cartoonish, but the novel came out in 1955 when gay men and women were still firmly in the closet, so I suppose one can't be too hard on him. Otherwise, it was quite an interesting novel, which seemed well researched.

Schoonover fans might like to know that Fountain City Publishing Company (operated by one of Schoonover's relatives, I believe) is bringing out new editions of his work, beginning with Queen's Cross and Gentle Infidel.[/quote]


Margaret, I appreciate the head's up on the republishing. I can't immagine two more different books by an author, and the fact that they're starting with those two probably means they want both the romance and HF audiences. I MUCH preferred Gentle Infidel of the two. Hopefully they'll follow up with THE CHANCELLOR and THE SPIDER KING.
Jack

Alex Worthy
Scribbler
Posts: 27
Joined: September 2008

Post by Alex Worthy » Mon August 3rd, 2009, 8:06 pm

In my local used bookstore "Free" box I picked up "The unquenchable Flame; a Story of Phillip II" by Marguerite Eyerwilbur witten in 1952. Couldn't find anything on Amazon about the book. Is this familiar to any body?

annis
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 4585
Joined: August 2008

Post by annis » Mon August 3rd, 2009, 8:26 pm

The Insane Bookseller wasn't too impressed with this book, which is listed as non-fiction biography :)
He says:

UNQUENCHABLE FLAME, The: Life of Philip 2nd (of Spain). By Marguerite Eyer Wilbur. It IS history but one of those books that includes long sections of conversation from who-knows-where? Some authors seem to tap a secret source of recordings of such conversations! Was tape recording invented that far back? Reads more like a novel than history, e.g. it starts: 'An aged woman emerged from a cave high in the mountains . . .' and the noonday sun strikes her (the author even knows it was noon) and so on. Do I really want to sell this book? My customers must wonder. Sorry, just can't help myself. I think people should write either fiction or fact but not mix them up!!! I cannot bring myself to ask for this histoire pauvre more than . . .

Full articleby Mark Owen, alias the Insane Bookseller--
Last edited by annis on Mon August 3rd, 2009, 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Alex Worthy
Scribbler
Posts: 27
Joined: September 2008

Post by Alex Worthy » Mon August 3rd, 2009, 8:41 pm

Thanks, Annis. I'm glad it was free.

Post Reply

Return to “By Country/Continent”