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Eleanor of Aquitaine

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Tue August 25th, 2009, 1:02 pm

[quote=""SonjaMarie""]So has anyone read "Beloved Enemy" by Ellen Jones? I can't tell if it was that book that had a ewww scene with her uncle or a different one, if it's this one, then no thanks!

SM[/quote]

I did a couple of years ago and I believe that's the one with the scene with her uncle. I'd call the two books a bit on the fanciful side.
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SonjaMarie
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Post by SonjaMarie » Tue August 25th, 2009, 6:44 pm

[quote=""Misfit""]I did a couple of years ago and I believe that's the one with the scene with her uncle. I'd call the two books a bit on the fanciful side.[/quote]

Ok, thanks! EWWWW! I prefer to avoid anything that has incest in it if I can!

SM
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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Tue August 25th, 2009, 6:47 pm

[quote=""SonjaMarie""]Ok, thanks! EWWWW! I prefer to avoid anything that has incest in it if I can!

SM[/quote]

Better stay away from the author thread on Alan Savage then. I will be getting back to his book on Eleanor soon and it puts this one in the dust tacky wise.
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SonjaMarie
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Post by SonjaMarie » Tue August 25th, 2009, 6:49 pm

[quote=""Misfit""]Better stay away from the author thread on Alan Savage then. I will be getting back to his book on Eleanor soon and it puts this one in the dust tacky wise.[/quote]

Thanks for the warning!

SM
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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Tue August 25th, 2009, 6:55 pm

Yeah but you're missing the laughs. It's unintentionally funny and the only reason I bought it.
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Post by Chatterbox » Tue August 25th, 2009, 8:25 pm

SM, Yes, I've read it, and yes, I think you're right about the 'ewww' scene with uncle. I just skipped right over it, however. Not a great book, but not a downright bad one. SKP still has the best fictional portrayal of Eleanor, IMO.

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Post by cw gortner » Tue August 25th, 2009, 10:28 pm

Has anyone else here read Margaret Ball's book on Eleanor? It came out to little fanfare but I really enjoyed it. She's a bit fey in it; it has some marvelous descriptive passages, too. It's called Duchess of Aquitaine. Eleanor, I believe, is not an easy character to write well. Like Anne Boleyn, she has tons of mythological baggage and readers have come to "see" her in a certain way. But Margaret Ball did something interesting and different with her that still stayed within the realm of historical possibility.

I thought it was sad to see how that book just faded away, especially as I heard that the publisher took almost eight years after the ms. was delivered to actually publish it :eek: . You can find copies at BookCloseouts.com
THE QUEEN'S VOW available on June 12, 2012!
THE TUDOR SECRET, Book I in the Elizabeth I Spymaster Chronicles
THE CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE DE MEDICI
THE LAST QUEEN


www.cwgortner.com

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Tue August 25th, 2009, 10:39 pm

I had had that one my to read list a while ago and not sure why I'd forgotten it and/or dropped it. Library has several copies (and all checked out so someone is reading it).
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Post by Chatterbox » Wed August 26th, 2009, 12:39 am

CW, just went to Amazon & it's Kindle-able -- so I now own it again! I think I got bogged down last time by some new-agey dance, but will give it another shot.

Shame that Norah Lofts did such a half-a**ed job of her book about Eleanor.

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Post by Ariadne » Wed August 26th, 2009, 2:24 am

I really enjoyed Duchess of Aquitaine (and think I remember our discussing it a while back, CW). It's set wholly in Aquitaine and France and focuses on her younger years, a place and period not often touched upon. Now that Eleanor is set to become the It Girl of historical fiction in the first half of 2010 (there are, I believe, at least four novels about her set to appear then, including a reissue of the Lofts!) perhaps this slightly older novel about her will get some long overdue attention.

The cover art was a painting done by a noted artist in the fantasy field, one whose work is recognizable to fans of that genre. I think it's gorgeous, but it may not have worked well for historical fiction fans. The novel has a mythical bent, but it's not fantasy.

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