Category: Historical Fiction

  • REVIEW of The Canterbury Papers, by Judith Koll Healey

    “This plot is ridiculous.” I was about a third of the way through The Canterbury Papers when I uttered those critical words to my husband. Eleanor of Aquitaine wanted Alais, the French princess who used to be betrothed to her son Richard, to travel to Canterbury and obtain some secret letters hidden in the altar…

  • REVIEW of World without End, by Ken Follett

    When I posted about Ken Follett’s historical novel The Pillars of the Earth a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I would soon be reading World without End, the sequel set in fourteenth century England. World without End is set in the same fictional medieval town of Kingsbridge, and although the main characters are all…

  • REVIEW of The Plantagenet Prelude, by Jean Plaidy

    I’ve heard very mixed reviews about Jean Plaidy and her historical novels. Some claim that she is their favorite historical fiction author EVER. Some complain that she is a terrible writer. Jean Plaidy (real name Eleanor Hibbert) was an extremely prolific author who published scores of books throughout the second half of the twentieth century.…

  • REVIEW of The Red Queen, by Philippa Gregory

    If you’ve ever read or seen Alice in Wonderland, you might be suspecting that The Red Queen is not such a promising nickname. You’d be right. In this historical novel by Philippa Gregory, the title refers to Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry Tudor who spends her life plotting to put her son on the…

  • REVIEW of The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett

    My days of reading very long books are fewer and farther between than they used to be, but maybe it’s that infrequency which makes it even more satisfying to finally finish one. For the last couple weeks I’ve been working my way through Ken Follett’s novel The Pillars of the Earth. This 1000 page pageant…

  • REVIEW of Devil Water, by Anya Seton

    My favorite historical fiction blog, Historical Tapestry, featured books by Anya Seton last month. Since I greatly enjoyed Seton’s book Katherine several months ago, I decided to join in the wild rumpus and read another of her books. Devil Water is set during the Jacobite Rebellion of the early eighteenth century. In case your historical…

  • REVIEW of The Swan Thieves, by Elizabeth Kostova

    Most of the books I purchase are by authors who died a century ago, and I rarely have the desire to leaf through a contemporary bestseller. But when it comes to Elizabeth Kostova, my chronological snobbery goes out the window. She is a contemporary author who is well worth the read. I first encountered Kostova…

  • REVIEW of Regency Buck, by Georgette Heyer

    Once upon a time, back when I was in college, a friend recommended that I read Georgette Heyer’s novels. I picked up my first one, The Grand Sophy, and devoured it. Then I was on to Fredrica and Cotillion and Bath Tangle. My enjoyment of Heyer’s books left me feeling a little guilty at first.…

  • REVIEW of What’s Bred in the Bone, by Robertson Davies

    Francis Cornish, the wealthy Canadian art collector, is dead. But what kind of man was he? And what should his posthumous biography tell the waiting world? Neither his nephew Arthur nor the biographer Darcourt are entirely sure. Heaven only knows who Francis Cornish really was, and so it is heaven that provides the reader with…

  • REVIEW of Grendel, by John Gardner

    “I touch the door with my fingertips and it bursts, for all its fire-forged bands–it jumps away like a terrified deer–and I plunge into the silent, hearth-lit hall with a laugh that I wouldn’t much care to wake up to myself…. I am swollen with excitement, bloodlust and joy and a strange fear that mingle…