Hilary Mantel has never “written the same book twice,” a writer of literary fiction who is so versatile and original that she defies genre. Though this novel is a thorough and detailed look at the British court and its players from 1529 – 1535, it is so different from the traditional “historical novel” in its themes, massive scope, detailed character development, careful research, and lack of romance that it becomes its own genre, closer to fictionalized biography than to the blood and thunder bodice-rippers that sometimes characterize “historical fiction.” This novel is realistic, with no compromises of actual history for the sake of story, but it succeeds in being lively, often humorous, filled with exciting scenes, and peopled with fascinating characters from Henry VIII to Sir Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell.
Read Full Post »
The relationship between the sexes over time and across civilizations is a unifying theme of this broad historical novel and philosophical exploration of the role of the individual within his society. Opening in the court of Akbar the Great, head of the Mughal Empire, Salman Rushdie’s latest novel moves back and forth between Mughal India, the Florence of the Medicis, and the Turkish court of the Ottoman Empire. Eventually, his characters even look toward a new land, recently discovered and named by Amerigo Vespucci, a cousin of one of the main characters. Though the novel is complex in its structure and sometimes challenging with its swirling time frame, Rushdie keeps his tone relatively playful, filling the novel with the fantastic, even as he is also depicting violent battles, internecine intrigues, and bloodshed. As always, his prose style is breath-taking, and the questions he raises are thought-provoking.
Read Full Post »
Posted in 16th century, Germany, Netherlands on Jun 6th, 2009
Martin Luther set the Reformation in motion when he nailed his 95 theses to the door of the prince bishop’s church in 1517, questioning the sale of indulgences and the venality of the Holy See, but a mysterious Anabaptist follower of Thomas Muntzer believes that Luther eventually lost his connection with the people by becoming too close to the princes, from whom he accepts protection. The early years of the Reformation were among the most turbulent years in the history of western thought, and author Luther Blissett* has chosen to focus this novel of ideas on that vibrant period. With the narrative switching from 1555 to 1517 and from 1538 to 1527 and back, the reader must work to create his/her own timeline, though the events within each time period are clear. Filled with exciting, hair’s-breadth escapes from disaster, fascinating and memorable depictions of (real) historical characters, insightfully presented intellectual conflicts, and new events in new places coming fast and furiously for over seven hundred pages, the novel is a rewarding adventure for the reader with a serious interest in the Reformation.
Read Full Post »
In his masterful portrayal of Michelangelo’s four-year effort to fill the 12,000 square foot, vaulted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with new frescoes for Pope Julius II, a commission Michelangelo had tried to avoid, Ross King examines and places in context the known details of Michelangelo’s life, the images he includes in the frescoes, and his relationship with Pope Julius II, called the “terrifying Pope,” a man who is thought, ironically, to have been much like Michelangelo himself in personality. This was a tumultuous and monumental era artistically, one in which Pope Julius II tore down the existing St. Peter’s Basilica and started a completely new cathedral, created new papal apartments and a library, planned an immense tomb for himself, and determined to have the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel frescoed in a way which would confer even greater status upon himself and the church.
Read Full Post »
Posted in 16th century, England, Imagined Time on May 31st, 2009
Groaning under Spanish rule for ten years, ever since England failed to defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588, the London citizens in this alternative history must endure the Inquisition, the imprisonment of their unfortunate Queen Elizabeth in the Tower of London, the threats of Irish barbarians hired as thugs and enforcers by the Spanish occupiers, and the country’s constant sense of uncertainty, born of religious and political turmoil. To the rescue comes William Shakespeare.
Read Full Post »
