A review by straaawbs
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
5.0
This book is all the proof you could need that historical novelists do not need to resort to changing details and messing with the history in order to tell a compelling story - the actual facts of what happened are fascinating enough. I just watched The White Queen, which perfectly illustrates that point with its scores of historical inaccuracies. They should instead have made a tv series based on The Sunne in Splendour I think! I hope they do.
If you find the Wars of the Roses confusing, read this book and all will become clear. This is not just the story of Richard III, but also his older brother, Edward IV. Richard doesn't even become king until about page 900 of my 1240 page edition. The story is told from a variety of different viewpoints. In fact, the POV often shifts multiple times within a chapter, which in retrospect was a wise choice when you're dealing with so many characters, and means the action is not limited by the need to follow only one character. This is ultimately a very sympathetic portrayal of Richard III, which I still think strikes closer to the mark than the first book I read about him (The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir...).
As Penman notes in her afterword, she tried as far as possible to correlate the events in the novel with contemporary sources, trying to convey people, places, and dates as accurately as she could. Although a couple of minor characters are fictional and a couple of locations have been changed, this book is a feat in historical accuracy. Of course, characters' motives often have to be conjectured - how did Richard react to the execution of Henry VI, for instance? Why was George of Clarence executed? Did Richard have a thing for his niece? Most significantly, what happened to the Princes in the Tower? Penman's interpretation of their disappearance is one of several theories posited by historians, and we'll likely never know the true answer.
My favourite part of the book were the battle scenes! The battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury especially were compelling, as was the final battle at Redmore Plain (Bosworth), with a Richard who feels he has nothing left to lose making a courageous (yet foolhardy) cavalry charge toward Henry Tudor. Richard needn't have died that day, but we come to understand, in light of the last year of his life, why he did.
This book is a feat of historical literature, with well-written characters with all-too-realistic failings and motives. It does often veer toward an overly saintly portrayal of Richard, but without contradicting contemporary sources. Richard's honour, it seems, must come at the Woodvilles' expense. They were an ambitious family and we know that they deliberately neglected to inform Richard, who was still in the north, of his brother's death in order to try to limit Richard's powers as Protector. Their actions clearly came from self-interest, as they needed control of the boy king to remain in power. However, it wasn't until very near the end that I had any stirrings of sympathy for Elizabeth Woodville, and I would like to see a more balanced portrait of her.
Female characters had good representation here. It was the nature of the times that women had little involvement in matters political and I occasionally found myself getting a little antsy that important events would be skimmed over in favour of Anne Neville's perspective, but I felt the author managed this balance well. However, the book could perhaps have benefited from a couple less chapters in 1471, and a couple more during Richard's reign.
This book was, on the whole, wonderful and I will definitely come back to re-read it. I think it's exemplary in how historical fiction should be executed - by taking real events and real people, staying true to the events of the times, and using the fiction to bring them to life.
(A few other reviewers have filed this as a book about the Tudors? Let's make clear that, although knowledge of the Wars of the Roses and Richard III's reign is vital in understanding the rise of the Tudor dynasty, this book is not about the Tudors! These guys were Plantagenets.)
If you find the Wars of the Roses confusing, read this book and all will become clear. This is not just the story of Richard III, but also his older brother, Edward IV. Richard doesn't even become king until about page 900 of my 1240 page edition. The story is told from a variety of different viewpoints. In fact, the POV often shifts multiple times within a chapter, which in retrospect was a wise choice when you're dealing with so many characters, and means the action is not limited by the need to follow only one character. This is ultimately a very sympathetic portrayal of Richard III, which I still think strikes closer to the mark than the first book I read about him (The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir...).
As Penman notes in her afterword, she tried as far as possible to correlate the events in the novel with contemporary sources, trying to convey people, places, and dates as accurately as she could. Although a couple of minor characters are fictional and a couple of locations have been changed, this book is a feat in historical accuracy. Of course, characters' motives often have to be conjectured - how did Richard react to the execution of Henry VI, for instance? Why was George of Clarence executed? Did Richard have a thing for his niece? Most significantly, what happened to the Princes in the Tower? Penman's interpretation of their disappearance is one of several theories posited by historians, and we'll likely never know the true answer.
My favourite part of the book were the battle scenes! The battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury especially were compelling, as was the final battle at Redmore Plain (Bosworth), with a Richard who feels he has nothing left to lose making a courageous (yet foolhardy) cavalry charge toward Henry Tudor. Richard needn't have died that day, but we come to understand, in light of the last year of his life, why he did.
This book is a feat of historical literature, with well-written characters with all-too-realistic failings and motives. It does often veer toward an overly saintly portrayal of Richard, but without contradicting contemporary sources. Richard's honour, it seems, must come at the Woodvilles' expense. They were an ambitious family and we know that they deliberately neglected to inform Richard, who was still in the north, of his brother's death in order to try to limit Richard's powers as Protector. Their actions clearly came from self-interest, as they needed control of the boy king to remain in power. However, it wasn't until very near the end that I had any stirrings of sympathy for Elizabeth Woodville, and I would like to see a more balanced portrait of her.
Female characters had good representation here. It was the nature of the times that women had little involvement in matters political and I occasionally found myself getting a little antsy that important events would be skimmed over in favour of Anne Neville's perspective, but I felt the author managed this balance well. However, the book could perhaps have benefited from a couple less chapters in 1471, and a couple more during Richard's reign.
This book was, on the whole, wonderful and I will definitely come back to re-read it. I think it's exemplary in how historical fiction should be executed - by taking real events and real people, staying true to the events of the times, and using the fiction to bring them to life.
(A few other reviewers have filed this as a book about the Tudors? Let's make clear that, although knowledge of the Wars of the Roses and Richard III's reign is vital in understanding the rise of the Tudor dynasty, this book is not about the Tudors! These guys were Plantagenets.)