Lady of the Butterflies by Fiona Mountain

Title: Lady of the Butterflies
Author: Fiona Mountain
ISBN:9781848091641
Publisher: Preface Publishing, 2009
Trade Paperback, 516 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: B-
Source: Purchased from The Poisoned Pen.

First Line: They say I am mad and perhaps it's true.


Eleanor Glanville's father fought with Cromwell in the English Civil War. Although she had a stern Puritan upbringing, her father also educated her in the sciences-- a very rare occurrence in the seventeenth century. The estate upon which she grew up was mostly marshland in Somerset, and Eleanor always craved to be outdoors. This craving ultimately led to her love of and obsession with butterflies.

Through two marriages and four children, she became one of the world's foremost lepidopterists (authorities on butterflies). Do we know her name? No. Do we know that she's responsible for naming several species of butterflies? No. Why? Because her second husband and her children were people of their time who said she was mad and called her a witch. Mad people are not remembered. Witches are forgotten.

That is, until Fiona Mountain spent three years researching Eleanor Glanville in order to tell her remarkable story. No known portrait of Eleanor exists, but I feel as if I know her after listening to her telling me her story.

At 516 pages, I feel that the story could have been told in many less. For me, the weakest part of the story was Eleanor's childbearing years where she spent almost every waking minute trying to please husband and children or, when a widow, trying not to lust after the man she really loved.

The book did come to life when Eleanor was a child discovering the wildlife in the marshes and learning how important it was to protect the land as it was for the butterflies she loved. I also loved the sections when she met and corresponded with James Petiver, a fellow lepidopterist. Their passion for butterflies fueled their thirst for knowledge and discovery. One scene in particular will stay with me for a long time: a maid walking into a room to discover Eleanor and one of her children with dozens of butterflies floating in the sun-filled space.

Anyone who enjoys historical fiction with a scientific angle about an amazing woman whose life's story was almost lost should enjoy Lady of the Butterflies.

The Tudor Rose by Margaret Campbell Barnes

Title: The Tudor Rose, A Novel of Elizabeth of York
Author: Margaret Campbell Barnes
ISBN: 9781402224683, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2009
Contains Reading Group Guide
Genre: UK Historical Fiction
Rating: C+

First Line: A long-drawn sigh of feminine ecstasy filled the room as the white velvet was lifted from its wrappings.

Not long ago, I read Philippa Gregory's tale of Elizabeth Woodville in The White Queen, so it's fitting that I now follow that up with the life of her daughter, Elizabeth of York, the first Tudor queen.

Margaret Campbell Barnes turns out a well-written workmanlike tale, beginning with the young Elizabeth, newly betrothed to the Dauphin of France, taking the first look at her wedding clothes. The duplicitous French change their minds about the marriage, and the next few years have Elizabeth acting as a buffer between her siblings and their highly emotional mother.

When Elizabeth's beloved father, Edward IV, dies, her education truly begins. With Edward's brother, Richard, on the throne, the young girl learns just what people are capable of when the pursuit of power is involved. She loathes Richard, blames him for all her family's misfortune, and offers herself in marriage to Henry Tudor. Elizabeth of York wants revenge.

However, she's also a young female who yearns for love in her marriage. Unfortunately she finds none with Henry. Henry has had to live cautiously his entire life and now that he's on the throne, he intends to stay there. He carefully studies each gesture, each move, to make sure it's carried out to its greatest effect. He watches every penny in an effort to rebuild the depleted treasury. Marriage to Elizabeth, in Henry's practical mind, is nothing but a business transaction. As the years pass, Elizabeth learns what her husband is capable of in the pursuit of power.

Elizabeth's life is all there: from her days as a young girl, through her marriage, her coronation, and her motherhood. For me, the book didn't start picking up steam until the last third of the book when Barnes let me know what she thought happened to Elizabeth's brothers, the Princes in the Tower. It's almost as if Elizabeth spent so much of her life guarding her thoughts and her reactions that it stripped most of the color from her life's story. The end result is a book that's good but not great.

I've become a fan of Margaret Campbell Barnes' historical fiction, but The Tudor Rose was just a bit too bland for me. One Barnes' novel that I can recommend whole-heartedly is King's Fool which deals with Elizabeth of York's son, Henry VIII. What a contrast! Unlike his mother, I don't think Henry VIII ever had a guarded thought or desire his entire life!


*Review copy provided by Sourcebooks Landmark.

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

Title: The White Queen
Author: Philippa Gregory
ISBN: 9781847374561, Simon & Schuster UK Ltd., 2009
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: A

First Line: My father is Sir Richard Woodville, Baron Rivers, an English nobleman, a landholder and a supporter of the true kings of England, the Lancastrian line.

This is the first entry in a new historical series by Gregory centering on the English War of the Roses. My "history" with Philippa Gregory has been a bit uneven. Some of her novels I've enjoyed a great deal, others didn't do much for me. I am not a purist when it comes to reading historical fiction. I always pick up a book in this genre believing that the story will take precedence over the history. As long as there are no glaring errors that throw me out of the story, I am content.

What really makes the world go round? No matter how much we may sing about it or want it, it's certainly not love. No, what makes the world go round are greedy, grasping individuals/families/clans whose thoughts seldom rise from the rut of "I, Me, Mine". A case in point is The White Queen. Gregory tells us of the world as seen through the eyes of Elizabeth Woodville, a young widow whose beauty captivated King Edward IV. As you read, never once forget that Elizabeth's view of her world is a distorted one.

Did you read the first sentence of the book above? From the very first, Elizabeth is shown as a woman who is supremely concerned with position and wealth. When she stood out in the road to wait for the king to ride by, she was merely wanting her husband's lands restored so she wouldn't have to live on the charity of others. When she saw the look on Edward's face, she immediately knew that, if she played her cards right, she might very well obtain a lot more.

Does it sound like I didn't like Elizabeth? It should, because I didn't. When she becomes Queen of England, she and her mother busy themselves giving everyone in the family important positions and power. That's the way it's always been done. They laugh when they marry off young male relatives to old wealthy widows so that they can inherit vast estates and further the family's ambitions. Never once did they seem to think that this behavior would have any repercussions.

When sending her three-year-old son to Wales (the Tudor stronghold), Elizabeth appoints her brother Anthony as the boy's chief advisor. What are her first words about this to her brother? Are they about keeping her little boy safe? Are they about his education, his diet, his happiness? No. "Anthony, there is much profit to be won from Wales." It is to Anthony's credit that, when he accepts the position, he speaks of the little boy and his well-being.

At her husband's death bed, Elizabeth's thoughts are not on losing Edward, but the best way to get her choice as Lord Protector of England accepted.

She calls herself a realist and her brother, Anthony, a dreamer, but Anthony is the one who sees the truth in the court of Elizabeth and Edward. Anthony is the character that I like in this book. He says the symbol of the House of York should not be the white rose, but the old sign of eternity-- the snake eating itself. "They are a house which has to have blood and they will shed their own if they have no other enemy."

Given that I've already admitted to not liking the main character, you'll be forgiven if you think I didn't like the book. But if you saw my rating at the top, you know that's not so. I don't have to like the main character to enjoy the book. All I ask is that the main character is multi-faceted and interesting. Elizabeth is certainly both those things. She is strong-willed, knows exactly what she wants, and grabs for it with both hands-- ultimately bringing disaster down upon her entire family.

There has been talk of Elizabeth and her mother, Jacquetta, using magic several times in the book. Gregory walked a very fine line throughout but in the end, she didn't overplay the magic for me. What did irritate me was the habit Elizabeth had of always referring to the sons of her first marriage as her "Grey sons". But a woman as conscious of wealth, power and position as she would do that. After all, those boys weren't as important as her sons by the King of England-- the Princes in the Tower.

This is a very strong start to Gregory's new series. I certainly look forward to reading the other books as they are published.


*Advance Reader's Copy supplied by Simon & Schuster UK.

Review-- King's Fool

Title: King's Fool: A Notorious King, His Six Wives, and the One Man Who Knew Their Secrets
Author: Margaret Campbell Barnes
ISBN: 9781402219023/ Sourcebooks, Inc., 2009
Genre: Historical Fiction, ARC
Rating: A

First Line: I was Shropshire born, essentially a country lad, brought up to take my place among the new middle class which Tudor rule begat.

Thus begins the brilliant tale of Will Somers, King Henry VIII's court jester. First published in 1959 by renowned historical novelist Margaret Campbell Barnes, I wondered why on earth I'd never heard of her before. This is a remarkable insider tale of the Tudor court, told by "a common man" who little thought that saying yes to King Henry would give him a front-row seat to history.

Will Somers arrives at court and learns to care deeply for Queen Catherine and Princess Mary before the besotted Henry decides to divorce his wife and marry Anne Boleyn. It is a sign of Somers' intelligence that he knows how to go with the flow and keep his opinions to himself. As a result, he lives to see Elizabeth on the throne, artists include him in paintings with the king, and Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth both leave him annuities. Not bad for a Shropshire lad!

It would be easy to say that Somers' greatest gifts lay with his humor and wit, but after reading King's Fool, I would say that his forbearance and forgiveness outweighed them:

I found myself slipping into his mind, though it was so utterly different from my own. Almost tenderly, I picked up the bedgown which had fallen to the floor and draped it welcomingly across his chair before the fire. Memories and disgusts of the last few turbulent years receded, and for some reason or other I found myself smiling at the recollection of my Uncle Tobias's comic visit to Court, and of Henry's kindness to him.

Not only do the characters come to life in this book, it is so filled with historical detail that I felt as though Somers was not the only person with a front-row seat to history. I have read dozens of books on Tudor England, both fiction and non-fiction. I rank King's Fool among the very best of them. I still can't believe that I'd never heard of Margaret Campbell Barnes, and I certainly will be looking for her other titles.

A big Thank You to publicist Danielle Jackson of Sourcebooks, Inc. for this review copy. She's just added more books to my wish list!

Other reviews of this book:
Kylee
Lilly
Jen
Michele
Amy
Lana

REVIEW: These Three Remain

Title: These Three Remain
Author: Pamela Aidan
ISBN: 9780743291378/ Touchstone
Historical Fiction, #3 in a trilogy
Rating: A-

First Line: "Heigh-up, there!" James the coachman's voice rang out in its familiar timbre, urging the team pulling Darcy's traveling coach to put to in their harnesses and take them through the tollgate out of London and on to the road to Kent.

Pride and Prejudice is one of my all-time favorite books, so I tend to look very skeptically at any "fan fiction", no matter the author or publisher. For some reason, Aidan's trilogy intrigued me enough to sample the first book in the trilogy, An Assembly Such As This, which begins the Pride and Prejudice tale from Darcy's viewpoint. I was hooked and soon had read the second, Duty and Desire. Although not as strong as the first, I could not leave the trilogy unfinished.

These Three Remain picks up the story at the time Elizabeth visits the Collins, and Darcy visits his aunt, Lady Catherine de Burgh. After that long period of time in Duty and Desire when the two didn't see each other, this third book in the trilogy rebounds solidly and is just as strong and satisfying as the first.

Aidan does an excellent job with the language of the time, which isn't as easy as it may appear. Aidan's writing sounds like Austen without being a slavish imitation, and yet it still flows smoothly to the modern ear. The characters she introduces to the story are well-drawn and just as interesting as the familiar ones we know and love from the original. The very first time I read Pride and Prejudice, I remember thinking, "What did Darcy think about all of this?" Aidan satisfies my curiosity in fine style, working through all of his reactions to Elizabeth's resounding refusal of his proposal to how he decided to change his character and win fair lady.

If, like me, you've been hesitant to read follow-ups to Pride and Prejudice, I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised with Pamela Aidan's trilogy.