Thomas B. CostainCritiques

Review from my 14 year old:

The Mississippi Bubble talks about how France got a new bank ;The Mississippi Company, and offered shares in the company. Stock prices rose. And fell.

The other part of the story talks about the starting of New Orleans.

Good for illustrating the importance of paper money backed by good.

I really enjoyed almost all of the stories in this collection. The different writing style were very interesting. Several were from much older timeframes than I normally encounter. I found some new authors to read and I'm sure I will be re-reading a few of the stories.

On the day after the battle of Waterloo, a number of people set up a fund, the interest on the principle being shared among the surviving investors. This device allows Costain to explore nineteenth century society and indulge in a variety of novelistic sub-genres. It was low sress to write, and gave the author a chance to show his skill level. I don't recall it as being particularly striking to an adolescent living on the canadian prairies.

The books of Thomas B. Costain, were a rare success in the USa by a Canadian Writer. This is the story of the chief financial minister of Charles VII, the King of France (r. 1422 - 1461), Jacques Coeur 1395? - 1456. Coeur was a merchant on the multi national level in the Meditteranean. He who amassed so great a fortune that he had it confiscated by the French rown. costain plays up Coeur's relationship with Agnes Sorel, the mistress of the French King Charles VII, who was aided by Joan of Arc. The love story is conventional, but as Jacques was convicted of poisoning that lady by slanderers, rather fanciful.½

A decent story that concerns Attila the Hun, the declining Roman Empire and certain tribes that had been subjugated by the conqueror - centered on a man taken prisoner by the Romans, who escapes and goes into service for Attila - there is a lackluster love interest - nothing too compelling - his "The Black Rose" is a much better read.½

2021 reread via Kindle book from OCLN:
Just as good as I had remembered - I had forgotten most of the details of Costain's 4 book history of the Plantagenets but the wonderful way that he wrote stuck with me. This first book covers Henry II, Richard I (the Lionhearted) & John - the 3 Angevin kings.

FROM AMAZON: Spanning 60+ years, beginning on the day Waterloo was won, it is a multigenerational story of 3 families during the Industrial Revolution. Lots of detailed descriptions of life among the varied social classes, it has been likened to stories by Dickens. It’s a very good historical fiction.
A tontine is a life insurance scheme, stratified by age. Enrollees received payouts after an initial growth period, the amounts determined by the number of living recipients. Over time, as participants died, the payouts became more and more substantial. Towards the end, when the recipients became a mere handful, all sorts of betting occurred in the general populace on who would be the last survivor.

FROM GOODREADS: Tontine is a form of gambling - part lottery, part insurance. It begins with the Day the Battle of Waterloo was fought and ends at the closing of the 19th Century. Its cast includes Actors, Kings, Sailors, Artists, etc. It is filled with romance.

Read long ago and still remember how great it was.

FROM AMAZON: Basil of Antioch, a young and skilled artisan freed from slavery, braves the perils of Christian persecution, the sorcery of the infamous Simon the Magician, and even the ire of Roman Emperor Nero, while diverted by the charms of two beautiful women, one good and one evil... How does he come in touch with THE SILVER CHALICE? This is the great and moving epic of the Cup of the Last Supper from which Jesus drank on the eve of his betrayal and the artist who made it...

The last volume in Costain's tour of the dynasty that ruled England's High Middle ages proves as readable as the others. While not in the forefront of current biography efforts, the main facts can be easily adsorbed. This volume covers the period following from Henry IV's usurpation to the final days following the batttle of Bosworth. He has several good words to say about Richard III, which was a rarity at the time of publication.

I read it when I was a teenager and liked it.

Thought this was fiction when I picked it up. Instead, it's a history of the Plantagenet family that ruled England until the Henry Tudor defeated Richard III. The author draws on contemporary as well as current sources to follow the succession, and to show how some of the "facts" (eg: the Princes were murdered in the Tower) recorded by the Tudor followers were lies to keep them on the throne.

Though a little dry in places, it's a book well worth reading if you're interested in this time period.

I read it when I was a teenager and liked it.

A selection of the best short novels by one of the major novelists of the twentieth century, this compilation has much to entertain the serious reader. The selections represent some of my favorite authors and include both works that I have read previously and that are new to me. However, they all are works that I want to read and reread.

YLJDESSF

Thomas Costain was a Canadian Writer, and decided to write a history of the highly romantic Plantgenet family, and began with this volume which sketches England until Henry II, and then gets into its stride, ending with the melancholy death of john in 1216. There are a number of good stories here, anf TC misses none of them. It is overall a good popular trip, but not likely to produce authorative footnotes.½

"He remained in the saddle in a state of breathless wonder.

In most descriptions her hair is called “gilt” in color, which meant undoubtedly that it had tints of copper as well as gold. Her eyes were large and blue, her features delicately molded, her figure ravishing. She proceeded to demonstrate, moreover, that she was gifted in the arts of enticement and could stir any masculine heart by the flutter of an eyelash. Certainly she played havoc with the heart beating under the velvet riding jacket of royal Edward."

Really?

The reign of Henry III was very long, by medieval standards, 1216 to 1272. I suppose especially to Henry that it did seem to last a century. While England faced no existential challenges in his lifetime, the work of controlling the feudal nobility was beyond Henry's power. He watched the remains of the overseas possessions melt away, and his grip on Scotland was virtually non-existent. He died after the reins of power were firmly in the hands of his exceptional son, Edward I. Costain does present a readable account of this period, and the characters who sought to control Henry. There is coverage of the birth of the House of Commons during the de Montfort civil war.½

A very readable introduction to the period of the High Middle ages in England. A popular novelist, Costain's book reads well and invites further excursions into the period. This section of his larger group biographies of all the Plantagenet kings covers 1239 to 1377, when Edward III died. There are scenes of high drama including the coup that forced Edward II to abdicate in favour of Edward III.

If you know little to nothing about the Plantagenets this is an easy intro to that complex family.

Five stars here for Costain’s narrative drive, which makes this old popular history of the first Plantagenets a very easy read.

Four stars for the author’s occasional snark of ordinal sources.

Two stars for the author’s obvious biases, the lack of documentation, and authorial inventions of the moods and even appearance of the characters. Two stars also for Costain’s cherry picking which of the original sources he chooses to rate as credible.

Only for beginners or inveterate Costain fans.½

The General's Ring by Selma Lagerlof; Mowgli's Brothers by Rudyard Kipling; The Gift of the Magi by O.Henry; Lord Mountdrago by W. Somerset Maugham; Music on the Muscatatuck & The Pacing Goose by Jessamyn West; The Birds by Daphne du Maurier; The Man Who Lived Four Thousand Years by Alexandre Dumas; The Pope's Mule by Alphonse Daudet; The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham by H.G. Wells; The Blue Cross by G.K. Chesterton; Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan; La Grande Breteche by Honore' de Balzac; Love's Conundrum by Anthony Hope; The Great Stone Face by Nathaniel Hawthorne; Germeshausen by Frederich Gerstacker; Iam Born by Charles Dickens; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving; The Age of Miracles by Melville Davisson Post; The Long Rifle by Stewart Edward White; The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe; The Voice of Bugle Ann by MacKinley Kantor

It’s the Napoleonic Wars, and Francis Ellery, owner of The Tablet newspaper, is trying to convince the British public that the government needs to do more to fight off a prospective invasion. He faces the disapproval of his family and even prison time for criticizing the government’s actions, and eventually makes his way to the Peninsular campaign to serve as a war correspondent for Robert “Riding Bobby” Wilson. In between, he meets and falls in love with a French exile named Gabrielle de Salle.

This is a somewhat romantic historical novel, written during the Second World War, so the writing style may be a little bit heavier than modern readers might be used to. That said, it does move along pretty well, mainly when there are exciting personal-level plots like breaking people out of jail, rather than talking about the battles and campaigns. Wellington makes several appearances, and I definitely pictured him as Hugh Fraser because of the Sharpe series. I cringed somewhat at Francis’s love for Gabrielle because it was a very possessive love (saying she “belonged” to him), but she certainly holds her own. As for other female characters, Francis’s aunt Francilea was my favourite, because she brooked no nonsense and supported her nephew in his work.

I’m not sure if I would re-read this, but I would certainly read other books by Costain (which is good, because I have two more of his books on my shelf).

Good Morning, Miss Dove by Patton; Turn About by Faulkner; Mary Smith by Tarkington; Clerical Error by Cozzens; The Suicide Club by Stevenson; Eighteen Oak Ties by Pridgen; Ultima Thule by Gadsworthy; Anty Bligh by Masefield; Sam Weller Makes His Bow by Dickens; The Croxley Master (complete novel) by Doyle; Francois Villon Meets a Woman by Erskine; Father and the Cook by Day; The Grave Grass Quivers by Kantor; The King Waits by Dane; Babylon Revisted by Fitzgerald; The Bowmen by Machen; The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Christie

Lost Horizon (complete novel) by Hilton; Neighbor Rosicky by Cather; The Verger by Maugham; Jack Still by Marquand; The Silver Mask by Walpole; The Return of the Rangers by Roberts; Old Man at the Bridge by Hemingway; The Cyprian Cat by Sayers; The Call of the Wild (complete novel) by London; The Jukebox and the Kallikaks by Chute; The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes by Kipling; She Went By Gently by Carroll; Tale of My Aunt Jennipher's Wooing by Byrne; Through the Veil by Doyle; The Three Strangers by Hardy; The Old Man by Horn; The Rollicking God by Johnson; Was It a Dream? by De Maupassant; The Lady (complete novel) by Richter;

The Bridge of San Luis Rey (a novel) byThornton Wilder; Basquerie by Eleanor Mercein Kelly; Judith by A.E. Coppard; A Mother in Mannville by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings; Kerfol by Edith Wharton; The Last Leaf by O.Henry; The Bloodhound by Arthur Train; What the Old Man Does is Always Right by Hans Christian Anderson; The Sea of Grass (a novel) by Conrad Richter; The Sire DeMaletroit's Door by Robert Louis Stevenson; The Necklace by Guy DeMaupassant; By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen Vincent Benet; A.V. Laider by Max Beerbohm; The Pillar of Fire by Percival Wilde; The Strange Will (from the novel The Man with the Broken Ear) by Edmond About; The Hand at the Window (from the novel Wuthering Heights) by Emily Bronte; National Velvet (a novel) byEnid Bagnold.

Read the book & then watched the movie (Paul Newman's first movie role). I liked the book better.