hardback

If Georgette Heyer had decided to write historical fiction rather than inventing the Regency Romance genre, it could have turned out rather well. This is a portion of the life of John, third son of Henry IV. And he is an engaging enough character to carry a book. This starts with his childhood and ends just prior to the death of Henry iV, by which time he is Warden of the North and Constable of England. There is quite a lot about his relationship with his brothers, which gives you a view of Henry V (to be) that doesn't necessarily feature in the histories.
If one were to quibble, she has a couple of annoying habits. The first it to use archaic language overly much. I can understand it in speech (just about) but to use it in description as well just makes reading it difficult as you either have to look up the word (there is a glossary) or guess its meaning from the context.
The second slightly annoying trait is to use different names for the same person in the same paragraph. I understand that they have a first name and surname and then a title bu which they are known, meaning that they do have multiple legitimate ways they could be referred to, but it does make for a slightly confusing read. I'm trying to remember how other authors manage this, as I don;t remember it being this noticeably annoying in other historical fiction I've read.
And the story arc could have dome with some polishing. A number of times you start a chapter with John bieng at place X in year Y, then he sees someone and you get their backstory over the last 5 years. It made for following the timeline slightly problematic.
I can;t say that I agree with the cover blurb that this is her greatest novel. I think it would have needed a bot more polish that this, but it was unfinished. Part of me worries how big it would have been, at ~350 pages there is still quite a lot of John's life to tell and it would only have got busier.
It was enjoyable, but I really wouldn't suggest you start here. ( )

A straight historical novel, set in medieval England. It’s incomplete; it was to be the first of a trilogy for which Heyer did an enormous amount of research but because of problems with the Inland Revenue she had to return to romantic fiction.

It deals with the life of John, Duke of Bedford, one of Henry V’s younger brothers. An interesting read, but probably not everyone’s cup of tea, mostly down to the language - a sort of Chaucerian style which is not very accessible. You can understand it from the context, but you have to concentrate.

The other issue is the enormous cast of characters, often with the same or similar names. In some ways, you need to read it with a relationship map to hand to keep everyone straight.

I seem to recall that at one time I owned a paperback copy, but it was long gone. I was never as fond of her historical novels as I was of her romances.

If this was a print copy, I suspect it would get culled again. As an ebook, it will be kept - and possibly re-read, but not anytime soon.

While this book might not appeal to a lot of Heyer's fans, I rather enjoyed it, especially after I became used to the language the author employed. I didn't even use the Glossary as most of the archaic terms could be figured out from context. However, there were a multitude of characters with ever changing names so that the family tree and the character list were very helpful.

The book begins with Lord John at the age of four and follows him and his brothers until shortly before their father's death in 1413 when Lord John would have been about 23 and had for several years been responsible for keeping the Scots in Scotland and the Border raiding to a tolerable level on both sides. These boys had to grow up fast and hold down a man's position from their mid-teens. There was a lot of history here and a great deal about how the ruling class lived.

I think Heyer greatly admired her lead character and wanted her readers to see him as one of the most admirable of the Plantagenets. It's too bad that she felt that her manuscript had to be put aside and left unfinished in order to write the romances her fans wanted. Like the rest of us she had to pay the bills!

Before reading this novel I expected to rate it 4 or even 5 stars, as I am aware of the author's talent, and I'm interested in the period (late 1300s/early 1400s), yet it's proved a real disappointment.

One of Ms Heyer's greatest strengths is her dialogue, but this book is dominated by a dull third person narrative, and most of the dialogue lacks the author's usual wit and is weighed down further by an overuse of archaic vocabulary.

I accept that it's good to be authentic, but here the reader - except those who are knowledgeable regarding 14th- and 15h-century words and phrases - is barraged with unfamiliar dialect. Yes, there's a glossary, but it's a pain to be constantly checking the back of the book during every dialogue exchange. Therefore, you either flit back and forth or just guess what these archaic words mean.

Another minus point is that for the most part the author tries to name-check everyone who was living at the same time as my lord John - who's Henry IV's son and Henry V's brother, by the way - and even refers to many people who've died, who also have no relevance to the story. It seems like Ms Heyer wanted to use this book to express her historical interests, which makes me think she would've been better off writing a non-fictional work.

To me, the beauty of good historical fiction is that it serves to bring life and colour to historical figures by developing their characters and adding in bits that are unknown to historians. A history book generally cannot do this, for it must stick to the facts and avoid romanticizing events. This novel feels more like a dull history book with just the odd scene dramatized - and not too well at that.

To be fair, Ms Heyer died before finishing what turned out to be her last book, so perhaps the novel would have been revised a few more times and been better than this. This we will never know ... ( )