Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England
 RRP £20.00 Lowest New Price £12.00 
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Jonathan Cape Ltd Number of pages: 512 Language: English (Original Language) Language: English (Unknown) |
RRP: £20.00
Isabella - the she wolf
Review date: 2009-12-27 Rating: 8 out of 10
This is a good insight into the historical era of Edward II and Isabella. Factual, not a pick up and drop book, but good if you are interested in this period of history
Reviews
Interesting but flawed
Review date: 2009-10-17 Rating: 8 out of 10
The first three-quarters of this book are excellent: a lively , clear and absorbing account of a rather murky period of English history. Given the difficulty and scarcity of the sources, I think she has done an excellent job. However, a major part of the book is then taken up with a batty theory about Edward II escaping captivity and living as a hermit through his son's reign. This isn't the forum to point out the crushing illogicalities attached to this theory, but its espousal really lets down the overall seriousness of the book.
Pedestrian and clumsy!
Review date: 2009-09-08 Rating: 6 out of 10
This is certainly not a racy narrative! One could have easily written a detailed and yet entertaining story about this subject. However, Alison Weir never was a good writer, quite apart from her usually appalling treatment of the sources to suit her purposes. If you are extremely interested in Isabella, this is for you, as it details every gown she wore and every headdress she possessed. I do normally love such things, but the presentation is so terribly boring, I returned to academic essays with relief. Paragraph after paragraph, page after page, Weir enumerates important nobles and their family relationships (which she does not disentangle easily for the reader -- quite the contrary); endless descriptions of buildings (and their history) follow...All this would be tolerable in an encyclopedia -- every narrative drive goes away very quickly in this way. "Surrey was a nasty, brutal man with scarcely a redeemable quality" -- in all moralistic earnest it goes on and on, apparently making a list for Last Judgement Day! It's hard to finish this book; I probably won't. Edward II is treated rather unfairly, so his "poor" wife is exonerated from the start from all suspicions of later foul play. Boaring and biased--not a good prospect.
Isabella
Review date: 2009-03-29 Rating: 10 out of 10
I really enjoyed this book. As with all her other books, Alison Weir takes great care to research and point out what is fact, theory, and speculation. What she turns out is a highly readable piece of work that anyone can enjoy.
Some would consider the great detail she uses in outlining royal expenses boring, but I think it only adds to an understanding of the time and place she is telling the reader about.
Though it was disappointing to see that the book is actually shorter than it looks due to the bibliography, indexes, family tree, etc. it is the only thing I found disappointing about the book. Though sympathetic to her subject, I felt that she set the record straight on a much maligned historical figure and ultimately presented a more balanced view of Isabella. On those facts that have been muddied with time, Weir is careful to present theories and speculation as nothing more than that. That she injects her own opinion on the matter, given her knowledge, research, and intelligence is not necessarily a bad thing because the author trusts the reader to know the difference between fact and theory.
Alison Weir has taken a historical figure that we know little about and brought her to life with this work.
Dull
Review date: 2008-08-20 Rating: 2 out of 10
Very disappointing. I would not recommend this. Ms Weir seems to want to demonstrate how much she knows, rather than how good a story she can tell. Long lists of people, and their relatives/titles/lands, adds nothing to the narrative of what should be an exciting story. The long history of buildings where the characters stay is mildly informative, but irrelevant to what is going on. This book would benefit from some robust editing. It is one of the few books I will throw away.
Product Details/Specifications
Authors:
Alison Weir
Recording label: Jonathan Cape Ltd
Manufacturer: Jonathan Cape Ltd
EAN: 9780224063203
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 0224063200
Number of pages: 512
Publication date: 2005-09-01
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Unknown)
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