Eleanor, the very beautiful and wealthy heiress to the Duchy of Aquitaine, was first married to King Louis of France – although he preferred prayer to the marital bed. Eleanor is the one who gets the blame for not providing the necessary male heir and Louis is encouraged to dump her for a new model. She catches the eye of the much younger Henry Fitz-Empress (the future Henry II of England) who desires both the woman and her Duchy and once Louis sets her free they marry without Louis’ permission. Thus starts off the tale of one of history’s most memorable and dynastic marriages, the magnificent empire they carved out together and their devil’s brood of children.
Of course there’s more to it than that but I think most of you know the basics so I’m not rehashing it all over again. If you want to know more you can read up on up Eleanor at Wik or better yet read Sharon Penman’s fabulous trilogy: When Christ and His Saints Slept, Time and Chance and The Devil’s Brood. Now comes Alison Weir with her own take on this infamous Queen and unfortunately she’s decided to take every unsubstantiated rumor and bit of gossip about Eleanor and her alleged love-life and work it into her story. Even worse than that, Weir also throws in the Matilda-had-an-affair-with-King-Stephen-and-Henry-is-not-really-Geoffrey’s-son-after-all rumor.
In Weir’s version, Eleanor had previously had an affair with Henry’s father Geoffrey (as well as Marcabru the troubadour who initiated her into the rites of true passion), although when he comes to swear fealty to Louis it’s his son Henry who catches Eleanor’s eye and sets her sexual appetites a-fire. Lol, they’re planning to do the nasty within less than an hour of their first meeting – let alone how he’s able to get into the chambers of the Queen of France three nights running with no one noticing. Where were those servants anyway? As for the hot sex they have? No chemistry here – it’s all depicted very clinically in waaaaaaay too much detail and this is where we go back to Penman’s trilogy. Much less sex (well actually a whole lot less sex) yet Penman’s Henry and Eleanor literally smoked off the pages. The story continues on the usual historical path of this turbulent pair – Thomas Becket, Rosamund Clifford, the rebellious sons and Eleanor’s long imprisonment, etc. etc. etc.
Instead of the formidable strong-willed woman that we’ve admired in Penman’s books we’re instead treated to a woman with not much else on her mind but sex, sex and more sex. Where Henry should be feared and admired for carving such an incredible empire and holding it, he’s more of a buffoon, getting drunk every night with his belching English barons and swiving any woman available. When not doing that he’s losing his infamous temper again, falling on the ground and chewing straw. Nor did I need to be constantly clubbed over the head to remind me that Henry is descended from the devil.
There are always two camps when it comes to historical accuracy in novels. Some readers don’t care if the history is spot-on or not, they just want to be entertained. The other camp wants the history as accurate as possible with author notes in the end to let them know in the end what had to be changed, surmised, etc. Well guess what, you won’t get accuracy or entertainment in this one. Even taking the historical accuracy off the table (see the author wiggle her way around that in her notes) there is still the issue of the writing. I cannot believe the same person who wrote Innocent Traitor wrote this book, the writing is amateurish and better suits a badly written wall-paper romance as opposed to a serious historical novel.
While the sex does taper off in the latter half of the novel, unfortunately so does the pacing. The entire Becket saga was dry as dirt (Sharon, you know I love you but I even struggled with your version), and as for Eleanor’s captivity? Since it’s from her POV, there’s much too much telling instead of showing as *someone* has to come and relate to her what’s been happening in the outside world. In the end, this is a tedious book filled with dire prose, insipid dialog and a serious waste of a tree. After reading Miss Moppet’s review I had decided to pass on this, library or no, but unfortunately I’d forgotten I’d entered the Librarything ER giveaway and was stuck with it after all. Not recommended or library only if you must, then buy it if you love it.
Telynor said:
_EXcellent review!_ What’s really weird is that AW has already written a NF book about Eleanor, so we know that she knows the facts, somewhat. This sounds like a dreadful book, and I think that your using it as landfill is a great idea — at least it can’t do much damage there.
misfitandmom said:
Thank you, although I hear not everyone thinks her NF on Eleanor is all that spot on either.
Telynor said:
It’s not. It’s just another endless grind on what is already known. The best Eleanor one is still Marion Meade’s biography — slightly dated now, but very readable. Amy Kelly’s Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings isn’t bad either.
Miss Moppet said:
This is easily the worst book I’ve read since I went back to reading contemporary historical fiction a few years ago. In fact, I find it difficult to believe that any publisher would accept this manuscript from someone who wasn’t already a bestselling author. In other words, Weir’s publishers were happy to put out a substandard book because they knew it would sell on her name. My view: their decision was disrespectful to Eleanor and to readers and didn’t do Weir herself any favours.
Telynor said:
And it’s sad too. Because I thoroughly enjoyed AW’s work on the Tudors, but this — this is just plain awful. I didn’t care at all for her Eleanor bio, and that’s when I stopped reading her stuff, pretty much. I did wade through Innocent Traitor, and thought ‘meh.’ Who ever ok’d this one really was asleep at the wheel.
misfitandmom said:
It really does seem like this one was phoned in. I still have about twenty pages left and the telling and repetition is wearing very thin. If I hear about Henry being descended from the devil one more time……
Karla said:
An editor would/should have nixed the repetition. That is, unless Weir is like Anne Rice and she perfects her own manuscripts, making editors superfluous. 😛
misfitandmom said:
Perhaps the editor will correct it before the final release. Not holding my breath though, are you?
Daphne said:
Well, I got an ARC from library thing as well (not to mention that I had ordered it from the UK – didn’t figure I would win an ARC, I rarely do!) so I”m planning on reading it soon before my copy of Holland’s new book arrives.
misfitandmom said:
They must have given away quite a few, I can’t believe so many that I *know* one a copy. You, Michele, Robin and myself. Small world.
Michele@ A Reader's Respite said:
Well, you pretty much nailed it here. Easily the worst book I’ve read all year. It was a huge slap in the face….even taking away the historical accuracy part (which I can accept), the writing was choppy, stilted and very inconsistent…the dialog was at the reading level of a 10 year old.
I still think Weir didn’t even write this. Or maybe she submitted an outline and some intern fleshed it out. It makes no sense at all.
misfitandmom said:
Hard to believe, isn’t it? Like she phoned it in or something. Very much looking forward to your review 🙂
Alex said:
This sounds so bad that I’m almost curious enough to give it a try…and probably curse myself afterwards! I really can’t believe Weir would write something like this.
misfitandmom said:
Heh, once I started it was like watching a runaway freight train. Couldn’t take my eyes away painful as it was.
Felicia Jordan said:
Ouch! I was hoping this would be good. I loved “Innocent Traitor.” I was going to buy it when it came out. I’ll just wait for a copy from PBS now.
misfitandmom said:
I’ve already sent my copy on or I’d let you have that one. I loved Innocent Traitor as well, not quite sure what happened.
Andrea Zsigmond said:
Hi Misfit,
Thanks for the review. I was really looking forward to this novel. I adore Eleanor of Aquitaine and I too had enjoyed Innocent Traitor. I have requested this one from the library and am glad I did not preorder!