Showing posts with label historical fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label historical fiction. Show all posts

Friday, April 20, 2018

The Privateer by Josephine Tey (Pan, 1967)

Thanks to the Green Shed, where I found this one:


The thrilling, swashbuckling story of Henry Morgan...
A freed bondsman, he captured his first Spanish ship with eleven men.
He became the scourge of Spain from the West Indies to Panama. 
He found romance but the sea always called him back to new, ever more daring adventures. 
Set against the stirring background of 300 years ago when dashing privateers risked their lives for treasure and conquest, this exciting book by a famous historical novelist is compellingly readable... vividly alive.

Ahhhrrr!  Buckle me swash, and set me mainsails!  It's a "based on a true story" historical novel, which means most of the people are real, and some of the events, but it's all highly romanticised.  The author, by the way, is better known for her mysteries than for her historical romances!  And a warning—some of the attitudes in this book are not politically correct by modern standards, and may even cause offence.

(The cover looks a bit strange in this scan because a previous owner had covered the book in plastic, and I couldn't remove it without damaging the cover.)


Wednesday, August 2, 2017

The White Witch by Elizabeth Goudge (Pyramid, 1973)


The clouds of civil war hovered ominously over England in 1642, as Puritan and Royalist forces gathered for bitter battle.  Caught in the midst of tumultuous events, the characters in Miss Goudge's gripping novel act out a compelling drama of intrigue and timeless romance.

Awww, look at the groovy people on the cover of this book.  She is wearing Biba and blue eyeshadow.  He has carefully styled and blow-dried hair and looks like he bought his outfit in King's Road.  They're clearly a happening couple from the 1970s.

--Wait a minute.  You're telling me that the story takes place in 1642?

Now this is an example of egregiously generic cover art: it could have been slapped on any paperback romance (and probably was).  I can hazard a guess who the people on the cover are meant to be, but they don't really resemble any of the characters in the book.  It's a pity: the author is better than average, and certainly didn't write the standard kind of hack work usually published in paperbacks of this kind.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Rogue Roman by Lance Horner (Pan, 1970)

Found on a dusty shelf in the Green Shed:


Imperial Rome--centre of the world--throbbing with the white heat of violence, bloodshed and uninhibited sexuality...

Bought as an actor, kidnapped by pirates, sold as a gladiator, young Cleon's beauty and flagrant masculinity made every woman--harlots and Vestal Virgins alike--desire him.

And passion drives Cleon to help destroy a Caesar who combined the vices of his predecessors with his own special perversions--the Emperor Nero.
Soft-core sixties smut, with a plot revolving around a hero whose main attribute is... the size of his, um, main attribute:
Contux took a firmer grip on the cloth and yanked.  There was a ripping sound and the hand came away with the front of Cleon's tunic clutched in the swollen fingers...  "I take it back.  He's more than a man - he's a true stallion.  He was shouting the words and waving the cloth for all to see.
(Page 125) 

Why am I suddenly reminded of Biggus Dickus?


Thursday, November 10, 2016

The Woodville Wench by Maureen Peters (Fontana, 1973)

Picked up at a local school fete:


The King's Wife...

Determined to rise above the poverty of her upbringing, Elizabeth Woodville uses her great beauty to win a place in the royal family.

Edward Plantagenet

the handsome young King, risks everything to marry her.

Cecily, of York

the King's mother, welcomes her as a daughter

Richard of Gloucester

Edward's brother, offers her protection when his own life is in jeopardy.

Considered an upstart by many, Elizabeth reigns supreme during the bitter years of the Wars of the Roses.  But behind the brilliant mask is a cold and lonely woman, shivering in the chill of her husband's waning passion, fearful of what lies ahead...
This is an example of what I think of as "cleavage history", where the author takes a real woman from history and writes a wildly romantic fictionalised version of her life.  You can usually spot these by the models on their front covers who generally wear some kind of pseudo-historical garb complete with a deeply plunging  neckline.

In this case our heroine (who seems to have picked her dress up at Biba and who is sporting some very 1970s blue eyeshadow) is Elizabeth Woodville and the story the author is telling is the story of the War of the Roses.

The other giveaway for a "cleavage history" novel is the choice of adjectives on the back cover, which often includes words such as "passionate", "untamed" and "determined".  The Woodville Wench may not be passionate and untamed, but by Jingo! she's determined.

Friday, October 14, 2016

The Black Rose by Thomas B. Costain (Tandem, 1971)



Walter of Gurnie, bastard son of the Earl of Lessford, fled from England to escape the enmity of his family and the bitterness of his love for the Lady Engaine.  Wealth and fame and a chance to claim the woman he loved were to be found only in the fabulous realms of the East, if he could win through the savage hordes of Kublai Khan's Mongol warriors, who ruled all of Asia from Persia to the ocean of Cathay.

Joining a caravan under the protection of Bayan of the Hundred Eyes, Walter found Maryam, a beauty as rare as the priceless Black Rose of the spice traders, destined for the Great Khan's harem, and a stronger reason than any other to lead him to the Celestial City of the Manji Emperor.

How Walter followed Maryam to fabled Kinsai, lost her and found her again, makes a superb and stirring romance, filled with the vivid colour and adventure of medieval England and the age-old empires of the East.
 And that just about sums up the entire book... so there's no need to read it.

(I do, however, love the 1970s hairstyles the models are sporting on the cover.  It seems that Vidal Sassoon was hairdresser of choice for the Mongol Hordes!)

Friday, October 7, 2016

Cleopatra by Carlo Maria Franzero (Panther, 1962)


TEMPTRESS!
'A gift, Great Caesar,' the big man said, prostrating himself, 'from a devoted admirer.'

'H'm,' Caesar murmured, fingering his chin.  'You can't mean Ptolemy...!'  

'Judge for yourself, Master,' Appollodras invited, and unrolled the carpet; out of it sprang to her feet the little Cleopatra, apparently as fresh as a daisy and as bright as a newly minted coin.  She stretched her slim, shapely arms above her lovely head, arched her perfect back so that her perfect young body stood out deliciously under the translucent gown, and smiled provocatively at the mighty Caesar.
An Elizabeth Taylor lookalike poses on the cover of this book--not inappropriately, as Joseph L. Mankiewicz loosely based his 1963 movie version of Cleopatra on this novel.  However, at the time this paperback edition was published the movie was still in production--running grossly over-budget and mired in production problems. 

Sadly, anyone expecting "wantonness" in this version of Cleopatra's story (as promised by the cover blurb on the paperback) will be disappointed.  The titillation value of this book is low, even by the standards of the early 1960s.  You might pick up some history, however, as the main characters spend a lot of time playing politics, 1st Century BC style.

 

Friday, September 23, 2016

The Lion of Sparta by John Burke (Pan, 1961)

Another find in the dusty recesses of the Green Shed:


BARBARIC
SPLENDOUR

ELEMENTAL
SAVAGERY

SUPERB
HEROISM

The countless hordes of Asia surged onwards towards Greece--an irresistible wave spreading  fire, pillage and rapine.  Xerxes, King of Persia, had sworn to annihilate the Greek States.

But at Thermopylae waited Leonidas, King of Sparta--blocking the narrow pass with his immortal Three Hundred.

These were no ordinary men.  For Spartans there was no retreat, no surrender.  Their highest hope a glorious death.

This is the story of those men--and their women--and of the days which led them to Thermopylae, that desperate, glorious battle which changed the course of history.

"As filmed by 20th Century Fox starring Richard Egan"... another long-forgotten CinemaScope epic, starring an actor I've never heard of.  And yet, strangely enough, Ralph Richardson appears in a supporting role!