Britain just announced to the world that King Richard III's remains have been found, with a reconstruction of his face even made possible. As coincidence would have it, this book features Richard as one of the principal characters. Richard III was not a well-loved monarch and Vanora uses the historical suspicions surrounding him to create this novel. Isabel Lambert is a fourteen year old daughter of a silk-weaver who unexpectedly meets 'Dickon' while they are both praying in a church one morning. She has no idea that he is actually the brother of the present King Edward, and she is immediately smitten. Their paths do not cross again for a few years at which time Isabel is a recent widow already and involved in the international silk-weaving monopoly. They start a liason again through the time that Dickon is plotting to gain the crown. This line from the novel speaks to the ultimate tragedy of the story: "And a man who couldn't stop manoeuvring couldn't feel the simplicity of love." Bennett is a powerful writer and she gives her characters a lot of depth. The book was highly enjoyable. So we're supposed to believe a sheltered 14-year-old daughter of a well-off merchant during the end of the War of the Roses would open her heart about her fears of her upcoming nuptials to a forbidding-looking man she just met? That's just the first of many implausabilities in this historical novel. Now, a masterful writer can make the implausible believable or at least palatable (see Dickens). Ms Bennett is not that writer. The sense of time and place is well delineated, but there's way too much telling rather than showing when it comes to the motivations and feelings of her main characters, as if she herself felt she had to spell out why these people were behaving unrealistically. And although most of the book is filtered through the inner life of the protagonist, Isabel, occasionally we're made privy to the thoughts of a few secondary characters as well; while these characters are at times more interesting than Isabel, because we take their point of view only once or twice, the result is a jerky, creaky narrative.So why am I giving this two stars instead of just one? Because in a weird way it was readable--I was determined to get to the end to see just how the loose ends were going to be tied up and if the ending would surprise me by being somewhat satisfying. Unfortunately, I was not surprised.
What do You think about Queen Of Silks (2009)?
I didn't finish it. It started really strong but I lost interest.
—Mustafaa
solid historical beach read along the lines of philippa gregory
—sodapop
Good book...I recommend if you like historical fiction
—Rylie713
I enjoyed this historical fiction set in Tudor England
—onesadpanda
Fun read. Interesting look at 15th century London.
—leila
