Jean Plaidy’s historical novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Eleanor the Queen, includes important events in the lives of the title character, Henry II, and King Louis VII of France. Some of their sons’ and daughters’ stories are part of the intertwined story as well. The history itself is amazing, but her style made for pleasant reading as fiction, too. This is one of the best I've ever read about this fascinating woman.It begins with Dangerosa and William IX, but quickly moves forward. Page after page has something happening in Eleanor's life. Through her own words (put there by Plaidy, of course) her speech capture’s Becket and other famous figures that were part of her extraordinary life.The main thread, though, is the story of Eleanor’s time with Henry from their passionate affair ‛til the end of their days. In between? A well told story full of events that Eleanor described as follows: "Grief fades and life offers other joys to console one."Alternatively titled Courts of Love, the book offers wonderful fiction while honoring quite well Eleanor's real life and character as well. So too those historical personages intertwined in her long life. The style at the opening mirrors her speech as a girl but, over time, evolves to the maturity Eleanor acquired in an eventful life.As the narration advanced I couldn't help but think of the quote "Everybody has a plan... ‛til they get punched in the face." :-) If you read the novel, you won't feel as if you’ve been punched. It’s very enjoyable.
This is one of my favourite books by Jean Plaidy.The novel walks through Eleanor's early childhood life (in the Courts of Love), right up to her death. Her life certainly was full of adventures, betrayal and her trying to re-create her grandfather's court. Naturally, Eleanor is a strong and powerful woman who knows what she wants and how to grasp it, especially given how she would give everything up (the love of her adoring first husband, daughters and her own country), for passion and power. As a passionate, yet powerful and ambitious woman, she certainly was a match for Henry <- unfortunately that resulted in the downfall of their marriage and subsequent plotting /backstabbing within the family. Ms. Plaidy has a way of bringing history to life, just like Eleanor's life. I felt like I was right there, seeing first hand everything that was going on and forming an image of what kind of person Eleanor may have been in real life during that time period.You can tell that Ms. Plaidy put in a lot of effort to research everything. While some aspects of the book may have been reinterpreted and modified to fit the book, it is still vastly exciting.
What do You think about The Courts Of Love (2006)?
English history intrigues me so I greatly injoyed this book about Eleanor of Acquitaine, who lived in the 12 century during a fascinating period - when the Church was even more powerful than kings and when going off on crusades to save the Holy Land was considered the height of glory. Eleanor was a gutsy lady - way ahead of her time - who sounds like she would have done very well living in the 21st century instead of the 12th. But nevertheless she managed to make quite a mark for herself as it was - married to two kings (Louis VII of France and Henry II of England) and mother of two more (Richard the Lion-hearted and John.) She had nine children and had most of them taken away while they were very young to be raised elsewhere because their betrothals -and in some cases their weddings -took place purely for political reasons. Although this book was a novel, it was carefully researched (The bibliography alone took up two full pages)and appeared to stick pretty closely to the facts without a lot of embellishment. Which makes sense. The period itself was colorful enough and so was Eleanor's life. No need to make up plots and invent details when what really happened was so fascinating.
—Trisha
As much as I love Jean Plaidy, this is not, technically speaking, the best-written book. She also fell into the same rut that so many scholars and fiction writers do when it comes to Eleanor of Aquitaine: so little is known about her life that the majority of the story revolves around her husbands and sons. However, the historian in me couldn't help but the love the scandalous story of this fabulous lady! It has four stars because despite my reservations about it, I have read it twice. It's a guilty pleasure for sure!
—Shayla
Better overall character development than Nora Loft's novel on Eleanor of Aquitaine (the only other Eleanor novel I've read so far so I'll compare the two). One of the things I love about Plaidy is her assessments of the relationships between the characters and this does not disappoint. At the same time, it also details the political and worldly events better. But I felt like Loft handled Eleanor's period of captivity better, it was actually the strongest part of the book whereas Plaidy brushes over it as an inconvenience to Eleanor.
—Robin
