One of the most incredible stories I've ever read...

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	• The Sunne In Splendour: A Novel of Richard III Sharon Kay Penman St. Martin's Griffin, 2008 - 944 pages average customer review:based on 142 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Sunne in Splendour

I know a lot of people are going to be mad at me. Perhaps this book just isn't for me. Other reviewers commented on the storyline, so I'll just add the things that struck me while I was reading it.

Not only is the subject matter complex, but history requires that the story contain an excessive number of characters. Furthermore, they're referred to not only by their given names, but by their titles or the geographic locations they're "Earl of", or "Duke of". So "Edmond" is also "Rutland", and "Richard Neville" is also "Warwick" and so forth. Too many people have two or more names, including nicknames, or names that are very similar. This may be historically accurate, but it makes for confusion anyway. If you can't sit down and focus for extended periods of time, you're going to get lost each time you're interrupted. Perhaps it was the fact that my life is busy that made this a difficult book to get into. This is not to say that I prefer a beach read or a shorter book. I just think complex subject matter and a large number of characters can sometimes be managed to make the reading flow more easily, and to make picking up where you left off less of a chore. I would have begun by taking literary license and referring to characters consistently, and by their given names only. I might also have elimimated some of the minor characters to simplify the structure.

So this is merely a warning to someone who doesn't have hours at a stretch to sit down with this book. It's a lot of work, if your attention is frequently pulled elsewhere.

The author makes repeated grammatical errors as well; incomplete sentences and comma splices are everywhere. These can be used VERY sparingly to set the tone. However, in this book I found myself not only trying to settle back in after an interruption and gather up all my thoughts, but getting stopped short by incorrect sentence structure in nearly every paragraph. As a result, I kept rereading sentences because I thought that surely I must have misread them the first time. It bogged me down and distracted me from the story. An editor should have addressed that, in my opinion.

Though admittedly most of the reviewers neither recognized or noticed the writing technicalities, nor did they care, so for most people this shouldn't a problem. Ignore this observation if you know you're one of those and focus on the story, which is great!

The author is a fantastic storyteller - and it's certainly a fascinating story - but the technical issues were distracting to me. I feel that, out of a five-star rating, writing technicalities comprise two of the stars. That is why I opted for a three-star rating. I give her full credit for storytelling!

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Did he or didn't he?

History is full of examples of the scramble to the winning side - especially when the consequences of being on the wrong side are often fatal. When Henry Tudor's troops killed Richard III at the battle of Bosworth Field, it was in no one's interest to align themselves with the Plantagenets. The king was dead, long live the king.

And Richard was a monster, anyway. Wasn't he? The evil uncle. The scheming hunchback who killed his innocent nephews. A vile man who was involved in the murder of the saintly Henry VI. Who was involved in his brother George's unfortunate encounter with the vat of malmsey wine. A villain for the ages.

We have only to reconcile this with other information. He led the vanguard of great armies. Not usual for a crippled crookback. He was entrusted by his brother with the rule of the whole of the north of England. His personal motto was "Loyalty Binds Me".

And when he died, when it was certainly not in their interest to do so, the City of York read into the council minutes: "King Richard late mercifully reigning upon us was thrugh grete treason...piteously slane and murdred to the grete hevynesse of this citie..."

Sharon Penman's The Sunne in Splendour gives us an alternative reading of this history. After all, history is written by the victor. Henry Tudor was the victor and had no love of the previous reign.

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Never 900+ pages read better!

Most of us have a preconceived opinion of Richard III. Be it of a good man, victim of the circumstances, or of an evil being who wouldn't hesitate to murder his own flesh and blood to usurp a throne that didn't belong to him. But the truth is that Richard was a man of his time, one who, to his misfortune, lacked the "sun" personality, character and appearance of his brother Edward. Is this a crime? To Richard it was.
But this book is not only about Richard, the last of the Plantagenet kings. It is also about Edward IV, George of Clarence, the Earl of Warwick, Anne Neville . . . It is about a fascinating time in history.
I read this book a long time ago (I have read everything Ms. Penman has written) and enjoyed it so much that I would like every reader out there to share in my experience. Don't miss this book, it is the best of the historic fiction genre.

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Still amazing, years later

This is my all-time favorite book; I re-read it every year. Besides being responsible for me changing my major at university and falling absolutely in love with medieval history, this book is thoroughly entertaining to those who may not have a history passion or even passing knowledge of the time period. Penman is detailed enough to help along readers with little to no knowledge of medieval British history, but enthusiasts will delight in her detail and character development. If you have even a remote interest in history, Richard III, or murder, intrigue and deceit, read this book!!

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One of the most incredible stories I've ever read...

I found this book in a thrift store, and made a very wise decision to judge a book by its cover.

It was one of the best purchases I've ever made. All I can say is that it's one of the few books that made me weep. God bless and keep you, King Richard!

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

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recommendations

Historical Fiction: The House of Plantagenet
Richard III in fiction and nonfiction
Sharon Kay Penman Historical Fiction
Best Historical Fiction Ever
History as entertainment

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