On being introduced to gauche and garrulous Caroline three days before the nuptials, [George IV] looked ill and requested brandy. She, with her customary tactlessness, commented on his bulk. Nine months later, their daughter Charlotte was born.
* 514 years later, Christopher Columbus continues to make Dead White Men look bad, "cutting off people's ears and noses, parading women naked through the streets and selling them into slavery."
* And, new and reviewed historical fiction in Publisher's Weekly:
- The Boleyn Inheritance, by Phillipa Gregory -- Apparently, it's time for the story of the other Other Boleyn Girl.
- Unconfessed, by Yvette Chistianse -- The premise, following a slave in a South African prison who murdered her son, hits right in the solar plexus, but I'm a little suspicious of any nook that "alternates between exhausted lament, seething rage and scripture-tinged poetic soliloquy."
- The Rising Tide: A Novel of the Second World War, by Jeff Shaara -- The subtitle is useful, since it tells us Robert E. Lee will not be making an appearance.
- A Dangerous Love, by Bertrice Small -- Part one of an "action-packed erotic tale set in the English and Scottish borderlands just before and during the Tudor period." I have to admit, it's the combination of the pulpy ("action packed erotic") and precise ("just before and during the Tudor period") that makes me want to pick this up.
- The Last Van Gogh, by Alyson Richman -- Doctor's daughter sleeps with earless artist.
- A Fine Crack of Light, by Pam Jenoff -- Billed as a "historical romance," but the plot, Polish Jew spies on, and maybe falls for, Nazi Commandant, sounds intriguing.
- The Tailor's Daughter, by Janice Graham -- "How much can one middle-class Victorian-era woman endure?" You know, I'm okay staying in the dark on this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment