I love Jean Plaidy's Plantagenet work! The literary world lost a great historical novelist when she died. I sometimes have a hard time getting into old books because of the totally different writing style of way-back-when, but Jean Plaidy always manages to get me immersed. She LIVED this! It amazes me that not only does she know everything about the Plantagenets, but also the Tudors, Stuarts, Hanovers, Normans, Capets, Bourbons, Medicis, Valois... etc. All the European royalty, basically. Here she makes a large time loop... 1136-1171, a thirty-five year span, topped, insofar as I know, only by Alison Weir's span of 38 years in Captive Queen. This novel is primarily about Eleanor of Aquitaine, from a year before her ascension to the Duchy of Aquitaine and the crown of France at age fifteen, to the murder of Thomas Becket when she was forty-nine. I like Eleanor here because she is such a strong woman yet such a loving mother. There is, of course, Henry II, who I hate, and I love Eleanor's encounter with Rosamund de Clifford in this book. Such drama! And then there is Thomas Becket. In this novel his mother was a Saracen- I wonder if that was true. And Thomas is a very saintly man, a man who, in Plaidy's novel, is not portrayed as a liar and a hypocrite, like he is in so many other works of historical fiction that like to paint Henry II as the betrayed-by-many "good guy". I LOVED Thomas Becket in here, and on the cover of my edition he is very handsome, really. I think he was a really admirable, brave guy who deserves to be a saint, unlike some medieval "saints" like Bernard of Clairvaux and Louis IX. And lastly, my beloved Henry the Young King, is here. Of course, like most people, Ms. Plaidy tends to disagree with me about him, but still, at least he was younger here. I wish he would've let Becket see him though I think what really happened was that he wanted to but others prevented the Archbishop. Especially because Young Henry loved him and said in grief when he died, "He showed me more fatherly love in a day then my father showed me in his life." Plaidy does a wonderful job portraying the religious turmoil and tumultuous times of Henry and Eleanor's stormy reign.
I love historical fiction. In fact, I read HF about a third of my time. When I discovered Jean Plaidy I decided I should read a series and selected Plantagenets. However, other books became more intriguing and I kept shelving the books. When someone requested this one, I decided I should read it and called the library.It is a good read! Plaidy makes Eleanor (English spelling) and Henry so real that I smiled when I read their conversations and quarrels.Eleanor, who views herself as the queen of love, keeps looking for someone to love. Marrying Louis of France, she discovers that he is no where near the man she wants. He is religious, weak, and passive. She wants excitement, adventure, and more. She dallies with her uncle who is handsome, charismatic and manly. She experiments with loving an infidel (an Arab). Eventually, she discovers Henry. He isn't handsome. He isn't fastidious, rather he is a bit sloppy in his dress. And, he's a womanizer but she falls deeply in love with him.Securing a divorce from Louis, she and Henry marry immediately. Henry becomes king of England and she, of course, is his queen. Plaidy follows their lives from that point. Eleanor revels in being adored but when Henry forms a friendship with Thomas Becket, she becomes jealous. She knows that Henry has many women but worries only when one becomes more important. When Henry brings a bastard son into her nursery she cannot forgive him. She knows that her charms are no longer enough to satisfy him. To keep Eleanor at the edge of his life, Henry wants to keep her pregnant. She cherishes her children when they are little. I found this to be a most enjoyable book. Plaidy makes each of her characters so real. I understand Eleanor - her fury and jealousy at times. Still she loved the man deeply. He was the center of her life even when he found someone much younger. When you like history with a realistic twist even through fiction's eyes you enjoy this Plaidy novel.
Do You like book The Plantagenet Prelude (2007)?
I hate not finishing a book, it really bugs me but I just didn't have the energy to go on. I love historical fiction, it is my favourite genre and I have read a couple of Jean Plaidy's books before but I was so disappointed with this one. The characters are boring and the background environment is never described. It made me not believe the characters and their situations. I felt that the story wasn't going anywhere and I got to the point where I didn't care what happened anyway. I nearly reserved the 2nd and 3rd book in this series and now I'm really glad I hadn't bothered. Not a patch on Philippa Gregory.
—ReaderSP
Eleanor of Aquitaine is not content to be heiress of the duchy of Aquitaine and rule over her Courts of Love. She is determined to be queen, and so she is - twice. Divorcing King Louis of France, she marries Henry Plantagenet, and helps him to the throne of England. No man could master Eleanor until King Henry: he must suffer the consequences. Eleanor has a beloved revengeful son, Richard the Lionheart, and Henry has a rival for power, Archbishop Thomas Becket.I started to reread this because I was in the mood for something light in this time period. After 30 years I had forgotten how very flat the style is. These are exciting if extraordinarily selfish people. To me, the style the author chose for her Jean Plaidy pen name squashes the life out of them.
—Joy
This book follows the story of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II King of England, and Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury. Starting from Eleanor's time in her own home, to her marriage and subsequent dissolution of the marriage to Louis King of France, to her marriage to the King of England (before he was king). In a manner that both tells a story and recounts a series of events this book highlights the time in England under a king with a legendary temper.For anyone who likes historical fictio
—Christina
