- Jubilee offer: spend £10 or more on any product sold by Amazon.co.uk on or before June 6 and you can buy The Diamond Jubilee A Classical Celebration Album for just £2.50 Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Charmingly and humourously told.' TLS
Product Description
The year is 1142, and all England is in the iron grip of a civil war. And within the sheltered cloisters of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, there begins a chain of events no less momentous than the political upheavals of the outside world. First, there is the sad demise of Richard Ludel, Lord of Eyton, whose ten year old son and heir, also named Richard, is a pupil at the Abbey. Supported by the Abbot Radulfus, the boy refuses to surrender his new powers to Dionysia, his furious, formidable grandmother. A stranger to the region is the hermit Cuthred, who enjoys the protection of Lady Dionysia, and whose young companion Hycacinth, befriends Richard. Despite his reputation for holiness, Cuthred's arrival heralds a series of mishaps for the monks. When Richard disappears and a corspe is found in Eyton forest, Brother Cadfael is once more forced to leave the tranquility of his herb garden and devote his knowledge of human nature to tracking down a ruthless murderer.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
IT WAS on the eighteenth day of October of that year 1142 that Richard Ludel, hereditary tenant of the manor of Eaton, died of a debilitating weakness, left after wounds received at the battle of Lincoln, in the service of King Stephen. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
IT WAS on the eighteenth day of October of that year 1142 that Richard Ludel, hereditary tenant of the manor of Eaton, died of a debilitating weakness, left after wounds received at the battle of Lincoln, in the service of King Stephen. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the fourteenth novel in Ellis Peters's Cadfael series, and if you've got this far, there's not much more to say! There is the usual well-written scene-setting, and the usual well-thought-through plot. It is interesting how the crime may appear solved, but there always remains open an issue that will suddenly - and convincingly - push matters along a new twisted path.
Peters's continues her good way with words, writing clearly and persuasively, and with an eye to informing too. For instance, of the settlements of Eaton and Eyton, she says there was "barely a mile between" them: "The very names sprang from the same root, though time had prised them apart, and the Norman passion for order and formulation had fixed and ratified the differences."
There is a rare and welcome faint whiff of homosexuality in this novel, with the young lad Hyacinth arousing a "slight stir of disquiet ... in those cloistered breasts". And, "What was an antique saint doing with an unnerving fairy thing in his employ?" It is surprising how Peters's never referred more often to the temptations of the same sex that all monasteries by their very nature must have had.
No doubt a few holes can be picked in this tale, for example it is strange to say the least that the hermit should be accepted and established as such so soon after arriving in the area, but Cadfael is such an enjoyable character that we can forgive such small matters. As usual, Peters employs well the ever-tolerant Cadfael as a lightning rod for the sense of the humane. So, when Hugh the Sheriff talks of black sheep, Cadfael argues that, "There are very few all black ... Dappled, perhaps ... most of us have a few mottles about us."
As for historical matters, the author always remains on sure ground. Although one might question the actual need in canon law for a priest to officiate at a wedding at this time, Peters's insistence on the accuracy of the historical framework, in particular the latest events in the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, re-assures me that any divergence from historical fact will be slight and short-lived.
Peters's continues her good way with words, writing clearly and persuasively, and with an eye to informing too. For instance, of the settlements of Eaton and Eyton, she says there was "barely a mile between" them: "The very names sprang from the same root, though time had prised them apart, and the Norman passion for order and formulation had fixed and ratified the differences."
There is a rare and welcome faint whiff of homosexuality in this novel, with the young lad Hyacinth arousing a "slight stir of disquiet ... in those cloistered breasts". And, "What was an antique saint doing with an unnerving fairy thing in his employ?" It is surprising how Peters's never referred more often to the temptations of the same sex that all monasteries by their very nature must have had.
No doubt a few holes can be picked in this tale, for example it is strange to say the least that the hermit should be accepted and established as such so soon after arriving in the area, but Cadfael is such an enjoyable character that we can forgive such small matters. As usual, Peters employs well the ever-tolerant Cadfael as a lightning rod for the sense of the humane. So, when Hugh the Sheriff talks of black sheep, Cadfael argues that, "There are very few all black ... Dappled, perhaps ... most of us have a few mottles about us."
As for historical matters, the author always remains on sure ground. Although one might question the actual need in canon law for a priest to officiate at a wedding at this time, Peters's insistence on the accuracy of the historical framework, in particular the latest events in the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, re-assures me that any divergence from historical fact will be slight and short-lived.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A child is being forced to marry, a holy man comes round with a forest fawn. A man is murdered and the confusion is total. However, Ellis Peters through the hand and mind of Brother Cadfael leads us to a logical and complete explanation of these extraordinary events. Betrayal is the word but who betrays who?
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One of a Cadfael series of books by Ellis Peters Very good read as a detective story but also gives an insight into the 12th century monastary life in this country I have now got and enjoyed all the books in this series Even though Ellis Peters has been dead some years now her books do not seem to have lost their appeal
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
