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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Revelation, 31 Dec 2004
A funny, wonderful, challenging journey into Renaissance Europe is brought to life by the author's impressive scholarship and obvious love of historical detail. For Dunnett the past is more than just a convenient source of drama, costume and turn of phrase. Drama there is plenty of - there are great battle scenes and moments of passion, hand to hand combat with sword, dagger and staff. But the real concern is always the characters - powerful men and strong women move through a time of great potential and vibrancy. Many of the characters are historical figures - de Medici bankers, flanders merchants, nobility. And of course there is Claes, at the start seeming like no more than a simple clownish apprentice youth, the depths of his personality and talents are slowly exposed piece by piece through the book. And yet at the end more questions have been raised than answered about his motivations, his actions. And this is a trait of the whole book. Expect to be baffled. Much of the tension rests on ambiguity and missing pieces. Some of the developments and motivations make little sense without knowledge of the political and economic situation of late fifteenth centuary europe. And this information is not always fully given - the author often only barely sketches the intricate background and leaves the reader to work out the the motivations behind the calculations and actions of the players. Expect to be challenged. Anyone who has ever tried to picture the immediate reality of daily life in a far away time and place will find a lot of joy here. All through the intricate plot developments and intensity of dialogue she brings from years of research into history, trade and industry a very real awareness of how people lived - the smells, the sights, the sounds of a medieval city, of a dyehouse, a castle. More than just the wealth of detail there is a sense of how individuals fitted into the bigger picture of kings and battles. The fall of Constantinople to the Turks a few years before the events of the book is the cause of many of the shifts of power and intrigue. The same goes for the war of the roses, the conflict between the French King and his son, the Dauphin. At times the book seems to be recounting many games of chess, all on the same board, sharing many pieces. And one game in particular. Excellent.
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by Dorothy Dunnett
by Dorothy Dunnett
by Dorothy Dunnett
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