Norah Lofts, The Lute Player

[pargoletta]

For reasons unknown to me, I got a hankering to read a book that I'd last read half a lifetime ago, when I was sixteen. It's a piece of historical fiction by Norah Lofts, called Crown of Aloes, about Queen Isabella I of Spain, she of "Ferdinand and Isabella," the one who sent Columbus out to discover new routes to India. One of the things that I

Comments

[valmora]

*gibbers incoherently in acquisitory excitement*

(but why couldn't you have posted this entry about five hours ago so I would have been able to run over to the library and check it out so that I could read it on the plane tomorrow! Because VC fails at having fun reading and I'd have to wait a week to get it...wait a second. if I order it now, it should be there waiting for me when I get back! bwee!)

[pargoletta]

I'm about halfway through it right now, and I am definitely enjoying it. There was a brief section from the lute player's POV using his given name of Edward, then a section in the voice of Anna of Apieta, and I'm almost to the end of the section in the voice of Eleanor of Aquitaine. I think that another Blondel POV section comes next, and then another one from Anna of Apieta.

Honestly, the women characters are so well written and so engaging to read that it doesn't matter whether or not Richard was "making an alliance" with Philip II of France, or just why he's procrastinating on his wedding to Berengaria. Anna and Eleanor are entirely worth picking up this book for.

I remember that Isabella was like that in Crown of Aloes, too, which I will re-read after I'm done with The Lute Player.

[valmora]

I requested the book to be loaned at school so it will be waiting for me when I return! Or at least within a couple of days of my return, anyway. Tee hee, so much stuff to pick up when I get to school! So little free time in which to enjoy it...

[pargoletta]

I think that, after I finish this and re-read Crown of Aloes, I'm going to go back to the library for her book about Eleanor of Aquitaine. And then dither for a week over whether to imagine Katharine Hepburn or Glenn Close in the starring role . . .

[valmora]

On a more sensible note, I've devoted not insignificant amounts of time to thinking about female characters in books, why I hate so many of them, and whether I would be less interested in reading about fictional male characters boinking each other if I were interested in more female characters. *throws that out at the lions of debate to see if anyone bites*

[pargoletta]

It's entirely possible. Really engaging female characters aren't half as common as they should be. I think that's one of the reasons that The Lion in Winter is so wonderful, because both Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II share the stage as true equals, and even Princess Alys of France gets her share of zingers.

[valmora]

One could make a case that I dislike (in the sense of have basically zero desire to read or write) slash fiction about Aral Vorkosigan (vorkosigan saga, which you really should read in your MYTHICAL FREE TIME), despite canonicity of his homosexual leanings, is basically because I heart his wife, Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan. Whereas I have no problem with, say, Miles Vorkosigan slash fic because Miles's wife, no matter how cool she may be (she has her moments), kind of sometimes drives me up the wall. Though that may have more to do with how inferior the books she appears in are to the ones where she's not (for reasons rather unrelated to her existence).

Um, um, more examples...Discworld might count? Argh, is too late at night for this. Going to bed. Will muse on it later.

[pargoletta]

I have read a couple of the Vorkosigan books, and I've enjoyed them. Cordelia definitely kicks major-league ass.

I also like Marge Piercy for writing good female characters. Who occasionally tend to be lesbians even in Revolutionary France, so there you have it. And Catherine Asaro (the only person I've ever heard of who is a writer, a ballerina, and a nuclear physicist) writes very interesting books that are part hard science fiction and part gooshy romance . . . it's hard to explain how that combination works, but it does. Some books better than others, but, on the whole, it works. And her female characters tend to be pretty interesting.

[vampyreofdeath]

Ooo, I'll have to read it! I've been looking for something to occupy my time anyway (school is, at this point, beyond math, rather pointless. I do, quite literally, nothing all day.)

Funny coincidence that you should bring up a historical figure that might have been gay, though. We were just studying Alexander the Great in my Ancient History class and watched a documentary that actually mentioned, in a bit of detail, his possible bisexuality and explored his male relationships (the only documentary on Alexander that I've seen do that).

[pargoletta]

I think that someone needs to get to college very soon . . .

Speculating on the sexuality of historical figures is always a dicey game, for a couple of reasons. First of all, unless they're Ancient Greeks or something like that, there won't be lots of detailed information describing it -- you get References. Second of all, the modern concept of homosexuality only dates back to the late nineteenth century, so you really have to be careful when you label someone who lived earlier than that as "gay," because their concept of themselves would not necessarily match our understanding of the terms "gay" and "straight."

(This is part of what makes writing the Caro-verse so much fun.)

Norah Lofts

[anonymous]

For those of you who have not read Norah Lofts - pargolettas review of her Eleanor ones may have whetted your appetite . If so rush out immediately to rhe library and get as many as you can- and they are beign reissued too. In many of them ,somewhere there is just hint of same sex love, usually a bit one sided and sad though.
Quite apart from that, she is a wonderful author and you may care to look at teh Goodreads site under Fans of Norah Lofts for interesting discussions