⋙ Libro Gratis Captive Queen A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine Alison Weir Books

Captive Queen A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine Alison Weir Books

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Captive Queen A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine Alison Weir Books

I have enjoyed Allison Wiers novels for many years now so I was excited to see that I had missed reading one, The Captive Queen. I eagerly started it but was disappointed very early on to realize that the first half of it read like a trashy romance novel. I feel horrible even saying that since I have so much respect for her as a writer, but this book just started off so differently then many of her others. It did redeem itself more towards the end, when it was relying less on Eleanor and Henry's sexual escapades, but by then I was almost just trying to finish it up to move on. I have no issue with sex in a book, it's a part of life, I just don't think the plot of the story should rely solely on that like so much of this did early on. There is more to this woman than that! I gave it three stars because the second half was written much better and more interestingly but if I was reviewing just the first half I honestly probably would've given it only one star. So sorry Ms. Weir, I loved your other novels! I find Eleanor of Aquitaine to be very interesting and I absolutely loved the two novels by Christie English about her. I would recommend those to anyone looking for a well written historical Eleanor novel.


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Captive Queen A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine Alison Weir Books Reviews

Great book, yes some of it was a bit overboard but for a subject who is a woman ( not much written about her) and is around 900 years ago, Ms. Weir did quite well. I wanted to know more about a Great-Grandmother of mine, and I feel that I did.
Having read Weir's non-fiction, I am a huge fan of her ability to bring history to life. This is the first time I have read her fiction, and her uncertainty in the genre is evident. She seems to want to write a romance novel, since all Eleanor can think about is sex for the first few chapters. There is very little sense of what her life was like as the young wife of the King of France--other than he's pretty boring in bed, and she has had more than one affair (pretty reckless behavior for any queen!). There is not enough background about her childhood, so we don't get a sense of who she is and what she thinks, other than her random, overwhelming sexual desires. Very little is noted about her parents. I didn't really like Eleanor very much, and thought she resembled Catherine Howard.

It does get better. Once she marries Henry and their battles begin, it gets more interesting. Eleanor is pretty naive, regarding her sovereignty over Aquitaine and other regions. Although she was a queen in her own right, and the wealthiest woman in Europe because of her land holdings, she seems unaware of the feudal laws regarding her husband's power over her property. She also seems pretty stupid sometimes-- for example, after being imprisoned for many months, she is visited by Henry, and she starts taunting Henry with remarks about her non-existent affair with a court musician. This just earns her more imprisonment, and this SURPRISES her.

The chapters about her jealousy of Thomas Beckett, and how events surrounding him unravel, is the best part of the book, by far. Whenever Weir slips out of her fiction mode, and into a more factual historic point of view, the book improves dramatically. Weir is able to find Eleanor's voice by the end of the book, and it is overall a decent read.

I'm willing to bet that Weir's next work of fiction will be much better than this one, and I will definitely read whatever it turns out to be. Reviews here for her other fictional work are encouraging, but this book fell flat.
I bought this book because I like history, and knew only a little about Eleanor of Aquitaine. The focus is on her marriage to Henry, the English king, covering her annulment from her marriage to the French king--despite two daughters of that marriage--degrees of blood relationship or even having slept with a relative of the husband or wife could be grounds. Eleven years older than the eighteen-year-old Henry when they met, here they immediately go to bed, and agree to get the annulment and marry. They have many children, and passion at first, until he turns from her to Rosamund, a fourteen-year-old girl when they meet. Thomas Becket, who became Archbishop of Canterbury, is portrayed much less sympathetically here than usual, instead of suddenly holy, he just seems bullheaded and determined to defy his king. The conflict between Eleanor and Henry is over her wish to rule Aquitaine herself as its Duchess, and when their sons are teenagers, their wish to rule their portions of his empire he had granted them. Henry is too jealous of his power as king to allow it, and though it seems laughable today that sons barely teenagers could have the sense or maturity to rule what amounted to a small country, they war with Henry to do it, with Eleanor on their side. The bulk of the book revolves around their frequent resort to arms against their father, Eleanor's long imprisonment for supporting them, and the thirst for power on the part of every character in the drama. Eleanor's beauty was famed, and she lived to old age, though Henry died at fifty-seven, broken at last by the two sons who outlived him.
I read this historical novel a few years ago. But since I am re-reading the actual biography that Alison Weir had written about Eleanor of Aquitaine I am reminded of what I had really enjoyed in the novel itself. Eleanor is a character that easily lends itself to drama as she had such a strong personality and her life encapsulated the extremes of experience a human being can go through in life. What comes out particularly strongly is the strong sexuality that emanates from her and which provides such a spark in her relationship with her second husband, Henry II. I remember Alison saying that she had received some criticism for highlighting this but speaking for myself I found it an energizing part of the story and personality of Eleanor. There is high emotion throughout and even when Eleanor gets older she is depicted as full of energy and enthusiasm for living life to the full. It is a novel brimming with interest and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a highly strung story and wishes to get an overall impression of one of the most exciting royal personalities of the Middle Ages.
I have enjoyed Allison Wiers novels for many years now so I was excited to see that I had missed reading one, The Captive Queen. I eagerly started it but was disappointed very early on to realize that the first half of it read like a trashy romance novel. I feel horrible even saying that since I have so much respect for her as a writer, but this book just started off so differently then many of her others. It did redeem itself more towards the end, when it was relying less on Eleanor and Henry's sexual escapades, but by then I was almost just trying to finish it up to move on. I have no issue with sex in a book, it's a part of life, I just don't think the plot of the story should rely solely on that like so much of this did early on. There is more to this woman than that! I gave it three stars because the second half was written much better and more interestingly but if I was reviewing just the first half I honestly probably would've given it only one star. So sorry Ms. Weir, I loved your other novels! I find Eleanor of Aquitaine to be very interesting and I absolutely loved the two novels by Christie English about her. I would recommend those to anyone looking for a well written historical Eleanor novel.