This lyrically written historical fiction novel has been translated from the original French but without losing any of the gracefulness of the language.
Richard and Eleanor
Told from the point of view of Richard The Lionheart, The Revolt tells the story of Eleanor of Aquitaine, a fascinating woman of power and determination. We hear about Eleanor’s beginnings, her first husband and her overwhelming grief over losing her eldest son. All of these happen before Richard is born but he still recounts the story with the slight distance a child always has between them and their parent’s true thoughts and feelings.
We hear about Richard’s plans and desires. All of which are ultimately to please his emotionally distant mother. And we learn about the other children and their fates, with very little said about John.
It is interesting to see Richard from a French perspective. As an English person I have always considered him part of our history, but he was much more a part of French history than of ours. It is John who belongs to us, and he is side-lined from this book.
Inaccuracies
There are a few inaccuracies (or maybe they are the way history is told in France). For example, we are told Richard is Eleanor’s favourite whereas I have read that it was, in fact, John. There is no real mention of the King’s Ransom or John caretaking the throne while his brother pillaged the middle east, it is very much a romantic take on the legend of a man who we remember well, but failed at almost everything he did.
The book is well worth a read if you can ignore the bits you don’t agree with (or know to not be true). The author does state at the end that the book is not meant as a history book, there are liberties taken.
Ultimately, I enjoyed reading history from a perspective other than the male English take, it gives us perspective and allows us to challenge our own ideas. Which I think we should all be striving for.
Charlotte Wood is a feminist and writer of the macabre and sinister. She reads horror, fantasy, classic literature and historical fiction (with a preference for history from a woman’s perspective).