Customer Reviews

Daughter of York: A Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

In this author's fictionalized history, Margaret of York leaves England in the late 15th century, during the last turbulent years of the War of the Roses, to be wed to Charles of Burgundy. When Edward IV takes the English throne, the York's ascendant at last, the country remains bedeviled by the armies of Margaret d' Anjou, wife of the incompetent Henry VI, on behalf of the Lancastrians. Margaret of York's marriage is meant to cement the relationship with Burgundy, forming a barrier to Louis of France, who manipulates behind the scenes for his country's advantage. Saddened to leave her brothers, Edward IV, George of Clarence and Richard of York, Margaret understands her duty; she has harbored dreams of romantic love, a scenario unlikely for one of royal birth, whose marriage is arranged for political advantage, love incidental and rare. Nevertheless she has set her affections on Anthony Woodville, married brother of Edward's controversial new queen, Elizabeth Woodville.

Edward has been expected to marry well at the diplomatic direction of "the Kingmaker", the earl of Warwick, but Edward shocks everyone by choosing Elizabeth, besotted with her beauty. Soon the clever new queen begins a systematic positioning of family members, upsetting the powerful Neville's. While Edward indulges himself with a woman who will bring as much trouble to his reign as did the infamous Margaret d' Anjou, Margaret of York has no such luxury, her only comfort the company of Anthony Woodville on the voyage to Burgundy. Knowing they are not meant to be together, Margaret and Anthony's unrequited love is the only balm the young wife will know for many years as Charles's mate. The Duke of Burgundy is an ambitious, warlike man, determined not to be like his womanizing father. Not at his best when dealing with the weaker sex, Charles does not require much of Margaret, nor does he give much.

Quickly realizing that her marriage will be far from what she had imagined, Margaret adapts, affectionately welcoming Charles's daughter, Mary, his heir, learning the language of her subjects and moving frequently from place to place to keep the peace against Charles' constant demands for more troops and taxes to fund his aggressions. Easter Smith portrays a courageous, lonely woman who is beloved of her people, unable to bear children and brutalized by her husband. Buoyed by secret missives from Woodville over the years, Margaret learns of England's continuing trouble from afar, Warwick's rebellion, George of Clarence's foolish ambitions and Louis's evil machinations, clinging to a fanciful love but enduring a painful existence. Ably written from the perspective outside England, the second half of the lengthy novel is more rewarding than the first, Margaret coming into her own through a series of challenges that she must face alone.

Margaret's drama is powerful, her heart with her country, yet also with her new home and her loyal retainers and counselors. It is a lonely place for a woman with enormous responsibility, who asks little from life but love. Easter Smith makes her fictional case, and well- by the end I am caught up in Margaret's world, hoping for the impossible only to be shocked by the final chapter and the Author's Note. Luan Gaines/ 2008.

The overwhelming romantic entanglement in this novel, set in 15th century England and Burgundy, is admitted by the author as possible, maybe probable. It has no basis in discovered fact. Though Margaret, sister to a King and a political pawn, possibly was enamored with Anthony Woodville, Lord Scales (Lord through his wife Eliza), the relationship doesn't have a lot of depth, although a lot of romantic emotion.

Charles the Bold of Burgundy is drawn two dimensionally as well, the anti-Anthony. His cruelty and implied misogyny in response to his father Philip's profligacy is well outlined by the author, but it's hard to believe he was thoroughly evil. The clothing of all concerned was well described.

Basically, this is historical romance, and not historical fiction. Entertaining perhaps, but little meat.

I was not only completely bored by the time I finished this book, I was also angry when I read the author's notes at the end and found that the entire love story between Margaret and Anthony never existed. She made it up. Wasn't that the basis of this entire book? Per her notes, she did say that two highly-qualified researchers of Margaret said it may have been possible because both Margaret and Anthony liked books. Huh???

The author even says in her notes she would be disappointed when her own research came up with facts that didn't fit in with the story she wanted to tell.

Case in Point: Margaret at one times adopts the care of a boy. In the book, this was put forth as the son of her murdered brother, George. Again, at the end, the author says there's no records that this was so (meaning, once again, she made it up). Actual records do show that Margaret did overtake the care of a boy, but later records have no mention of him.

As an avid reader of both historical fiction and non-fiction of English and European royalty and families, I'm well aware that certain liberties have to be taken in the form of fictional characters, conversations, and events. However, in my opinion, this was nothing more than a fictional novel where the author made an authentic person the main character, and then made up a story around her actual whereabouts and family.

If you want fiction, laced with boring stories about made-up ladies-in-waiting's arguments and secrets, and a some explicit sex scenes, this is your book. Otherwise, don't waste your time.

I tried to give no stars to this book, but I was required to give at least one.

I love Anne, and I loved A Rose for a Crown, so I am disappointed that this novel did not hold my attention. It starts off good, when Margaret is still at her brother's court, but about the time she marries Charles the Bold it goes into nothingness. Because she is away from the English Court and does not maintain contact with her family, we don't hear much of anything that is going on there, and there is certainly not much going on in Burgandy at this time. I knew the ending to the story, and was disappointed that it wasn't added in the book. When you have 600 pages I expected it to cover Margaret's whole life which gets much more interesting and involved after 1480 (when the novel ends). I can see that Ms. Smith wanted the book to end on a "happy note" but the "happy note" makes for a boring book. I think this story could have easily been told in 300 pages or less. I do love reading about this time period in British history, and this book would not cause me to look unfavorably on future novels from Ms. Smith. This one just didn't really possess any action or substance.

I'm a voracious English history reader, and historical fiction is a great way to learn about the basic facts about who was who and what the major dramatic points were. I got this book to help me understand more about the War of the Roses.

This book is not keeping my attention. I am having trouble getting into the lead character and her daily activities, crushes, friends (like her silly little sidekick, Fortunata). It's lacking in passion and suspense for me.

This is my first try with this author, not sure if I will go back for more.

Life in two medieval courts, those of England's Yorkist King Edward IV and the Duke of Burgundy's Charles the Bold, is the focus of Daughter of York. As the youngest sister of the King of England, Margaret has no life of her own, subject to the decisions of her brother, and later, her husband, a man she would never have chosen for herself. But duty prevails over the dictates of the heart, and Margaret becomes Duchess of Burgundy, wife of the brutish Charles. Unable to find happiness in her marriage, Margaret is forced to find solace elsewhere - in the loyalty of her favorite servant, the dwarf Fortunata, in the memory of her true love, the already married Anthony Woodville, in her devotion to the welfare of England, Burgundy, and the poor and sick, and in her genuine love for her stepdaughter Mary.

Daughter of York chronicles Margaret's personal and political experiences, as well as her on-again, off-again romance with the unattainable Anthony, in vivid detail. What is missing from this long novel is movement, with the first third of the plot devoted to Margaret's longing for a husband, and the rest devoted to her suffering with her dastardly, boorish husband and her unfulfilled hopes for a child.

Although her personal situation leaves much to be desired, Margaret has been well trained by her mother to political astuteness. Indeed, if this historical bio can be believed (the romance with Anthony is not based upon fact), her intelligence and diplomatic skills rival those of her more famous predecessor, Eleanor of Acquitaine. The novel has a cliffhanger of an ending, with a puppy and a promise of happiness to come. There must be a sequel in the offing.

I really disliked this novel. It was supposedly researched, but there is so much speculation in the plot that she might as well have written some trashy "historical" romance and just made up the people and the situations. The gratutious sex was not appreciated, either. Read another author's works, such as Sharon Kay Penman. This one is not worth spending time on.

I am a huge fan of historical fiction. That being said, this book was the most insufferably boring and at times plainly irritating piece of historical fiction I have ever had the misfortune to read. Its lures readers in with the promise of a sweeping story- that of a young woman entangled in the web of political deception and clandestine romance. It tries to make you believe it's akin to a Philippa Gregory novel, and you might even end up paying the sixteen dollars for it. But soon after reading its first chapter, you will come to regret this decision for many reasons.

First, and probably most gratingly, are the novel's characters. Margaret is portrayed as a sort of Mary Sue, and as hard as this author tries to make her believable (and it's apparent that she tries very hard), I still had a difficult time believing Margaret of York was such a paragon of perfection. She's always diplomatic, she prays about seven hundred million times a day, she has the utmost dignity, and everyone around her seems to worship the ground she walks on. She worries and worries and worries about the most trivial of things, and is constantly praying for forgiveness from any number of saints for the slightest 'trespasses'. Halfway through the novel, you will find yourself desperately wishing for it all to stop. 'Just shut up, Margaret!' I wanted to scream. 'Nobody cares!' Anthony Woodville is possibly even more pretentious with his over-the-top piety. The romantic scenes are completely spoiled by these two because immediately after their amazing!mind-blowing!oh-so-ardent! escapades, they spend another fifty pages worrying about their immortal souls.

This book's second problem lies in the dialogue. The prose is flowery, and the dialogue is doubly so. Every other sentence is ended with the phrase, 'in truth', and Margaret and Anthony's letters are so completely purple, they're almost painful to read. And these are only two examples.

However, I must mention that in the characterization of Margaret's brothers, mainly George and King Edward, the book found its saving grace. Of all the characters, they seemed the most human, although they too sometimes lapsed into a two-dimensional form. On the whole, I would not recommend this novel to anyone, especially if you are used to the exceptional works of those such as Ms. Gregory , Karleen Koen, Jean Plaidy and the like.

I enjoy reading alot of English historical novels and looked forward to this one because it supposedly told the story of an overlooked personage, Margaret of York, later to become the wife of the Duke of Burgundy. I am not going to retell the story here because other commenters have done that. I am merely commenting on my reaction to it.

The book itself was overly long with far too much of what I call "filler" - lengthy passages which do nothing to move the story along and just make the book seem more scholarly - which it is not. Before you decide to read the whole book, I suggest you read the author's comments at the end wherein she admits there is little historical fact backing up her main storylines and, in particular, the theme throughout the book of Margaret's love affair with Anthony Woodville.

This was definitely not one of those books I could not put down - quite the opposite. I did put it down frequently but did keep going, hoping for something at the end to have made the long read worthwhile. There wasn't. The story just ended.

This was a boring book and a huge disappointment.

I so wanted to like this book. The cover is wonderful. If only the contents had lived up to the cover art.

From the first page I was struck by how lifeless the writing and characters were as I had expected so much better.

I am a devoted Yorkist, with many years of research in the field, but I did not know as much about Margaret as I wished. I cannot claim that this book added much to my knowledge of her.

The high note for me was suddenly realizing that this was during the reign of Louis, the Spider King of France, so the Duke of Burgundy Margaret had married had to be the subject of the wonderful line, "And, to Hell with Burgundy" in the Song of the Vagabonds from Friml's musical The Vagabond King.

I also enjoyed the limited descriptions of the landscape, buildings, trade, tapestries, etc. in Burgundy at this time.

I was very annoyed by the fake love affair with Anthony Woodville. There is absolutely no historical evidence of such a relationship, and to claim that it was possible is about as possible as the moon being made of green cheese or that I am the rightful Queen of England. (I am descended from Margaret's brother Edward via an illegitimate child of Edward's grandson Henry VIII, so anything is possible.)

I was also very aware of Woodville's eventual fate and throughout the book had to wonder how Margaret would feel towards her brother Richard after he had her supposed beloved executed.

Fortunately, the novel ends before Margaret has to deal with such a dilemma.

I was also uncomfortable with her adoption of what is clearly her brother Edward's illegitimate son, for all the claim that the boy was George's child, and feel that this was setting the stage for Perkin Warbeck.

I can see how people who were not familiar with the period or characters might find this a good book, and that angers me as it is spreading false information.