Customer Reviews

Elaine the Fair

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The book Elaine the Fair, oddly, was such an imortant part of my life. It is the first book I put in my permanant collection.....I cant bare to lend it out, and I re-read it once a year.

My Junior Yr in high school, I was rummaging around the library in San Diego, when I happened upon "Elaine the Fair". Now, I was never the girl to read fairytales, or romance novels. I knew nothing of history, I practically flunked it. But for some reason,....after putting the book down, something struck me and drew me back to that book, I returned to grab it before I left the library.Once started, I hungrily ate the book, hardly stopping to eat or sleep. It drew me into its world. It was also the first book that I ever read "elicit content" and it was quite naughty to keep around my house. It was like a forbidden treat, for a young girl coming of age, to see books talking about things I had yet to experience.

So, a few months go by, and I go back to the library to get the book & re-read it. But.... I forgot the title. "Something" the Fair.... I only remembered the cover picture of the hand drawn girl in a red dress and a brick wall. I knew the section where I found the book, so I went through every isle, every row, every book.... looking for the cover I remembered. I was there for hours. I left with tears in my eyes ......and no book. I don't know why I was crying, but I was. I returned several times, looking for the book . Finally, after several attempts, I found it. How, I don't remember, but I found it was all that mattered. I was impatient to get home and revisit it and be "transported" back into that world.

Fast forward several years later, my now ex-husband heard me tell him this story and somehow he found the book, out of print and nearly impossible to find. That was my one & only Christmas gift I got from him that year.

I still have it. I will always have it. Although the cover of the girl in the red dress in front of the brick wall is long, long, gone. It was the first book I ever put in my permanent collection. Since I devour books like a ravenous animal, I rarely keep them. I normally give them to my friends to read, we pass them around, then when we are all done, we donate them to a local library or an old folks home.

So, now I am a BIG history buff, in fact, historical Novels are my preferance..... and I blame it on "Elaine"

The details of history, scenes and people in Tims amazing writing abilities make it come alive.


SPOILER ALERT:
My 2 favorite parts of "Elaine" were:
- the two women meeting on the aftermath of the battle field, looking for their loves.
- But hands down, was the revelation, that our hero was THE Robin Hood.

The book was received in like new condition. I am very satisfied with the service and quality.

Ok, what I can say about this book...When I saw how long it was, I was really excited. I love medieval novels, whetehr they are factual, fictional, mythical, whatever. I thought this was a great book that I could bury my head in for a long time! And it was. The story is very good. I really enjoyed the characters and anticipation. Some areas seemed to have dragged on for far too long and could have been edited down, but I still enjoyed the anticipation of reading further to get to the climax of the story. It was a great spin off of a really well known story in history (I won't say which one cause I think knowing actually takes some of the edge off). When I read this book, I didn't know it was a remake or the other story, so imagine my surprise when it finally came out who our hero was! I was stunned! And it made sense! So, the story was good and I recommend it.
However, that being said, the story, itself, had way too many extremely elaborate sex scenes, and i mean ELABORATE. pornographic, really. As a lover of medieval romance, I am used to the enevitable love scene in a story and I am not easily offended, nor squeemish. But THIS...this was over the top. Sotomy. really senseless sexual content placed even into scenes that need not be sexual. Even scenes with women sitting around knitting would mention how "wet" they were...really? I don't need to know that, thanks. It was profuse, overly detailed, didn't leave anything to the imagination and was sort of like reading the screen play of a porn movie, really. It can be pretty demeening in some places, having women forced into pretty dirty sexual acts, but I guess that is an acurate portrayal of the times, so I'll let them have that. there were times where I just skipped reading the sex scene page altogether because it was just getting out of hand and raunchy. Again, I'm no prude. but this is more than the stuff to make ya blush; this is full on, hard core, fetish stuff in some spots...
All in all, if you can get past the sort of disburbing sexual content it displays throughout the whole story, it is a well written story and I am glad I read it, because it was good book with action, love, villains, everything that makes a good story. So, I give it 4 stars. Even though I thought the sexual content was over-bearing, I realize writting such a novel is a talent and a gift, and I thought his writing, aside from the raunch, was well done. I wish I could recommend it to my friends/family, but its so raunchy, I'd be embarrassed to give it to my mom! HAHA. In fact, my mother-in-law lent it to me and I told my husband how shocked I am that she (who is a medieval lover, but conservative) would ever read this, like it, and share it with me! He told his mom, and she laughed and said it was one of the books she hasn't read yet....that made me feel better LOL

So I just saw the trailer for "King Arthur"-- another Jerry Bruckheimer joint. Well, Mr. Bruckheimer, you need to read this book!

Last time I went to Europe I brought "Elaine the Fair" with me, and I read the whole thing in just a couple of days. While it is VERY long (a good editor could've shaved a few hundred pages off), it is worth the time.

An incredible story, well told, and it has all the elements of a blockbuster movie... Each chapter drove forward with an astounding, almost magical intensity. There are powerful moments that are described deftly by Taylor. One image burned into my mind is Elaine, covered only in blood, wielding a sword (too large for a woman normally) against an onslaught of attackers.

Excellent book! And to think it's based on historical facts...

I am an avid reader and I love historical fiction. I was quite excited to find a book with so many pages (900 or more) in this genre. As I started reading I was dismayed to stumble across a scene that was horribly degrading to women. This was the first sex scene in this book. But I kept reading hoping that was an anomaly and things would get better. Unfortunately, even after reading the entire book, things did not get better. (The premise that this was the back story to Robin Hood kept me interested....) In fact, the theme of sado-masochism occurred in every sex scene except the ones that dealt with the Duke (Roland). It seemed that the moral of the story is that a "real woman" will only truly love a man that will degrade her sexually & must be capable of giving her a child (Robin Hood). (Apparently, Roland, the Duke, who never humilated Elaine but loved her passionately and kindly was not a "real man".) This certainly does not correspond with my current take on Robin Hood at all. I can honestly say that I NEVER pictured him with this particular behavior. (EVER.....)

After having read "Maid Marion" by Elsa Watson a few months ago, and LOVING that book, the idea of a rough, aggressive, domineering, and woman-hating Robin Hood was a shock. I only hope that I can "delete" the image I got of him reading while Elaine the Fair. I may have to get Maid Marion again and superimpose that sweet, loving, masculine, fun-loving man back into my brain.

I think this was really just an excuse to write a book with a historical fiction premise in order to churn out a pseudo-pornographic story. I hope I don't mistake another good book for sleazy trash that promotes the idea that all women (and especially "real women") like men to control, dominate and degrade them. If this kind of story excites you, then you will love it. And, unfortunately, it seems with more and more males watching porn on the internet and then insisting that their wives and girlfriends act out these insulting behaviors, that this will become more acceptable and will pass as acceptable behavior between men and women. So far most of the historical fiction I have read (and I have been kinda obsessed with this category for a couple of years and read books alot) don't seem to have a lot of this in them. I guess that was why this book was so disappointing to me. Am I the only one who is concerned in this regard?

A left wing, liberal woman with an open mind who puts her foot down.....