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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Sweeping story of a real life saga, March 27, 2006
This review is from: Harold the King (Paperback)
I belive I've read every fictional account of the life of King Harold, William the Conqueror, and Edward the Confessor. This book ranks among the best of them and will share a place in my bookcase with Housecarl and Cold Heart, Cruel Hand by Laurence J. Brown and Lord of Sunset by Parke Godwin - my other favorites. Hollick has developed each character beautifully - and while they don't deviate dramatically from other accounts of the characters, they are fully developed, interesting, and believable. Her insesrtion of Queen Emma (mother of Edward the Confessor) at the beginning of the story was a terrific idea. Her presence helped to understand Harold's father and his shaky relationship to King Edward, the embittered and ambitious Queen Edith (Harold's sister) and King Edward himself. I especially enjoyed her telling of the love between Harold and Edith Swanneck. It was a beautiful love story that did justice to my belief that Harold was a devoted and loving husband and father to her. Her telling of their love actually made the introduction of Aldyth (his legal wife) painful to read. I could feel the anquish the characters must surely have felt themselves. I personally agree with the notion that Harold's oath to William was extremely coerced and that William took liberties in relaying the "support" of the Pope. Little time was spent on the actual battles - especially Stamford Bridge. However, what she lacked in recounting military details, she made up for in her story of Harold himself. I was touched by his love for his family, his sadness that a few of his siblings could have grown into cold, selfish individuals. I apppreciated Harold's self-doubt, his physical limitations, and his continual longing to have been simply a husband and father. The epilogue and author's notes should not be missed. They bring an additional depth to the story that leaves me so hungry for more!. How sad that Harold's story comes to and end on that hillside in 1066. Harold embodies a quote I heard by General Bull Halsey..."There are few great men; just great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet." Harold was an ordinary man - son, father, husband, brother, and yes...king.
But the circumstances of his lifetime led him down the path of greatness and he is truly one of the greatest figures in English history and the story of his life and death is one of the greatest you could hope to find.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating tale of Pre-Conquest England and the last Saxon King of England, May 10, 2008
Harold the King, a sequel of sorts to A Hollow Crown (AHC was written after HTK), beings in 1043 as Edward the Confessor (as he was named after his death) rules England along with his aging mother the Dowager Queen Emma, and Harold's father Godwine is the second most powerful man in England. Harold falls in love with a woman he cannot marry, Edyth Swannhaels, but they are hand fasted and begin a lifelong relationship. The story also parallels the life of Duke William of Normandy as fate, treachery and a weak king with no heir spins England out of control leaving it ripe for picking at the hands of the Norman aggressors.
While most of us know the story of the 1066 Conquest and what follows afterward, there is so little that is known of the period and politics leading up to that event, and I very much enjoyed getting an "inside" look at this period. I loved the strong and vulnerable aspects of Harold's character (have the tissue ready for the end), along with the implacable and terrifying Duke William of Normandy. I have to admit that the first part of the book was a bit slow for me, but that was because I had recently read Valerie Anand's Gildenford so I was having a lot of déjà vu, but once I passed where Anand's book ended I was thoroughly engrossed and had a hard time putting this one down. Highly recommended for any lover of medieval fiction or for those interested in England prior to The Conquest.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The definite work about King Harold, December 15, 2005
This review is from: Harold the King (Paperback)
Ok, so we all know the ending! But Helen Hollick's masterful and moving account of Pre-Conquest England still carries the reader along on an enthralling journey to that moment. I loved this book, absolutely could not put it down. I thought I
was an old cynic but it made me cry in all the right places to.
Helen Hollick is a consumate story teller with the rare gift of giving her characters life beyond the printed page, reading her novel was like a journey back to Anglo Saxon England in a time machine. I felt I could breath the same air, hear the same sound and meet her characters. I cannot recommend this book enough
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