Customer Reviews

I will maintain

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This is really a wonderful book. It's very well written, and has an exciting storyline, which isn't usual for historical fiction a lot of times. Marjorie Bowen, painted a picture of William III of Orange, that I will never forget. The book is immensly powerful and I highly reccomend it!!

I am an admirer of William of Orange so it's not surprising I would prefer this novel to those that portray him as the caricature of Jacobite propaganda. I'll begin with the novel's weaknessess. The author occasionally makes the mistake of telling rather than showing and sometimes her descriptions are too detailed for my taste.

Now for the novel's strengths. I thought the author's characterizations of John de Witt and William of Orange were excellent. She makes it clear why these two men, both of whom loved their country, were fated to be political rivals. I liked the way she slowly reveals William's true feelings about his country and what he believes his role to be. The scene where William gives his famous reply to the Duke of Buckingham that there was one way never to see his country lost and that was to die in the last ditch is extremely well done as is the one where the States-General vote to use the sea as their ally against the invading French and cut the dykes. Finally, I admire the way the author handles the gruesome and tragic fate of the de Witt brothers. A modern writer would have described their deaths and the bodies' mutilations in graphic detail but I think the method this author uses of concentrating on the brothers as they are trapped at the Gevangenpoort is more effective. I also liked her device of using Cornelius de Witt's widow to foreshadow William's shattering grief at Mary's death.

To summarize, I would say the strengths in this novel far outweigh its weaknesses.I Will Maintain (Dodo Press)