Isabella: Queen Without a Conscience [Paperback]

Rachel Bard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2007

In her day the beauteous Isabella of Angouleme was called a Jezebel, a sorceress, an adulteress. As the young bride of King John of England she was charged with seducing John into neglecting his kingly duties. Back in her native land she and her second husband were accused of trying to assassinate the King of France. Now meet the real Isabella, Relive the turbulent twelfth and thirteenth centuries when France and England were struggling for control of western France. You'll encounter kings and queens, popes and prelates, warriors and courtiers who were the power elite of their day. You'll become intimately acquainted with this fascinating and enigmatic woman, prey to strong passions and ambitions, aware of the power of her beauty, willing to dare all in order to be and be seen as queen.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rachel Bard had written eight nonfiction books, from histories to travel guides, when she took up fiction. The heroine of her first historical novel, Queen Without a Country, was Berengaria, wife of King Richard the Lionheart. In Isabella she examines the life of Isabella of Angouleme, who succeeded Berengaria on the English throne. Her next, A Reed in the Wind, stars Joanna, Queen of Sicily, sister of Richard. Research for her novels has taken the author to England, France, Cyprus, Sicily, Spain--the whole panorama of medieval Europe. She currently lives on Vashon Island near Seattle.

Product Details

• Paperback: 460 pages
• Publisher: Book Publishers Network; 1st edition (October 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887542566
• ISBN-13: 978-1887542562
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,220,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad ... but somewhat bland, June 5, 2009

By 

Rachel (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Isabella: Queen Without a Conscience (Paperback)

I really enjoyed Rachel Bard's first novel, "Queen without a Country," which focused on Berengaria of Navarre, and was looking forward to this one. Isabella of Angouleme, the wife of King John of England, is another interesting medieval queen who tends to get somewhat overlooked in historical fiction (when I first saw the title I initially thought it referred to another notorious Isabella, Edward II's Queen). I'm only aware of Jean Plaidy's novels that featured her, so I had high hopes for a new retelling.

The language is accessible and it is an easy read, with some sense of the period, although the style of writing was not as visually evocative as it was in Bard's first novel. The dialogue is modern English, but not ridiculously so.

However, while this was not a *bad* book, it read more like a first draft than the finished product. The use of alternating first person narratives, when done well, can be very compelling; however it is a risk, and extremely difficult to get away with. Unfortunately, it really did not work. There were far too many narrators - Isabella herself, a lady in waiting, King John, Hugh de Lusignan, and so it went on - with little distinction in style between the different voices. Bard would have been much better advised to stick with Isabella's POV, or use alternating limited third person or third person omniscient.

The opening of the book has Isabella telling us that her life was nothing like the way the hostile chroniclers have portrayed her, but we're not really *shown* this (to be honest, there were times when it comes across as though the chroniclers were right!). In fact, telling rather than showing, and a great deal of exposition, is one of the main issues I had with it. Further, the latter part of the novel, dealing with Isabella's life-after-John, is extremely rushed. At the end of it, I still did not have a clear picture of Isabella as a character, as opposed to Isabella-the-myth.

I didn't dislike this novel, but I was somewhat disappointed. For anyone interested in this period, I don't seek to discourage you from reading it, but suggest borrowing it from the library and then buy it if you love it.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating period, a bewitching heroine, January 15, 2008

By 

Susan "Satisfied reader" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Isabella: Queen Without a Conscience (Paperback)

I loved Isabella. In particular, I appreciated Bard's cuing me at the beginning of each chapter as to whose voice I would be hearing. It's a complicated book about a complicated time in medieval history when battle lines and loyalties seemed to shift with every season, but Rachel Bard has made these shifts seem inevitable.

I was recently traveling by train from Paris to Bordeaux and so passed many towns that were part of Isabella's life. It was wonderful to be able to look at them and remember what went on there all those years ago when a headstrong young princess was growing up, defending and defining herself.

I understand that there will be a third medieval queen book coming out soon and I can hardly wait to dive into it.

Hurray for making stodgy European history into a vivid, lively tale!

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Story Lens to View History, January 21, 2008

By 

Ann Spiers - See all my reviews

This review is from: Isabella: Queen Without a Conscience (Paperback)

This book has been the answer to my gift-giving quandaries. I have given copies to travelers, history buffs, readers looking for a good tale, and girls and women who love a woman's story.

Author Bard shows that Isabella and other royal women (even today) live three lives at once, all interacting, none independent. The intertwining lives involve Isabella's own selfhood, her family, and her country. Bard does this exploration well. No act on Isabella's part is free of these three responsibilities, and the consequences can be joyful, tragic, but most are mixed. We follow Isabella as a virgin girl, wife to English King John, mother, adulterer, again wife, and finally widow.

Skillfuly helping this exploration, the story shifts first-person narration among the players while artfully keeping Isabella as our focus. As the plot progresses, story sections are told by Isabella, King John, a lady in waiting, lover, mother-in-law Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, second husband, and her son, English King Henry. What the multiple points of view allow is clarity of motivation, humor, plot complexity, reversals, foreshadowing, tension, and easily and concisely accessed historical and cultural details.

The read is smooth--enabled by the layout and type face as well as by being impeccably edited and proofed. Major publishing houses could learn from Bard.