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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is history that reads like a "nail biter" novel,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Last Plantagenets (Library Binding)
I have an old dog eared paperback of this book. I thought
it was long out of print. This and the other three books
about the Plantagenets by the same author contain some of
the most stirring history of the english speaking peoples.
It is hard to believe that a history book could be a page
turner, but it's true. They should be required reading in
high school, for then our young citizens can gain a proper
appreciation of the magnificent beginnings of democracy in
England and how our own freedoms, now taken for granted,
were won by boody struggles and the wisdom of far-seeing
men. This series on the Plantagenets begins with Henry II
and his consort, Eleanor of Aquitaine (a wise lady far ahead
of her time), and ends with the death of Richard III on
Bosworth Field at the hands of the future Henry VII. At the
end of this volume the author muses on the mingling of the
Saxon and Norman cultures and how they together created
an England that brought back the beacon of democracy and
respect for human rights for a dark and oppressed world.
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant and addicting,
By
This review is from: The Last Plantagenets (Library Binding)
The last installment of the "A History of the Plantagenents" succeeds admirably. Costain has a way of transferring is love and excitement of a subject onto his pages. It's a method that has yet to be rivaled. He gives each character a distinct personality no matter how trivial. William Caxton being a prime example. About half the book is concentrated on Richard II, which is fine because most historians either concentrate on the Black Prince or Henry V and skip over him. Here we see a sympathetic monarch who was easily bullied and who made some bad decisions early in his reign. After Richard II, he continues on through the kings until Richard III. Here he breaks protocol and gives evidence in defense of Shakespeare hunchback, citing Tudor propaganda as the catalyst. Normally, Costain is careful to present detailed accounts of both sides to an arguement, but here he takes a stance. It is quite refreshing and readers will eat it up. Highly recommended as well as the others in the series. My uncle gave me these books and I plan on returning the favor when the next generation comes my way. Treasure these.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good historian; good storyteller,
By
This review is from: The Last Plantagenets (Library Binding)
Mr. Costain is a very good historian. His scholarship is thorough and his conclusions are always logically wrought and sometimes surprising. His sensibilities are surprisingly contemporary, although I would not term him a "revisionist," (he wrote this history in the 1950s). For example, in his defense of Richard III (in this, the final book in this four-volume history) he travails against conventional opinion to demonstrate why King Richard was, indeed, not the Richard III of Thomas More as popularized by Shakespeare and held true to this day. And in the first volume, the author dashes myth and idle folklore to side with those historians who portray Eleanor of Aquitaine as the wise and effective check on Henry II and her sons that, she no doubt was. In so doing he disperses, through well-reasoned argument, the rumors and "Entertainment-Tonight" kind of fluff (History-Lite) that many still believe. I had been told these four volumes were classics. After reading them, but without being a scholar of history, I think those critical readers might be right. Certainly, Mr. Costain opened my eyes to a different kind of history telling, one in which an historian does not hesitate to conjecture or opine openly and to honestly make his case and then leave it for a reader's judgement. From front to back, from first through fourth volumes, this is a valuable and pleasurable experience. Mr Costain, presents, argues, harangues convention and, always entertains with a use of the language that is as sharp as his reasoning and as precise as his scholarship. Mr. Costain is a very good story-teller.
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