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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good story - a new perspective,
By
This review is from: Madselin (Hardcover)
Loving everything related to the Norman Conquest of England and preferring the English perspective, I eagerly ventured into a book that told the story from the view of an English WOMAN. Madselin is a young bride married to an elderly English lord, whom she views with contempt always having loved another man who she could not have. Suddently her dull, yet safe world is turned upside down by the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Most of them men and boys are dead. The majority of the population is killed or enslaved or in temporary hiding. Madeslin is given an opportunity for survival and to, perhaps, aid in the survival of some of her countrymen. She weds Rolf, the man who has been granted her dead husband's former holdings. This is where her adventure truly begins. She has led a life of ease and now must become vividly aware of the suffering of others, recognize some goodness within her "enemies", come to grips with the past, and move ahead to the future.
The author does a good job dealing with the changes to social structure and seems to understand rural life of the time. She de-romanticises the notion of lords and ladies, knights and their steeds by telling of the finanical burden they bring with them. She also tells a good tale about the idea of political marriage or marriage of convenience without illusions of a reluctant bride being swept away into a life of dazzling romance. This is NOT a thrilling accounto of the Battle of Hastings. For that try "Housecarl" by Laurence J. Brown. This is NOT an exciting tale of English resistance. For that try "Cold Heart, Cruel Hand" by Brown again. This IS a nice story about dealing with what cannot be changed in the past, and the present and learning to help shape your own future.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice break from the usual story set at the Conquest,
By bookjunkiereviews (India) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Madselin (Hardcover)
This review is written from the perspective of a romance reader (and an occasional dabbler into historical fiction of an earlier or later period). MADSELIN is a short but detail-packed book about a rather spoiled young woman who finds herself widowed, homeless and of no account when the Normans come to take possession of her rather isolated part of England. She grows from a sheltered and rather spoiled young woman into a woman who cares for her new husband's serfs and attempts to rescue a childhood friend and lover. Madselin is not perfect. She remains inactive at many crucial moments, failing to warn her new husband of problems that are developing in the estate (although she does act from time to time). Here is no super-heroine on the model so often seen in medieval romances, with modern attitudes. Madselin's thoughts and concerns are are mostly about herself, and not those who have been killed nor those who remain. But she is not an unkind woman, just one who is slow to mature. Part of her problem is that she is distrusted both by her husband's followers (as a Saxon) and by her first husband's people (as someone who has married a Norman willingly). This theme of falling between two worlds is rather interesting. How much does one adjust, and in what ways does Madselin gain and yet lose? The real interest in this story lies not in the romance between Madselin and her second husband (of which there is precious little, although there is growing trust and support on his part), but in the details of how the Saxons take or do not take to Norman conquest. Through the changes on this rather impoverished estate, we also see some of the problems faced by the more humane Norman lords who are not only imposing a foreign rule but also moving from the freer Anglo-Saxon society to rigid feudalism. Rolf is torn between the requirements of the King (that he build a castle) and the fact that all the estate resources are being poured into this same castle with all the problems that this entails for the future. Unfortunately, not all the characters are fleshed out in detail. We learn very little about Madselin's family (apart from her royally descended mother and her late elder sister) and we do not learn how she fitted into Saxon society. We learn even less about Rolf, except that he had a brutish father and he was not a knight. Rolf is however the King's Armourer and as such, has special privileges. Some of the secondary characters - the fearful and aged priest Alfled, the sullen waiting woman Hild, and a few of the peasants (now serfs) - are well fleshed-out. The others are less so - including Britt Four Ox, whose fortunes decline steadily through the novel. All in all, this is a well-written look at England in the time of the Conquest, and how one small isolated estate adjusts to the Normans. The first half was much stronger than the second half, but the plot held together reasonably well and there was sufficient depth in characterization to make the story readable if not memorable. Graded = B- (3.8) [Written September 30, 2002]
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
How do you survive after your country is conquered?,
By A Customer
This review is from: Madselin (Hardcover)
This is the dilemma facing Madselin. Luckily for her, she is a survivor, not a sentimentalist. She is left a widow during the Norman conquest which means she has lost everything. The Normans have taken her husband's manor home and all she ever possessed. Her mother was also killed defending her home. Madselin now has nowhere to go. She stays a few days at a convent and soon comes to the conclusion that the religious life is not for her. She decides to get to know her enemy a little bit better, approaches her old manor home accompanied by her maid-servant and asks the new lord of the manor for the body of her deceased husband. The Norman lord realizes that due to the difference in languages between the two peoples and the complete change of local government, a go-between would be useful. Since he is a single man and Madselin in a comely widow, a marriage between them would seem to be a reasonable move to make. Thus the story begins. I recommend this book because it sets the tone of life during the conquest, comparing the old Anglo-Saxon customs to the new Norman way of life which introduces feudalism to England. I enjoyed reading about how day to day life was conducted in the 11th century and how a castle is built. I also enjoyed the human interest stories which show not all the Saxons were good and all the Normans were bad. Life is never that simple. Good and bad exist everywhere and often times depends on your point of view. This was well expressed in the story. If stories of this type appeal to you, I would recommend Dorothy Clark Wilson's "Lincoln's Mothers" (about Abraham Lincoln's mother and step-mother), "Queen Dolley" (about Dolly Madison)and "Lady Washington" (about Martha Washington). Life on the frontier, life as a Quaker and how a plantation functions are all explained well in these stories. I enjoy real historical fiction and Madselin is precisely that. Enjoy!
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