Customer Reviews

Revenge of the Rose: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this juicy novel, and would highly recommend it to anyone who takes pleasure in clever writing. As with the Fool's Tale (a truly wonderful book!), Galland snared me with her characters. I am most likely to reject a book if the characters are not people I can believe in, or care about, so I've put aside many a skillfully written novel on those grounds. This book will not dissapoint, but I warn you not to begin it if you won't be able to treat yourself to a minor obsession until you're done.

I eagerly picked up this novel in a pre-publication galley because I was such a huge and surprised fan of "The Fool's Tale." I was both happy to re-encounter Galland's quick and smart prose, and surprised by how different this novel is. It's less dark, ultimately, than her first novel, but quicker, odder, and more irreverent. If "The Fool's Tale" was how people coped with the various political and personal rules of life among the medieval nobility, this is a book about how people -- or, one brilliant person -- goes about subverting it. Because of that, it has an element of the fantastic: surely, no one Back Then was ever as resourceful, clever, wise and ultimately powerful as the minstrel Jouglet. But by the end of the book, it doesn't matter, just as it doesn't matter that there's never been a spy as good as James Bond. In both cases, though, you fondly hope there were.

Once again, Galland writes a historical romance that's safe for people who hate historical romances. And she does more than that: not only is this not about virtuous knights and shy maidens in castles, it's about people who laugh at those cliches, and spend their lives doing their best to escape the restrictions imposed by them. Among other things, in a world in which everyone, and everybody, is restricted as to who they can be, what they can do, even who they are allowed to speak to, Galland creates someone who achieves something like complete freedom. You end up impressed, and even envious.

I'm not giving it five stars, by the way, only because in the end I still preferred The Fool's Tale, because I personally tend towards the dark. But this is a great read, and will keep Galland's growing legions of fans happy until her next book.

Nicole Galland's Revenge of the Rose is an interesting twist on the medieval 'Romance of the Rose.' Its strengths are the delightful characters, the interesting presentation of historical detail for an entirely fictional background, and, my favorite, a strong heroine. Its major weakness is Galland's tendency to visualize the entire novel with little attention to interior states [this is more screenplay than novel]; her novels are very visual, but she needs to work at moving from screenplays to novels. That said, the conclusion is among the most satisfying I have ever read. It's a winner!

This book was exciting, had good twist and turns, and interesting plot lines, but it was not as good as Fool's Tale. Maybe it was just the subject matter, but I loved the Fool's Tale so much more. Overall this book had no trouble keeping my interest, and it was funny and caught me by surprise a few times.

If you want a book that's great for beach reading, or when you just want to be completely carried away into another world, this book is it. (You can read other reviews for the historical context and type of genre.) What was important to me was that Ms. Galland integrated suspense, chivalry, betrayals, and surprises to create a veritable literary feast! I couldn't put the book down until I reached the very end, and then I felt completely sated, my literary stomach full and content, because not one aspect of the story was overcooked or underdone; everything was in its place at the table and it all fit together. The only problem: it left me looking forward to the next literary 'meal' from Ms. Galland, and hoping it's just as tasty!

Revenge of the Rose is an enjoyable romantic period piece that is unlike any I have read. Utterly fictional, it reads as though it might have been based on historical fact, but other than cultural 12th century descriptions there is nothing authentic about any of the political events within these pages. Richly drawn, sumptuously developed, it is a sugarplum of smug distraction and diversion, and will delight any reader not bent on correlating it with actual history or actual period culture. But it's fun anyway.

As the naïve Burgundian knight Willem acquaints himself with the ruthless machinations of the 12th century German court, he relies utterly on the crafty minstrel Jouglet for advice and guidance. Intrigue, betrayal, and romance take the reader on a journey that is a feast of visual detail. I felt transported to some foreign court and could see, hear and smell the banquets and tournaments.

It took me a couple of attempts and a couple of chapters to warm to the author's style. I prefer period novels that hang on a bit of actual history. For that reason, this is but a pale suggestion of the style of Philippa Gregory. But for pure fantasy, it is an excellent read, and well worth purchasing. Great by the fire, or at the beach. Once embraced, it was difficult to put the book down. I hope the screenplay or teleplay is optioned, as it will write itself and do very well.

When I first started reading The Revenge of the Rose, I absolutely gobbled it up. The book creates a lush, vivid picture of courtly life and sets up some interesting characters, which immediately drew me in. I particularly enjoy historical fiction as a genre because, when done well, this is exactly what it offers to the reader. While I do think it's acceptable for an author of historical fiction to take some license, I don't like a book that strays too far from the line. When it does, it should be called fantasy.

Therein lies the problems with The Revenge of the Rose. In the beginning, it's an engaging novel about fascinating characters who are caught up in all sorts of 13th century intrigue. History is stranger than fiction, for the most part, so this is a very believable premise. However, in order for historical fiction to really work, that intrigue has to fit within the constraints of the particular time period it is describing. The Revenge of the Rose does not. Once Jouglet's big secret is revealed, it's all downhill from there, and I found the plot increasingly implausible as the story wound toward its ending.

What really disturbed me about the novel, though, was that I couldn't figure out what Galland was trying to say. I initially thought she was bringing something of a feminist bent to the work, trying to show how women were devalued and exposing the absurdity of this. Pretty much every man in the book is a sexist pig, many of them either verging on the edge of misogyny or long since tumbled over the precipice. I couldn't make sense of why Galland would set up a story about how women are mistreated by men and then, subsequently, doom her female characters to lives with those men. For instance, Jouglet is determined to make Lienor the empress--but why? Okay, she would have plenty of wealth and creature comforts as the empress, that's undeniable. However, Jouglet knows exactly how little value Konrad has for women. Why on earth would Jouglet want to shackle someone so deeply cherished, someone who is such an extraordinary example of female perfection, to such a man? I found this completely unfathomable.

Even worse than the attitudes of the men were their actions. Both Willem and Erec commit rather brutal acts against women and, yet, they are more or less instantly forgiven. What gives? Why would female characters who are railing against the misfortunes they suffer at the hands of men so quick to forgive the men who make them suffer misfortunes? This aspect of the novel really bothered me.

Most egregious of all, though, is the middle section of the book in which Willem mopes and Jouglet tries to cajole him out of his bad humor. Lather, rinse, repeat. I had to force myself to read through this section as I was eager to find out what would ultimately happen to the characters. It is a section that should never have been allowed to happen as the characters are basically repeating themselves ad nauseam. Liberal editing was not only required here, it would have been a mercy to the reader.

The bottom line is that, while I understand that the novel was constructed as something of a comedy of errors, I was just not convinced by it. Furthermore, I take issue with the note at the end of the book admonishing the "historical purist" that they shouldn't worry about this and should just enjoy the story. I take it as a bad sign when an author feels the need to chastise her audience into liking her story.

This was a lot of fun. It's a silly love story, really, although it is a complicated silly love story set against a backdrop of the court of the Holy Roman Emperor in the thirteenth century. There is delightful interplay between the tenets of courtly love and people--and situations--not being quite what they seem. The prose is clear if not awe-inspiring, and the story is really quite a treat. A great summertime read.

Inspired by a thirteenth-century poem called "Roman de la Rose," "Revenge of the Rose" envelops readers in a thrilling tale of courtly love, political intrigue, and cunning wit. The minstrel Jouglet is a riveting character whose schemes and quick-mind made me laugh out loud, while the main characters of Willem and Lienor provide an irresistible combination of the idealistic knight trying (too hard) to protect his spirited sister from the ways of the world. Galland weaves their stories into an incredibly well-developed, unpredictable plot that will keep you guessing until the very last page. And though the novel feels like historical fiction, I was surprised to learn in the author's notes that the court of Emperor Konrad - where much of the story takes place - did not exist, nor did the personalities and politics around him. As an avid historical fiction reader this revelation truly delighted me, and revealed the depth of Galland's talent. Combining her vivid imagination with a profound knowledge of history she was able to create an entirely new world, filled with characters you wish really existed.

I must preface this by stating that I love historical fiction: but fiction based on real people and real events. ROSE is fiction of a fantasy type, while nicely crafted and framed in large by descriptive narrative, it falls short of being a gripping tale of the true historical type.

I could not warm to the idea of a fictional Holy Roman Emperor, but the other characters were well painted and the story is interesting, while the minstrel who is a large character has a secret that could have been further developed into real suspense, she is still front and center for most of the book.

Like much women's fiction, and I class it thusly for its sophmoric style, it explains too much to us as if we have no prior knowledge of the times, and it ends with the pat ending of such tales which is not always realistic.

But then, it never pretends to be other than what it is: a nice light read and a romp.