The Sunne In Splendour: A Novel of Richard III [Paperback]

Sharon Kay Penman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 22, 2008

A glorious novel of the controversial Richard III---a monarch betrayed in life by his allies and betrayed in death by history

In this beautifully rendered modern classic, Sharon Kay Penman redeems Richard III---vilified as the bitter, twisted, scheming hunchback who murdered his nephews, the princes in the Tower---from his maligned place in history with a dazzling combination of research and storytelling.

 

Born into the treacherous courts of fifteenth-century England, in the midst of what history has called The War of the Roses, Richard was raised in the shadow of his charismatic brother, King Edward IV. Loyal to his friends and passionately in love with the one woman who was denied him, Richard emerges as a gifted man far more sinned against than sinning.

 

This magnificent retelling of his life is ?lled with all of the sights and sounds of battle, the customs and lore of the ?fteenth century, the rigors of court politics, and the passions and prejudices of royalty.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A painstakingly drawn picture of royal medieval England from bedchamber to battleground.”
---Los Angeles Times Book Review

“The reader is left with the haunting sensation that perhaps the good a man does can live after him---especially in the hands of a dedicated historian.”
---The San Diego Union

“Those who know Richard III from Shakespeare will find that Sharon Kay Penman presents a contrasting view of the English monarch . . . He’s an altogether nice man, a romantic hero as suitable to our late twentieth-century standards . . . as he was to those of medieval England . . . There is a vengeful quality to her insistence that is appealing; it makes for a good story.”
---The New York Times Book Review

“Ms. Penman’s novel, rich in detail and research, attempts to set the record straight . . . it is an uncommonly fine novel, one that brings a far-off time to brilliant life.”
---Chattanooga Daily Times

From the Publisher

        As a publisher I have been lucky to be able to visit bookstores all over the country, independent and chain alike. What interests me first about these stores is what titles are being displayed in the 'Staff Recommends' section of the store. It is here that you can find treasured, beloved books quite dear to someone who works in the stores, someone waiting quite eagerly for the chance to hand sell their recommended titles.

        It is in these Staff Recommend sections that I kept on seeing our Penman's titles, HERE BE DRAGONS, FALLS THE SHADOW, THE RECKONING and also SUNNE IN SPLENDOUR and WHEN CHRIST AND HIS SAINTS SLEPT.
It's funny, you can sell something for years before you notice that the author has been quietly making a powerful impact on people everywhere.

        I started with HERE BE DRAGONS and I have never looked back. Her trilogy of the decline of the Welsh kings ( DRAGON, FALLS THE SHADOW and THE RECKONING)is a holiday gift I give year after year, and I'm happy to say they have always been embraced and loved. From my 15 year old niece to my 70 year old mother and many ages in between, all readers are enchanted and transported to a land and an age gone forever. But Penman makes them live forever in our minds and hearts with fantastic, unforgettable characters and wonderful history. HERE BE DRAGONS is such a great title--medieval mapmakes would write those words across any part of the map that was unknown.. a wonderful metaphor for how little the Welsh and English knew of each other.

        SUNNE IN SPLENDOUR--Warning: This is not Shakespeare's Richard III. In this novel, Richard is a victim of circumstance and man vilified by the Tudors, but here presented as a decent and normal man, a man of conscience.
AND he is not a murderer. Yes, those princes did die, but not by Richard's hand.

        WHEN CHRIST AND HIS SAINTS SLEPT

Another wonderful title, for it refers to the 15 years of England's darkest time-the civil war between the cousins Queen Maud and King Steven. England was deserted, for Christ and his saints were sleeping. I had never even heard of these royals. Queen Maud was the legitimate heir to the throne, but a woman, and there fore not fit to rule. She is also the mother of Henry, who later married Eleanor of Aquitaine . Pretty heady stuff, more incredible men and women, another book to get totally lost in.

        Although it has been years since all these books were first published, I can name 5 stores I have been in in the past 3 months that have one of these titles in the Staff Recommends section.

-Alice Kesterson, Ballantine Regional Sales Manger --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 944 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (January 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031237593X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312375935
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (243 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am an American of Irish-English-Welsh heritage, and I currently live in New Jersey, although many of my readers imagine I am happily dwelling upon a Welsh mountaintop--but no such luck. I was once a tax lawyer, which I looked upon as penance for my sins. Like most writers, I was born with a love of the written word, although I never expected to be able to support myself as a writer; when you read about starving artists in their garrets, most of them have starving writers as roommates. But I was very lucky and I have been blessed to make my living as a writer for the past twenty-seven years or so. All of my novels--eleven at last count--are set in the Middle Ages, and focus upon England's most colorful dynasty, the Plantagenets. It is almost as if they lived their dramatic and often wildly improbable lives with future historical novelists in mind, and I am very grateful to them--especially to the Angevins,Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine and their equally famous children, known to their contemporaries as the Devil's Brood.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

320 of 327 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Richard III Society's Anthem July 21, 2002

By Richard R. Carlton

Format:Paperback

Although Penman may be paying court to the Richard III Society, the controversy is strengthened (I still think he killed the kids). OK, so I'm not very open minded on Richard.....but Penman had me convinced throughout the read that I was wrong. This speaks well for her reputation as one of the best historical novelists. This is where she started. Her special genius lies in the bright and shining historical detail that she can weave into both plot and dialog (she's a very good student of history and at times is absolutely brilliant in conveying to us the workings of medieval minds).

I have no problem with Penman's romantic feelings about her heros. From Eleanor in the 1st trilogy to Joanna in Here Be Dragons to her raising the standard of Simon de Montfort as a visionary (but historically too early) icon of democracy, she does use them as a vehicle to carry forward a dynamic presentation of history....all in the best traditions of the historical novel.

Penman's true genius is the broad historical scope that is painted on top of the shimmering details of brief moments. It truely does feel as if you are living the story yourself, and it is this bringing us readers in as witnesses that stands as Penman's contribution to the art of the historical
novel.

If you prefer to read in chronological order:
1101-1154 When Christ And His Saints Slept (Vol 1 of Trilogy)
1156-1171 Time And Space (Vol 2 of Trilogy)
12th Cent Devil's Brood (Vol 3 of Trilogy)- not yet released
1192-1193 The Queen's Man
1193 Cruel As The Grave
1183-1232 Here Be Dragons (Vol 1 of Welsh Trilogy)
1231-1267 Falls The Shadow (Vol 2 of Welsh Trilogy)
1271-1283 The Reckoning (Vol 3 of Welsh Trilogy)
1459-1492 The Sunne In Splendour

72 of 72 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Five, Ten, ONE HUNDRED STARS! My Kingdom for this Book! July 4, 2001

By E. A. Lewis

Format:Paperback

Is it fair to review a book that changed your life? No, literally. At fourteen I stayed up until four in the morning, devouring this story of medieval power and politics, and have been a medieval historian ever since.

Penman has done a fantastic job of turning dry historical fact into fascinating and believable historical fiction. People's motives are not simple and easily understandable in real life, and the sometimes-conflicting drives and needs and desires of the cast of thousands in this book live up to that fact.

While undeniable sympathetic to King Richard the Third, it is not a cloying, simplistic, Good King Richard whitewash. Instead, it portrays the much-maligned king as an adoring younger brother left adrift when his idol dies and proves to have been less than perfect.

Supporting characters are equally complex, from the self-destructive King Edward to the self-absorbed Kingmaker, Warwick, from the unlikely queen Elizabeth Woodville to the helpless pawn, Elizabeth of York, from the insane King Henry VI to the ambitious King Henry VII. Possibly the only black villain in the piece is the Duke of Buckingham; everyone else is painted in shades of grey that make them honest people, rather than props.

If you can't stand historical novels because they are boring, read this. ...It's better than the tabloids!

92 of 94 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Practically Perfect June 10, 2003

By Patricia A. Powell VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is the best of the historic fiction genre. I cannot recall the last time I enjoyed a 900+ page novel so much. The Sunne in Splendour is an historic novel about the War of the Roses and its players; its about Warwick, Edward, Richard, Henry the last, Lancastrian king, Marguerite d’Anjou, the Woodvilles, the Nevilles, and the Tudors. Having read Allison Weir’s history, The War of the Roses, and having seen Shakespeare’s Richard III, I thought I knew a bit about both the story and the players. But I never quite saw them the story in this light.

One reviewer described this book as daring. I agree. Unlike Shakespeare, and the histories written by Tudor sycophants, Penman (through historic fiction) portrays Richard sympathetically, and heroically. She represents his claim to the throne as legitimate and creates a plausible alternative to disappearance of the princes in the tower, one in which Richard is quite innocent.

This is a story full of power struggles, warfare, greed, and avarice. It is a story full of malice, politics betrayal, murder, and yes love.

Is should be hard to care about people who lived in the 15th century, but it is not. Sharon Kay Penman brings all of the characters and their many faces to life. She tells the story to the 30+ years of warfare. We all know that history is written by the victorious. Five centuries after the events, Penman brilliantly gives Richard III a voice.

I highly recommend this book.