Where Lady Jane Grey Falls to Queen Mary

The Tower of London by William Harrison Ainsworth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Tower of London, published in 1840, is a medieval romance historical fiction novel set in 1553, and virtually all action takes place at the castle in the title. It is written in the high ornate style of the time, very similar to the tone and style of Sir Walter Scott, and it compares favorably with his writing. I liked it. It's very entertaining, full of lots of surprises, and informative. A great deal of it is fiction (I mean, there are ghosts), but there's a lot of concrete factual information found here, too, and it was an education.

From the title, it is clear that Ainsworth is partly telling the story of a place. In the same way that Hugo, in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, incorporated direct instruction into the layout of Paris and especially the famous cathedral, Ainsworth takes pains to instruct the reader in the various towers, throne rooms, dungeons, and other buildings on the site of the Tower of London. In fact, it becomes obvious that some of the action is included just so that he has an excuse to lead us to another interesting chamber. He literally stops telling the story to describe the construction and history of each location, directly addressing the reader. It is less distracting than it sounds; I found it mostly quaint.

His second purpose in the novel is to give us the story of Lady Jane Grey. The story begins with her arrival at the Tower as a new queen and follows her and those around her to the day of her death on the scaffold. (Sorry--spoiler.) The author is a gifted historian but also a gifted storyteller, and he supplies the reader with a lot of speculation, private conversation, intrigue, and invention to fill in the blank parts of the record. In addition to the main story of plotters and ambassadors and soldiers, he tells the story of many lesser characters in the castle, including their drinking and feasting and fighting and laughing. His favorites are three giants (supposedly bastards of Henry the VII) and a little person named Xit who is combative and proud, all of whom the author had enormous affection for. (Xit is like a smaller and even more foolish Falstaff who is more fortunate in his friends than the doomed Shakespeare character and lands on his feet after making a fool of himself, eventually receiving a knighthood.) The feasts are described in probably too much detail, but you know how they love their food in tales of the time.

Lady Jane Grey is made sympathetic, and even though you know perfectly well what's gonna happen to her, it's hard not to hope something will intervene. Queen Mary comes off as, well, bloody and vindictive, though not completely, and Elizabeth is treated as kinda complicit and kinda manipulated--but lucky. The men around these women are all ambitious and don't have enough sense to quit destroying themselves and everyone who loves them. Now, that sounds horrible, but the mix of melodrama and comedy and, here and there, gothic romance keeps the story from being too much of any one thing. Some folks won't like that; I did.

Again, those who liked anything by Hugo or Dumas or Scott are likely to find the writing of Ainsworth--language, plotting, characters, themes--similar enough to see a lot to like in this or another of his novels. Anyway, I did.

Recommended.

View all my reviews

Where Admirable Crichton Is an Understatement

The Novels of Willlam Harrison Ainsworth, Vol. 16: Crichton, Volume 1 by William Harrison Ainsworth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A year ago, I'd never heard of William Harrison Ainsworth. But that's a shame. He's an excellent 19th Century writer of historical romance, worthy of being mentioned alongside Dumas and Scott, and surely should be read by some of those authors' many fans. He's definitely got his own voice and manner, so it's not a slam dunk, but I find his books very entertaining.

This is the story of a brilliant Scotsman at the French court in 1579. It begins with Crichton facing and defeating the scholars at the University of Paris in debate. The historical Crichton supposedly spoke and wrote fluently in 12 languages, and this as a very young man, even a teen. The University proclaims him thereafter The Admirable Crichton.

But he was more than an impressive scholar; he was also the leading champion at the joust *and* Marguerite of Valois's lover (at some time before her husband, Henry of Navarre, became Henry IV of France). He was a devout Catholic, almost fanatic, putting him at odds with some of the protestant characters in the story, but as a gentleman and man of honor, he treats all with respect and fairness.

The villain of the story is Catherine de Medici, along with her astrologer, while her son the king, Henry III, falls somewhere in the middle. He's pretty villainous, TBH, but sometimes shows an honorable side. His mother has no good side at all.

From the moment Crichton emerges from the debate, he's involved in one intrigue or another, in one battle or another, saving one desperate young woman or another. He protects Marguerite, though he is ready to be done with the affair; he works to rescue Esclairmonde, a beautiful new mystery at court, who is an unwitting part of some scheme by Catherine de Medici and desired by the relentless king; and he fights to save the life of a young Italian singer who is fleeing from a nobleman of Gonzaga. At different times in the novel, he becomes the defender and champion of many other men and women.

The story is ambitious and complex, full of intrigues and plans put together in a moment and falling apart almost as quickly. It's a lot to follow, but not ridiculously so, though I'm sure a misunderstood the significance of many overheard details and bluffs and betrayals. Still, there is a lot of action to make the intrigues plainer, and if I missed something here and there I'm sure it doesn't matter that much.

The author's language is elevated and leans toward the scholarly, though it is still vigorous and active, and close to the language you find in a Scott novel. He likes to throw in songs and poetry as much as Tolkien ever did, generally to good effect (though I'm not a fan of the frequent Latin and French quotes that are not translated) and the author's erudition is most evident in these examples and his classical allusions. He might have been writing for a more educated class than I represent, but I've gotta admit I still really enjoyed it.

There are plenty of courtly scenes filled with dialogue, and people sneaking around to overhear plotting, but there's also lotsa action here--men looking for and finding trouble in pubs, and rowdies talking shit on campus until a riot breaks out, and bravos looking to assassinate the king, and knights jousting for a cheering public, and on and on. I find the combination of scholarly language and violent, mean, insulting behavior an entertaining mix, and I feel like his books should be more widely read. Bearing in mind all the usual caveats that go with literature of that era, this is a fun book and might well require a second reading someday.

Recommended.

View all my reviews

Another New-to-Me Old Timey Writer

Windsor Castle by William Harrison Ainsworth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn't know what to expect with this novel. I was hoping for something like Sir Walter Scott, and was pleased to find a lot of that, but it's also something of a fantasy or Gothic novel, and I liked the injection of supernatural. I thought it was a lot of fun.

The plot is a little unconventional; it's sort of the story of Anne Boleyn, but just what happened at Windsor Castle. It starts with her arrival in a big parade, before her marriage to Henry VIII, and ends with her at the block at the Tower (told from the King's perspective, out hunting near Windsor Castle, waiting for the cannons to fire, indicating her death). (Oh, yeah, spoiler--Anne Boleyn gets her head chopped off. Hope I'm not breaking news here.) There's also a section in the middle describing the castle throughout history, much like Hugo does with Notre Dame in Hunchback. It's purely non-fiction, the author talking to his readers, but as a digression it doesn't go on too long. It is odd though.

In between those points, there are several subplots, most of them centering on courtiers and their interactions with a demon or ghost--Herne the Hunter--who has some power in the land around the castle, and uses it to lead ambitious people astray. Anyone who accepts his help is doomed. In a way, his character helps makes sense of the chaos surrounding King Henry, connecting them all in a web of secrets and betrayals.

The ending makes sense, but I would have liked a few threads gathered up. I was hoping the supernatural Herne the Hunter would be destroyed or exorcised or something, but he's untouched at the end of the novel. And some of the subplots are tidied up so early--like 75% of the way through--that I was wondering again by the end how they were doing, if they were happy, if they had kids. A few happy endings near the finale would have eased the pain of the beheadings and other sad outcomes we end with. Still, somehow, even without an HEA it didn't seem like tragedy, though it pretty much was. I guess it feels like Anne had earned her fate, and the dead Catharine was getting her just revenge. So, yay, I guess?

I dunno. It worked for me.

There probably isn't a genre called Historical Gothic, but there should be, because this would fit squarely in it. The writing is clear and forceful, the action is brisk, and most of the plot is realistic, but it is paired with magic and the supernatural, giving it a fantasy feel. I like it.

This novel is not for everybody. I see most readers scored this 3 and under. But I liked it more than that. TBH, I almost gave this 5 stars instead of 4. If there were half points, I'd definitely have gone 4.5. I have several other novels by the author waiting to go that I'm straight up looking forward to reading, with high hopes.

Recommended for readers of Scott and Dumas and the like.

View all my reviews