A quirky little middle grade historical fiction I picked up after reading reference to it in anohter book and thinking it would fit my need for a novel about Eleanor of Aquitaine rather well.
Plot in a Nutshell
Eleanor of Aquitaine sits in Heaven, some years after having made it ‘Up’ and believes that today is the day her husband Henry might be judged and able to also ascend. As she waits she reflects with three of the key people from her past and together they tell her story.
Thoughts
Firstly I really enjoyed the structure of the novel. The grounding anchor of the characters being in Heaven was something I was unsure of going into the novel but actually really enjoyed. The theology is very loose and Koningsburg creates a touch of humour by neatly explaining the principle of many people needing to spend time in Hell first to balance out their issues before coming Up. There are not, she says a lot of straight Up executives. This humour I think lightens the premise without becoming disrespectful.
Anyway it created a very different way to introduce Eleanor’s story. It’s also actually very clever way of telling a quite long and complicated story without getting bogged down in all of the details of Plantagenet history . Eleanor is one of my favourite historical figures with an incredibly long life for her time and a rich set of experiences that span much of medieval Europe. Overall I think this does good justice to her, especially for the target audience.
By having four different narrators, Eleanor herself and three others who each only know her at a certain point in her life you get four fun and different voices. The first is Abbot Suger who reflects on his experiences of the young but determined daughter of Aquitaine and her time as the Queen of France. We see her love of the arts and beauty but also her determination and influence, the story of her time on Crusade is the high point here and something I have read less about given it comes pre her second marriage. Koningsburg gives a slightly cynical voice here, the Abbot gives thanks to God regularly but also is busy amassing great beauty and wealth.
The empress Matilda, Henry’s mother narrates the second piece. Here Koningsburg gives the reader some sense of the huge changes Henry made in England and the complexities of Kingdom in this period. I loved that she doesn’t shy away from the failures Eleanor and Henry made with their children.
William Marshall takes over and covers Eleanor’s period of exile in Salisbury. The nitpicky bit of me wants to correct to Sarum! Eleanor steps in and covers in the rest offering a speedy but highly self satisfied summary of her support of her two sons in their reigns.
These different voices keep the story moving along. They also allow us to see Eleanor perhaps a little as she might have been seen. She is not fixed and her complexities shine through. She is glamorous, difficult, politically astute, vain, determined and often entirely convinced of the correctness of her own actions.
There are places that the history is not as clean as it could be but the broad brushes of an extraordinary character are there. There is also perhaps a sense of this being a modern story than the reality. This is partially because there is not a lot of historical detail about anything other than the people but I think was a chosen trade off. The aim here I believe is to make Eleanor interesting and relevant.
Where period detail does emerge I can imagine it having been really fun for the target audience. I loved Louis’ mothers frustrations with Eleanor’s tapestries for example as well as some of the details about the tournaments and competitions In later sections.
The more unpleasant parts of Eleanor’s world are not ignored, either, although they are handled quickly and somewhat gently. Richard’s painful death is here, as is at least one of Henry’s affair, Eleanor’s long imprisonment and the vicious dynastic conflicts between her sons. None of it is dwelt on for long, but neither is Eleanor’s life turned into a simple procession of glamorous medieval adventures. A slightly funny and engaging historical novel that does justice to the length of Eleanor’s life and her significant impact without pretending to be more than that.