MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Historical Novels, Period Dramas, etc. Should Not Exist!

badgoodDeb · 09-26-2016, 05:56 PM

The Underpants book above, mentions with high praise a novel I read a while back and loved -- so I'd best re-read it. Josephine Tey's "Daughter of Time" is completely a novel, set in modern times ... but the characters [i.e. Tey] raise *serious* questions about the world's opinion of England's Richard III, and also the killing of the "princes in the tower". As she points out, the *winners* wrote the history books. She examined other sources from the actual time period, and saw no such global condemnation of Richard III, nor any mention (till the next guy was on the throne) that he had been responsible for the killing of the princes. And that next guy was the one who benefitted .....

Even though it is itself fiction, the author, speaking through her characters, raises serious questions about what we *think* is truth and history.

(PS I recommend the book, too.) So this is ref: history books aren't always historical either.

09-26-2016, 05:56 PM	#166
badgoodDeb Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,555 Karma: 64462893 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Harrisburg outskirts Device: Palms, K1-4s, iPads, iPhones, KV, KO1	The Underpants book above, mentions with high praise a novel I read a while back and loved -- so I'd best re-read it. Josephine Tey's "Daughter of Time" is completely a novel, set in modern times ... but the characters [i.e. Tey] raise serious questions about the world's opinion of England's Richard III, and also the killing of the "princes in the tower". As she points out, the winners wrote the history books. She examined other sources from the actual time period, and saw no such global condemnation of Richard III, nor any mention (till the next guy was on the throne) that he had been responsible for the killing of the princes. And that next guy was the one who benefitted ..... Even though it is itself fiction, the author, speaking through her characters, raises serious questions about what we think is truth and history. (PS I recommend the book, too.) So this is ref: history books aren't always historical either. Last edited by badgoodDeb; 09-26-2016 at 06:02 PM.