Jordan and Walsh (White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America, 2007, etc.) look deeper into England’s “Merry Monarch” and his character—or lack thereof.
The English civil war and his father’s execution, in 1649, forced Charles II, his mother, and his siblings to flee England, and his years of exile at the amoral French court shaped him profoundly. Following his restoration, his only aims were revenge and pleasure. To build their narrative, the authors make excellent use of a great wealth of resources. Contemporary correspondence, particularly between Charles and his younger sister, gives the most honest picture of the man. In addition, diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn (who wrote about Charles II, “an excellent prince doubtless had he been less addicted to women”) bring out everyday life at court. Charles was a genial, affable man, but he was also selfish, trivial, and hateful of anything that got in the way of his pleasure. He had little interest in statecraft, calling Parliament only to wring money to give to his mistresses, and he generally ignored his capable men of state. He showered his women with titles, properties, and even income that should have gone to the Exchequer. He had a few chief mistresses among his innumerable flings. The first, Barbara Palmer, bore him multiple children and ruled him with countless demands and frequent tirades. His truest “friend” was Nell Gwyn, the actress who made few demands and amused the king greatly. There was also Louise de Kérouaille, a beauty sent by Louis XIV as a spy to promote France’s aim to conquer the Netherlands. Louis’ enormous bribes effectively put Charles in his pocket, and while Charles swore none influenced his decisions, it seems he had better things to do anyway.
The authors’ easy, readable style makes this a solid biography of Charles II, full of sturdy history and enough salacious information to keep it interesting.Pub Date: March 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-60598-969-3
Page Count: 374
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Categories: GENERAL HISTORY | MODERN | WORLD | HISTORY
Did you like this book?
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Categories: BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY
Did you like this book?
Rootin’-tootin’ history of the dry-gulchers, horn-swogglers, and outright killers who populated the Wild West’s wildest city in the late 19th century.
The stories of Wyatt Earp and company, the shootout at the O.K. Corral, and Geronimo and the Apache Wars are all well known. Clavin, who has written books on Dodge City and Wild Bill Hickok, delivers a solid narrative that usefully links significant events—making allies of white enemies, for instance, in facing down the Apache threat, rustling from Mexico, and other ethnically charged circumstances. The author is a touch revisionist, in the modern fashion, in noting that the Earps and Clantons weren’t as bloodthirsty as popular culture has made them out to be. For example, Wyatt and Bat Masterson “took the ‘peace’ in peace officer literally and knew that the way to tame the notorious town was not to outkill the bad guys but to intimidate them, sometimes with the help of a gun barrel to the skull.” Indeed, while some of the Clantons and some of the Earps died violently, most—Wyatt, Bat, Doc Holliday—died of cancer and other ailments, if only a few of old age. Clavin complicates the story by reminding readers that the Earps weren’t really the law in Tombstone and sometimes fell on the other side of the line and that the ordinary citizens of Tombstone and other famed Western venues valued order and peace and weren’t particularly keen on gunfighters and their mischief. Still, updating the old notion that the Earp myth is the American Iliad, the author is at his best when he delineates those fraught spasms of violence. “It is never a good sign for law-abiding citizens,” he writes at one high point, “to see Johnny Ringo rush into town, both him and his horse all in a lather.” Indeed not, even if Ringo wound up killing himself and law-abiding Tombstone faded into obscurity when the silver played out.
Buffs of the Old West will enjoy Clavin’s careful research and vivid writing.Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21458-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HISTORICAL & MILITARY | UNITED STATES | HISTORY
Did you like this book?
© Copyright 2023 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
