The Book of Eleanor: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine

by Pamela Kaufman

Book Overview

One of history's greatest women, celebrated by her contemporaries, descendants, and biographers, now comes to life in this mesmerizing new novel by bestselling author Pamela Kaufman. In 1137,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609808095
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 1.1" x 5.2"

Customer Reviews

A brilliant novel about one of the world's great women

Eleanor of Aquitaine remains, nearly 800 years after her death, one of the truly monumental women of history. And for the first time, a novelist writes about her with depth, complexity and no saccharine romantic revisionism. This was one of the best historical novels of 2002.Pamela Kaufman's first two novels, SHIELD OF THREE LIONS and BANNERS OF GOLD, focused on the Crusades and Eleanor's legendary son, Richard the Lionheart. Both are extraordinary, illuminating looks at life in the middle ages--warts and all. Eleanor makes a memorable appearance in BANNERS OF GOLD, and I was delighted to find not only another novel by this talented author, but one that tells the full story of the extraordinary queen, from her youth to her old age.Pamela Kaufman strikes just the right tone. Medieval life was not rosy, romantic or chivalrous. It was almost always, in the immortal words of the Enlightenment, "nasty, brutish and short." Which makes Eleanor's 80 years all the more remarkable--and underscores everything that modern readers can learn from her long life and many achievements. Kaufman's Eleanor is a realist, a pragmatist, and yet still a romantic. And one with a wicked sense of humor. I couldn't get enough of her sharp, wise and witty voice. This is one of the best, most realistic and most entertaining historical novels to come along in years. Kudos to Pamela Kaufman for not writing a romantic fairytale, and for producing yet another book that is impossible to put down!

A Tapestry of 12th Century Europe

The opening sequence that serves as a framing device for the novel is so visually real that I could see the maggots crawling in the rancid furs thrown to Eleanor by her captors to keep her from freezing and feel her revulsion as she wrapped herself in them for warmth. In this dark, drafty, open-roofed tower she is faced with the ultimate choice, to live or to die, and after making it through the night she opts for life and begins her autobiography.What follows is a magnificent and intricate tapestry of 12th Century Europe, a medieval novelistic tale woven from the painstakingly researched historical facts of Queen Eleanor's life. It is difficult for today's feminists to begin to comprehend the terrible lack of control this woman had over this life; the only way to understand her trials and tribulations is to view the events through the template of the times. Working within that template, Pamela Kaufman has offered up a visceral evocation of what it must have felt like to be the powerful - and powerless - Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Outstanding recreation of history!

This novel rates as one of the best works of historical fiction that I've read in years. Fictional "memoirs" seem to be all the rage, especially with reader's groups, and some of them, like The Red Tent are truly excellent works of the novelist's imagination. The Book of Eleanor is another such.For readers who aren't familiar with Eleanor of Aquitaine, she rates as one of the truly great women of Western history--one whose influence was felt years after her death (which was particularly significant in an era when women had virtually no political rights or influence at all). This novel actually takes you beyond the bare facts of history and gives what I thought was a very plausible voice to this legendary woman. She tells her own story, in her own words, and Pamela Kaufman has even gone so far as to add nuances to her voice that reflect the time and culture that created her--like medieval troubador's songs (Eleanor was a great patron of the troubadors) and philosophy of the medieval church. And she does this all without sacrificing the drama of the narrative--this is a wonderful, entertaining work of fiction. If you're the type of reader who loves to learn as well as be entertained, this book is for you. A great tribute to a historic woman, and a terrific work of the novelist's craft.

The perfect novel for the thinking woman!

Pamela Kaufman's rendition of Queen Eleanor is memorable, thought provoking and made for an incredibly enjoyable read. The novel opens with Eleanor imprisoned in a decrepit old castle by her husband, Henry II. She's left with her maid to freeze to death--her punishment for raising their sons in a rebellion when Henry tries to steal her inheirited lands. But Eleanor is made of tougher stuff than Henry suspects, and she writes her memoir, the form in which this book is written. It's a literary device that doesn't always work, but actually works beautifully in this case.Eleanor recounts her years in the lush, fertile province of Aquitaine, her homeland in the south of France, which she rules from the age of 15, as well as her troubled marriage at an early age to Louis, the king of France--a neurotic religious fanatic who would be ridiculous except that he poses a constant danger to Eleanor's life. She accompanies him on Crusade (where Kaufman gives us a tantalizing glimpse into the sumptuous courts of the Holy Land) and eventually manages to escape him by forcing the Pope to grant her a divorce. But while she longs to marry her true love, an Aquitanian knight, she is kidnapped and forced instead to marry Henry II, a boorish and brutal younger man. Her constant power struggle with Henry, her love for another man, and her eventual victory over her enemies is one of the most compelling stories in history--and although this is a novel, it is based entirely on fact, and scrupulously researched (more so than Alison Weir's biography, which had a lot of contradictory ideas based on badly interpreted primary sources). I also recommend Pamela Kaufman's medieval novels, Shield of Three Lions and Banners of Gold, which were published in the 1980s and remain some of the best novels about the middle ages ever written. Kaufman really inhabits this time period and anyone who is interested in women's stories and historical fiction should take note.

An extraordinary book about an even more extraordinary woman

Eleanor of Aquitaine is one of the most memorable women of history, and a "modern" woman who lived 800 years ago. This is the first novel that I've read in many years about her, and it expands on the Eleanor that novelists like Sharon Kay Penman have only touched on in their work. Pamela Kaufman's prose is wonderfully unsentimental--this is the best recreation of Eleanor's voice since she was portrayed by Katharine Hepburn. There's no dreaminess or romance-y fluff here--just the voice of a passionate, intelligent woman who learns how to survive and triumph in a world where the cards are automatically stacked against all women. It also realistically portrays her relationships with the men in her life and the way she constantly struggled for power with both her husbands and then her sons. Instead of a starry-eyed love affair, the author gives us a much more realistic portrayal of Eleanor's relationship with Henry II and a deeply authentic recreation of the world they lived in. This novel--long but worth every page--is a real achievement, and a fitting tribute to this amazing historical figure.