Rating: 
Summary: Written from a woman's perspective
Review: This book is a very well written and spellbinding book about the danish court as it was around 1630 when Christian the Fourth was king and it's about his relationship with his mistress (and only true love) Kirsten Munk when they were leaving each other.There are many good things about this book, the first thing that I must mention is the impressive research that Rose Tremain has done in order to write this book. I'm danish and I have not been able to find a single historical inaccuracy about the events she describes, exept when it is clearly something fictional that she has made up to make the story coherent and exiting, like f.eks. the private conversations (and the juicy sex-scenes!) The second thing is that the caracters are very sympathetically described, we can recognize them and their feelings and reactions. The third thing is that she is a feminist and very much anti-war minded, her disgust for macho behavior, violence and her desire for equality between the sexes shines through the whole story. I won't give away too many details, you may read the exerpts or some of the other reviews, I will only say that if you wan't an exiting adventure, partially based on real historical events, presented in a beautiful and apealing language then this is THE book for you!
Rating:
Summary: Tremendous fun!
Review: This was my favorite read of 2001. I hadn't ever read a book by Rose Tremain and merely picked it up because I was on my way to Copenhagen from London on a business trip. I became so involved with each of the characters that I made a special trip to the palace where the fictional story took place, bought postcards of the people on whom the fiction was I presume loosely based, and remembered parts of the book as I passed through the rooms. I also went up the round tower thinking all the time of the storyline in which this tower took part. What I think is so amazing though about this book is not just the historical details but the sexy sense of humor throughout, the understanding of music and the meaning of music in people's lives, and the author's wicked depiction of the king's wife. I really couldn't put it down, longed to get back to it when I did, and mourned the end of the story. I tried to get by book group to read it. It is definitely a book group read. So many characters to discuss; so much history; and so much interesting sexuality! The whole thing was just delicious reading!
Rating:
Summary: Just a pleasure, a masterpiece, a real work of art...
Review: You wouldn't think the author of Restoration would be able to or need to outdo herself. You wouldn't think the Danish court of the seventeenth century would provide content for such a substantially lyrical and visually evocative narrative of sentiment. From King Christian to Peter Claire, his lutenist, to the men and women whose lives they touch and whose lives they are caressed by, Tremain describes her characters with the utmost sympathy and respect for their individual natures however foibled. Ultimately a brilliant tableau will present itself before the mind's eye that demands above all a celebration of life in all its forms and times, even down to the myriad tragedies of destiny. A personal and philosophical novel that transcends any limitations as "historical novel" and becomes a colorful treatise on the wonder of the human spirit. Sublime.
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