tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post114976945369911582..comments2023-11-29T07:39:34.401+00:00Comments on Carla Nayland Historical Fiction: Tamburlaine Must Die, by Louise Welsh. Book reviewCarlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-1150962695577692432006-06-22T08:51:00.000+01:002006-06-22T08:51:00.000+01:00That's certainly a modern view but I don't find it...That's certainly a modern view but I don't find it entirely convincing. Bone metastases are notoriously painful and I'd have thought that if the cancer had destroyed poor Amy's bones to that extent she would have been in such terrible pain that she wouldn't have been wandering around the house. (Though clinical course always varies and she might have been an unusual case). It also doesn't explain why she apparently sent all her servants away to the fair that day. I should have added Amy to my list of 5 - she's the only person who would have known for sure.Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-1150919484948068682006-06-21T20:51:00.000+01:002006-06-21T20:51:00.000+01:00If the conspiracy theory developed at at the time,...If the conspiracy theory developed at at the time, I suppose an author could use it as a hook, even while making a case against it.<BR/><BR/>I don't recall the height of the stairs where Amy Robsart was found. Certainly there was suspicion of Leicester! The modern view seems to be that advanced breast cancer left her bones so fragile that even a stumble could break her neck, but no one then could have known that.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-1150643264361133662006-06-18T16:07:00.000+01:002006-06-18T16:07:00.000+01:00Rick - the Author's Note says it was commissioned ...Rick - the Author's Note says it was commissioned as a novella by the owner of Canongate Press, an independent publisher based in Edinburgh. So it may be a Canongate thing, or it may be a one-off because the owner happened to fancy a novella about Marlowe. It certainly isn't a British thing - novellas and short stories are just as rare on this side of the Pond. In fact it didn't occur to me that it <I>was</I> a novella until I got to the end far faster than I'd expected to, thought "What?" and did a word count. It's printed in a fairly large font in a layout with a generous amount of white space, so there are about 150 pages and when I picked up the book I originally thought it was going to be a slim novel, say about 60,000 words. I didn't think novellas existed any more.<BR/><BR/>Re conspiracy theories, there's certainly more obvious story potential in a conspiracy theory/cover-up than in a piece of random bad luck or a natural death. A conspiracy theory by its very nature comes with a built-in ready-made plot. That said, not all writers use them. In the film <I>Shakespeare in Love</I>, Marlowe's death is just that, a bar-room brawl (and yes, the first time I saw the film I jumped to the erroneous conclusion that the Colin Firth character was going to be part of a more than usually original conspiracy theory). In novels, I can think of the death of Llewelyn the Last in a minor skirmish near Builth in Wales (12-something), which is asking for the conspiracy theory treatment but which Sharon Penman treated as a random piece of bad luck in <I>The Reckoning</I>.<BR/><BR/>I thought Amy Robsart was found at the foot of quite a low staircase, which tends to count against an accidental death? I thought the line they took in the TV series <I>The Virgin Queen</I>, where Amy was terminally ill and committed suicide by a method that would incriminate Robert and thus prevent him from marrying Elizabeth, was a neat idea. Mostly I've seen Amy's death treated as murder, which is sort of sexier but less interesting.Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-1150064760063795002006-06-11T23:26:00.000+01:002006-06-11T23:26:00.000+01:00The length surprises me, since at least in the US ...The length surprises me, since at least in the US you always hear that 25K words is far too short for a viable book. Is this a British thing?<BR/><BR/>The plot (what there is of it, from your account) raises an interesting general question in hist-fic. Writers are pretty inevitably biased in favor of conspiracy theories, because it would hardly do for Marlowe to die in a barroom brawl, or Amy Robsart die of natural causes, etc.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-1149852504168516612006-06-09T12:28:00.000+01:002006-06-09T12:28:00.000+01:00Bernita - Not exactly a frustration, but a shame t...Bernita - Not exactly a frustration, but a shame to get to the end so quickly. <BR/><BR/>Susan - When you read the other Marlowe novel, I'd be interested to know what you think of it. He's a historical figure who's always interested me.Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-1149796117990340452006-06-08T20:48:00.000+01:002006-06-08T20:48:00.000+01:00Sounds interesting, but too truncated for my taste...Sounds interesting, but too truncated for my taste!<BR/><BR/>I have another novel about Marlowe on my shelf (<I>The Reckoning</I>?), but I've yet to get around to it.Susan Higginbothamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13517907583894026599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-1149770077425850032006-06-08T13:34:00.000+01:002006-06-08T13:34:00.000+01:00Afraid I would think much the same as yourself - a...Afraid I would think much the same as yourself - a frustration.Bernitahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05264585685253812090noreply@blogger.com