I didn't know that it
would be like this. When I picked the title for one of this year's
challenge, I didn't think of history. When I later learned that it's
about Richard, I was thinking about time travel, not bedtime
analysis. Anyway, I gave 5 stars for it in Goodreads.
To make long story
short, the book is about Richard III. The one with the withered arm
and hunchback, the one who killed his two nephews in the tower then
usurped their throne, the one who was killed in Bosworth by Henry
Tudor? Exactly, except that most of the well-known story isn't true.
In the Daughter of
Time, a Scotland Yard
investigator and an amateur researcher looked up history to find
whether Richard was truly the one to be accused for it. Their
'academic investigation' brought them back to the War of the Roses
through pages and pages of contemporary sources. It was not in vain.
They found out, not only that the king was 'more sinn'd against than
sinning', but who the true culprit probably was.
I
like the way this book narrates its story. Instead of making a
serious essay with pages of references, Josephine Tey made it a
novel, a digestible story, and at the same time carefully put sources
and actual facts inside. It must have taken a lot of research to do
so, and I appreciate such effort from an author.
Talking
about accuracy, I sent an email to a member of Richard III Society
and asked her how much of it to be trusted. Although she said that
someone thought that it flawed, overall the novel is more accurate
than not. Thus I recommend it to all who love history, and who want
to know more about Richard III.
Oh,
and for your information, I heard that people are proposing a
petition to properly bury the remains of Richard III.
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