The long-awaited sequel to "When Christ and His Saints Slept" recounts the tempestuous marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II in a magnificent story of love, power, ambition, and betrayal.
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The long-awaited sequel to "When Christ and His Saints Slept" recounts the tempestuous marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II in a magnificent story of love, power, ambition, and betrayal.
Read Less
Add this copy of Time and Chance to cart. $1.25, good condition, Sold by Once Upon A Time Books rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Tontitown, AR, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Putnam Adult.
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Seller's Description:
Good in good dust jacket. This is a used book in good condition and may show some signs of use or wear. This is a used book in good condition and may show some signs of use or wear.
Add this copy of Time and Chance to cart. $1.45, good condition, Sold by Books For Life rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Laurel, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Putnam Adult.
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Seller's Description:
Book is in good condition. Minimal signs of wear. It May have markings or highlights but kept to only a few pages. May not come with supplemental materials if applicable.
Add this copy of Time and Chance to cart. $1.95, good condition, Sold by Orion Tech rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Arlington, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Putnam Adult.
Add this copy of Time and Chance to cart. $2.58, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Putnam Publishing Group.
Add this copy of Time and Chance to cart. $2.58, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Putnam Publishing Group.
Add this copy of Time and Chance to cart. $2.58, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Putnam Publishing Group.
Add this copy of Time and Chance to cart. $2.58, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Putnam Publishing Group.
Add this copy of Time and Chance to cart. $2.58, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Putnam Publishing Group.
Add this copy of Time and Chance to cart. $2.58, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Putnam Publishing Group.
Add this copy of Time and Chance to cart. $2.60, fair condition, Sold by Blue Vase Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Interlochen, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Putnam Publishing Group.
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Seller's Description:
Fair. The item is very worn but continues to work perfectly. Signs of wear can include aesthetic issues such as scratches, dents, worn and creased covers, folded page corners and minor liquid stains. All pages and the cover are intact, but the dust cover may be missing. Pages may include moderate to heavy amount of notes and highlighting, but the text is not obscured or unreadable. Page edges may have foxing (age related spots and browning). May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.
I'm not sure what my beef is with this series. The story matches real events, but the characters don't feel like medieval characters. They feel like modern suburbanites with medieval technology. One thing might be that the author makes no attempt to write dialog in a style that her characters might actually have spoken -- that's okay by itself (If I wanted to read Chaucer in the original, I would have bought Chaucer in the original), but she lets words and especially idiom slip in that would have been incomprehensible at the time. It's jarring, like in the movie Titanic when the girl gives somebody "the finger."
On the other hand, I do feel better-informed about the outlines of the saga of the White Ship, Stephen, all the Mauds and Matildas, Eleanor and Henry, an education acquired much less painfully than wading through some history professor's prose.
So, I'm on the fence.
CarolynNeser
Apr 3, 2007
TIME AND CHANCE: PENMAN GROWN STALE
Being an afficionado of all things Plantagenet and having read a good many accounts of the twelfth century in England and surrounds, I cannot fault Sharon Penman's attention to historical detail. However, as far as I can gather, the purpose of the book is to entertain rather than regurgitate historical fact, and with this being the fifth book of Penman's that I have read, I am definitely now beginning to find her writing rather stale. Quite apart from the fact that the same characters may appear in more than one novel, there is very little attempt to gain a new slant on any given historical personage. The result is that the characters from any one book all look and act as if they were simply transplanted into a new setting - they even use much the same turn of phrase.
Incidentally, the book is not really that much about Thomas Becket, which is very much a sub-plot within the twists and turns of shifting twelfth-century politics. I also cannot fault Ms Penman's adherence to her Welsh roots - however dealing with the chronically insurgent Welsh was very much a side activity of English royalty, and her emphasis on the Welsh aspect is, historically speaking, misplaced.
The book would have been more than pleasant reading if it had been the first time I had sampled Penman's wares. Unfortunately they are for my taste, far too similar. Penman may not be aiming to create great literature but I do suspect she could aim a little higher.
