Comments on: Every Tale Condemns Me for a Villain http://www.lawrence.lib.ks.us/2013/02/every-tale-condemns-me-for-a-villain/ Just another WordPress site Mon, 20 May 2013 22:25:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Susan http://www.lawrence.lib.ks.us/2013/02/every-tale-condemns-me-for-a-villain/#comment-15501 Susan Thu, 21 Feb 2013 01:50:31 +0000 http://www.lawrence.lib.ks.us/?p=16956#comment-15501 Wow! Thanks for the reading list!

]]> By: Evie Rapport http://www.lawrence.lib.ks.us/2013/02/every-tale-condemns-me-for-a-villain/#comment-15492 Evie Rapport Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:04:27 +0000 http://www.lawrence.lib.ks.us/?p=16956#comment-15492 Josephine Tey was also my entry to Richard III a long time ago, and I still believe many of her arguments are sound. I too found the Richard III Museum on the wall in York beguiling and weirdly appealing — “hole-in-the-wall” quite literally as well. Besides the sources Dan mentions (and Ian McKellan’s version of Shakespeare’s play is wonderful), I found these interesting; most of them are in the library:
– Desmond Seward’s “The Wars of the Roses: Through the Lives of Five Men and Women of the Fifteenth Century,” which goes past Bosworth to 1499. Seward is sternly unsympathetic to Richard but it’s a good overview of the events and powerful personalities.
– Sharon Kay Penman’s “The Sunne in Splendour” is terrific historical fiction; Richard, whom she calls Dickon, is the central character although it follows the Wars of the Roses from 1459 through Edward IV to Richard’s reign. She’s clearly a Ricardian and puts forth a very good argument for another candidate as murderer of the princes.
– Al Pacino’s video “Searching for Richard” examines how an actor creates a famous character in a play that is completely at odds with historical reality.
– Elizabeth George is also a Ricardian and brings the controversy into her early Thomas Lynley mystery “Well-Schooled in Murder” and some other works.
I do wish a similar forensic examination could be made of the children’s bones found in the crumbling old royal residence at the Tower of London in King Charles II’s reign. They were identified as the princes whom Alison Weir writes about (and several others, notably Elizabeth Jenkins); the bones were inurned in Westminster Abbey and they will not be disturbed, it’s been announced.
I was fascinated to see the reconstruction of Richard III’s face. It’s very like the image at the National Portrait Gallery in London — I have a tea towel of it.

]]> By: Ginger Vermooten http://www.lawrence.lib.ks.us/2013/02/every-tale-condemns-me-for-a-villain/#comment-15083 Ginger Vermooten Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:39:45 +0000 http://www.lawrence.lib.ks.us/?p=16956#comment-15083 Daughter of Time has been a favorite of mine for over four decades, and I just reread it–again–after the identification of Richard III’s remains. Aside from rehabilitating a well known villain, it has other truly delightful moments, including a discussion of ‘Tonypandy.’ (We all of us should know about tonypandy: it’s all around us.)

I’m a staunch Ricardian now, and hope that others will join this somewhat exclusive group. Josephine Tey’s book is a great way to get started.

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