The Last English King - Hardcover

Rathbone, Julian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312242131 ISBN 13: 9780312242138

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, 1999

Synopsis

On September 27, 1066, Duke William of Normandy sailed for England with hundreds of ships and over 8,000 men. King Harold of England, weakened by a ferocious Viking invasion from the north, could muster little defense. At the Battle of Hastings of October 14, he was outflanked, quickly defeated, and killed by William's superior troops. The course of English history was altered forever.

Three years later, Walt, King Harold's only surviving bodyguard, is still emotionally and physically scarred by the loss of his king and his country. Wandering through Asia Minor, headed vaguely for the Holy Land, he meets Quint, a renegade monk with a healthy line of skepticism and a hearty appetite for knowledge. It is he who persuades Walt, little by little, to tell his extraordinary story.

And so begins a roller-coaster ride into an era of enduring fascination. Weaving fiction round fact, Julian Rathbone brings to vibrant, exciting, and often amusing life the shadowy figures and events that preceded the Norman Conquest. We see Edward, confessing far more than he ever did in the history books. We meet the warring nobles of Mercia and Wessex; Harold and his unruly clan; Canute's descendants with their delusions of grandeur; predatory men, pushy women, subdued Scots , and wily Welsh. And we meet William of Normandy, a psychotic thug with interesting plans for the "racial sanitation" of the Euroskepics across the water.

Peppered with discussions on philosophy. dentistry, democracy, devils, alcohol, illusions, and hygiene, The Last English King raises issues, both daring and delightful, that question the nature of history itself. Where are the lines between fact, interpretation, and re-creation? Did the French really stop for a two-hour lunch during the Battle of Hastings?

About this title

About the Author

Julian Rathbone is the author of many books, including Joseph and King Fisher Lives, both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He lives in Dorset, England.

From Publishers Weekly

Though better known for his political thrillers, British writer Rathbone is also the author of several mainstream novels, two of which (Joseph and King Fisher Lives) were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. This richly detailed historical novel tells the story of the great Norman-Saxon battle of Hastings in 1066, as remembered by Walt Edwinson, or the Wanderer, one of King Harold Godwinson's bodyguards. Battle scarred and numb, Walt is plagued with guilt for merely losing his hand and not his life when Harold is killed at Hastings. Instead of returning to the wife and child who desperately need him in Norman-ruled England, Walt condemns himself to wander, since his desire to live and return to his wife and home are what caused him to fail his King. In Byzantium, Walt encounters a traveling ex-monk and scholar, Quint ("nothing more, nothing less"), and together they embark on a vividly described journey through the medieval eastern end of the Mediterranean. Quint's impressive knowledge of religion and philosophy and his anachronistic grasp of the tenets of modern psychology help fill in the blanks of the story that Walt recounts: of the reign of King Edward, the ascent of William the Bastard and King Harold and the historic battle for the throne of England. The story suggests that Walt at last finds redemption through the retelling, despite the novel's tragic ending (revealed in the book's first chapter), but Walt's friendship with Quint also provides important consolation. Rathbone takes considerable historical liberties, writing in contemporary vernacular modern prose and painting King Edward as a man more interested in Harold's fetching brother Tostig than in the sister, whom he is slated to marry. However, Rathbone defends his decisions convincingly in an author's note, and his narrative presents an interesting interpretation of a tumultuous period in English history. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0312242131
• ISBN 13: 9780312242138
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400