Historical Fiction and Novels with Royal Characters

[Skydragon]

post copied to another thread.

 

[Lady Bluffton]

Freddy & Fredericka by Mark Helprin

Has anyone read this book -- it's a satire of sorts on the fictitious Freddy and Fredericka, Prince and Princess of Wales.

Might I say a parachute drop into New Jersey is a key moment in this book...

Very interesting. Comments, reviews?

 

[Lady Jennifer]

I have the book, picked it up in an airport, but I haven't had a chance to read it really. I think I got through the first chapter.

 

[Katrianna]

I've read about this book and I would like to read it so I'll be interested in any reviews from various members.
I just finished a book, Gone with the Windsors, by Laura Graham. It's a fictional account of a woman who was a friend of Wallis Simpson and she recounts the courtship and the crisis of the marriage of Wallis and the Prince of Wales. It refers the history at the time plus features many European Royals and it's fairly accurate. I enjoyed it.

 

[msleiman]

Gone with the wind - question about royalty

I am reading Gone with the Wind for the first time. I have seen the movie so many times I could not count. My question is the author says that England will not help the south. She says that Victoria is Dutch???? I know that Victoria was German, but am I missing something? I guess that the author just made a big mistake, but it seems that someone would have corrected it!

 

[judith14011]

Gwtw

Don't know about the Dutch part...if you can give me the page # of the book I can look it up and see if I can figure it out (I am a huge GWTW fan.)

The South continually hoped that England would join the Civil War and aid the Confederate side, largely due to England's dependence on the South for cotton. Although Victoria and her government declined to become officially involved, they did covertly sell supplies to the South to continue the war and aid the Confederate cause. These supplies were brought in by blockade runners (like Rhett Butler) who would then make a handsome profit after adding their fee to the supplies they brought in. The North knew this and towards the end of the war (and one of the reasons the Civil War finally ended) was that the Northern Navy was able to cut off the blockade runners, thereby starving the South of new supplies, ordnance and material.

 

[msleiman]

It is on page 239 at the bottom of the page . It says " England never bets on the underdog. That's why she's England. Besides, the fat Dutch woman who is sitting on the throne is a God fearing soul and she doesn't approve of slavery. " When I read this I thought something was wrong.

 

[judith14011]

OK - I will check it out!

 

[judith14011]

Victoria as Dutch

OK - this is the best I could find:

Württemberg Royal Family

In all ways they are inter-connected. Victoria wasn't technically German as she was born in the UK but Albert certainly was. There youngest son was named "Leopold" (Belgian King who I think was also Albert's uncle) so - maybe that it it. You raise a good point. I don't think that MM made a mistake calling her a "Dutch woman" as it was in her heritage, at least partly. That's my conclusion!

If you have never read the book you are in for a treat - in many, many ways different from the movie. I would not recommend either of the sequels authorized by the Mitchell estate - "Scarlett" or "Rhett Butler's People." Both poorly done.

 

[msleiman]

Thanks for all of your help! I just could not understand why she would call her "Dutch". I would have never thought anything about it if she had said "German". I understand what you mean about how different the book is from the movie.

 

[jcbcode99]

GWTW is one of my very favorite books--I re-read it twice a year and wrote my thesis on it's contribution to the feminist movement. It is an amazing piece of craftmanship, in my humble opinion.
Like Judith14011 I would not suggest reading any of those sequels--they did not follow the same vein created by Mitchell at all. If you did read them you would feel as I felt--that that was time spent that you can NEVER EVER get back. Wasted time.
As for the movie--it was good, nice costumes, etc...but I've never been a huge fan of movies based on books--something always gets lost because of the time frame, but the movie is good--the book is just much better.

BTW, Margaret Mitchell wrote another book, much much shorter, called "Lost Laysen" about a romance set in the South Pacific. You may want to read it as well.

Enjoy!

 

[Attaining Grace]

I've read GWTW many times and never noticed that! That is very interesting.
I absolutely adore it - and I'm an Aussie with no links to America!

Janet, I'd love to learn more about your thesis. Maybe you could write a short article along similar themes and put it on your website?

Regards,
attaininggrace
bookaddiction

 

[fee]

The german word for german is "deutsch" the pronunciation is quite similar to "dutch" and I have often noticed that people seem to have problems keeping the two apart.
As far as I remember I found GWTW quite well researched for such a romance novel, so I sincerely doubt that Ms. Mitchell indeed thought that Victoria had ancestors from the Netherlands instead of Germany.
My guess would be that she intended to use the german word by means of stressing it and it was misunderstood or wrongly printed.

 

[judith14011]

Leopold I of Belgium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here is a bit of background on perhaps why Rhett Butler refers to Queen Victoria as "Dutch."

Also, Queen Victoria was very revered in the Southern states, Bonnie Blue Butler's real name is "Eugenie Victoria" after the Empress and The Queen.

 

[iowabelle]

There youngest son was named "Leopold" (Belgian King who I think was also Albert's uncle).

Belgian king Leopold was the brother of Queen Victoria's mother (hence, Victoria's uncle) and also the widower of Princess Charlotte, daughter of George IV.

 

[HMTLove23]

Fiction Novels with royals

"H.R.H."
by Danielle Steel

I was in the library one day last week, and saw this Book H.R.H. by Danielle Steel. Now usually dont read danielle steel novels, but being a royalty fan i pick it up. I read it and it was good. Its a tale of a fictional liechtenstein royal family. it has some real life similarities. for people that have read could anyone tell me could the ending (which I will not reveal, due to people who have not yet read it) really happen??

 

[Rebafan81]

I also read it and being a royalty freak, I enjoyed it tremendously. That is why I started a thread a while ago wanting to know if any of the Crown Princes or Princess ever talked about wanting to do something else. I would love to know everyone opinion on whether it could really happen. Glad you enjoyed the book. Are you from PA?

 

[RubyPrincess168]

I also read the 'H.R.H.'. Generally I'm not a fan of Danielle Steel's novels (aside from 'Jewels' which I saw as a miniseries Jewels (1992) (TV) ). I think I was crying for the majority of the book. The ending is pretty predictable but I think the story in general could really happen (just maybe not to that level of conflict). Just as everyday people dream about what it would be like to be royalty, I'm sure royalty dreams about what it would be like to be an everyday person (like P. Martha-Louis of Norway said she did in a Hello Magazine interview not to long ago).

 

[wymanda]

I enjoyed the book immensley. While there were a few historical inaccuracies and using Liechtenstien was probably not a good choice as, from what I've read, they are one of the more liberal families it was basically very good. I think some of our Princess's would like to have a more "normal" life. One who springs to mind is the Princess Royal. I think that she would have made a full time career out of something like Save the Children or Riding for the Disabled had she not been tied by her birthright to her "princessy duties".

 

[Marengo]

Well, Danielle Steel got the title wrong if it was about the Liechtenstein family, as they are not Royal but Serene highnesses

 

[HMTLove23]

Well, Danielle Steel got the title wrong if it was about the Liechtenstein family, as they are not Royal but Serene highnesses

In the book she is also the daughter of a Princess of Orleans, In the book that qualifies her to be also a HRH

I also read it and being a royalty freak, I enjoyed it tremendously. That is why I started a thread a while ago wanting to know if any of the Crown Princes or Princess ever talked about wanting to do something else. I would love to know everyone opinion on whether it could really happen. Glad you enjoyed the book. Are you from PA?

yes Im from Pennsylvania

 

[Mermaid1962]

In an interview during the 80s, she said that she would have liked to have been a lorry/truck driver, because it would give a person time alone.

I enjoyed the book immensley. While there were a few historical inaccuracies and using Liechtenstien was probably not a good choice as, from what I've read, they are one of the more liberal families it was basically very good. I think some of our Princess's would like to have a more "normal" life. One who springs to mind is the Princess Royal. I think that she would have made a full time career out of something like Save the Children or Riding for the Disabled had she not been tied by her birthright to her "princessy duties".

 

[CasiraghiTrio]

Fiction inspired by royalty (not fan fiction)

I know there is obviously Danielle Steel's HRH which I just saw has its own thread, and which I think is pretty good, But does anyone know of other works inspired by royal people?

I want to be careful to distinguish here between this kind of work and fan fiction. The kind of works I am hoping to find more of are fiction based on or loosely based on royalty but where the names and certain details are changed, to make it absolutely fictionalized, so that no actual reputations are infringed upon. "Fan fiction," generally, is a story about royalty where such details are named as they actually exist: i.e. fake stories about real people.

I'm looking for royalty-inspired fiction, not fake stories about real people.

 

[CasiraghiTrio]

Well, Danielle Steel got the title wrong if it was about the Liechtenstein family, as they are not Royal but Serene highnesses

Yeah, that was my initial thought too but then in the book, Steel qualifies the title with explanation of the girl's mother having been HRH. She does point out that Christiana is only HSH but that her mom was HRH, and I think the HRH title was used for the book because more people would understand it.
If it was titled HSH, non-royalty-buff people would be like, What the hell? But most people know what is HRH, so....

The fiction here was well-researched, actually. She got a lot of things right, even things I didn't expect her to get right.
I'm not a steel reader either, but had to read this one, haha.

 

[Avalon]

Dumas is another good example.
His books are most entertaining, but he was basically taking a couple of facts, a couple of people and then would just create a story around them.

But from historical point of view, his books are nothing to trust. Which doesn't make them any less interesing, mind.

 

[selrahc4]

My personal favorites of this type of fiction are Susan Howatch's books Penmarric, Cashelmara, and The Wheel of Fortune. In these she takes royal characters and events (Plantagenet era), sets them in the late 19th - early 20th centuries as ordinary family sagas. But the way she parallels history and the people is deeply fascinating. Penmarric (set in Cornwall) is a version of the Henry II - Eleanor of Aquitaine & family story. Cashlemara (set in Ireland) is based on Edward II. The Wheel of Fortune (set in Wales) mimics the story of Richard II, John of Gaunt, et al. They are really good reading on many levels.

 

[EmpressRouge]

The Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot. Mia is definitely based on Jazmin and Genovia on Monaco. Mia even has Grimaldi as one of her last names.

 

[Beck]

The Tudor series by Philippa Gregory? They aren't completely factual, but are a fun read.

 

[CasiraghiTrio]

The Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot. Mia is definitely based on Jazmin and Genovia on Monaco. Mia even has Grimaldi as one of her last names.

I thought Mia's surname was Renaldi, or Rinaldi. That's a good example, btw.

 

[EmpressRouge]

I thought Mia's surname was Renaldi, or Rinaldi. That's a good example, btw.

In the books, her full name is Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo. In the movie, they changed/shorted her name to Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi. Maybe Disney didn't want to risk getting sued? The books are actually fairly accurate at depicting royal titles, inheritance, protocol, etc. The movie Disney-fied everything and made no sense at all, but probably made it more understandable to their intended audience.