Rating: 
Summary: It's perkin's world -- we're just visiting it.
Review: A recent reviewer here complained of all the detail Wroe offers; gotta differ with him. It's true that "The Perfect Prince" isn't a quick read, and that you have to be willing to pay attention, but give Wroe some time and focus and you'll be well rewarded. I closed the book feeling that I'd come as close as I could not only to the mysterious Perkin but to the politics, the frame of mind, and the physical texture of the world he lived in. And did I mention that the book was enthralling from start to finish? It is.
Rating: 
Summary: Wha' happened?
Review: Add my voice to the chorus below condemning this "book" as an incomprehensible, boring, and narratively incoherent mishmash at the core of which, buried among the pointless "look how much research I've done!" asides, the laughably inept attempts at lyrical writing, and the annoying chronological jumble, is a great story, not at all well told. I have no problem with difficult (good) writing, or with keeping track of all the Richards, Henrys, Edwards and the like, which is a necessary part of any study of English political history, but an author who makes her readers work as hard as Ms. Wroe would have us toil -- with negligible reward -- is doing those readers no favors. I'm not really sure what editors do, but this one needed one, badly, and didn't get it. To be fair, I did like one thing about the book: the appendix contains a very good Family Tree of the Houses of York and Lancaster. Royal family trees are cool, but not for $35 (plus tax). Skip it hard.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating tale by a master stylist
Review: As with her dazzling "Pontius Pilate," Anne Wroe breathes new life into the biography form while bringing to light the fascinating life of Perkin Warbeck. While her almost pointillist detail may frustrate those (like the reviewer who calls himself "a voracious reader" who's read more than 10,000 books) who prefer a Cliff's Notes approach to biography, the more descerning reader will delight in the wealth of research wed to the prose of this master stylist. Superb!
Rating:
Summary: A conspiracy of dunces...
Review: I am so sorry I didn't read the reviews here before reading this...um, I guess you would call it a book. There's definitely something suspicious about the positive reviews here because the negative reviews are so devestatingly accurate that it's hard to imagine anyone disagreeing. I would defy anyone to select any three pages from this book and then accurately recount the actual sequence of events. The author jumps from year to year and back so frequently that it's maddening to have to mentally juggle the sequence of events constantly, let alone try to understand their import. With such scattershot progression, it's impossible to become immersed in the story or even care. Reading this was akin to reading an encyclopedia. You feel that you must be reading something important, but you care little because it lacks a coherent narrative. Readers who are tempted to purchase this would do well to try my experiment, pick any three pages and see how it strikes them. Then imagine keeping those mental gymnastics up for 500+ pages. Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: The Perfect Prince: The Perfect Read
Review: I first heard the story of the little princes when I was taking an undergraduate course in English history many years ago, and I really wanted them to have escaped death. Apparently, many people in late fifteenth century England hoped the same thing, even to the point of risking lives and fortunes to support someone who claimed to be one of the princes. Alas, as Ann Wroe recounts so well in her excellent book on the subject, it was all a charade. Regardless of the disappointment when one discovers that Perkin Warbeck was only a pretender and that the princes actually died in the Tower, it is such a pleasure to encounter a book that rises above the commonplace and takes one to another time in such fine fashion that even after 500+ pages the reader is left wanting more. This is a first-rate mystery that Ms. Wroe, whose writing skills have obviously been honed through her many years at The Economist, has turned into a tour of late fifteenth century England. The story is a compelling one of intrigue and treachery and betrayal, and Ms. Wroe has told it with elegance and wit. Hers is a book that I savored, only too sorry when it came to an end. Drawing upon her background as a historian of the medieval age, Ms. Wroe has presented us with a tour de force, a detailed journey through an age that is so far removed from our own that we might be talking about a different planet. This was a time when kings and princes and dukes and knights plotted and counter-plotted and Machiavelli was not just a name to be remembered in a "Jeopardy" contest, but an actual practitioner of the art of political intrigue. This is a book for those who want detail, for Ms. Wroe has looted and pillaged through every relevant archive and has brought to bear an enormous amount of scholarship. It is at the same time that rare volume that combines prodigious and meticulous research with writing that almost literally sings. There were times when I found myself reading sentences aloud just to hear they way they were put together. I highly recommend this book to serious readers of non-fiction, and even dare to suggest that those who normally read only works of fiction would find that it captures and holds their interest from first page to last. This book is, I am confident in asserting, the very last word on one of the most fascinating and little-known episodes in English history. A perfect read for a perfect prince.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Historical Mystery
Review: I really enjoyed The Perfect Prince for several reasons. First, it covers a fascinating period of English and European history, the late 1400s when the Europeans were beginning to stretch beyond their own borders into other continents like Africa and the Americas. At the same time the European nation states were in the final stages of coalescence, so that terms like "England" and "France" were beginning to have more than just rough geographical meanings. Secondly, I liked this book for its detailed coverage of the mystery of the vanished Princes and whether or not Perkin Warbeck was actually Richard, Duke of York. This is one of the oldest European historical mysteries, but it is just as intriguing as more modern conundrums, such as what happened to the Dauphin in 1793 or to two of the last Tsar's children in 1918. Thirdly, this book is beautifully written, with fine psychological insights into Perkin himself, King Henry VII, Margaret of Burgundy, and numerous others who tend to be considered mere names in dry as dust annals. So I recommend this book to students of royal and/or English history and to anyone who enjoys a fine, well told tale of mystery and intrigue.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Historical Mystery
Review: I really enjoyed The Perfect Prince for several reasons. First, it covers a fascinating period of English and European history, the late 1400s when the Europeans were beginning to stretch beyond their own borders into other continents like Africa and the Americas. At the same time the European nation states were in the final stages of coalescence, so that terms like "England" and "France" were beginning to have more than just rough geographical meanings. Secondly, I liked this book for its detailed coverage of the mystery of the vanished Princes and whether or not Perkin Warbeck was actually Richard, Duke of York. This is one of the oldest European historical mysteries, but it is just as intriguing as more modern conundrums, such as what happened to the Dauphin in 1793 or to two of the last Tsar's children in 1918. Thirdly, this book is beautifully written, with fine psychological insights into Perkin himself, King Henry VII, Margaret of Burgundy, and numerous others who tend to be considered mere names in dry as dust annals. So I recommend this book to students of royal and/or English history and to anyone who enjoys a fine, well told tale of mystery and intrigue.
Rating: 
Summary: Wroe your boat away as fast as you can!
Review: I wanted to know about Perkin Warbeck. Truly, I did. Unfortunately the mystery of who he was will have to wait for another writer to inform me. You see, it's not that The Perfect Prince isn't about Perkin Warbeck, for I'm sure it must be since it's sub-titled The Mystery of Perkin Warbeck and His Quest for the Throne of England. It's that Ms. Wroe uses every possible device to confound, distract and annoy the reader along the way in trying to tell the story that even though I've finished it, I'm still not sure I know any more about The Mystery of Perkin Warbeck than I had gleaned from the jacket flaps. The Perfect Prince opens with a description of the only known painting of Perkin Warbeck. Well, it's not really known anymore since all that exists now is a sketch of the portrait by a later artist. Wroe spends at least ten pages describing the portrait/sketch from every possible angle, and fills us in on the opinions of the portrait from other historical characters. Since the sketch is in the book for us all to see, this seems the worst kind of patronage, as if we readers are too stupid to make up our own minds. She not only beats the dead horse, she tosses it in the woodchipper and feeds us the results. The point is so belabored that the reader will start to think the book is about art appreciation and not a real person. Once we get past that, we think we're in the clear. Sadly we're not. The tale of Perkin Warbeck traverses such countries as England, Portugal, France, and Ireland. It also spans many years and numerous Edwards', Charles', and Richards'. All of these countries, years, and characters Wroe casually flits from higgledy-piggledy. At the beginning of a paragraph we may be in Ireland in 1491 with Perkin, but by the end of the paragraph we may be in England in 1498 with Henry. Sometimes she carefully identifies which Henry or Richard, sometimes not. If you're thinking you need a scorecard, you're right. Wroe's style is so self-conscious and distracting that you frequently find yourself backtracking in an effort to follow the timeline. It's clear that Wroe knows the facts of the tale well, but she consistently gets in her own way. She begins to tell us one thing, then sidetracks us as if to say, "Oh, but I forgot to tell you about this first." On and on she does this to the point you just want to scream, "Get on with it!" In fact, while reading The Perfect Prince I couldn't help having my own Mystery Science Theater 3000 monologue running in my head, mocking her. I am a voracious reader, having read more than 10,000 books at this point. I read across all genres and categories. Rarely have I read such a monotonous tale. This is a story that cries out for a more coherent progression and fewer distractions. I get the impression that Wroe's agent/publisher are so impressed with her credentials they didn't have the heart to tell her what a muddled mess this was. I'm well aware of the praise heaped on this book by the professional reviewers, and I can only conclude it's nothing more than academic elitism and/or postmodern back-patting.
Rating:
Summary: a conspiracy of dunces, indeed
Review: I was so bemused by the strenous attacks here, and such a fan of Pontius Pilate, that I put The Perfect Prince at the head of my reading list, jumping over a few long-waiting candidates, just to see what the problem was. In a word, I haven't the vaguest. I didn't find the book difficult to follow at all, and it rewards readers' attention with a wealth of fascinating detail that matches the drama of the story. I don't care to speculate as to whether the intense hostility is motivated by short attention spans or the pique that some people inevitably display when a book they don't care for is praised, but I found Prince to be a rare, cherishable pleasure.
Rating:
Summary: a conspiracy of dunces, indeed
Review: I was so bemused by the vigorous attacks here, and such a fan of Pontius Pilate, that I put The Perfect Prince at the head of my reading list, jumping over a few long-waiting candidates, just to see what the problem was. In a word, I haven't the vaguest. I didn't find the book difficult to follow at all, and it rewards readers' attention with a wealth of fascinating detail that matches the drama of the story. I don't care to speculate as to whether the intense hostility is motivated by short attention spans or the pique that some people inevitably display when a book they don't care for is praised, but I found Prince to be a rare, cherishable pleasure.
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