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Summary: The Ricardian Argument, With Delightful Training Wheels
Review: What thoughtful reader hasn't experienced Shakespeare's Richard III and wondered about the accuracy of the Bard's portrayal? Thus did Josephine Tey, near the close of her authorial career, delve into some of the lost nooks and crannies of English history in an effort to recover "the real Richard." The well-known hurdle for all would-be Ricardians is, of course, the utter absence of source material contemporary to Richard's reign, and most of all anything that discusses the fate of the "princes in the Tower." All that is generally counted as "authoritative," it turns out, is the product of Tudor dynasty information factories. Tey, however, very likely had in her possession the writings of Sir Clements Markham, a late Victorian-era civil servant, whose careful revisionist argument is here unfolded in a lively, compelling narrative of incremental discovery. Prompted by a reproduction of a famous portrait of Richard, Tey's laid-up sleuth, with the help of an American researcher, marshalls from his bed an archival assault on the estimable Sir Thomas More, Henry (the VII) Tudor, and the entire phalanx of worthies who have reported, for the last half a millennium, that Richard was the demonic crookback murderer of Shakespeare's characterization. Happily for us, there's more (sic) to the story than the traditional record, and those not already sucked into the revisionist Ricardian argument may very well be converted. Tey's engaging "fiction" is not only a great boon to all Ricardians--who, with Richard III Societies on both sides of the pond, must surely win hundreds if not thousands of new converts yearly as a result of this 50-year-old work--but the perfect place to begin your own exploration of this great historical proto-conspiracy.
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Summary: yes and no
Review: This is not really a mystery. It is a very cleverly written exoneration of Richard III. Tey and a great many historians today believed that whatever Richared was; he wasn't a child killer. Tey puts the blame squarely on Henry VI and she is probably correct. I enjoyed the cleverness of the idea and the sharpness of the writing but I didn't care for the smug snobbery or the religious predjudice.
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Summary: History brought to life
Review: I listened to the audio version of this book and was enchanted from the beginnning. Derek Jacobi is engrossing as Detective Grant.
I found myself listening and becoming steadily wrapped up in his research as he tried to unravel the mystery of Richard III.
My only regret is that it ended. I wanted it to go on for a lot longer.
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Summary: A Pearl
Review: Curling up with this combine of history, mystery and Shakespeare was a real treat. I'm not overly familiar with the mystery genre or the era of history she's exploring, and was totally unfamiliar with Ms. Tey, so it was all a pleasant surprise. That was two years ago and I'm still so pleased to have read this book. Regrettably, the really good ones seem to show up with less and less frequency....
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Summary: Great Whodunit!
Review: I was introduced to this charming little mystery while a schoolboy, and the enthusiasm of my teacher (Agnes Hay) resulted in a lifetime passion for British history. If you're such a buff, you will thoroughly enjoy this fictional modern-day examination of the Murder of the Princes in The Tower of London. Delightful---you'll want to curl up and enjoy it all in one sitting!
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Summary: Histories and mysteries do not mix.
Review: The most overrated book in the mystery genre is this attempt to fuse the mystery genre with the history genre. The mixture does not work. And Tey's conclusions are very out of date by now.
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Summary: Audio Partners reading by Derek Jacobi superb
Review: SWINDON. I can't believe it! What will history say? BURGOYNE. History, sir, will tell lies, as usual. That telling little exchange comes from a G.B. Shaw play and the thought it expresses is the basis of one of the finest mystery novels ever concocted: Josephine Tey's <The Daughter of Time.> Inspector Grant is injured from a previous case and is lying in a hospital bed memorizing the cracks in the ceiling. An actress friend of his brings him some pictures of people from history and one is particularly striking: sad, wise, a person you would like to know. But the reverse side identifies the face as that of Richard III, the greatest villain in English history. This is the character that all the old history books and especially Shakespeare tell us murdered King Henry VI, had his brother Gerorge drowned in a barrel of wine, drove his older brother, King Edward, into an early grave, put all his in-laws to death, killed his wife, and finally murdered his own nephews once he had stolen the crown from them. Add to this a hunchback, a shriveled arm, and a very sarcastic way of speaking, and you have one of the greatest No Goods ever. But not with that face! Grant, whose professional success depends on knowing a person by his face, cannot believe he could have been so mistaken and recruits his nurses, friends, fellow policemen, and even a young American researcher to bring him all they can about the Great Mystery of "who murdered the princes in the tower." Little by little, the case against Richard falls to pieces; while the evidence begins to point in the most surprising direction. The wonderful thing about this novel is how it shows that so much of what we consider "history" is merely a pack of lies devised by the winning teams to blacken the opposition and whitewash themselves. The incident at "Tonypandy," for example, is made much of in this novel. That was a town in Wales in which unarmed police were sent in to calm down striking miners and a bloody nose or two was the result. Yet word got out that armed troops fired into the crowd; and that version was accepted, simply because not a single person actually there felt like contradicting it. Another parallel is our own "Boston Massacre" in which a few thoughtless citizens began to stone a British sentry, thereby forcing a reluctant senior officer to fire into the crowd. Four casualties resulted. Paul Revere's engraving shows dozens being mowed down. But who would dare to say "Liar" to the official version? For a thorough enjoyment of this novel, you really need to be fairly familiar with Shakespeare's "Richard III." Now bear in mind that the playwright got his information from "Holinshed's Chronicles," which got its information from authors paid by the king who had defeated Richard III in battle, who got most of their information from one of Richard's deadliest enemies. One might as well accept "Mein Kampf" as an objective look at Germany during the years between World Wars. Reading this book, in fact, will change your entire attitude toward anything you read in any book or periodical that claims to present "the facts." I will not ruin your enjoyment of this book by pointing out how Grant weighs the evidence that been accepted for so long as "true" and comes to the conclusions he does. Now the really Good News is that we have a wonderful recording of this complete text on a set of four Audio Partners tapes. Better yet, let me tell you it is read by Derek Jacobi--or better still, acted out by Derek Jacobi, because he finds a new voice for each character, the American being the best of the lot. In fact, having read the novel twice before and having heard this recording, I am compelled to try both formats again. Richard III might be a great villain on stage, but I firmly believe that the historical Richard deserves to have his case for the defense heard as often as possible. If for no other reason than to remind us of how many collections of "historical facts" might be little more than an imaginative treatment to bolster one's cause or downgrade another's. History, which is the Daughter of Time by the way, is written by the winners. It takes a good author like Tey to plead the case for the loser. Yes, a good deal of this book is the presentation to the reader of plenty of English history; but it is all made very palatable by the good dialogue and the many little peripheral details that give you rest stops along the way. And while waiting for delivery, watch the Olivier film again to brush up your Shakespeare.
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Summary: history mystery
Review: What a wonderful way to learn about history! My fascination with the real historical mystery described in this novel mirrored the fascination of the main character, a temporarily bed-ridden detective. I found myslef longing for the primary source material that the character was able to use from the British Museum! And not wanting to disclose the ending, I'd say that my reactions continued to mirror those of the main character, right through to the denouement. I'm hoping that Amazon.com's lists will help me find more books like this one!
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Summary: Ricardian mystery is a real treat!
Review: I own this book in both audio and print form. The audio version (unabridged) is read by Royal Shakespeare Company alumnus Derek Jacobi. Anyway ... this book does a marvelous job of debunking some of the common myths about Richard III. Tey's fictional detective Grant uses actual historical reference material to come to his own determinations about Richard III and the "princes in the tower." For a dedicated Ricardian such as myself, it's nice to see Richard portrayed in a different light. He was very popular in life, and Tudor historians were the ones who painted him as a deformed villain.
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Summary: An Apologia for Richard III
Review: This book, under the guise of being a traditional crime story, unravels one of Britain's biggest mystery: who--if anyone--killed the Princes in the Tower? Shakespeare's play has led people to believe for nearly 400 years that it was King Richard III, perhaps literature's most enduring villain. Josephine Tey has done her homework on this, and the answers will astonish you. I must confess that I am biased, being a member of the Richard III Society; also, I have not checked each of her sources, so I am perhaps being lazy in assuming her facts are accurate. Nonetheless, this book is a perfect antidote if one has seen the superb version of Richard III with Ian McKellan(unashamed plug--I really love that movie!), and you can make up your own mind whether or not old Dickon was the most unfairly villified man in history. Also, being 200 pages, and a real page-turner at that, it is a quiet afternoon's read. Pick it up--I promise you won't be bored!
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