This has proven an even more interesting read than I expected, thanks to passages like this one about William of Normandy awaiting favorable sailing conditions:

It was then that William, confronted by the powerlessness of man and the perversity of nature, fell back upon his faith; and at his asking the body of St. Valéry, who had founded the abbey there in the seventh century, was carried in its shrine, with the abbot and monks in procession, and placed on a carpet spread upon the ground and exposed to the general view of the army. The great host, kneeling in ranks above the shrine, prayed for a favourable wind; offerings of money, to be used in beautifying the shrine, accompanied the prayers, and coins were showered down in such numbers that the saint's casket was soon covered.

     On the next day (Wednesday the 27th) the weather cleared; and glancing at the vane on the abbey tower, William saw that the breath of God, at the intercession of St. Valéry, had shifted to the south.

It's a passage I would expect to find in a work written in the twelfth century rather than the twentieth. It's not atypical of the book, either, as Compton sees God's disfavor with Harold as the basis for his defeat. It's little wonder that modern-day historians steer clear of this book.

It's not often that I crack open a book and almost immediately take issue with it, but then it's not often that I come across passages like this one about Edward the Confessor:

It was more than the passing of a king for which the people waited. For by popular agreement Edward was already a saint, one possessing not only the gift of holiness but also the healing touch. His was the faith that surmounted political and social barriers, so that the warmth of his charity and concern for general welfare were things experienced by the people, like radiated warmth. Men felt that they had, as it were, a stake in his sanctity, which is something that the vast impersonality of our secular time and country will scarcely understand.

While one of the reasons why I undertook my English monarchs reading project was to give me the context to detect bullshit like this, even if this was the first book I had ever read about the era I would have been able to pick up that last sentence for the utter nonsense that it is. Piers Compton had an interesting background as a Catholic extremist (in the 1980s he wrote a book arguing that Vatican II was proof that the freemasons had infiltrated the Church), and I was wondering if some of his more interesting views would pop up in this book. In that respect he didn't keep me in suspense for long.

by Harold Cloninger

 

This one came out of my free book slush and the cover and title gave me a Phantom of the Opera vibe, so I decided to read it. It didn't actually follow the plot of Phantom of the Opera very much, but was an interesting story in itself. I think it could have been fleshed out a lot more as it came over as YA Horror and though it alternated between two time frames, there weren't any real sub-plots.

 

The characters were reasonably well done. At least they weren't all the same. Overall I had the impression of a not very experienced writer, but one with potential. It was an enjoyable enough read anyway.

Well, this was kind of fun. We're in the early days out on the prairie. Although Bindloss is best known for books taking place in Canada, this one is most decidedly American. Lots of talk about American virtues and so forth. I'm thinking perhaps up in Montana, near Alberta, because late in the book there's talk about some characters fleeing to Canada. That wouldn't have come up had we been in southwestern Kansas or Colorado.

Anyway, we're all about the cattle barons. These guys leased land from the government and raised cattle and got rich as all get out. So, they begin to think the land is actually theirs and they get a bit pissy when the government opens up the land to homesteaders, people who will plow the prairies to grow crops and people who will put up fences. But, I'm getting a bit ahead.

We begin, actually, with a cattle Baron's daughter, Hetty Torrance. She's on a train platform in England. A young man comes up, Larry Grant. Grant is an old friend from the prairie. He and Hetty grew up together and are great friends. But Hetty, for some weird reason, isn't sure she "loves" him. Anyway, they have a nice chat and Larry goes his way.

Next up on the train platform is Capt. Jackson (Jake) Cheyne. He's in the U.S. Calvary, so I've no idea what he's doing in England. Whatever, he shows up and proposes to Hetty. She demurs, perhaps because having just seen Larry, she might be beginning to realize there's some "chemistry" with Larry (In those days, 100+ years ago, I'm not sure "chemistry" was a thing between young men and young women. Likely it had a different name.).

Well, off she goes with her friend, Flora Schuyler, with whom she's staying. Flora is perceptive and can tell there's something about Larry to which Hetty can't admit, but it's there just the same.

After a bit, Hetty and Flora head off to the prairie and settle in at Cedar Ridge, Hetty's father's spread. Well, there's all kinds of hooha going on. It seems that homesteaders are moving in. The cattle barons, for the most part, won't have it. So, they begin trying to take the law into their own hands so as to drive the homesteaders out.

Here's where the trouble starts. Larry, who is a rancher himself, realizes that the homesteaders have the better legal claim, and he works to help them get settled, and tries mightily to get the cattle barons to see the legal, and also "just" course of action.

Well, next thing you know, there are "agitators" shipped in from Chicago or some such place to try to create chaos, while pretending to side with the homesteaders. Larry tries to keep them in check. Then, one of the cattle people, somewhat of a bounder named Clavering (either Reginald or Richard, both used), tries to stir up some acts of sabotage himself, but done in such a way that the homesteaders will be blamed. Clavering also develops a thing for Hetty and even gets Torrance's blessing on his attempt to secure his daughter.

Well, Hetty is conflicted, as time goes on, she realizes that Larry is on the more just side, but she can't seem to cross her father. Fortunately, she has the good sense to keep Clavering at arm's length.

So, anyway, y'all will have to read the book yourselves to find out who wins out in the end, and whether or not Hetty and Larry finally get together. It was a pretty fun book all in all. While I rated this as ***, it's really ***+.