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I think, Majesty, that all uncles have some things in common, whether they are nobles, priests, or showmen. And what is that, my Jardinire? asked the queen. They do not like girls who talk too much.
But that is exactly why I want you here, she said, lifting one finger. To talk and talk and talk as much as you please. Even if it is all nonsense? Especially then. Throw together a fool, a queen, and a lot of sneaky citizens, and what do you end up with? An amazing story that makes a book I just cant put down!
Luckily for me Jane Yolen and Robert Harris decided to write it, and it is called Queens Own Fool. Queens Own Fool is a wonderful work of historical fiction. Set in the time of Mary, Queen of Scots, the plot tells of a traveling jester girl named Nicola who gets recruited to be the queens fool to Queen Mary herself. The Queen tells Nicola that her job is to always tell the truth to the Queen. Then the story takes the Queen and Nicola from England to Scotland, where they get into various skirmishes with angry Scots, angry religious fanatics, angry royal advisors, and a few friendly people. Most of the time, Queen Mary respects Nicola and listens to what she has to say, but there are times in the book when I wondered if Nicola was going to be the next one beheaded.
And of course, I cant give away the ending. In just under 400 pages, the authors of this book had plenty of time to develop a plot, add description, and bore me to death. When I originally chose this book off the shelf I was worried that that might happen. But the amazing thing is that this book is interesting the whole way through. The snippets of detail that gave me information without forcing me to skim were just what I love to find in a book. Instead of a single problem and solution, the authors took me on a continuous journey- as soon as I thought I knew the answer, a new antagonist showed up on the scene, trying to turn the world upside down.
The characters intentions and wishes were shown clearly, not through tedious pages of lengthy description, but through their words and actions. I didnt notice the authors using many metaphors or other special language; actually, this book is written in fairly simple English. I think that that is important, because the plot is somewhat complicated and the story is hard enough to understand without other things to look out for. This book was somewhat similar to another book I read recently, except that the other has a completely fictional time, place, and cast of characters. The other book was Elske by Cynthia Voigt, and it was about a girl who is hired as a maid for a woman who is trying to regain the throne of a fictional country. I liked both books because they had interesting female heroines that werent just adventurous 12 -year-old girls (like most fiction nowadays).
Those characters are interesting, but it gets boring reading about the same types of characters every time. I like how in both Elske and Queens Own Fool, the main character isnt the character that was most famous to the people in the book. On the contrary, the main character is usually a fairly low-class person at the beginning of the book. One of the things that I think was probably important to the book, but which I didnt like, was how the main characters in Elske and Queens Own Fool were always overshadowed by their respective mistresses. I was disappointed that neither heroine got much chance to be heroic.
However, I think that most likely did help the book to become more realistic, because that is almost certainly what would have really happened. The book Queens Own Fool is interesting, exciting, and even humorous in a few parts. It has suspense and detail without being monotonous and repetitive. So, if you are interested in Mary, Queen of Scots, if you enjoy historical fiction, if you like interesting characters and twisting plots, or if you are just looking for a good and challenging book to read, I believe that you would enjoy Queens Own Fool.
Free research essays on topics related to: queens, mary queen of scots, main character, fool, historical fiction
Research essay sample on Book Review Of The Queen Own Fool
