Robin Hardy Online
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Harold: The Last of the Saxon Kings
Edward Bulwer Lytton
(Charles Scribner's Sons, 1903)
You envy me that I have this book, I know. But you can't have it; it's not even mine. It's another book that my daughter Stephanie found online. But yes, yes, the author is that Edward Bulwer Lytton, whose novel beginning, "It was a dark and stormy night" inspired the (now) world-famous bad writing contest.
It is true, this novel (originally written in 1848) is, as a whole, unreadable, but there are gems (gems, I tell you!) that can only be wondered at as one would pause over something definitely foreign in a bite of lasagna. To wit:
"Wife, wife," said the Earl, stamping his foot, "hear me and obey me; for my words on earth may be few, and while thou gainsayest me the blood mounts to my brain, and my eyes see through a cloud." (p. 195)
Harold's brow lost its benign calm. (p. 257)
"But they are cousins five times removed, and the Church forbids the marriage; nevertheless Harold lives only for Edith; they have exchanged the truelofa,1 and it is whispered that Harold hopes the Atheling, when he comes to be King, will get him the Pope's dispensation. But to return to Algar; in a day most unlucky he gave his daughter to Gryffyth, the most turbulent sub-king the land ever knew, who, it is said, will not be content till he has won all Wales for himself without homage or service, and the Marches to boot. Some letters between him and Earl Algar, to whom Harold had secured the earldom of the East Angles, were discovered, and in a Witan at Winchester thou wilt doubtless have heard, (for thou didst not, I know, leave thy lands to attend it,) that Algar2 was outlawed." (p. 234)
The superscripts in the text above refer to footnotes explaining the historical significance of those terms, and additional notes are included in the back of the book (which, unfortunately, is only Vol. 1, so we don't see Harold getting it in the neck from William the Conqueror's archers). But Bulwer Lytton has written an honest-to-goodness historical novel, painstakingly researched and oozing with authentic details, down to the archaic spellings.
Not only that, but we are treated to some great original illustrations. At left here is Harold throwing a hissy fit over Edith. (The caption reads, "Harold dares not say to the maid of his love, 'Give me thy right hand, and be my bride.'" Because they were first cousins five times removed, you see.) And on the right is Edith defending Harold from enemy blades. As far as I can tell, the outfitting is totally authentic.
Well worth the purchase price, whatever Stephanie paid for it.
See more on Bulwer Lytton here, and his ancestral home here.
posted April 19, 2006
