Internecine Strife

Just finished "Devil's Brood" by Sharon Kay Penman. I am still in the glow of finishing this book and wanted to try to say what a fulfilling reading experience it was before the magic recedes. Son against father, husband against wife, brother against brother - 700 pages of internecine strife. Penman made each historical figure breathe, even the minor characters such as servants and lesser knights.

History may be one darned thing after another, and in the scope of the 20-something years covered in this novel, lots of darned things and motives abound - the depiction of sons being very different from their fathers (Louis Capet and his son Philippe, for example), of women suspended waiting for news (Eleanor and Constance of Brittany), of mistrust (Henry II and his devil's brood). It is the stuff of history, but above all, a family saga - a family that played its tensions and successes over a huge area of mainland Europe and the kingdom by the sea.