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Lionheart [Kindle Edition]

Sharon Penman (Author)

4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (94 customer reviews)

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Length: 609 pages (Contains Real Page Numbers)
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"The great Crusader king Richard the Lionheart comes alive in all his complex splendor in this masterpiece of a medieval tapestry by Sharon Kay Penman. She brings him and his legendary enemy, Saladin, before us, both on the battlefield for Jerusalem and in the quiet of their private chambers. It's as if you were there, in this strange, beguiling, vanished time that haunts the Middle East even today. Penman has triumphed in capturing its elusive essence and the blazing glory of the English king called Lionheart."
-Margaret George, author of "Elizabeth I: A Novel"

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Product details

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 2755 KB
Print Length: 609 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0230760856
Publisher: Macmillan; Open market ed edition (29 Mar 2012)
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.� r.l.
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0230760856
ISBN-13: 978-0230760851
ASIN: B006Z9SOBC
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

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Not Enabled

Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (94 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #208 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1 in Books > Fiction > War
- #1 in Books > Fiction > Biographical Fiction
- #1 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > War

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Sharon Kay Penman Page

I am an American of Irish-English-Welsh heritage, and I currently live in New Jersey, although many of my readers imagine I am happily dwelling upon a Welsh mountaintop--but no such luck. I was once a tax lawyer, which I looked upon as penance for my sins. Like most writers, I was born with a love of the written word, although I never expected to be able to support myself as a writer; when you read about starving artists in their garrets, most of them have starving writers as roommates. But I was very lucky and I have been blessed to make my living as a writer for the past twenty-seven years or so. All of my novels--eleven at last count--are set in the Middle Ages, and focus upon England's most colorful dynasty, the Plantagenets. It is almost as if they lived their dramatic and often wildly improbable lives with future historical novelists in mind, and I am very grateful to them--especially to the Angevins,Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine and their equally famous children, known to their contemporaries as the Devil's Brood.

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Richard the (slightly mangy) Lionheart 25 Feb 2013

By EleanorB TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have always enjoyed a Sharon Penman dip into the early Middle Ages in the company of the vibrant Plantagenet characters who populated the ruling classes in those days. Richard's story is another interesting part of that panoply, but to be honest I feel she would have been happier writing a factual chronicle of his life and not a fiction. The third crusade was clearly a disaster from start to finish, costing the lives of many on both sides for very little actual gain. Richard himself is one of those unreachable, unreadable characters. An enigma in his own time, a fearsome and fearless soldier, but less good on the diplomatic front and prone to either trusting the wrong people, or falling out with the wrong people. The strong woman in his life is his mother, the amazing Eleanor of Aquitaine (whom Penman has developed brilliantly in earlier work), not his naive and clingy wife and although Penman tries for a shedload of male bonding, Richard refuses to play ball. Do his men universally love him, or do they just tolerate him because they have to!? Does he care more for his own quest for Jerusalem, than for his remote English kingdom (which after all is funding these adventures to a large extent) and is he actually more at war with the French King, Philip, than with Saladin? Penman has woven a pleasing narrative around these questions, but not the most engaging one, although the tortuous factional politics and petty feuding between the supposed crusading allies, are well drawn. Penman also has a particular talent for writing fight scenes, capturing the claustrophobic and brutal horrors of the medieval battlefield.

This being the case, although the novel is well written as is all Penman's material, it is not up there with her best. Read more ›

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77 of 83 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent - historical fiction at its best 28 Mar 2012

By Kate TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

The works of Sharon Kay Penman are close to my heart - Here be Dragons is one of my favourite historical novels and I hold it responsible for my fascination with the 12th century (and I'm no medievalist). Penman's books are rich, long and full of flavour for the past. Their reading is not to be rushed, it should be dallied over, and so it's not surprising that their writing is equally painstaking and the publication of a new novel is an event. Lionheart is the latest, the first of two novels on Richard I (reigned 1189-1199), arguably the most fantastical of England's kings and certainly its most charismatic.

Sharon Kay Penman states that she had preconceived ideas about Richard - his unsuitability for kingship, his irresponsibility and arrogance, and his disregard for England - but that through her research for the other Plantagenet novels, she came to see another Richard: the Lionheart who inspired his men, thousands of miles from home, who shared their suffering and dreams, who fought bravely, with a realistic strategy, and who, after all, was never an Englishman. While Penman accedes that Richard was, or became, a bad husband and that his heart wasn't in England but in Aquitaine and on the battlefields of the Holy Land, she presents here the Lionheart that his men and family knew, not the one that history condemns. It's refreshing to find him both flawed and very likeable.

Lionheart covers the Third Crusade, which was far from glorious. The vast dramatis personae of the novel highlights the problem facing Richard - the Saracens were more honourable than the French and Austrians on his own side, so honourable that he even knighted some of them while they sent Richard fruit chilled by snow when he was ill. With the future of Jerusalem's royal family focused on a young woman, Isabella, who is married off from one rival faction to another, it would seem that all Saladin had to do was watch and wait. While the French abandoned the Crusade altogether, leaving their allies to support Richard in nothing but name, Richard was not able to direct the fighting where it counted. The Crusade was doomed; it was hot; there was disease; poisonous and irritating creatures; men were homesick; they saw dreadful things. Richard led from the front, often placing himself in danger, and inspiring great acts of courage from his followers - all resulting in the admiration of his enemy and chroniclers.

All this, Sharon Kay Penman evokes beautifully in a book where every page is a joy. From the outset, when we find ourselves experiencing the terror of a young girl, orphaned and shipwrecked and frightened, we are placed beside the witnesses and protagonists of history, whether they are Richard himself, his sister Joanna, the widowed Queen of Sicily, his young, brave and innocent bride Berengaria of Navarre, or the exciting and noble Henri of Champagne, the nephew of both kings of England and France. The perspective shifts wonderfully.

The style is not fast - instead, it is measured and deeply thought through. But Penman's extremely careful prose places the reader directly in the heart of Sicily, Cyprus and in the tents, towns and castles of the dangerous and inhospitable Outremer. The fabrics, foods, drinks, sounds and smells of life on Crusade are brought before us in a way I haven't experienced before in a novel of the Middle Ages. It's a dangerous world but women share it with men, including Richard's sister and bride from whom, almost unbelievably, he could not be parted. At times, I felt some frustration that we were kept back with the women but, elsewhere in the novel, women were banished from the frontline while we were spared nothing. This tension in narratives, though, is invaluable in creating the mood of the novel. Throughout the narrative is the reminder, constant in many of Penman's novels, of how extraordinary the Plantagenets were and what a gift they are to a novelist as fine as this.

Lionheart is a throwback to the novels that Sharon Kay Penman has rewarded us with through thirty plus years of superb, eloquent fiction - these aren't so much novels as chronicles. I'm fortunate to have read every one (can there be a better novel of medieval warfare than The Sunne in Splendour?) and I'll make sure I read every one to come.

I couldn't wait for the UK publication and so this review is from the US edition. Read more ›

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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Very long and involved 3 Dec 2012

By valerie Godfrey

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have always admired Sharon Penman's research but in Lionheart she seems to be determined to get every last detail included and after a while I was losing track of all the characters. (It was rather similar in The Devil's Brood). It was a long book and the story ended when Richard left Outremer so there is yet another volume to come! Rather too drawn out for me.

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46 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Quality Penmanship 27 Dec 2011

By Isis

Format:Hardcover

One of the best things about the publication of a new Sharon Penman novel is that feeling of security which creates even higher anticipation - the consistency of her level of writing over the years has built up a real store of trust amongst her readership. Unlike some authors where a new release is met with anticipation mixed with nervousness by readers to discover if it will be a sensation or a flop, we know ahead of time that we're safe with one of Sharon's novels, we know that we're always going to get the high standard of research and writing that Sharon delivers. What a relief in the frequently hit and miss world of historical fiction!

I was intrigued ahead of time about how Penman would portray the very different worlds of Sicily, Cyprus and Outremer, compared to the familiar settings in her novels of western Europe, but in treating these locations and their unique environments and cultures with as much care and detail as she does our old stomping grounds of Wales, England and France, Sharon Penman creates these new places just as thoroughly and believably. As per usual, Sharon is tackling a political situation of intense complexity, with a veritable cast of hundreds of characters, but again by rendering this deftly and carefully she keeps everything clear and understandable. This is a point of particular importance for me, since so many historical fiction authors shy away from conveying the full story when the history gets complicated, and it seems to be out of fear that readers just won't understand and will then slam the book for being too confusing. Not once during the course of reading Lionheart did I feel confused or have to go back and re-read due to bewilderment. I cannot stress enough just how much this contributes to the overall quality of the writing. Precision with clarity - it's a winning combination.

Since I'm touching on the subject of historical accuracy already, a few more words on the matter: it's as high as one would come to expect from a Sharon Penman novel, and as ever the author's note - always a welcome courtesy in historical fiction - thoroughly addresses discrepancies and furthermore provides a wonderful glimpse into the research process of an historical novelist. Moreover, it reinforces that sense of trust, by creating a certain degree of openness and transparency, and the extensive bibliography was a joy for me as an historian, as I can now do the same research for myself on the points I loved in the novel and want to find out more about.

I think one of the key points of anticipation was wondering how Penman would portray Richard. We'd seen him as a prince before, got insights into his early years and glimmers of the man he would become, but you just know that everyone was waiting for the Lionheart king of semi-legendary status in the modern British consciousness to appear on the stage. What's wonderful about the character of Richard in this novel is that we get a rich blend of the larger than life figure and the real man - there's no mistaking Richard's military prowess and leadership presence, with an occasional dash of pomp and circumstance, but the down to earth, grounded man is also readily apparent, and the story is woven full of marvellous moments of private humour and personal intimacy. This is something I've said before in another review of a Penman novel, but you really believe that this could be the real Richard. I think this is another one of the big secrets of a great historical fiction novel - part of the fun and appeal is the idea of a glimpse into what really happened, and what our most fascinating historical people were really like, and getting this right is treading the line between immersion and disengagement. It's about believability.

It's not just Richard either - though his significance in this novel was such that I felt I had to address the point of his portrayal separately - but all the characters are a delight. Henri, André, Eleanor, Joanna, Berenguela... it's the subtlety in the way these characters have been built up. One of my favourites scenes has to be the dinner between Eleanor, Berenguela and their party and Constance and Heinrich and their party, after a chance meeting. It's simply magical. The political groundwork is set in place, the joy of knowing that this chance meeting actually happened and is not an implausible author invention, and Eleanor's moment to absolutely shine, drawing on all her past experiences and vast political acumen. I can't credit Sharon Penman enough for being able to write the subtle scenes of political discourse equally as well as the action scenes of chaotic battle.

Lionheart ticks all my boxes of what I look for in historical fiction: sophisticated writing, subtle characterisations, historical accuracy, and a coherent and compelling plot. Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Richard the Lionheart

My favourite author of this period. Well researched and a good read. Waiting for release in paperback of follow up A King's Ransom.

Published 7 days ago by C. Rapin

5.0 out of 5 stars frustrated dream

What an insight.This maligned king emerges from a shadowed history into the full orbed sunlight of a freshly researched revelation. Read more

Published 18 days ago by Peter Glasgow

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent condition, like new

Although I haven't read it yet, I know that this is a brilliant book, yet another Sharon Penman masterpiece. Read more

Published 21 days ago by Theboss

3.0 out of 5 stars Naive design and point size.

The book is a lengthy read already but the layout is atrocious and makes it look even longer. Tiny text size. It makes a book that should be a joy to read feel arduous.

Published 22 days ago by J machin

4.0 out of 5 stars read it

What a brilliant book! The facts and details were interspersed with a well told story that made you want to read more, I could not put the book down.

Published 1 month ago by Tony R

5.0 out of 5 stars Sharon Penman

I have read almost everything Sharon has written, love her style, not a lot of useless information muddling the waters.

Published 1 month ago by Lynn Beasley

5.0 out of 5 stars Historical novel

Bought this because have read the other novels by same author. Great read and takes you back to that era.

Published 1 month ago by S. Pry

3.0 out of 5 stars Often boring

The characters are engaging, especially Richard. I also enjoyed the way Penman writes battles, focusing on both what the characters were thinking as well as on the action. Read more

Published 2 months ago by johnyquest

4.0 out of 5 stars lionheart - sharon penman

Glad the author did not dwell too much on king Richards supposed sexuality. Good read, I. Could almost smell the battle fields.

Published 2 months ago by Cynthia Williams

5.0 out of 5 stars Lionheart

An interesting historical novel on Richard the Lionheart. It gives an insight into the making of the popular notions of the man we all lnow as the Lionheart. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Maisie Duignan

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