So this is an old(ish) book written in the style of the greats but without the Olde English that can give you a headache!

The story of the moneyman is of a Jewish man in France. The King of France is the same king whom Joan of Arc "saved" and etc, but this is a few decades down the road when his legs are spindly and he has half grown children.

The Moneyman was the son of a merchant (read not important royalty) and he made what amounted to the very first documented Walmart. He had a vision that the wife of a merchant should be able to buy the same spices and silks and velvets as royalty...and that really stirred things up socially although it made him a very wealthy man. So wealthy in fact that he bankrolled an entire war with England, and his thanks for it from the king were...shall we say negative interest.

There is a romantic turn of the story, with a young girl who is groomed to be a consort to the King, because his beloved love (and mistress the infamous and very beautiful/independent Agnes Sorel) is dying. This means that the silk clad iron hands that manage the king (and make the moneyman's life easier) are gone and there is a political vaccuum that the moneyman is trying to fill with this consort he is grooming. The problem is she falls in love with a knight, a brother to the couple who is grooming her for court, and there is great drama there.

So this is a really neat book. There is period historical data that I have not heard referenced in popular literature before, but from what I have been able to research and check, is mostly accurate with some poetic liscence taken. There are great details of the times, of the people, of the politics, of the social structure and it is a great story on top of that.

Historical buffs/people who like history. Medieval buffs. People who like good romances that don't focus on just the hot stuff. People who like classical works that aren't so difficult to understand or overwhelming to finish.

The two love couples, the moneyman and Agnes Sorel although they were likely never lovers; and the knight and the girl.

How the moneyman was treated in the end....for all his faults he was a generous man and deserved better.

Read it again. And I did.

Thomas Costain. He is a historical novelist in the classic sense and from what I have understood meticulous in his research.

Universal to all human feelings. And didn't we all want to know what happened to France's king after a woman secured his throne!

Based on true events.

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Created Jan 28, 2009 at 10:15pm • Submit your own review...