I have just finished reading _The Invisible Infanta_, and wanted to let you know that I enjoyed it a great deal. It was wonderful to spend some time with this least-known daughter of the Catholic Kings. I was sorry when it was done, wishing that we could have spent time with her and Manuel; to see how she approached motherhood; and to possibly even get a couple of scenes with la Beltraneja.
You say that you welcome constructive comments, and I offer these:
You do such a nice job with Maria and the central characters that I wished for a larger canvas: this novel sometimes feels more like an ambitious outline than a complete work. Margaret of Austria, for example, feels, to me, shortchanged. She was a bright, witty young woman who learned a great deal about governing from the women around her, including Margaret of York, Anne of France and, of course Isabel herself. She had wit (I was sorry to have your readers miss out on the little verse she wrote for herself during the seastorm on her voyage to Spain).
Juan was never an infante: as the heir to the crowns of the Spains, he was born a prince. "Infante/a" was used for royalty not in direct line to the throne; so Isabel the younger was born a princess, became an infanta when Juan was born, then, briefly, became princess again.
One grammatical point: there are times when "... and I" is used incorrectly and should be "... and me". When Maria is the subject of her sentence, "... and I" is cool; when she's the object, she should refer to herself as "me". I was taught a cool trick to figure when "me" should be used: if you take away the "... and", and are left with the narrator, would the narrator say "I" or "me" (Take, "Unlike Catalina and I". If the sentence didn't include Catalina, Maria would say "unlike me").
Don't you love Townsend Miller? I find his style and empathy for Juana, especially, captivating, and it was wonderful to read a recent monograph about Juana by Bethany Aram, and discover that a nice percentage of Miller's research still stands!
As a Ricardian, I thank you for stating that Henry Tudor killed Richard III and that it was a nasty way to do it. "Old" king in reference to Richard did make me blink just a bit since Richard wasn't yet 33 years old when he died, and had ruled only two years. When he ascended the throne he got a nice letter from Isabel the Catholic, though clearly they came to terms with Henry VII soon enough. I liked Catalina's horror at the execution of Edward Plantagenet, and Garrett Mattingly does say she felt it was a bad omen.
I'm looking forward to reading your next installment.
Maria Elena Torres maria@thedqt.org http://www.thedqt.org/home/
Dear Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI have just finished reading _The Invisible Infanta_, and wanted to let you know that I enjoyed it a great deal. It was wonderful to spend some time with this least-known daughter of the Catholic Kings. I was sorry when it was done, wishing that we could have spent time with her and Manuel; to see how she approached motherhood; and to possibly even get a couple of scenes with la Beltraneja.
You say that you welcome constructive comments, and I offer these:
You do such a nice job with Maria and the central characters that I wished for a larger canvas: this novel sometimes feels more like an ambitious outline than a complete work. Margaret of Austria, for example, feels, to me, shortchanged. She was a bright, witty young woman who learned a great deal about governing from the women around her, including Margaret of York, Anne of France and, of course Isabel herself. She had wit (I was sorry to have your readers miss out on the little verse she wrote for herself during the seastorm on her voyage to Spain).
Juan was never an infante: as the heir to the crowns of the Spains, he was born a prince. "Infante/a" was used for royalty not in direct line to the throne; so Isabel the younger was born a princess, became an infanta when Juan was born, then, briefly, became princess again.
One grammatical point: there are times when "... and I" is used incorrectly and should be "... and me". When Maria is the subject of her sentence, "... and I" is cool; when she's the object, she should refer to herself as "me". I was taught a cool trick to figure when "me" should be used: if you take away the "... and", and are left with the narrator, would the narrator say "I" or "me" (Take, "Unlike Catalina and I". If the sentence didn't include Catalina, Maria would say "unlike me").
Don't you love Townsend Miller? I find his style and empathy for Juana, especially, captivating, and it was wonderful to read a recent monograph about Juana by Bethany Aram, and discover that a nice percentage of Miller's research still stands!
As a Ricardian, I thank you for stating that Henry Tudor killed Richard III and that it was a nasty way to do it. "Old" king in reference to Richard did make me blink just a bit since Richard wasn't yet 33 years old when he died, and had ruled only two years. When he ascended the throne he got a nice letter from Isabel the Catholic, though clearly they came to terms with Henry VII soon enough. I liked Catalina's horror at the execution of Edward Plantagenet, and Garrett Mattingly does say she felt it was a bad omen.
I'm looking forward to reading your next installment.
Maria Elena Torres
maria@thedqt.org
http://www.thedqt.org/home/