Rating: 🍁
I'm giving up on this one. It's not a terrible book, but it's a book that can't decide whether it wants to be an introductory history textbook or a historical novel. When it decides to be the latter, it's pretty good. I enjoyed the vignettes of the different time periods as experienced by the descendants of the 5 foundational families.
Unfortunately, these vignettes are dispersed between lengthy passages of tedious historical context. There are even moments when the author interrupts the novel-like sections with phrases like "Modern historians believe [insert historical data here]." These interjections were jarring, knocking me out of the story that was being told.
If the book were shorter, I might have persevered and finished it despite it all, but it's just not going to happen.
Sidenote: Am I alone in feeling that labeling your book "The Novel of England" is just a wee bit pretentious?
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