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Home » Review of Shadow on the Crown, by Patricia Bracewell

Review of Shadow on the Crown, by Patricia Bracewell

book cover image Shadow on the Crown Patricia Bracewell Poisoned PenIn this spellbinding novel, Bracewell has set out to pull the often forgotten Queen Emma into modern awareness. At age fifteen in 1002, Emma came from Normandy to marry the much older King Aethelred. The English king hoped through this marriage to persuade Emma’s brother, the Duke of Normandy, to block the Vikings from his ports and thus protect England from their raids. Aethelred’s marriage to Emma brought him many things, but not peace—although the violence was certainly not Emma’s fault.

Bracewell has taken the hints and fragments that remain about this queen in the historical record and built a fast-paced, historically rich novel that takes us deeply into four minds: Emma, Aethelred, Aethelred’s son and Emma’s rival. This breadth of point of view is a particularly strong aspect of the novel. We see and feel this far off time through these differing prisms, and we gain a much richer sense of Emma herself because we intimately know the inner thoughts and reactions toward her of the key people around her. For example, her husband is often outwardly cruel and unfeeling toward her. It would be easy to assume he dislikes her—but the truth is far more nuanced. This haunted man makes a mess of many of his key decisions and choices. If we did not know the dark paths and phantoms that make up his daily inner world, we would miss why Emma’s choices and loyalties are so compelling to her. Her main rival is singularly self-centered and the contrast with Emma’s turmoil raises our sympathies for Emma even at her worst moments. The contrast between the insightful son and his paranoid ruling father makes the bitter reality even more painful. This narrative choice—to expand the point of view to both female and male characters—thus not only enlarges the worlds of activity that can be portrayed, but also deepens our emotional attachment to the characters.

To the extent that Emma has been remembered at all, she often suffered from a negative reputation, undeservedly so by Bracewell’s interpretation. Bracewell has taken the seeming contradictions and complications of the historical record, primarily from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and sifted these pieces against the details of the life and times until sensible interpretations of these conflicting strands became clear. In doing so, she has returned a clear and distinctive voice to our collective understanding of history. I particularly enjoy books that give women from the past their proper place again. Too often the most distinctive women received the most virulent neglect. I’m glad to have Emma step into the forefront of history with Bracewell’s assistance—and in the form of such an enjoyable read.