1460.
In Wallachia, Vlad Tepes has ascended to the throne for the second time, and this time, he's cementing his rule. He's just impaled every boyar involved in the ousting and murder of his father and older brother, and he's building the reputation that makes him "Tepes" in the first place.
In Constantinople, Sultan Mehmet is preparing a campaign to push farther up the Danube, finally capturing Romania and Hungary outright, his favorite kept pet - Vlad's brother - still at his side.
In the first novel of Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolo Series, Niccolo Rising, which opens in Bruges, 1460 is a year of trade, money-lending, and commerce; of privately owned fighting companies and a Europe seeking to do business with the Ottoman Sultan. There are faint murmurings of a crusading effort - but that won't come to pass. Mehmet isn't beatable, but he is a commercial avenue to the East, and a wildly rich businessman in his own right.
After over a year spent researching for my Vlad Tepes novel Dragon Slayer, I admit I had a full geek-out every time there was mention of Constantinople or Mehmet. Vlad never comes up, but he wouldn't - Dunnett's novel takes place before the infamous Forest of the Impaled incident, and, really, Vlad wasn't exactly seen as an important figure by the rest of Europe at this time. He was that guy that kept asking to have his personal revenge quest sanctioned as a crusade; and France, Italy, and Britain had bigger fish to fry. There was no time for a sad anime boy and his aforementioned revenge quest.
Not that I've gotten my Vlad feels out of the way, let's talk about the actual novel I'm here to review.
The basic premise, without giving too much away, is that of an affable dope, Claes, who works as a dyeshop apprentice for the prosperous widow who rescued him from an ugly situation as a child. He's bastard born, without influence or connection. Quick to laugh, always up for an adventure, and living a life of impulse and merriment alongside the widow's son, and the Charetty company heir, Felix. But, in true Dunnett fashion, nothing is as it seems, and each chapter pulls back the carefully-wrought veil another fraction. Until, at the end, the reader is stunned - not only by the transformation in Claes - now Nicholas - but by the deft weaving of story that led you to the finale.
Dorothy Dunnett's approach to historical storytelling is one of total immersion. She isn't going to explain the workings of the past in careful asides; she drops you right in, headfirst, and while this can be overwhelming at first, it's an approach I appreciate: I'd rather go Google something obscure later than be pulled from the story in the moment. I mentioned on Instagram, when I started, that I felt this book was more accessible than her Lymond series, and I stand by that: the language is a bit crisper; the scene is set a bit more plainly. This series was written after Lymond, and you can see the small ways in which she tweaked her own work; the ways she grew, as we all do. In that sense, I want to recommend starting with this series, for ease of reading.
As expected, the characters are distinct, carefully-drawn, and incredibly visual on the page. I'm still marveling at her handling of Claes/Nicholas. The way she presented such a particular picture, and then tweaked it, and twisted it. My God. Any writer who wants to work on their characterization MUST read Dunnett.
Miss Dunnett never shies away from difficult situations or scandalous scenarios, and both are present in this novel. There's so much I want to say here, specifically, but I also don't want to spoil the book for anyone. Let me just say there were some marriages, some pregnancies, and some parentage reveals that shocked me.
I want to take a moment to comment on her female characters, specifically: Dunnett writes very strong, tough, opinionated, flawed, driven female characters. Philippa in the Lymond Chronicles is one of my favorite characters ever. But she does tend to write them from the historical male perspective; the language is as brutal and demeaning as one could have expected for the time period. Women back then didn't have the freedoms we do now, and Dunnett is bluntly accurate on that front. I've always felt, though, that the ugly thoughts from some of her male characters are true to the period, and are the thoughts of those characters, not Dunnett's own perspective. In general, the women seen as vicious and meddlesome by some of the male characters end up the strongest, most steadfast and correct characters in the novels.
Dunnett is - was, sadly - a singular talent. I can't help but feel it's important that I read her work. Her sprawling, meticulously crafted, hard-to-define novels offer a wealth of emotion and thoughtfulness. I'm so looking forward to continuing this series.
I will say, though - and this is just a personal preference. There was something really magical - for me - about the Lymond Chronicles. I'm only one book into this series, and my opinions could absolutely change, but so far, I'm missing Francis Crawford - and his friends and family. At times I hated them, but I always loved them. It's been fun to see the ways Dunnett fans have a preference for one series or the other. I'm curious to see where I'll shake out, once it's all over.
In short: please go read Dorothy Dunnett. Please keep her books alive for future generations. She truly has no equal.
No comments:
Post a Comment