Comments on: Finding our Literary Mothers and Sisters in Time

By: sharan newman

sharan newman — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 06:02:07 +0000

In reply to Bec. This article was written many years after I wrote my books. I found it interesting and it not only agreed with my findings but echoed my opinion of The Mists of Avalon, which I reviewed for the LA Times. I thought it misanthropic and anti-feminist. Have you read my Guinevere books? They are still in print.

By: Bec

Bec — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 01:08:07 +0000

Can’t fully agree about women in Arthurian legend
http://www.academia.edu/6129549/The_Role_of_Women_in_the_Arthurian_Material

By: Sharan Newman

Sharan Newman — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 15:03:02 +0000

In reply to Joanne Dobson. With the fertility of Eleanor's daughters, you may very well be descended from her. They were all pretty feisty.

By: Sharan Newman

Sharan Newman — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 15:00:19 +0000

In reply to Elizabeth Chadwick. From you, Elizabeth, that's high praise. I think Eleanor deserves at least a trilogy and I look forward to reading it.

By: Sharan Newman

Sharan Newman — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 19:01:16 +0000

There have been many books about Eleanor, but she has not been well-served by her biographers, many of whom are not historians. Recently, there have been better scholarly essays written on her, most particularly Palgrave’s collect in the New Middle Ages series,ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE, LORD AND LADY. ed. Bonnie Wheeler and John Carmi Parsons.

My point is that Eleanor was by no means unusual or even more powerful than many of her contemporaries, including Melisende.

By: Joanne Dobson

Joanne Dobson — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 14:19:28 +0000

Imagine my surprise when ancestry.com traced my lineage through an early German colonist of Dutch New Amsterdam back to Eleanor of Aquitaine! I don’t know how seriously to take this connection, but it has seriously colonized my imagination! Thank you, Sharan, for this wonderful essay.

By: Elizabeth Chadwick

Elizabeth Chadwick — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 13:36:16 +0000

I really enjoyed this post and am about to retweet and also post to my Facebook groups.
I so agree with you. I have been interested in Melisande of Jerusalem ever since coming across her when I was 15 and attempting my first (unpublished) novel. I didn’t write about her, but my delvings did lead me to discover her and I am really looking forward to reading your book about her. I know there’s so much I don’t know and I also know I’ll be in safe hands with your assessment.
With reference to Eleanor of Aquitaine I agree again. I’m in the middle of writing a contracted trilogy about her and the women who surrounded her including her sister and her sister in law Isabel de Warenne are a strong part of my focus.
I’ve always enjoyed your fiction works and now’s the time to begin delving into your non fiction.

By: Stella Atrium

Stella Atrium — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 12:35:10 +0000

Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine is a favorite research figure of mine. Many scholarly books have been written.

Queen Eleanor’s life is a series of adventures — almost kidnapped by a younger son to a forced marriage, Queen of France THEN Queen of England, went on a crusades, eight kids by Henry Plantagenet (the first Henry), mother to Richard the Lionhearted who she ransomed from Germany when she was 80, mother of John who signed the Magna Carta, imprisoned by Henry for 10 years and released by Richard.

Eleanor’s progeny populated the royal houses of Europe and the Mediterranean kingdoms to the Islam states. Her blood still flows in the veins of many royal families.

There should be a series of movies about her through the many stages of her life!