Product Description

A sumptuous wedding feast, two advantageous marriages and a blessing from the golden king When silk merchant John Lambert marries off his two beautiful daughters, their fortunes are set to change forever. Elder daughter Jane starts a notorious liaison with Edward IV, while her sister, Isabel, as the new silkweaver to the court, becomes privy to its most intimate secrets. Could they hold the keys to power in this time of uncertainty? Vanora Bennett brings to life a time of passions and politics, a time of turmoil and tension, a world in flux and a country up for grabs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22394 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
Don't confuse Vanora Bennett with Philippa Gregory. Granted, it wouldn't be a stretch to do so: Both are female British writers whose novels focus largely on the lives of English royalty in the 15th and 16th centuries. But not everything about their work runs parallel. While it seems that Gregory has pretty much cornered the market on writing about the Tudors, Bennett tends to write about the people just on the edge of history. Her latest book, Figures in Silk, is a fast read that effortlessly brings to life one of England's most tumultuous periods. Figures in Silk captures the uncertainty of a world in flux, a mood that many of its readers may share as their own world shifts around them. And yet those looking for escape will find this book offers a satisfying respite. Vanora Bennett's medieval England comes alive in ways a reader cab immediately related to, even while being transported away from the modern world. --Christian Science Monitor, March 2009

Review
Bennett's novel beautifully merges larger-than-life characters with those found in history's footnotes.

Review
Vanora Bennett weaves a richly textured historical novel.

Customer Reviews

Bringing History to Life!
After reading Portrait of an Unknown Woman I couldn't wait to read Figures in Silk, and I wasn't disappointed. Vanora Bennett's masterful weaving of fact and fiction brought the era and historical characters to life, leaving the reader desperate for more. I was torn between sympathy and loathing for Richard III as his character unfolded in an attempt to unveil the man behind the traditionally assumed atrocities he committed to gain the throne but mostly I was fascinated by the lives of the silk women and the merchants in London, which showed a hive of industry and trade that I'd never thought of as an interesting part of fifteenth century England before now! Captivating - can't wait for Blood Royal!

You need to suspend a lot of disbelief
So we're supposed to believe a sheltered 14-year-old daughter of a well-off merchant during the end of the War of the Roses would open her heart about her fears of her upcoming nuptials to a forbidding-looking man she just met? That's just the first of many implausabilities in this historical novel. Now, a masterful writer can make the implausible believable or at least palatable (see Dickens). Ms Bennett is not that writer. The sense of time and place is well delineated, but there's way too much telling rather than showing when it comes to the motivations and feelings of her main characters, as if she herself felt she had to spell out why these people were behaving unrealistically. And although most of the book is filtered through the inner life of the protagonist, Isabel, occasionally we're made privy to the thoughts of a few secondary characters as well; while these characters are at times more interesting than Isabel, because we take their point of view only once or twice, the result is a jerky, creaky narrative.

So why am I giving this two stars instead of just one? Because in a weird way it was readable--I was determined to get to the end to see just how the loose ends were going to be tied up and if the ending would surprise me by being somewhat satisfying. Unfortunately, I was not surprised.

Hope There Is A Sequel
First of all, I know nothing about the silk industry, and I'm not a history buff, so I didn't notice any details being out of place. I just like reading historical fiction, and this was a great novel, in general.

While I appreciated getting a peek at other character's POV, sometimes when it switched from Isabel, it was so abrupt, it took me a moment to figure out whose mind I was in.

I had a lot of respect for Isabel's character until she got so lovesick over Dickon that she didn't appreciate how much she had accomplished. I can't believe that after defying her father, and becoming a "freewoman," she got sloppy with her lovelife.

I wish she had made her final decision a lot earlier...which is why I'd like to read a sequel.

Don't misunderstand me...I loved the story...in fact, I got too involved with the characters...lol.

Another thing I liked about this novel is that it included references to "liasons" without giving lurid sex details. It was historical fiction rather than a trashy paperback with some history thrown in.

If you like this book, you might also want to read The Blackstone Key.