The Death of Arthur: Thomas Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur.” Retold by Peter Ackroyd. Viking, 2012.

Now I know why I never read Malory’s  Le Morte d’Arthur  until now.  These tales, beautifully retold by Peter Ackroyd, have knights fighting for the honor of a chaste woman while bedding down any other women they can find.  Arthur is a boorish king who has no compunction in having his Queen Guinevere to be burned for infidelity while he has managed to bed down his half sister and sire Sir Mordred.  And then there is Sir Lancelot, who marries a fair maid, but will not bed her because of his love for Guinevere.  As for Sir Galahad,  son of Sir Lancelot, his search for the Holy Grail is just a round of fight after fight until the Grail disappears.  Knights number in the thousands in a country that probably had only a few hundred inhabitants and kings and knights can travel hundreds of miles in a couple of days in a country where there are no real roads.  I know it is oral tradition and fantasy, but at least make it believable.

Reviewer:  Dorothy Pittman

The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy’s Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de ‘Medici. Elizabeth Levi. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.

Not until the end of the 19^th and early 20^th century were women considered anything other than property to bought and sold.  So it was that Caterina, the illegitimate child of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, was sold at age ten to her first husband, a debauched 30-year-old nephew of the Pope, who demanded consummation of the marriage immediately before he left for Rome, leaving this bride still in the care of her father.

At age 13, Caterina travelled to Rome to live with her husband in the Papal Palace.  She soon realized that there was no substance to her husband although he managed to get her pregnant five times in nine years.

After the assassination of her husband, Caterina began to goven her husban’s lands in Forili and keeping would be kidnappers at bay.  It was at this time that she fell in love with Giacomo Feo, a glorified stable boy whom she knighted and married.  When he was murdered, Caterina “went ballistic” killing at least thirty-eight people and torturing, exiling, or imprisoning many others.  Soon afterwards, she married for the third time a Medici, Giovanni di Pierfrancesco.  After his death, her fortress was attached by Venice.  As she had been trained to fight as a young girl, it was not an unusual thing to see her in armor welding a sword against her foes.  Defeated by Cesare Borgia, she was imprisoned until she won her freedom.  She died soon afterwards at the age of forty-six.

As a student of powerful women in history, Caterina shines among those who was true to herself, even though she lost all of her power and possessions. 

Reviewer: Dorothy Pittman

London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets. Peter Ackroyd. Doubleday, 2012.

Anyone who has visited London has, at one time or another, ridden on the Underground. With its iconic map and stations, it is just an integral part of London as is Big Ben and the Tower Bridge.  But there is more beneath the streets of London than just the Underground.  Peter Ackroyd, author of London: The Biography and Thames: The Biography, has now gone below ground to discover the many wonders found there.

As London grew along the clay and gravel that comprised the banks of the Thames, the other smaller rivers, i.e. e. the Fleet, flowing to it carried all the filth and detritus from its inhabitants. London stank until city engineer, Joseph Bazalgette, designed and built in 1858 the first real sewers, some of which are still in use.  Later Charles Pearson developed the plan for the underground system that is it at the heart of the story.

Of particular interest was the use of the Underground as air-raid shelters during World War II.  Initially discouraged by the government, the citizens of London took over the Underground stations, developing a complex city with its own newspaper.

London Under is a wonderful tour of the city below with its tubes, rivers, sewers, and human remains.  The next time I ride on the Tube, it will be with a new attitude and respect for the ground under and above us.

Reviewer:  Dorothy Pittman