The Severed Crown

by Jane Lane

Book Overview

The Civil War in England is at an end. Yet for three years a defeated king continues to influence the country's religious and political life to profound effect. With passion and excitement, Jane Lane... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671215671
• ISBN13: 9780671215675
• Release Date: January 1973
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 210 Pages

Customer Reviews

Engrossing Novel About a Doomed King

The Severed Crown is a story of the last months of Charles I. When I finished this novel, published in the US in 1972, one of my first thoughts was whether it could be published today. There's not much action, and there's no love interest--indeed, there are no major female characters in the novel, unless one counts Queen Henrietta Maria, who writes a couple of letters. The novel is told in the form of letters, extracts from memoirs, and recollections. What action there is consists of Charles I's moves from place to place and discussions. So if you like action and/or romance, this isn't the novel for you. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it thoroughly. The story of the king's last days is told through the eyes of a variety of characters, all with different political and religious beliefs and each with a distinct voice and personality, though most are there more as reporters/observers than as actors. It's not a neutral look at the action--Lane seems to be very much on the side of the king--but of course novelists are much more free to take sides than are historians or biographers. There is one drawback to this book: Lane gives very little background information, so those who don't know anything about the events leading up to the king's execution will be at a loss, and those like me who knew very little about it will probably miss things in the novel that a more knowledgeable person would pick up. As with any novel I've enjoyed, this one's got me looking for more novels about the English Civil War, and more by Jane Lane as well.