Richard III in fiction and nonfiction
Explore the best fiction and nonfiction books about Richard III, from historical accounts to gripping novels. Discover the real king and his legendary portrayal in literature.
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The Tragedy of King Richard the Third
by William Shakespeare
"I feel that I have spent half my career with one or another Pelican Shakespeare in my back pocket. Convenience, however, is the least important aspect of the new Pelican Shakespeare series. Here is an elegant and clear text for either the study or the rehearsal room, notes where you need them and the distinguished scholarship of the general editors, Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller who understand that these are plays for performance as well as great texts for contemplation." (Patrick Stewart) The distinguished Pelican Shakespeare series, which has sold more than four million copies, is now completely revised and repackaged. Each volume features: * Authoritative, reliable texts * High quality introductions and notes * New, more readable trade trim size * An essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare and essays on Shakespeare's life and the selection of texts
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We Speak No Treason Flowering:Book 1
by Rosemary Hawley Jarman
In this superb novel, as spell-binding as any tale of high adventure, but firmly based upon contemporary records, Richard III lives again through the eyes of his intimates and the woman whose ill-starred love brought him brief joy, and her a bitter consummation. Against the background of lusty, fifteenth-century England, with its superstition and witchcraft, its courtly manners and cruel punishments, Rosemary Hawley Jarman presents a fascinating and faithful portrait of one of the most enigmatic figure in our history as he appeared to his contemporaries.
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Richard the Third
by Paul Murray Kendall
"The best biography of Richard III that has been written."—A. L. Rowse, Chicago Tribune Paul Murray Kendall's masterful account of the life of England's King Richard III has remained the standard biography of this controversial figure.
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Royal Blood
by Bertram Fields
Notoriously immortalied by Shakespeare and historians, he is history's most infamous royal villian: Richard III, king of England from 1483 to 1485. Crazed with power and paranoia, he is generally supposed to have killed the youthful Prince of Wales and the aged Henry VI, drowned his brother in a vat of wine, poisoned his wife, and, worst of all, murdered his two young nephews, the older of whom was the rightful king--a reign of terror ending only with his own cowardly death on the blood-soaked field of battle. But is all this true? Modern revisionists, citing the unreliability of Shakespeare's sources and the political agenda of historians in Richard's own day, have offered a far different portrait. A brave and valiant soldier, a loyal brother, and an intelligent, able king popular with his subjects and defeated only through treachery, their Richard is the victim of a deliberate campaign of slander devised by his Tudor successors to the throne. In this comprehensive, meticulously researched book, renowned litigator Bertram Fields outlines and evaluates the arguments of both sides, sifting through five hundred years of legend to apply his highly successful courtroom techniques to the available evidence. Clearing away the dust of time, Fields reconstructs one of the most dramatic and turbulent episodes in history, analyzing the motives and machinations of the many players and emerging with the most definitive account yet of this most fascinating figure--and a powerful argument against acquiescing to common belief.
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Richard III
by Sean Cunningham
Richard III: villain or hero? He was only on the throne for just over two years, yet Richard is probably the most controversial monarch in British history: to some a hunchbacked schemer, usurper and murderer of the 'princes in the Tower', to others a very capable and much maligned ruler. Now you can judge for yourself. Surviving documents from his reign, including letters in Richard's own hand and extracts from official papers, are reproduced here from the 500-year-old originals. Each key document is beautifully reproduced in a double-page spread which also includes an extended contextualising caption and a modern transcription where necessary. The original sources are woven together by a brief narrative history of the reign, fully illustrated in colour with portraits, photographs and other material from the archives. Featured documents include: * Letter from Richard to his mother, 1484 * Richard's official justification for taking the throne, 1484 proclamation against Henry Tudor, 1485 * Richard's letter to the Lord Chancellor requesting the Great Seal 1483