I’m a big fan of historical novels, they’re more than 1/3 of what I’ve read in the past 5 years, and if I had to take only one genre to a desert island that would be it. As far as that makes me an expert (!), believe me when I say that Dorothy Dunnett is the best. No one can put me there like she can.
I’m always surprised at how she’s not more famous – I only know two people in person that have read her and not that many more in the virtual world. No… to be honest, I’m not that surprised, because I’m always afraid to recommend her, especially to people who don’t read much (sounds snobbish, but it’s not, believe me!). Dunnett can write the most satisfying books, but they’re not a light read. The plot is intricate and there are many characters, at times you don’t know what’s happening until two chapters later a character says something and then there’s glorious light. Dunnett never spoon feeds you and makes you work for your rewards… but oh the rewards!
The House of Niccolò series was written after her first books, the Lymond Chronicles, but follow one of Lymond’s ancestors: Nicholas vander Poele, an apprentice in a dye shop in Bruges who, with mathematical precision and the clever use of his dimples, climbs the proverbial corporate leader until he becomes head of the company. In the Lymond Chronicles, each book is set in a different place (Scotland, France, Malta, Turkey, Russia), and Nicholas also treats the world as his oyster. Book 1 starts in Bruges, with glimpses of Geneva, Venice and Milan, and this second book takes us further East.
In 1461, 20 years-old Nicholas is in Florence, where he persuades Cosimo de’ Medici to back him up on an ambitious trade journey. He will sail to the Black Sea until Trebizond, last outpost of the Byzantine outpost, and the last jewel missing in the crown of the Ottoman Empire. But things of course never run as smoothly as they should: Nicholas’s younger stepdaughter, 13 year-old Catherine, elopes with his rival in trade: a Machiavellian Genoese who races ahead of Nicholas, setting traps at each port he lands. Trebizond is a key trade connection to the East, and home to a decadent court who refuses to admit that at any moment they may fall to the Turks. Not all traders in the city are that blind and the plot is mined with political and commercial intrigue.
As always, Dunnett shows off her meticulous historical research and ability to blends historic characters with fictional ones. The meeting with Cosimo de’ Medici was especially well done – Nicholas gets into the old man’s good graces by enchanting his grandson Cosimino with a yo-yo he made himself. But the highlights are really her descriptions of the wonders of Trebizond, the incense in the air, the languid day-to-day life of its court, the hot-baths, the arrival of the camel caravan.
Also, in this immediate-world we live in, I’m also always fascinated by a past where news traveled at a slow pace. People could take months to arrive in Trebizond from Europe, a letter just little under that time, if a ship heading for the destination you want happens to pass by. It really makes me wonder how could anything outside one city could work and… be done. But it did and Dorothy Dunnett, better than anyone, gives you a glimpse at how trade, politics and personal relationships developed in the expanding borders of the mid-XV century.
I’d like to go to visit Trebizond – maybe to a trip around the Black Sea? The closest I’ve ever got was the entrance to the Sea, when we went to Istanbul. We were close to the ruins of a Fort that might have been the one in Dunnett’s description:
Then, three weeks on their journey, they reached the end of the Black Sea and faced its only exit: the waterway of the Bosphorus, lined by the guns of the Turks. They chose to sail through it in daylight. The ponderous Anadolu Hisari on the Asian shore and, on the right, the massive round towers of Bohasi-Kesen, its new partner. The throat-cutter, they called it; or the strait-cutter; because no ship could survive between the mouths of the two sets of cannon. They entered the Bosphorus, and the gun from Bohasi-Kesen fired.
Where Lymond was about dramatic escapades and a world changed by the ideas of the height of the Renaissance, the Niccolò series is about trade, the delicate balance of power it builds, and how it ultimately started globalization. In The Spring of the Ram, the journey undertaken by Nicholas is portrayed almost as a quest, right down to the mythic parallels. The sign of the Ram (or Aires), is the first in the Zodiac. Aires sometimes represent the Golden Fleece, sought by the heroic Jason and his Argonauts, whose steps Nicholas follows on his way to Trebizond. Dorothy Dunnett liked to play these little tricks. In Lymond, the titles were all chess moves and the story reflected it, and with Niccolò they’re all references to star signs. The next one, Race of Scorpions, will take me to Cyprus. I could go straight to it, but I want to make them last. You can only read Dorothy Dunnett for the first time once.
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November 22, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Teresa
Yes, yes, and a thousand times yes! And I totally agree that it doesn’t make sense that Dunnett isn’t more well-known, except for how it does makes sense. I have, alas, read all her historical fiction, so I can’t have that experience for the first time again.
Have you read King Hereafter? It’s my favorite of her books, and I’m re-reading it right now., a chapter or two at a time. I’m discovering that there’s so much detail and so much that I didn’t pick up on the first time that it still feels fresh. But it’s hard work. Even on a second read, the first 200 pages kept me muddled, but then… a magic moment and it all clicks. Also, it has my favorite romance in all of historical fiction.
November 23, 2010 at 9:52 am
Alex
Teresa, I’ve been following your dive into King Hereafter and am looking forward to your final review 🙂 Last year was my DD Year. I read all the Lymond and they just blew me away. For Xmas my boyfriend gave me the full Niccolo series and King Hereafter. They’ve been sitting on my shelf, looking eagerly at me be, but I’ve been resisting! Slooowly. I can just imagine how a re-read might also be a great experience, I’m sure there’s a lot of details that completely escaped me.
I know at least one person who loved the series but just couldn’t finish KH. Is it very different? Do you think I should read Macbeth before KH? Do you have her Companion books? They’ve been very helpful!
November 23, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Teresa
That final review will be a long time coming. I think I’m managing a chapter, maybe two, a day. (I do my rereading at lunchtime.) KH takes a lot longer to get going than the other books. Even on the second read, I was confused for the first 200 pages–so confused I couldn’t wrap my head around why I loved it the first time! The biggest problem is that there’s no annotated character list, which helped me so much with the other books. However, once the book gets going, it’s really good. I think it’s her best work.
I don’t think you need to read Macbeth because the two versions are almost completely different. About the only thing they have in common is that some man named Macbeth becomes king 🙂 It’s my favorite Shakespeare play, so I’m enjoying picking up little references to it, but that’s mostly all there is, fun references.
I don’t have the companions, but I might get them if I ever reread the two series. I looked into them when I was floundering with my KH reread earlier but saw that it isn’t covered.
November 23, 2010 at 1:15 am
lemon123
I have always heard about Dorothy Dunnett novels. I love your review. I just might start this series. Thanks.
November 23, 2010 at 9:47 am
Alex
I know I’d find more people who’ve heard of her here in the blogsphere. Check them out on GoodReads and such for a feeling of what she’s about. If you need recommendations drop me a line!
November 23, 2010 at 2:34 am
Nicole
Count me as one who has never heard of her. I love historical fiction and you make her sound so wonderful. I will keep her in mind.
November 23, 2010 at 9:45 am
Alex
Well, not you’re no longer on the list 🙂 Yes, give her a chance, she’s definitely worth it!
November 23, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Steph
This definitely doesn’t sound like light reading, though it does sound like it could be fun for history buffs. I personally tend to have zero luck with historical fiction, so I’m not sure it would be right for me!
November 24, 2010 at 9:50 am
Alex
Zero luck, really? 😦 What bad books made that happen?!
December 1, 2010 at 4:55 am
Steph
Well, I just haven’t read very much, but I did try Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time, which is supposed to be one of the best mysteries of all time and I just couldn’t do it. Too much English history! I’m also worried about Wolf Hall for much the same reason…
November 24, 2010 at 9:45 am
Joanna
I’ll try it soon of course… although you’ve scared me now with all your talk of how hard they are to read!
November 24, 2010 at 9:49 am
Alex
You can do it! 🙂 Borrow my Companions and you’ll be fine!
November 23, 2011 at 7:14 pm
Zeba Clarke
I came across two historical novels this year that were terrific – AL Berridge’s Honour and the Sword and In the Name of the King.
Another big historical book I absolutely totally adored Harry Thompson’s This Thing of Darkness.
Another writer I like, sadly recently dead, is Diana Norman, who wrote a series of historical novels set in 18th century UK and America, and a series of medieval crime novels under the name Arianna Franklin.
It’s very difficult to fill the Dunnett shaped hole in one’s life once all her books have been read;-)
January 6, 2012 at 5:42 pm
Race of Scorpions (The House of Niccolò #3) by Dorothy Dunnett « The Sleepless Reader
[…] real characters: the first book, Niccolò Rising, was mainly set in Flanders; the wonder that’s The Spring of the Ram takes us to Trebizond, the last strong-hold of the Byzantine Empire, and Race of Scorpions is about […]
August 5, 2012 at 4:58 pm
Carol
As a child in a Western Pennsylvania region dotted with reconstructed forts and commemorative battle sites, I thought of myself as someone with a strong interest in history. However, despite an adulthood in equally history drenched Virginia, I would say I’m far from a history buff. My husband devours non-fiction history (and science and politics, etc) and literally has piles of it around our house. I have delved into this library but most often find I can’t retain enough detail to latch onto facts or overarching events. I usually find the books I prefer at the public library or at books sales. So, I viewed as background noise my husband’s pressing of Dorothy Dunnett on friends and family, He flashed the books in front of me from time to time, but I was put off, on the one hand by the density and scope of the volumes, on the other because I hadn’t taken to the George MacDonald Fraser Flashman series he is so crazy about.
When I finally took the plunge with Niccolo Rising, I soon was hooked, albeit anxiously so. I was still afraid of the complexity, whether of not I could make it through long narratives about battles and the well-noted “what is going on?” challenge of DD’s writing. But, I was hooked and soon recognized the value of the maps, lists of characters, and the family tree of the House of Niccolo at the front of the books. I had to become a different kind of reader, one who trusted that eventually each piece of narrative would make sense, even if it takes eight books! This aspect of DD’s writing seems to be a big part of what makes us want to go back and re-read the series.
The experience of reading the House of Niccolo series jolted me into the realization that my childhood love of history was stoked by the children’s fiction I read and that my imagination still needs a great deal of prompting. A favorite American historical novelist (Mary Lee Settle) proved that to me years ago but I wasn’t expecting to experience a similar awaking to continents to which I’d never been and characters I’d never glimpsed. I strongly encourage other non-HBs like myself to read Dorothy Dunnett.