Someone's been lighting the Grail shaped beacon again! (Harlequin - Bernard Cornwell)

Member Name: SWSt

Product:	Harlequin - Bernard Cornwell
Date:	19/05/08 (148 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gripping, rivetting read, interesting storyline, well researched

Disadvantages: Takes a while to get going, long chapters, no actually much grail quest!

My other half's been nagging me for a while (oops - I'm in trouble when she sees this!) to read a Bernard Cornwell novel - an author I've just never fancied. Eventually, to get a quiet life (oops - now I'm really in trouble!) I gave in and started reading Harlequin, the first of Cornwell's Grail trilogy. I chose this one mainly because I'm interested in the Grail mythology, so thought its subject might appeal to me.

I have to say, I initially found Harlequin hard going. Probably this was partly due to my prejudices against Cornwell as an author. However, it was also due to the fact that the book starts incredibly slowly. Particularly during the first 100 pages or so, there seemed to be wealth of unnecessary information crammed into it. Some of it was historical facts and seemed to scream of Cornwell wanting to show off how much research he'd done for the book; some was background information on the characters - useful, but rather dense at the start; and some was just seemingly unnecessary descriptions of places, flowers, weapons etc. Cornwell's long-winded style annoyed me at first and I have to say, if I weren't a stubborn little mule who hates giving up on a book once I've started, I would probably have got bored and left it.

I'm glad I persevered. Around page 100 or so, the book suddenly starts to fly. The main plot (essentially the adventures of Thomas of Hookton - an archer with the English Army in the 1400s) kicks in and grips and enthrals you. After a dull opening, Cornwell suddenly seems to hit his straps and the narrative picks up serious pace and becomes fascinating. The plot races along and really sucks you into it. In fact, from being a book that I was tempted to discard, it suddenly became a book I was reluctant to put down. I was so anxious to discover what would happen next that I found myself trying to read a few pages whenever I could grab a spare 10 minutes.

It's at this point you realise that the apparently dull preamble did, in fact, serve a purpose. Although it may have seemed a little dull and superfluous at the time, what Cornwell has actually done is give you an awful lot of background information which explains the main character's actions and motivations. By the time you reach this point in the book, you feel like you really know and understand the character and like him. You want to see him triumph over his various enemies and actually feel concern when he's in danger. In other words, having been with him so long, he's now your friend.

The huge amount of background information has also helped create a very vivid atmosphere, where you can really sense the sights, sounds and smells of medieval France, as experienced by Thomas of Hookton. It's here that Cornwell really shows his metal as an author. He recreates the medieval world so well that you totally believe in it and become completely immersed. OK, so he may have taken liberties with a few things here and there (something he admits to in his postscript), but that doesn't matter. I'm sure even purists will forgive him this - particularly as they fit so well into the feel of the book and don't jar with the overall tone.

Cromwell also excels in his descriptions of battles. There are a lot of these in Harlequin, and this was another of my concerns before I read the book. I'm just not interested in military history or military books of any kind and was slightly afraid that the book would get bogged down in minute details regarding soldier placements and movements. Whilst there is some of this, it's handled very well. Where strategies and tactics are referred to, it's done in a fairly basic way - giving you enough information to understand the overall positions of the various armies, without getting bogged down in precise details. Similarly, the battles themselves perfectly capture what it must have been like - the mixed sense of panic, fear, confusion, elation, adrenalin, excitement and chaos. Cornwell gets all this information across very well, whilst still ensuring that the plot remains paramount. I'll admit: I was impressed.

Despite this, I did still struggle with Cornwell's style at times. He writes in long chapters (often 30 pages or more) with scarcely a break anywhere in the text. This makes it more difficult to just pick up the book, have a quick read and then put it down again. You really need to be in the mood for reading, as I think there's nothing more frustrating than having to stop part way through a chapter, with events hanging in the balance. It also doesn't aid the "hookability" of the book. I find that if authors use short chapters (or split chapters up into smaller sections), I'm often encouraged to read further than I originally intended, because I think "Oh, it's not far to the next stopping point, I'll read a bit more". With Harlequin, that's not really possible, as you know the next natural stopping point is quite some way away, even if you read fairly quickly.

Another minor gripe is that this is billed as Book One of the Grail Quest, but actually there's very little about that quest in the book! There are occasional hints and plot diversions which point to clues and ideas which will no doubt be followed up in the next two books. However, this book is more preamble, about developing Thomas as a character. I can understand this to a certain extent - Cornwell wants to keep his powder dry for the next two books and I'm sure the Quest will be the central plot for those. However, I felt a little cheated that the Quest itself was sidelined and the bulk of the book was really just a standard novel about the Anglo-French wars.

Another gripe is that I did find a slightly distasteful, xenophobic undertone to the text. I suppose this was a fairly natural by-product of the plot, and it had to contain an element of this to create the right atmosphere. However, I did sometimes get the impression that this was laid on more heavily than was strictly necessary and that Cornwell really does dislike the French. On the other hand, maybe he just did his job of re-creating the atmosphere and attitudes of the time a little too well.

So, from being determined that Cornwell's books held nothing of interest to me, I am now happy to confirm I will definitely be going on to read the next in the Grail Trilogy (Vagabond). After that, I'm sure I'm going to want to read Heretic to find out how it all ends. I guess I should just have listened to my wife to start with!

Basic Information
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Harlequin
Bernard Cornwell
HarperCollins, 2001
ISBN: 0-00-651384-0

Available new from Amazon for £4.99 or used from 1p

© Copyright SWSt 2008

Summary: A good opener for the trilogy