Modern reproduction of A.E. Newman's first edition - 1825
This is the only novel on Richard III that I have been unable to track down in a first edition, and the first time I have purchased a modern reproduction. Kessinger Publishing is one of several firms (often based in India or the Far East) which have made it their mission to republish rare historical book reprints. They are right to say that the result may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages. Luckily, none of Castle Harcourt's pages were missing but quite a few were difficult to read, due to the blurred text. The subheading on the front cover reads: A Tale of 1483. The story actually commences in August 1485 and the three volumes detail events leading up to the Battle of Bosworth in the penultimate week of that month. Admittedly, the blurring on the original title pages makes it well nigh impossible to distinguish between a '3' and a '5', but even a cursory reading of the text would have highlighted the error. No matter.
The story is tight knit, concentrating on the goings-on of a nominally Yorkist family dwelling at Harcourt Castle in north Leicestershire. This is fictitious, although all the other places mentioned - Charnwood and Charley Forests, Barrow, Loughborough, Mountsorrel, Belgrave and Leicester are real enough. Sir Walter Harcourt lives in an antique residence, with his venerable dame, their daughter Adela, and Eldred their son and heir, who had been devoted by his parents to a military life. Sir Walter's last active employment had been in Scotland under the duke of Gloucester, now King Richard III - a name which the immortal bard of Avon hath thrown forth...as the image of the arch fiend among his subject legions. Sir Walter disliked talking about Richard as strange tales had been whispered respecting the death of his nephews...
The family are joined in August by a nearly 21 year-old Oxford scholar, Alfred Lutterell, orphan heir to a large estate and erstwhile playfellow to Adele Harcourt. Love was now in the air between them, but so also was mystery. Whilst Alfred favoured the Yorkist king, it becomes increasingly clear that both Adele and Eldred are probably supporters of Henry Tudor and secretly corresponding with Lord Stanley. Adele burst out to her lover - on the battlements of the castle, no less - "Oh! it would be a happy day for England were that monster Richard hurled from the throne!...Murder - murder - ay, even of poor innocent children - marks his footsteps. His odious image haunts me! And it was for such a wretch that my father and my brother have fought and bled! Later she castigates the bloody boar that now cruelly rioteth in the fulness of his usurped power. She starts talking about the supernatural, a topic seemingly engrained in so many of the early 19th century historical novels. Far too often, apparent supernatural events and evil spirits appear to frighten the participants of the tale, and bore the reader. Winter is also often guilty of purple passages (usually describing the weather or the scenery) - another failing of 19th century historical novelists.
The story continues with many twists and turns, including secret and intricate passages and winding stairs, murders, a scheming porter and a monk at Leicester Abbey, and plenty of goings-on in woods, byways and disreputable inns. The Gothic is never far away. That the author has read up on his sources is apparent from his footnotes, where he quotes Rymer's Foedera, Rapin, Camden, Hall, Holinshed, Speed and Stowe. He also has a long quotation from George Buck's History of Richard the Third, which one must assume is the 1646 version, and refers to both John Nichols's Leicestershire and William Hutton's Bosworth.
There are some well written minor characters, such as Adam Belton, Alfred's serving-man at Oxford; Hugh Ratcliffe, a highly-skilled local forester and archer; John Belisdon, Harcourt Castle's reeve or steward; Robert, the surly gatekeeper at Leicester Abbey and Father Rodolph, the cunning friar; all play important parts in the development of the story. There is the usual over-emphasis of what every character is wearing and what they eat - as if to prove the author is knowledgeable about the time he writes about, but these sections can be speedily passed over.
The story is universally hostile to Richard III, whose brief and bloody reign included dark occurrences. The reader meets Richard but twice: once on his entry into Leicester, where his lowering brow proclaimed a heart ill at ease; and on the field at Bosworth. At least Winter admits that Shakespeare's version of Richard was created possibly to gratify a descendant of the earl of Richmond. The end of the three volumes felt rather like those stage plays, where Act V Scene V brings all the loose ends together, rather too quickly, But at least the reader can shut the volume knowing that Alfred and Adele are happily wedded and the former, now of age, inherits his estate. He builds his own terrace walk, like that at Harcourt Castle, and there he loved to walk with Adele, listening awhile to the harmony of her voice, and ever and anon stopping to enjoy the calm luxury of silent and unutterable bliss.
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