The Lady of the Sea
The Third of the Tristan and Isolde Novels
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The final thrilling chapter in the Tristan and Isolde trilogy . . .
Isolde, heir to the throne of the queens, is now a sovereign in her own right. With the glories of the throne comes the responsibility of a queen, and Isolde knows she must return to her beloved Western Isle. She can no longer tolerate her marriage to King Mark of Cornwall, a marriage she has accepted for years in order to save her country from the threat of war and to be near her only love, Mark’s nephew Tristan of Lyonesse. King Mark, always cowardly and spiteful, is too heavily influenced by his monks and counselors, who loathe the powerful and independent Isolde. And so she leaves Cornwall for good and comes home to Ireland, where her lords face a growing threat from the warlike Picti, who live in the barren highlands to the north of England. The Picti have a bold new king, Darath, who is determined to take the riches of Ireland for his own people, whether by war or by marriage with Isolde.
Isolde gathers her armies to confront the Picti and faces a violent conflict as well with King Mark, who vows he will not let a prize like Isolde, and Ireland, slip from his grasp. Isolde is last in a line of famous warrior queens who have guarded Ireland from time before memory, and now she—and her knight, Tristan—must play out their fate and face her enemies in a final battle, a war that could spell ruin for them both.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Women reign supreme in British feminist scholar Miles's richly textured rendering of the tale of Tristan and Isolde. In this vibrant trilogy finale, Ireland's fiery-haired Queen Isolde longs to end her loveless marriage to Mark, King of Cornwall, whom she wed only to save her beloved homeland from war. Isolde's true soul mate is Mark's noble nephew, Tristan of Lyonesse. (For readers rusty on Arthurian legend, the pair's romantic fate was sealed with a potion.) When Isolde learns that the Western Isle will soon be under siege by the savage Picts so named for their colorful face and body tattoos she sails home to confront their charismatic leader, King Darath, who plans to take the comely queen as his bride. Meanwhile, Tristan is torn between his love for Isolde and duty to cowardly King Mark, who, without offspring of his own, must name a successor to the Cornwall throne. Miles (I, Elizabeth; the Guenevere trilogy) writes flowery prose that borders on the florid ("Swollen clouds raced screaming through the air and peal after peal of thunder came rolling in from the edge of doom"), mingling Arthurian lords and ladies, red-robed papal envoys, sword-wielding madmen and crooning truth-tellers. Despite the author's occasional verbal excesses, fans of historical romance are sure to embrace this paean to the power of the female sex.
