Lymond Does France (or Lets It Do Him)

Dorothy Dunnett’s Queens’ Play (1961), Book Two of the Lymond Chronicles, depicts Scotland, Ireland, England, and France locked in a complex web of influence in the years just after the death of Henry VIII. Different factions in Scotland and Ireland are more or less keen on liberating their lands from English domination by gaining French assistance, while on the surface the French are wanting to maintain good relations with England. Complicating matters is the fraught situation in the French court involving King Henri, his Queen, his influential long-time lover, and his spoiled male favorites at court. And someone appears to be trying to kill the spunky little girl Scottish Queen Mary (currently being raised in France) to scotch any deeper alliance with France through her marriage to a French prince.

The Scottish Queen Dowager, Mary of Guise, thus wants Lymond of Crawford to go to France to protect her daughter Queen Mary, and he agrees to help, but he’ll have to go incognito as an Irish Renaissance rake (“an Irish princeling’s toadlike secretary”), so as to avoid revealing that the Queen Dowager has recruited him as a spy. The novel, then, takes place mostly in France: “the most extravagant, the most cultured, the most dissolute kingdom in Europe,” or, as Lymond calls it, “a hand-set maggot mound.”

As in the first series novel, then, Lymond throws himself dangerously convincingly into his role as an amoral, debauched bundle of sin while manipulating the people around him into bringing about desired results, juggling them like a bunch of knives while preparing for their sudden and unexpected attempts to fly from the control of his dexterous, long-fingered hands.

Will Lymond’s assumed Irish accent and language conceal his true Scottish identity? Will his enemies fall for his sensational sensualist disguise or see through it and expose him? Will he succeed in uncovering the mastermind behind the assassination attempts and put a stop to their machinations? Will his charisma and wits and abilities win over the French court? Will he fall in love again? Will people close to him get hurt (if not killed) again?

Although Lymond is (almost) unbelievably brilliant at too many things (including languages, disguises, quotations, poetry, bantering, riddling, juggling, singing, lute playing, sword fighting, wrestling, spying, strategizing, leading, negotiating, manipulating, and entertaining), he is suspensefully vulnerable to bodily damage and long rehabilitation.

As in the first novel, Dunnett writes a number of complicated, flawed, and compelling supporting characters, like the Scottish archer Robin Stewart (envious and ambitious and careless), the Irish beauty Oonagh O’Dwyer (patriotic and intelligent and ruthless), the Irish Prince Oleam Ro (educated and detached and impressionable). She writes intelligent and formidable female characters, like Margaret Erskine, Margaret Lady Lennox, Madame Boyle, little Queen Mary, and the Queen Dowager.

As in the first novel, Dunnett respects her reader’s intelligence and education, as in addition to English (often with thick Scottish or Irish accents and diction), her characters speak some French and Latin. And that linguistic complexity relates an equally complex political situation and tricky plot. Although I miss much, I rarely find it difficult to follow what’s happening enough to enjoy the appropriate suspense or emotion or humor, depending on what Lymond’s up to.

As in the first novel, Dunnett excels at extended, vivid, unpredictable, and exciting set piece scenes, including here a galley and galliasse collision, a royal entry into Rouen, a royal feast, a hare hunt, a race across rooftops at night, and a brutal fight to the death in a bedroom, as well as at intense, intimate conversations, like any scene where Lymond converses with any of the many strong women.

Dunnett also writes vivid descriptions with great similes:

"… the cool voice in which Margaret Douglas' sentiments were most often presented, ice fresh and bloody, like newly caught fish."
“He sat like a blackbird in cold weather at the table end and applied himself with both hands to his food.”
"… and then he turned as cautious as a dog with his first flea."

She also writes wise lines about human nature and life:

“Hero worship leads to nothing but misery.”
“Some people can't be saved.”
"A mind responsive to beauty is a storehouse with many rooms, words, sounds, textures, all the nobler exercises of the senses leave some image filed and folded to be summoned at need."

The audiobook reader David Monteath is superb.

I enjoyed Queen’s Play (1961) and I am looking forward to the third book in the series, but I hope this second one will be the last where Lymond pretends to be dissolute and dissipated. The first two novels have had enough of that.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

worth the effort

Humor. Action. Diverse personalities brought to life. History. The books in this series are not easy reads, but they are fun and memorable reads. And the narrator does a beautiful job.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Ah, Lymond.

Need one say more? IMHO, there are no better books this side of paradise. Dunnett is pure genius and Monteath does such a flawless job reading these, they’re a joy to hear. I read these books in print nearly two decades ago and was initially wary of hearing them in someone else’s voice, but the execution is just beautiful. Can’t wait for book 3 - think I’ll start tonight :)

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Best Historical Novels!!!

Dorothy Dunnett’s “Lymond Chronicles” are among my favorite books of all time as is her series “Niccolo Rising” (not available in the US on Audible). I have read the books until they are falling apart and I am having to replace them. This is my second round in an audio format. I can’t recommend Dorothy Dunnett enough. There is a good reason she was considered the best living historical novelist. Now that she has died, he work is no less amazing.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Excellent adventure!

I listened to Book 1 a few months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I had to slow the speed to .95 to begin to understand much of what Lymond said, with historical and literary references. For the quotes in French, I check the ebook translator. I find I still miss many details when the action is changing quickly. Therefore, I re-listen to sections and/or read the text to better understand. It is all worth it.
The narrator is excellent. He even does a great job with the little Queen Mary! Though in this book, I slowed down to speed of .9 at times to catch some of the details.
I am looking forward to Book 3. I plan to listen to it nexts while my mind is still in a 1500s adventure listening mode!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Lamentable French Accent

I cannot judge his accent for the Spanish Italian or Latin sayings. However his bad accent rendered the French incomprehensible.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Music and "dangerous juggles"

David Monteath is brilliantly narrating the LC re-release--thanks, publishers! Queens' Play was the first Dunnett novel I discovered, and like most of the French characters in the novel, I had no idea who this Crawford of Lymond guy was for the first three chapters, and wasn't sure why he was considered so valuable for quite a while more. But I love a mystery, and the Irish allusions, and I kept reading for the action, too--extravagant parties, terrifying hunts, parkour (not called that, of course) across the rooftops of Blois! Elephants, cheetahs, lions, rabbits. Fire, water, air, earth. And all written by an author with an artist's eye for color and detail. This is just book 2 of a six-book series. The mysteries deepen. Lymond has much farther to go.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

There is no author like Dunnett

And there is no hero like Francis Lymond. Great read, great listen! I wish someone would read the story of his ancestor, the dyer’s apprentice,

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Lymond incognito

There is not enough good I can say about this series. I have read them in hard copy multiple times, and still thought it worth buying the audiobooks, which absolutely do not disappoint.
Somebody threatens the life of small Queen Mary of Scots in France, and her mother, Mary of Guise, gets Lymond to come to France to protect the small queen. Too many subplots, quotes, and personalities to list, but this book is terrific.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

Queen's Play review

Less difficult to follow than book I in Lymond chronicles. There were fewer passages which failed to move the story forward. The performance was excellent, the story gripping. Wonderful descriptions involving the pageantry of the period, i.e. 2nd half of 16th century in France.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful