A Matter of Pride (Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor): king, soldier, lover - Tapa blanda

This is a wonderful book; a story successfully combining historical accuracy with masses of fiction. The generally accepted imposing figure of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor: king, general, lawmaker, and the defender of Christendom is shown here to be a man of faults and failings, of generosity and tenderness, of passions and regrets, all in equal measure and always to excess. This Charles is revealed through his everyday dealings with those around him and, more interestingly, by the author s use of a unique and amusing narrator who gossips regularly with us highlighting the emperor s reactions, usually intolerant and immoderate, both towards his family and to events in the empire. Even at the story s moving close this all-seeing, all-knowing, all-telling narrator leaves us still pondering, who really was this greatest emperor since Charlemagne ? --J. M. Sanmarti

I have just finished Linda Carlino s latest book A Matter of Pride. From the title to the last full stop it is an enthralling read! Although I m here on my own I give her three cheers - and loud ones at that! Well done! I am very impressed with her use of an all-knowing narrator. From the very start he brings you right into the story with a warm personal welcome, offering a few revealing and intimate details so almost immediately I felt I was one of the characters in the novel. It is a story that at times is sad, at others very funny. I didn t want it to end. It is an accomplished performance and a wonderful follow up to her first historical novel That Other Juana. --Alain Tomas

Linda Carlino spent years painstakingly researching the Spanish monarchy for her second novel. Jim McTaggart takes a look CARLOS I, who was crowned King of Spain at the age of 17, became the most powerful figure in Europe as an aggressive warlord and Holy Roman Emperor. She starts this tale as Carlos settles into a remote monastery after his abdication in 1557, at the age of 56. She flits back to episodes of his life through conversations involving him and his long-suffering servants. By this time the former monarch is most unlike an emperor: stooped and worn, his body is witness to years of over-indulgence in food and drink. He had lost most of his teeth and the sight of him eating was offensive to the eye and stomach. Food was sloshed and squashed about in his mouth before being sluiced down his throat with a good swilling of wine or beer. As you can imagine, he prefers to dine alone, and his companions are more than happy when he does. Carlos suffered from gout and other ailments, so he had to be carried around in a chair and continually washed and pampered with vinegar bandages. Ointment had to be applied in a way that doesn't bear thinking about. But surely he was once a great leader? Er, no. He ruled with an iron fist, but Spanish blood and treasure were squandered on his hopeless ventures. Spain ended up bankrupt, in debt to the tune of seven million gold ducados. Well, perhaps he was especially kind to his mother? No, again. He treated Queen Juana with the utmost cruelty, keeping her locked away for many years. Some historians have taken a more sympathetic view of him and his deeds during a tempestuous era in which Europe was divided by continuous feuds, with Spain heavily involved, but Carlino's Carlos is a brutal and greedy tyrant. What motivated Carlos? Was it pride in his country, empire, the Catholic faith, himself or the Hapsburg dynasty to which he belonged? Carlino's narrator leaves it to the reader to decide. --J. McTaggart

I have just finished Linda Carlino s latest book A Matter of Pride. From the title to the last full stop it is an enthralling read! Although I m here on my own I give her three cheers - and loud ones at that! Well done! I am very impressed with her use of an all-knowing narrator. From the very start he brings you right into the story with a warm personal welcome, offering a few revealing and intimate details so almost immediately I felt I was one of the characters in the novel. It is a story that at times is sad, at others very funny. I didn t want it to end. It is an accomplished performance and a wonderful follow up to her first historical novel That Other Juana. --Alain Tomas

Linda Carlino spent years painstakingly researching the Spanish monarchy for her second novel. Jim McTaggart takes a look CARLOS I, who was crowned King of Spain at the age of 17, became the most powerful figure in Europe as an aggressive warlord and Holy Roman Emperor. She starts this tale as Carlos settles into a remote monastery after his abdication in 1557, at the age of 56. She flits back to episodes of his life through conversations involving him and his long-suffering servants. By this time the former monarch is most unlike an emperor: stooped and worn, his body is witness to years of over-indulgence in food and drink. He had lost most of his teeth and the sight of him eating was offensive to the eye and stomach. Food was sloshed and squashed about in his mouth before being sluiced down his throat with a good swilling of wine or beer. As you can imagine, he prefers to dine alone, and his companions are more than happy when he does. Carlos suffered from gout and other ailments, so he had to be carried around in a chair and continually washed and pampered with vinegar bandages. Ointment had to be applied in a way that doesn't bear thinking about. But surely he was once a great leader? Er, no. He ruled with an iron fist, but Spanish blood and treasure were squandered on his hopeless ventures. Spain ended up bankrupt, in debt to the tune of seven million gold ducados. Well, perhaps he was especially kind to his mother? No, again. He treated Queen Juana with the utmost cruelty, keeping her locked away for many years. Some historians have taken a more sympathetic view of him and his deeds during a tempestuous era in which Europe was divided by continuous feuds, with Spain heavily involved, but Carlino's Carlos is a brutal and greedy tyrant. What motivated Carlos? Was it pride in his country, empire, the Catholic faith, himself or the Hapsburg dynasty to which he belonged? Carlino's narrator leaves it to the reader to decide. --J. McTaggart

The novel, which will evoke as many laughs as tears, begins in 1557 when a prematurely aged, ill, and very irritable Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, (Carlos I of Spain and always known as Carlos), retires to a small isolated monastery in western Spain. He has brought with him memories of his past loves, his years in power, and his many military campaigns, most of them failures, and his delusions that his disastrous dynastic arranged marriages for all his family have been strokes of sheer genius. Among his few specially chosen companions is his outspoken major domo, who has been his lifelong aide and confidant. He knows Carlos better than Carlos knows himself and, uniquely, he is allowed total freedom to speak his mind, no matter what. The result is often very funny. With the other members of his household revealing tragicomic anecdotes from his past and the unremitting critical yet supposedly objective observations of an all-knowing narrator we see a warts and all picture of a ruler often called the greatest Holy Roman Emperor since Charlemagne. But was he? Or was he just a blustering, bumbling, egotistical, ultimately very humane, loving and lovable, ordinary, generous man; Barbara thought so.