Hella S. Haasse

In a dark wood wandering

In this novel, set in the 15th century during the Hundred Years War between France and England, Hella Haasse brilliantly captures all the drama of one of the great ages of history.

A Novel of the Middle Ages

In a Dark Wood Wandering

Janice Hopper

8/21/18: Really loving this book so far. Not really loving all the OCR artifacts though. It's been quite a while since I've seen so many. Example: thisdes = thistles. The version I'm reading is full of this stuff. Oh well. The story's good enough that I can work through it. These OCR artifacts were common in early ebooks. Things are mostly better now.

9/9/18: finished this morning. 
I really liked the first part of this book. There was lots of information about various folks involved in the 100 years war. I didn't know much about them beforehand, but I was fascinated by the various machinations of the French and English kings and nobles through that time.

However, after the Battle of Agincourt, when Charles of Orleans was captured and hauled off to England for a looooong imprisonment and exile, things kinda slowed down. Charles was a pretty symathetic character . He was not quite strong enough to be a king or a great leader, but he was pretty much a good man who was trying his best to do what was right for France. It didn't always work, but he tried.

"In a dark wood wandering" is actually referred to in the novel as "the forest of long awaiting", which I think is pretty evocative.

So, 4 stars for the first part, 3 for the last third when it got a little boring. A good book.

In a dark wood wandering

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