Geoffrey Trease (1909–1998)

A readable tale in the classic mid-century tradition of kids' historical fiction, set in the 1680s, during the reign of James II, between the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion and the triumphant arrival of William of Orange. Its central character is a boy from Somerset whose musical talent gets him apprenticed to the great Henry Purcell, but whose political sympathies with the Whig tendency cause him difficulty with a potential wealthy patron. For me, the most interesting aspect is the placing of Henry Purcell in his historical context, with the tension between the English population and partly Irish soldiery brought in to keep order, and the popular discontent over the reading from the pulpit of the Declaration of Indulgence. The narrative is of its type: there's a lot of historical information, subtly or unsubtly offloaded into the reader's mind. A modern sensibility concerning the unfair repression of the ambitions of girls and the rights of the common people are clearly present. The central character is fortuitously in the right place not only to meet Purcell and Blow, but to meet and recognize Bishop Thomas Ken, to have a brief interchange with a colonial boy from Carolina, and to receive an early violin made by one Stradivarius. MB 1-iii-2023… (mer)