The Sunne In Splendour: A Novel of Richard III

Sharon Kay Penman

Jan 2008 · Sold by St. Martin's Griffin

About this ebook

The classic, magnificent bestselling novel about Richard III, now in a special thirtieth anniversary edition with a new preface by the author

In this triumphant combination of scholarship and storytelling, Sharon Kay Penman redeems Richard III—vilified as the bitter, twisted, scheming hunchback who murdered his nephews, the princes in the Tower—from his maligned place in history.

Born into the treacherous courts of fifteenth-century England, in the midst of what history has called The War of the Roses, Richard was raised in the shadow of his charismatic brother, King Edward IV. Loyal to his friends and passionately in love with the one woman who was denied him, Richard emerges as a gifted man far more sinned against than sinning.

With revisions throughout and a new author's preface discussing the astonishing discovery of Richard's remains five centuries after his death, Sharon Kay Penman's brilliant classic is more powerful and glorious than ever.

Ratings and reviews

I have to say that this is one of the best books I have ever read and the most tragic for sure. Sharon Kay Penman has this amazing ability to capture detail and put so much more into her novels than one would have thought possible. I didn't want to put it down! Once you start reading it immediately captures your attention and it holds it to the end. This book is amazing.

The finest war of the roses book you will ever read! Richard the third was not the villian he was made out to be. Definitely on the top of my list!

Never has history been so enthralling as when Sharon Kay Penman relates the Wars of the Roses and the tragic life of Richard III. Truly epic in scope , length and depiction. A historical fiction favorite.

About the author

For many years while she was a student and then a tax lawyer, Sharon Kay Penman (1945-2021) worked on a novel about the life of Richard III and The War of the Roses. After the original manuscript was stolen from her car, Penman rewrote the entire novel that would become The Sunne in Splendour.

Penman is the author of ten critically acclaimed and New York Times best selling historical novels and four medieval mysteries featuring Justin de Quincy. The first book in the series, The Queen's Man, was a finalist for an Edgar Award for Best First Mystery from the Mystery Writers of America.