Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Ultramar
Description
1588: Queen Elizabeth is felled by an assassin's bullet. Within the week, the Spanish Armada had set sail, and its victory changed the course of history. 1968: England is still dominated by the Church of Rome. There are no telephones, no television, no nuclear power. As Catholicism and the Inquisition tighten their grip, rebellion is growing.
Media reviews
Roberts evokes this imaginary England with a persuasive attention to detail and a grandeur of vision that I find irresistible.
The idea of lyrical storytelling - something that doesn't exactly tell a concrete story, but keeps dancing around its point long enough for you to get the idea... is both the great joy and great frustration of Pavane. It's entirely appropriate for it to take its name from the dance, as it is
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stately, complex, and somewhat obscure. This is a book to read once, get stuck, return to with a clear head, blast through, and then read again in search of deeper meanings. They are definitely there, and they are definitely worth finding. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member tubegrrl
A magical and seminal SF work, I first read this when it was published in 1968. It is an early example of true steampunk alternate history, and a forgotten masterpiece. Extraordinarily beautiful writing, literary and captivating. All you younguns' into the "cool" of steampunk, read this and
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appreciate the originality of Keith Roberts vision in 1968. This IS your daddy's steampunk! Show Less
LibraryThing member AsYouKnow_Bob
I don't know if I can praise this book highly enough - not just one of the finest works to come out of the SF genre, but one of the finest works of literature to come out of the 20th century. (Really.)
Technically, Pavane IS a patch-up of shorter pieces, but the seams are well handled, and,
This is a book not to be missed.
Technically, Pavane IS a patch-up of shorter pieces, but the seams are well handled, and,
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surprisingly, the work is given a resolution that successfully unifies the various elements. This is a book not to be missed.
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LibraryThing member John5918
A fascinating science fiction (fantasy?) book set in an alternative England. Initially I thought each chapter was a separate short story but it gradually became clear that they are linked and lead to an unexpected finale. The fact that it has steam engines in it is an added bonus!
LibraryThing member turtlesleap
In this loosely linked series of short stories, Roberts offers vignettes from a 20th Century England in which Elizabeth I was assassinated and the Reformation failed. The Catholic Church holds sway and ruthlessly suppresses the development of science and the freedom of its citizens. In a society
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where the Inquisition still operates and most of the civilized world's capital is in the hands of the Church, individual freedom counts for nothing. Roberts weaves together bit of magic, quite a lot of alternate technology and great stories with believable characters. My only problems with the book were in the first story, where the reader is treated to seemingly endless detail about the operation of a train, and the Coda, which seems to suggest that the end justifies the means, however nasty. Without reservation, though, a very good read. Show Less
LibraryThing member SDanielson
How to describe Pavane? Two things are simple to say: first, it's a fix-up novel, or a mosaic. A collection of stories set in the same universe that are brought together and presented as a novel.
Second, it's an alternate history. In 1588, says the prologue, Queen Elizabeth I was assassinated, which
The things that are more difficult to convey about the book are how beautifully it's written and how vivid and moving the stories are.
Also difficult are my mixed feelings about the presentation of the Catholic Church, which is not really the Catholic Church at all. The world is very different under its stifling power, the most obvious thing being that the Church has prevented the use of many technological advances. The Pope issues papal bulls with titles like "Petroleum Veto" that forbid the use of internal combustion engines. The remnant of the Inquisition (called the Court of Spiritual Welfare) is present, too.
Yet the 20th century feudal world presented is a fascinating setting, and the stories are very moving, like I said. And then there's The Coda - the last short story in the book - which is thought provoking.
This is a book that I'm not likely to forget.
Neil Gaiman Presents did an audio version of this over on Audible. Stephen Crossley narrates. I listened to a couple of stories and it was excellent. I also enjoyed Gaiman's introduction.
Added: I would compare Keith Roberts (this book, anyway) to Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance, Tim Powers.
Second, it's an alternate history. In 1588, says the prologue, Queen Elizabeth I was assassinated, which
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set into motion a series of events that prevented the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church (the political, militant Catholic Church) ended up controlling half the world. These stories take place over a few generations in the late 20th century.The things that are more difficult to convey about the book are how beautifully it's written and how vivid and moving the stories are.
Also difficult are my mixed feelings about the presentation of the Catholic Church, which is not really the Catholic Church at all. The world is very different under its stifling power, the most obvious thing being that the Church has prevented the use of many technological advances. The Pope issues papal bulls with titles like "Petroleum Veto" that forbid the use of internal combustion engines. The remnant of the Inquisition (called the Court of Spiritual Welfare) is present, too.
Yet the 20th century feudal world presented is a fascinating setting, and the stories are very moving, like I said. And then there's The Coda - the last short story in the book - which is thought provoking.
This is a book that I'm not likely to forget.
Neil Gaiman Presents did an audio version of this over on Audible. Stephen Crossley narrates. I listened to a couple of stories and it was excellent. I also enjoyed Gaiman's introduction.
Added: I would compare Keith Roberts (this book, anyway) to Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance, Tim Powers.
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LibraryThing member ablueidol
Starts from the premise that Elizabeth of England is killed before the Spanish Armada. Clever structure of standalone stories that move over the generations and the different classes to build up a rich and detailed picture of the very different world of now. And then shows how each unconnected
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event becomes a link in the chain of events that creates the fall of Rome.Throughout, nicely poses the question if this world was better given it didn't suffer two world wars, the Holocaust, communism and the bomb! Show Less
LibraryThing member setnahkt
SPOILERS
First read forty years ago; picked up recently in a used bookstore “FREE” bin and reread. Pavane wears well on rereading, although some aspects lose a little. There had been other alternate histories before Pavane, but most (at least the ones I can think of) were alternate histories,
Three of the stories trace the lineage of the Strange family, from Jesse Strange, a steam traction engine operator, through his niece Margaret who marries into the nobility, and his grandniece Eleanor, Lady of Purbeck (she’s never given a more specific title but her seat is at Corfe and her territories run as far as Sarum and Dorchester, so she’s roughly Duchess of Dorset, Somerset, and Wiltshire). An apprentice Signaler (semaphore operator), a monk who becomes disillusioned with the Inquisition (here the Court of Spiritual Welfare), and a fisher girl who becomes involved with smugglers make up the other three protagonists. The characters and their lives are all well-drawn and believable, and the description of the countryside and its inhabitants is evocative.
SPOILERS FOLLOW.
All the stories contain subtle hints that the actual timeline is not quite as it is represented. Towns have their Roman names – Durnovaria and Londinium – which were no longer in use at the putative divergence date of 1588. Animals that had been extinct since medieval times (bears and wolves) or never existed in the British Isles at all (mountain lions and dire wolves) turn up. The Papal flag is described as cobalt blue with a yellow eagle. And, of course, there are the Old Ones, who seem more in place in a fantasy novel than an alternate history. A coda seems to explain this; a young man who may or may not be related to Lady Eleanor visits the ruins of Corfe Castle, years after the Papal government has finally collapsed, and reads a letter of explanation from an “Old One” who posed as a human retainer to the Lords of Purbeck. The letter seems to explain the world of Pavane not as an alternate history but as a sort of repeated time line; there had been a previous world where the Reformation had succeeded and the Armada failed, but where there had been an Armageddon (implied to be nuclear war). In the Pavane world the Old Ones and the Popes deliberately slowed the development of human knowledge to allow the world to “reach toward reason” and that thus although there was oppression there was “…no Belsen. No Buchenwald. No Passchendaele”. Further, the Church has apparently held all the suppressed science and invention “in trust” and it was quickly released after the world threw off the Church’s dominion.
The coda is perhaps the most unsatisfactory part of Pavane, reflecting as it does the author’s own time (the book was written in 1966), and perhaps the desire to give the book a happy ending. The idea that there was a Golden Age and that we would all be happier if we reverted to it is one of the most pernicious themes of human history – especially recent history. Of course, when I first read Pavane I was sort of a fan of that idea myself, only to be disabused by continued reading of actual history rather than the imagined history that delights the Golden Agers. Still, this is a fine book – perhaps because it reminds me of the way I thought when I first encountered it - and I’m glad I read it again.
First read forty years ago; picked up recently in a used bookstore “FREE” bin and reread. Pavane wears well on rereading, although some aspects lose a little. There had been other alternate histories before Pavane, but most (at least the ones I can think of) were alternate histories,
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instead of alternate history novels. Author Keith Roberts uses a series of interconnected short stories (I think they were originally published that way, then collected) to recount the lives of people living in a southwest England where Queen Elizabeth I was assassinated in 1588 and the Spanish Armada was successful. The totalitarian Catholic Church is dominant, and has banned most technology (railroads, internal combustion engines larger than 150cc, telegraphy, radio, anesthetics, antibiotics) and insured that the feudal system remains intact and the Inquisition still prospers. Long distance hauling is done by steam road tractors; communication is by semaphore, and military technology remains in the muzzle-loading musket and crossbow stage. “Old Ones”, presumably fairies or elves, still exist in out-of-the way places. The class system is reinforced by language divisions, with the nobility speaking Norman French, the merchant class English, and the peasants Gaelic, Cornish, Welsh or Middle English. After a prologue setting out the alternate timeline following the assassination of Elizabeth I, the first story is set in 1968, and subsequent ones cover perhaps 50 years (only the first story has a specific date).Three of the stories trace the lineage of the Strange family, from Jesse Strange, a steam traction engine operator, through his niece Margaret who marries into the nobility, and his grandniece Eleanor, Lady of Purbeck (she’s never given a more specific title but her seat is at Corfe and her territories run as far as Sarum and Dorchester, so she’s roughly Duchess of Dorset, Somerset, and Wiltshire). An apprentice Signaler (semaphore operator), a monk who becomes disillusioned with the Inquisition (here the Court of Spiritual Welfare), and a fisher girl who becomes involved with smugglers make up the other three protagonists. The characters and their lives are all well-drawn and believable, and the description of the countryside and its inhabitants is evocative.
SPOILERS FOLLOW.
All the stories contain subtle hints that the actual timeline is not quite as it is represented. Towns have their Roman names – Durnovaria and Londinium – which were no longer in use at the putative divergence date of 1588. Animals that had been extinct since medieval times (bears and wolves) or never existed in the British Isles at all (mountain lions and dire wolves) turn up. The Papal flag is described as cobalt blue with a yellow eagle. And, of course, there are the Old Ones, who seem more in place in a fantasy novel than an alternate history. A coda seems to explain this; a young man who may or may not be related to Lady Eleanor visits the ruins of Corfe Castle, years after the Papal government has finally collapsed, and reads a letter of explanation from an “Old One” who posed as a human retainer to the Lords of Purbeck. The letter seems to explain the world of Pavane not as an alternate history but as a sort of repeated time line; there had been a previous world where the Reformation had succeeded and the Armada failed, but where there had been an Armageddon (implied to be nuclear war). In the Pavane world the Old Ones and the Popes deliberately slowed the development of human knowledge to allow the world to “reach toward reason” and that thus although there was oppression there was “…no Belsen. No Buchenwald. No Passchendaele”. Further, the Church has apparently held all the suppressed science and invention “in trust” and it was quickly released after the world threw off the Church’s dominion.
The coda is perhaps the most unsatisfactory part of Pavane, reflecting as it does the author’s own time (the book was written in 1966), and perhaps the desire to give the book a happy ending. The idea that there was a Golden Age and that we would all be happier if we reverted to it is one of the most pernicious themes of human history – especially recent history. Of course, when I first read Pavane I was sort of a fan of that idea myself, only to be disabused by continued reading of actual history rather than the imagined history that delights the Golden Agers. Still, this is a fine book – perhaps because it reminds me of the way I thought when I first encountered it - and I’m glad I read it again.
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LibraryThing member andersocheva
Classic alternate history, which I first read in the late 80s in the Swedish translation. Like Kingsley Amis' _The Alteration_, which I read (also in Swedish) in early 2006, this takes place in a world where the reformation failed and the Catholic church retained both religious and secular
There is very little wrong with the individual short stories in this fix-up. Amis' alt-history is a theoretical construct where the where the premises of the "what-if" are much more interesting than the outcome; Roberts, by contrast, manages to paint a dark but vivid and intense world that very much comes alive for me, and unlike Amis he _shows_ us that the Church is oppressive rather than just telling us. However, as a novel, _Pavane_ has flaws, and the twist in the coda leaves a not altogether pleasant taste in my mouth.
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power.There is very little wrong with the individual short stories in this fix-up. Amis' alt-history is a theoretical construct where the where the premises of the "what-if" are much more interesting than the outcome; Roberts, by contrast, manages to paint a dark but vivid and intense world that very much comes alive for me, and unlike Amis he _shows_ us that the Church is oppressive rather than just telling us. However, as a novel, _Pavane_ has flaws, and the twist in the coda leaves a not altogether pleasant taste in my mouth.
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LibraryThing member RandyStafford
My reaction to reading this novel in 2004.
Stylistically and thematically this reminded me very much of Roberts' Kiteworld, the only other work of his I've read. Both works feature an alternate, pastoral England (I believe Kiteworld was a post-apocalypse book, but I'm not sure). Both are sort of
Roberts uses the approach of several stories taking place over a long period of time with the descendants of some viewpoint characters being the viewpoint characters of another story. For instance, Jesse Strange of the first story "The Lady Margaret" is the great-uncle of Lady Eleanor of the last story, "Corfe Gate". (The steam tractor "The Lady Margaret" shows up as a sort of character in both stories as well.)
Despite the classic status of this novel, I think it had two significant failings. First, while Roberts cleverly structured his novel around the musical structure of the six part pavane, some of the stories make little or no contribution to the story. To be sure, not every story makes reference to a member of the Strange family but some are obviously there to give background details to Roberts' world. Thus "The Signaller" shows the detailed workings of the Signallers Guild. "Brother John" shows the work of the Inquisition in post-1968 England (of course, it's an alternate England).
"Lords and Ladies" is there to tell the story of the romance and seduction of Lady Eleanor's mother. At first, it seems like one of the romances/seductions doomed by class distinction since her mother is of the merchant class and her noble father simply infatuated with her. It seems like it's going to take the usual course: the discarding of the common woman after she finally gives into the blandishments of the noble man. However, he eventually decides he can't live without her and marries her. Thus this story is justified as having some sort of character continuity.
"Corfe Gate" is obviously essential since it shows the rebellion of Lady Eleanor, a rebellion which triggers a worldwide breaking up of the near universally dominated Catholic world and the freeing of England from Papist rule and return to an older, pagan religion. However, "The White Boat" has no real function. The terribly isolated, boring world of an English fishing village is not terribly interesting or essential to painting a picture of the world though, perhaps, Roberts thought that was what he was doing since he makes reference to smugglers transporting forbidden technology and makes a reference to the legendary martyrdom and disappearance of Brother John.
The book is also marred at the end. After a strong and interesting start in this alternate history -- the assassination of Queen Elizabeth just before the Spanish Armada lands and conquers England which leads to a world where all European colonization is done under the auspices of Catholic countries (the Reformation in Germany is destroyed in the Lutheran Wars) -- the book ends with totally unexpected and obscure mysticism.
In "The Signaller", we get the first mention of the mysterious Old Ones, sort of the aboriginal religion of England with Fairies and Celtic myth and Balder as sort of a Christ figure. (For reasons never really explained, one of the People of the Heath, associated with this ancient, pre-Catholic religion, nurses a wounded signaller, and he has a deathbed vision of them.) Brother John, horrified by the Inquisition he documents in his drawings, preaches the faith. Lady Eleanor embraces it when the Church tries to take her land.
All that is fine, until the "Coda" of the book which seems to feature a John unmentioned previously. He reads a letter from a John Falconer which may be the same person as (may because, as I said, the ending is unfortunately obscure) John Falukner, Lady Eleanor's seneschal and eventual lover who disappears after she is murdered on the king's orders. In a world where all the technologies of internal combustion engines and electricity and radio (which the Signallers secretly played with), forbidden by Catholic Bulls, are finally unleashed (they even have hovercraft), John reads a message that explains the strange sign that opens each chapter. It is a combination of diverging and converging arrows representing fission and fusion. It seems that "beyond our Time ... there was a great civilisation. There was a Coming, a Death, and Resurrection; a Conquest, a Reformation, an Armada. And a burning, an Armageddon." The inference seems to be that we have been reading one of those irritatingly irrational and implausible circular versions of history where everything has repeated itself down to the names of individual rulers.
Yet even this explanation seems contradicted by other mentions of the People of the Heath and fairies which seem to hint at a sort of cross-dimensional travel. This plot feature greatly negates the inventiveness Roberts shows. As an artist who took up writing, his style is intensely visual which helps when he describes his arcane technology (particularly lithography). Structuring an alternate history of a world that diverges from ours by the circumstances of Elizabeth's death and using a musical form from that time to do so was clever. And the most interesting thing about the book is that the Church, seen throughout the book as holding England down, suppressing its native religion, imposing foreign rule on a land that loved liberty in our time, a world of deliberately suppressed technology which makes life poorer, a land which feels the terror of the Inquisition, is ultimately seen as sympathetic. The Church suppressed technology because it knew it couldn't suppress "Progress" but it felt that, if Progress could just be slowed by fifty years from its previous rate of development, man would "reach a little higher toward true Reason". "Did she oppress? Did she hang and burn? A little, yes. But there was no Belsen. No Buchenwald. No Passchendaele."
I don't know if Roberts is offering a Catholic apology or not. But it's a startlingly, interesting idea -- particularly from a native of a country which regards the defeat of the Armada as a supremely important escape from Papism. However, Roberts intriguing notion is so blunted by the absurd setting he chooses to illustrate it that this work is, at best, an interesting failure.
Stylistically and thematically this reminded me very much of Roberts' Kiteworld, the only other work of his I've read. Both works feature an alternate, pastoral England (I believe Kiteworld was a post-apocalypse book, but I'm not sure). Both are sort of
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fix-ups with some characters that cross from story to story. Both are fascinated by the details of arcane technology and the men who service that technology. In Kiteworld it was the details of the kites. Here it's the aracana of the steam tractors (not all that arcane of a technology, after all, my father has personal acquaintance with it from his childhood), the semaphore system run by the Signallers Guild, the lithography done by monks. Roberts uses the approach of several stories taking place over a long period of time with the descendants of some viewpoint characters being the viewpoint characters of another story. For instance, Jesse Strange of the first story "The Lady Margaret" is the great-uncle of Lady Eleanor of the last story, "Corfe Gate". (The steam tractor "The Lady Margaret" shows up as a sort of character in both stories as well.)
Despite the classic status of this novel, I think it had two significant failings. First, while Roberts cleverly structured his novel around the musical structure of the six part pavane, some of the stories make little or no contribution to the story. To be sure, not every story makes reference to a member of the Strange family but some are obviously there to give background details to Roberts' world. Thus "The Signaller" shows the detailed workings of the Signallers Guild. "Brother John" shows the work of the Inquisition in post-1968 England (of course, it's an alternate England).
"Lords and Ladies" is there to tell the story of the romance and seduction of Lady Eleanor's mother. At first, it seems like one of the romances/seductions doomed by class distinction since her mother is of the merchant class and her noble father simply infatuated with her. It seems like it's going to take the usual course: the discarding of the common woman after she finally gives into the blandishments of the noble man. However, he eventually decides he can't live without her and marries her. Thus this story is justified as having some sort of character continuity.
"Corfe Gate" is obviously essential since it shows the rebellion of Lady Eleanor, a rebellion which triggers a worldwide breaking up of the near universally dominated Catholic world and the freeing of England from Papist rule and return to an older, pagan religion. However, "The White Boat" has no real function. The terribly isolated, boring world of an English fishing village is not terribly interesting or essential to painting a picture of the world though, perhaps, Roberts thought that was what he was doing since he makes reference to smugglers transporting forbidden technology and makes a reference to the legendary martyrdom and disappearance of Brother John.
The book is also marred at the end. After a strong and interesting start in this alternate history -- the assassination of Queen Elizabeth just before the Spanish Armada lands and conquers England which leads to a world where all European colonization is done under the auspices of Catholic countries (the Reformation in Germany is destroyed in the Lutheran Wars) -- the book ends with totally unexpected and obscure mysticism.
In "The Signaller", we get the first mention of the mysterious Old Ones, sort of the aboriginal religion of England with Fairies and Celtic myth and Balder as sort of a Christ figure. (For reasons never really explained, one of the People of the Heath, associated with this ancient, pre-Catholic religion, nurses a wounded signaller, and he has a deathbed vision of them.) Brother John, horrified by the Inquisition he documents in his drawings, preaches the faith. Lady Eleanor embraces it when the Church tries to take her land.
Yet even this explanation seems contradicted by other mentions of the People of the Heath and fairies which seem to hint at a sort of cross-dimensional travel. This plot feature greatly negates the inventiveness Roberts shows. As an artist who took up writing, his style is intensely visual which helps when he describes his arcane technology (particularly lithography). Structuring an alternate history of a world that diverges from ours by the circumstances of Elizabeth's death and using a musical form from that time to do so was clever. And the most interesting thing about the book is that the Church, seen throughout the book as holding England down, suppressing its native religion, imposing foreign rule on a land that loved liberty in our time, a world of deliberately suppressed technology which makes life poorer, a land which feels the terror of the Inquisition, is ultimately seen as sympathetic. The Church suppressed technology because it knew it couldn't suppress "Progress" but it felt that, if Progress could just be slowed by fifty years from its previous rate of development, man would "reach a little higher toward true Reason". "Did she oppress? Did she hang and burn? A little, yes. But there was no Belsen. No Buchenwald. No Passchendaele."
I don't know if Roberts is offering a Catholic apology or not. But it's a startlingly, interesting idea -- particularly from a native of a country which regards the defeat of the Armada as a supremely important escape from Papism. However, Roberts intriguing notion is so blunted by the absurd setting he chooses to illustrate it that this work is, at best, an interesting failure.
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LibraryThing member firstpoet
A forgotten masterpiece and the prercursor to so much revisionist history genreworks.
LibraryThing member JohnFair
This is my review of Keith Roberts’ 1967 novel, ‘Pavane’. The cover for this review is from the Millennium Science Fiction Masterworks edition from 2000 and was created by Jim Burns.
This novel is often considered an alternative history tale, but there are some reasons to consider it to be a
‘The Lady Margaret’, published in 1966’s April Impulse is that opening story, and it’s the tale of a Haulier, who runs a steam road locomotive hauling a train of wagons across Southern England in the year of Our Lord 1967. Not our version of that year, of course, or anything resembling it. In this story we are introduced to the haulage firm of Strange and Sons and its new owner, Jesse, as he prepares for the last run of the season in the Land Engine, The Lady Margaret. The land engines and the trains they haul are massive steam engines and their carriages, running on the rough roads of this near mediaeval England. One of the biggest drivers of our England being the lead in the industrial revolution was the fact that the country was a tariff free zone, but we learn here that the individual towns along the Lady Margaret’s route charge Jesse entry. There’s no particular plot to this tale until fairly near the end where Jesse asks for the hand in marriage of one of the inn keepers along his route but is refused in a direct manner! He also meets an old friend in what feels like a coincidental meeting, but one has to always be aware of the routiers, bands of highway men, preying on travellers between the walled and defended settlements.
‘The Signaller’ is the second story, being published in March 1966’s edition of Impulse. This tells the tale of a young man who had been apprenticed to the Guild of Signallers, those mysterious men who ran the large signal towers that sent messages from one end of the land to the other – and even here, it’s made clear these are continental in scale. It’s this story that introduces an element of the fantastic into the mix. Rather unusually, perhaps, we meet our protagonist as he’s in the process of dying, but we quickly drop back to the start of Rafe Bigland’s early fascination with the semaphore, first fired by the Serjeant of the local Tower when he finds the young Rafe watching the local tower manoeuvre its arms in the secret language of the guild. We’re then treated to Rafe’s progression through the guild and its arcane skills, then his first individual posting, and his survival through a deadly winter, trying to find things to do during the freezing winter weather while staying alert for signals coming through from the other towers in the chain. One of these activities was taking walks in the snowy wastes, and it’s this that leads to his downfall when he’s attacked by a catamount, badly wounding him. That should have been the end of him, but even though he was badly injured, he drove the creature away before passing out himself. When he came to once more, he found himself back in his Signallers hut, with a pot simmering on a fire he hadn't set. Looking round, he finds a young girl dressed in a summer dress in defiance of the harsh winter, and sun browned skin, but it was the pointed ears that proved her fey origins. As the story continues, we hear a tale of the Old World and Rafe seems to make a recovery, following his saviour out into the wild lands. But we are treated to a final scene of his guild masters going to the station to find Rafe’s dead body.
‘The White Boat’ is the third story, which was originally published in the New Worlds December 1966 edition. Personally, I found this the weakest tale in the collection. Teenage Becky was rebelling against her oncoming fate of being a wife and mother and wanted to know the secrets of the titular White Boat that visited her seaside village at apparently random times. It was during one of these visits that her curiosity overwhelmed her common sense, aided by her father’s contempt of her selling most of her catch to the sailors aboard the eldritch ship where she finds a less than welcoming ambiance when she joins the crew. After a period of time sailing round the stormy seas, Becky is returned home, and after a brief period of being thankful, she finds the conformity unbearable and with the church army planning on destroying the White Boat, Becky finds it better to sacrifice herself to save the White Boat than to continue living what would essentially be a lie.
‘Brother John’ is the next tale, first published in the March 1966 edition of Impulse. Again, this isn’t a pleasant read. The titular Brother John is a member of a particularly [technologically minded] order of monks, though this doesn’t really extend much beyond being master printers, though John himself hasn’t yet risen to those dizzying heights. His technical proficiency has, however, led to him being seconded to the [Bishop of London’s] special commission to examine the work of a member of the inquisition, and it’s what he sees there that drives the young[?] monk into a rage, though not one that is directly targeting the Church, but one that hearkens back to the Old Ones, which might be even less tolerated by the Church and John soon finds himself with an ever increasing price on his head. Eventually John and his followers are brought to battle by the Church forces and when it looks like John will be captured, he escapes out to sea where it’s assumed he dies. Or does he?!
‘Lords and Ladies’ is story number five and was published in the June 1966 edition of Impulse. In this story, we meet Jesse Strange for the final time as he lies on his death bed, and his niece Margaret sits in on the exultations of the local priest as he tries to drive out the demon infesting her uncle. During this death watch, Margaret flicks through memories of her life and interactions with her ailing uncle before returning to the present. As a scion of a wealthy family, Margaret was of interest to many young (and not so young!) men, but it was the Lord of Corfe castle that took her eye, and her maidenhead, but thanks to the disparities in their stations a full marriage was out of the question. Again, we get to see a touch of the Old Magic briefly, as Margaret contemplates her future.
‘Corfe Gate’ is the sixth tale and was published in the July 1966 edition of Impulse. In this tale the mistress of Corfe castle takes on the power of the Church, both forces emboldened by the absence of the English King as he travels to his American colonies. The Lady Eleanor had the stubborn nature inherited from her grandmother and had determined to breach the Church’s edicts on the forbidden technologies for the benefit of her subjects. The Church in its turn could not take such defiance to its authority and sent a besieging force against the castle. Lady Eleanor and her seneschal had already taken account of this possibility, though, and settled in for a long siege. Seeing her open defiance, and survival, at least initially, other Lords sent out their own defiance of the Church, leaving much of the country in turmoil. This story’s indication of hidden secrets lie in what was hidden in the tower accessible only by the seneschal. A device that appeared to do little more than glow in the dark of the room as the man spoke into it… The attack on Lady Eleanor had raised the whole country against the imposing Church troops. Somehow the King of England had been informed of the events in his homeland and made it back in time to enforce a peace on his warring land.
‘Coda’ is the seventh and final tale in the book, being written for the collection as is set a few generations after Corfe Gate. In this tale we learn that soon after the events of Corfe Gate, the Church had read the writing on the wall and the increasing number of revolts against its autocratic rule, leading it to open up its archives and improve the lives of the citizens. The tale opens with the arrival of a tourist at the remains of Corfe Castle, and he reads a letter written by an ancestor about the true purpose of the Church’s moratorium on technology, and it’s largely this letter that make me feel that the timeline of Pavane is a post apocalypse near-repeat of ancient history. Though the Coda is the only place that this prehistory is hinted at.
One of the best things about the tales in the book is how Roberts uses the weather to fill in the, ah, atmosphere of the story; cold and crisp in the original story, and stormy throughout the other main stories, with flashes of nice weather when the characters' lives are going well. Only the Coda is permanently set in a sunny environment.
This novel is often considered an alternative history tale, but there are some reasons to consider it to be a
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post catastrophe far future, near identical repeat of a similar period from the past – if you’ve read the book put your thoughts down in the comments! So, why would one think it’s an alternate history in the first place? This is mainly down to the prologue, which introduces us to a dying Queen, successfully struck down by an assassin’s bullet that caused chaos in a period of history where an outside power had set its sights on the Throne of England. We see nothing of the invasion itself or the intervening period between this prologue and the opening story. And, although I’m going to treat this as a single story, the tales were actually published as individual stories:‘The Lady Margaret’, published in 1966’s April Impulse is that opening story, and it’s the tale of a Haulier, who runs a steam road locomotive hauling a train of wagons across Southern England in the year of Our Lord 1967. Not our version of that year, of course, or anything resembling it. In this story we are introduced to the haulage firm of Strange and Sons and its new owner, Jesse, as he prepares for the last run of the season in the Land Engine, The Lady Margaret. The land engines and the trains they haul are massive steam engines and their carriages, running on the rough roads of this near mediaeval England. One of the biggest drivers of our England being the lead in the industrial revolution was the fact that the country was a tariff free zone, but we learn here that the individual towns along the Lady Margaret’s route charge Jesse entry. There’s no particular plot to this tale until fairly near the end where Jesse asks for the hand in marriage of one of the inn keepers along his route but is refused in a direct manner! He also meets an old friend in what feels like a coincidental meeting, but one has to always be aware of the routiers, bands of highway men, preying on travellers between the walled and defended settlements.
‘The Signaller’ is the second story, being published in March 1966’s edition of Impulse. This tells the tale of a young man who had been apprenticed to the Guild of Signallers, those mysterious men who ran the large signal towers that sent messages from one end of the land to the other – and even here, it’s made clear these are continental in scale. It’s this story that introduces an element of the fantastic into the mix. Rather unusually, perhaps, we meet our protagonist as he’s in the process of dying, but we quickly drop back to the start of Rafe Bigland’s early fascination with the semaphore, first fired by the Serjeant of the local Tower when he finds the young Rafe watching the local tower manoeuvre its arms in the secret language of the guild. We’re then treated to Rafe’s progression through the guild and its arcane skills, then his first individual posting, and his survival through a deadly winter, trying to find things to do during the freezing winter weather while staying alert for signals coming through from the other towers in the chain. One of these activities was taking walks in the snowy wastes, and it’s this that leads to his downfall when he’s attacked by a catamount, badly wounding him. That should have been the end of him, but even though he was badly injured, he drove the creature away before passing out himself. When he came to once more, he found himself back in his Signallers hut, with a pot simmering on a fire he hadn't set. Looking round, he finds a young girl dressed in a summer dress in defiance of the harsh winter, and sun browned skin, but it was the pointed ears that proved her fey origins. As the story continues, we hear a tale of the Old World and Rafe seems to make a recovery, following his saviour out into the wild lands. But we are treated to a final scene of his guild masters going to the station to find Rafe’s dead body.
‘The White Boat’ is the third story, which was originally published in the New Worlds December 1966 edition. Personally, I found this the weakest tale in the collection. Teenage Becky was rebelling against her oncoming fate of being a wife and mother and wanted to know the secrets of the titular White Boat that visited her seaside village at apparently random times. It was during one of these visits that her curiosity overwhelmed her common sense, aided by her father’s contempt of her selling most of her catch to the sailors aboard the eldritch ship where she finds a less than welcoming ambiance when she joins the crew. After a period of time sailing round the stormy seas, Becky is returned home, and after a brief period of being thankful, she finds the conformity unbearable and with the church army planning on destroying the White Boat, Becky finds it better to sacrifice herself to save the White Boat than to continue living what would essentially be a lie.
‘Brother John’ is the next tale, first published in the March 1966 edition of Impulse. Again, this isn’t a pleasant read. The titular Brother John is a member of a particularly [technologically minded] order of monks, though this doesn’t really extend much beyond being master printers, though John himself hasn’t yet risen to those dizzying heights. His technical proficiency has, however, led to him being seconded to the [Bishop of London’s] special commission to examine the work of a member of the inquisition, and it’s what he sees there that drives the young[?] monk into a rage, though not one that is directly targeting the Church, but one that hearkens back to the Old Ones, which might be even less tolerated by the Church and John soon finds himself with an ever increasing price on his head. Eventually John and his followers are brought to battle by the Church forces and when it looks like John will be captured, he escapes out to sea where it’s assumed he dies. Or does he?!
‘Lords and Ladies’ is story number five and was published in the June 1966 edition of Impulse. In this story, we meet Jesse Strange for the final time as he lies on his death bed, and his niece Margaret sits in on the exultations of the local priest as he tries to drive out the demon infesting her uncle. During this death watch, Margaret flicks through memories of her life and interactions with her ailing uncle before returning to the present. As a scion of a wealthy family, Margaret was of interest to many young (and not so young!) men, but it was the Lord of Corfe castle that took her eye, and her maidenhead, but thanks to the disparities in their stations a full marriage was out of the question. Again, we get to see a touch of the Old Magic briefly, as Margaret contemplates her future.
‘Corfe Gate’ is the sixth tale and was published in the July 1966 edition of Impulse. In this tale the mistress of Corfe castle takes on the power of the Church, both forces emboldened by the absence of the English King as he travels to his American colonies. The Lady Eleanor had the stubborn nature inherited from her grandmother and had determined to breach the Church’s edicts on the forbidden technologies for the benefit of her subjects. The Church in its turn could not take such defiance to its authority and sent a besieging force against the castle. Lady Eleanor and her seneschal had already taken account of this possibility, though, and settled in for a long siege. Seeing her open defiance, and survival, at least initially, other Lords sent out their own defiance of the Church, leaving much of the country in turmoil. This story’s indication of hidden secrets lie in what was hidden in the tower accessible only by the seneschal. A device that appeared to do little more than glow in the dark of the room as the man spoke into it… The attack on Lady Eleanor had raised the whole country against the imposing Church troops. Somehow the King of England had been informed of the events in his homeland and made it back in time to enforce a peace on his warring land.
‘Coda’ is the seventh and final tale in the book, being written for the collection as is set a few generations after Corfe Gate. In this tale we learn that soon after the events of Corfe Gate, the Church had read the writing on the wall and the increasing number of revolts against its autocratic rule, leading it to open up its archives and improve the lives of the citizens. The tale opens with the arrival of a tourist at the remains of Corfe Castle, and he reads a letter written by an ancestor about the true purpose of the Church’s moratorium on technology, and it’s largely this letter that make me feel that the timeline of Pavane is a post apocalypse near-repeat of ancient history. Though the Coda is the only place that this prehistory is hinted at.
One of the best things about the tales in the book is how Roberts uses the weather to fill in the, ah, atmosphere of the story; cold and crisp in the original story, and stormy throughout the other main stories, with flashes of nice weather when the characters' lives are going well. Only the Coda is permanently set in a sunny environment.
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LibraryThing member RBeffa
Pavane is a classic alternate history tale. The novel is essentially a series, lightly interwoven, of novelettes and a novella, and most of the chapters were published individually in magazines in 1966, and then the novel was created and published in 1968 in the UK and 1969 in the United States.
The basic setup premise here is that the Protestant reformation didn't succeed and the Catholic Church's allies captured England and overturned things in mainland Europe. There are quite a few detailed reviews here on LT and elsewhere that cover various aspects of this novel in more detail then I would or could. The stories in this book are very good and put the reader fully into an imagined history that never was. Each segment pulls the reader into different lives and stories that are both heartbreaking and heartwarming to varying degrees. All in all a very satisfying read. A good knowledge of English places (which I lack) would probably have heightened my enjoyment. It would be difficult to not think there was an anti-catholic agenda or bias behind this, because the message is that papal supremacy would consciously hold the English/European world back from progress. At least for a long time. Oh, let us not forget the inquisition because the book does not let us forget it. One of mankind's finest moments to be sure.
"The Signaller" is a terrific chapter in the book. In this tale, the story of the early life and early death of a young boy who joins the signal corps, one becomes immersed in this imaginary England and this story alone is a 5 star read with a touch of magic that breaks your heart.
Another chapter, "Brother John", moves us forward to the alternate 1985 in which the inquisition still reigns and witnessing it drives Brother John into madness and yet it ignites in him a rage that spreads and we get the first hints that the people are going to actively rebel against the papist overlords. Another heartbreaking story. In fact I can say that every chapter is full of heartbreak.
In a very unique way this is a magnificent book. Recommended and I would especially recommend this to readers of historical fiction.
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There are six primary stories as well as a prologue and coda. Each chapter gives us a different view of the alternate world beginning in 1968 when the story begins. The stories told are personal stories of lives lived in this alternate world, subtly interwoven.The basic setup premise here is that the Protestant reformation didn't succeed and the Catholic Church's allies captured England and overturned things in mainland Europe. There are quite a few detailed reviews here on LT and elsewhere that cover various aspects of this novel in more detail then I would or could. The stories in this book are very good and put the reader fully into an imagined history that never was. Each segment pulls the reader into different lives and stories that are both heartbreaking and heartwarming to varying degrees. All in all a very satisfying read. A good knowledge of English places (which I lack) would probably have heightened my enjoyment. It would be difficult to not think there was an anti-catholic agenda or bias behind this, because the message is that papal supremacy would consciously hold the English/European world back from progress. At least for a long time. Oh, let us not forget the inquisition because the book does not let us forget it. One of mankind's finest moments to be sure.
"The Signaller" is a terrific chapter in the book. In this tale, the story of the early life and early death of a young boy who joins the signal corps, one becomes immersed in this imaginary England and this story alone is a 5 star read with a touch of magic that breaks your heart.
Another chapter, "Brother John", moves us forward to the alternate 1985 in which the inquisition still reigns and witnessing it drives Brother John into madness and yet it ignites in him a rage that spreads and we get the first hints that the people are going to actively rebel against the papist overlords. Another heartbreaking story. In fact I can say that every chapter is full of heartbreak.
In a very unique way this is a magnificent book. Recommended and I would especially recommend this to readers of historical fiction.
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LibraryThing member namfos
Great story, well told and beautifully written.
LibraryThing member IaninSheffield
More like a series of short stories, linked only partially in the final chapter.
LibraryThing member revslick
What if the dark age never left? What if the church had become a domineering force of consuming power of fascist control? Roberts' explores this theme with several interlocking short stories. Most of the stories are truly dark and I'll be honest I had to read quicker than I normally do just to get
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past the troubling emotions of grief and despair, which they brought up. The story Brother John is a masterpiece and should be required reading by anybody in church leadership. Show Less
LibraryThing member languagehat
Fine alternate-universe novel set in a world where Queen Elizabeth died in 1588, the Armada succeeded, and Catholicism ruled England and the world.
LibraryThing member salimbol
What if England and most of the known world were still dominated by the Church of Rome, which was keeping a stranglehold on social and technological progress? Such is the premise of Keith Robert's Pavane. Some of the world-building works for me, some doesn't, there's some frustratingly elusive
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characterisation at times, there are some odd fantasy tropes in here, and I'm… dubious about the final revelation about the Church's ultimate purpose. But overall I found this a very satisfying read, taking an elegantly structured mosaic approach with some remarkable ideas and vivid imagery. So: flawed, but well worth my time. Show Less
LibraryThing member crowspeaks
i love 'garden of forking path' other possible histories.
this is one of the best of them
this is one of the best of them
LibraryThing member dbsovereign
Excellent alternate history. Not an easy one.
LibraryThing member bibleblaster
I am often surprised in looking back at now-vintage SF in just how...well, strange it can be. Experimental. Literary. Not all at once...not always successful...but writers were pushing at the form and laying the groundwork for folks like Mieville and Stephenson and Gibson. I'd put Keith Roberts in
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that category. This is a book of loosely connected stories set in an England (and a world) that never experienced the Reformation. Roberts does not feel compelled to tell us EVERYTHING about this world. His "Coda" is a little too tidy in finding the reason for what's gone before (and the Church's repression of scientific advances). But that takes nothing away from the journeys that the reader has enjoyed; the musings on religion and history and science and violence; the strange familiarity (or familiar strangeness) of the world we glimpse in the pages. It is one of those clunky, powerful, 3-star books that just may linger on the ragged edges of my memory when some 4-star books have faded. Show Less
LibraryThing member Ken-Me-Old-Mate
It is on a few of the “Top 100″ book lists which is how I came to it.
A strange kinda dystopian kinda fantasy kinda novel.
I liked it but am not sure why.
A strange kinda dystopian kinda fantasy kinda novel.
I liked it but am not sure why.
LibraryThing member sundowneruk
Why this book took nearly a month to read I've no idea, it is a tremendous read!
It is basically a series of short stories, loosely related but all set on a different time-line. The characters are well defined and I felt a sympathy for each character I met. The separate stories are great, full of
I really enjoyed this book and it is a definite recommend to any Sci-Fi fan who likes something a bit different. I would think it would capture the imagination of readers of historical fiction as well because nothing is fantastical apart from the premise itself. Great fiction!
It is basically a series of short stories, loosely related but all set on a different time-line. The characters are well defined and I felt a sympathy for each character I met. The separate stories are great, full of
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detail and easy to read. I really enjoyed this book and it is a definite recommend to any Sci-Fi fan who likes something a bit different. I would think it would capture the imagination of readers of historical fiction as well because nothing is fantastical apart from the premise itself. Great fiction!
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LibraryThing member john257hopper
This certainly contains some intriguing concepts and an interesting historical backdrop. But I'm afraid I cannot share the enthusiasm of most reviewers as I found much of the writing rather tedious, with too much intricate description of machinery (some drawings would have been nice) but for me at
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least too little on the historical and social background as to how this strange alternate world grew up. I found it unconvincing as an alternate history, partly because of this lack, but also because I was not persuaded that English society would still be so technologically backward 400 years after the Spanish invasion, any more than Spain and other Catholic countries are in the real world. So, despite some nice touches, interesting concepts and horrific moments, rather disappointing for this reader at least. Show Less
LibraryThing member tronella
The world building is great, the plot and writing style didn't really do it for me.
LibraryThing member zangasta
A collection of stories with a common theme.
One of the stories is about monk. I found it vaguely interesting right up until the final scene, at which point I was suddenly reminded of a certain real-life monk. I rather appreciate the overall insight then presented of that monk by Roberts.
One of the stories is about monk. I found it vaguely interesting right up until the final scene, at which point I was suddenly reminded of a certain real-life monk. I rather appreciate the overall insight then presented of that monk by Roberts.
Awards
Language
Original publication date
1968
1987-06-25 (Japanese)