Elaine the Fair - Hardcover

In this lusty rewrite of the Robin Hood legend, the green outlaw is an ex-Crusader whose pregnant Muslim lady had been slaughtered by men of King Richard Lionheart. Richard, in first novelist Taylor's iconoclastic portrayal (based, he claims, on historical accounts), is a sadistic bully, mass murderer and abysmal military strategist. Robin is motivated partly by vengeance, partly by his obsessive love for Elaine the Fair, most beautiful woman of the English court, who's married to Arthur the Assessor, a corrupt taxman bent on gouging every penny out of the common people. Robin steals from the crown, not from the rich, and ends up as an Irish king. The first third of this overlong, nonstop-action romantic saga focuses on Elaine: her countless suitors, her traumatic past (she was nearly hanged as a witch simply because of her good looks) and her homoerotic fixation on her lady-in-waiting Sandra. After a shaky start, the story gains momentum and holds the reader's attention . Author tour.
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