The Princes of Ireland: The Dublin Saga

The Princes of Ireland is obviously well researched. Rutherfurd does a wonderful job mixing historical information with the fictional characters personal stories. And what great characters they are! I'm only starting the book and I'm already caught up in their lives, and must keep reading!

I have read all of Edward Rutherford's books and Dublin is also excellent. He writes in the style of James Michener - historical novels.

I love Edward Rutherford's style of writing and his sagas are extremely readable and interesting. His characters are very real, and it's nice to see the families and their descendents over the years. This book details the history of the beautiful Emerald Isle from abour 450 AD to the reign of Henry VIII. What a culture these Irish people have! Their lives have never been easy on this beautiful island, and the book begins to point out where the problems that are there now stem from. It's ancient history - true, but it seems timely and important the way that Rutherford has written this book. His love for the Irish people and their culture comes through these pages, and he deals with the issues and the history in a warm and non-judgemental way. It's a long book, but it doesn't seem that once you get into the stories of the lives these people.

I have read most of Edward Rutherfurd's historical novels ands on the my personal Rutherfurd Scale, I rate this book #3 behind only Sarum and London, but ahead of its sequel, the Rebels of Ireland, the Forest, and certainly well above Russka. With good reason Rutherfurd is always compared to James Michener. Their works both tell sweeping histories through fiction by following several families through time. Their books are not Great Literature, but I do find Rutherfurd to be a consistently better novelist than Michener. The Princes or Ireland focuses on Dublin and the area 'beyond the pale' over a span of 11 centuries beginning in 450 C.E. He spins his yarns around the fascinating tales of the Druids, St. Patrick, the Book of Kells, Brian Boru, the Vikings, and the English. Good historical fiction not only entertains, but it also leads the reader to want to learn more. Rutherfurd succeeds again. An excellent read for anyone interested in Ireland, the Druids, the spread of Christianity, the beginnings of English colonialism or history in general. Highly recommended.

Not a history fan? Don't worry. The interlaced stories of these families over the course of 1000+ years of Ireland's history should please just about anyone. Even though the characters change as the scope of history changes, the development of those characters is rich and the stories around them stay interesting. This book has to be somewhere in my top 5.

This is an excellent book in all respects.It definitely ranks right up there with my all time favorites East of Eden and Gone With the Wind as historical fiction.Although I am not too much of a fiction reader;I read a lot of history and Celtic,Irish and Middle Ages are particularly interresting to me.This book deals with Irish history from 430AD to 1538 AD and concentrates mainly the Dublin area.To show how the people of Ireland ,their culture,religions and beliefs were affected by a continual procession of invaders,Rurherford has created an amazing cast of lineal characters to show how the people were affected by the events that were imposed on them.These intruders ,without exception,came to plunder,conquer,rape,pillage,destroy and most of all to impose their values .Again ,without exception,they did it with distain for everything Irish.The worst thing about it all is that these invaders had so little to offer and history has shown that their values and cultures have been mainly discarded into the scrapbin of history. Small and basically peaceful as the Irish people were, they fought back with all their might.History has shown that no matter how heavy handed the invaders were,they were never able to control the Irish.It took a heavy price but all invaders finally found out that;"The Princes of Ireland bow the knee to this lowborn fellow? Never." What Rutherford accomplishes so well is to put a human and personal touch to the cold dry facts and events of history.He creates Irish personalities in this period who are as true to life as Rhett Butler or Scarler O'Hara ,or places like Tara;that Margaret Mitchell did in that great American classic,Gone With the Wind. Even if you shy away from 800 page novels,as I usually do;I strongly recommend this one ,particularly if you are interested in Ireland and the Irish People.