Darnley; or, The Field of the Cloth of Gold

"Darnley" by G. P. R. James is a novel about the king of England, Henry VIII (1491-1547). The history of Great Britain (1506-1547), the gorgeous festivities of Midsummer (1520), as well as the character of King Henry VIII., are admirably conceived and described.

Excerpt:

"To paint him to the mind's eye were very difficult, though to describe him were very easy; for though I were to say that he was a tall, fair man, with the old Saxon blood shining out in his deep blue eye, and in his full, short upper lip, from which the light brown moustache turned off in a sweep, exposing its fine arching line; though I were to speak of the manly beauty of his features, rendered scarcely less by a deep scar upon his forehead; or were I to detail, with the accuracy of a sculptor, the elegant proportion of every limb, I might, indeed, communicate to the mind of the reader the idea of a much more handsome man than he really was; but I should fail to invest the image with that spirit of gracefulness which, however combined with outward form, seems to radiate from within, which must live to be perfect, and must be seen to be understood."