When Christ and His Saints Slept

Plantagenets, Book 1

By: Sharon Kay Penman

Narrated by: Anne Flosnik

In When Christ and His Saints Slept, the first of a trilogy that will tell the story of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, master storyteller and historian Sharon Kay Penman illuminates one of the less known but fascinating periods of English history. It begins with the death of King Henry I, son of William the Conqueror and father of Maude, his only living legitimate offspring.

Contains mature themes.

©1995 Sharon Kay Penman (P)2019 Tantor

I enjoyed this historical ride!

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the characters and the narrator was great. Maude was a tough woman and I liked that the author explained how the world was for women of the time.

Amazing Tale of History

Very good book that holds your interest. It was a little longer than it should have been focusing on many characters that are historic but not so important to the story. And that comes from someone who loves long books. Very good story overall.

Stunner from start to finish

The narrator, Anne Flosnik, made this experience even more sublime. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

What a pleasant surprise:)

When I purchased this book I knew I'd be getting some type of historical fiction. What I DID NOT know was how GREAT this historical fiction would be.
You know how some fiction/historical fiction texts are super long, highly-detailed passages of words, words......Yeah, you get it.
The historical characters in the book were very interesting, powerful people and the author deftly weaves her words, creating space and time....so real you could almost hear them whispering when I turned the page.

Plantagenet Schmantagenet

I loved one of Penman's other books but at 32 hour point (36 hours total), this exhausted me. Read the Wikipedia and you'll get the gist. A fictionalized account of the Hundred Years War shouldn't take 36 hours.

Hurrah. Another Sharon Kaye Penman novel in Audio

At last we have another Sharon Kay Penman novel in Audio. Please can we have some more.

What makes Sharon Penman's historical novels set in medieval Britain so amazing is how they combine sticking quite close to historical facts, with making a thrilling read enjoyable to modern readers.

The saddest part of this book, and of the real life events it chronicles, is the suffering of the poor who find themselves at the mercy of battle-hardened soldiers, especially when on the losing end of a battle. Twenty years England was torn apart as two strong-willed people battled for what each believed rightly to be theirs.

I am amazed how much I loved Stephen and hated Maude in the beginning, and found myself completely reversed by the end.

I Highly recommend this book . This is Sharon Kaye Penman at her best.

Amazing Historical Fiction

This is one of my favorite books. It is a great novel spanning the entirety of the Anarchy over the succession in early 12th century England. This whole series is amazing.

Horrible performance

Wow. I wish I read the reviews first. I’m returning this because I just cannot force myself to pay attention through some of the dullest, driest, flattest delivery I have ever heard. I look forward to reading the book someday because as it stands I won’t be listening to this for 30+ hours.

lengthy and enjoyable

I like long historical books that are well narrated. This did not disappoint
I wish the sequel books were available from audible.

Wonderful information

I enjoyed the detail in the telling of the history of the war for the crown, but could not get past the odd voice of the narrator.