Mary Wallstonecraft Shelley, The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck

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After the brutal and turbulent Wars of the Roses, Henry VII reigned over England and the sons of his rival Edward IV, once held captive in the Tower of London, were lost to time. Years later, a young man with boundless energy and hope emerged, claiming to be Richard, Duke of York, heir of Edward IV and the rightful king of England. Mary Shelley’s swashbuckling narrative of the doomed claimant to the throne imagines Richard from his youth in hiding as the lowly Perkin Warbeck to his execution as a traitor at the hands of Henry VII. Richard gains friends and supporters in his quest to claim the English crown, but treachery dogs his every step. (Summary by Lauren Huff)