The Sword Does Not Jest

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

By Frans Bengtson, author of The Long Ships, The Sword Does Not Jest is an obscure but well-written biography of Charles XII. As with many biographies, it makes no pretense of hiding the author's hero worship of his subject, but the style is saga-like, entertaining and worth the read.

Tropes used in The Sword Does Not Jest include:

His fate was destined to a foreign strand
A petty fortress and a dubious hand
He left the name at which the world grew pale
To paint a moral or adorn a tale.