Point of View

The Lances of Lynwood has a third-person point of view. The narrator conveys the values and views of the author, without misleading the reader, posing as a character, or otherwise complicating the function of storytelling. However – this being a novel for children – engaging and educating readers is a vital aspect of the narrator’s role. As a result, the narrative voice can be intrusive.

There are frequent reminders of narrative omniscience, for instance through a casual reference to a “white rose” in the royal pavilion, which is “not yet an emblem of discord” (12). The allusion to the Wars of the Roses is distracting, as it interrupts the description of an imagined scene, to direct our attention to future events. At the close of Chapter 3, we learn that “never were tidings more welcome than these to the half-famished army, encamped upon the banks of the Ebro...