David the King

by Gladys Schmitt

This book is in good condition with some brown spot on the few back edges of the book .Have same shelf ware.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Christian, Religion, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

Reviews

[Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

"David the King" could very easily be renamed "David the Poser." In this novel, King David is a guy who falsely takes credit for slaying Goliath, he is an unstable commoner who aspires to the Kingship, and who achieves it through the thuggery of his cousin Joab. Sound like the David of the Bible to you?

In fact, there are some shades of truth in Schmitt's portrayal of David. There are places in the Old Testament where credit for slaying Goliath is given to Elkanan, not David. There is evidence that David was mentally unstable; his dancing naked before the Ark as it was brought into Jerusalem, his acting like a drooling moron at the court of Achish, his siding with the Philistines against his own people during the wars of Saul. Joab was in fact David's General, and he was responsible for many of David's victories. And it could be said that David was indecisive when he refused to kill Saul at the times when he had the opportunity, and when he refused to allow anyone to kill his son Absolom during his rebellion. Schmitt brings attention to these quirks of King David. That's not what bothers me about this novel.

The problem with this novel as I see it is that Schmitt ignores the one factor in David's life that shaped the greatness of King David - his love of God. The Old Testament is filled with references to David's love of God, but in Schmitt's book, God is an abstraction that is, at most, a pretext in David's life. Writing a novel about David without serious attention to God would be like writing a novel about Mozart without serious attention to music, or writing a novel about Rembrandt, another subject for a Schmitt novel, without paying serious attention to art. Schmitt's omission leaves a serious hole in this novel, one the size of the Grand Canyon. It makes it difficult to enjoy Schmitt's novel, as well researched and well written as it is.

Honestly, this novel about King David is best ignored by readers of Old Testament fiction. It is valuable only as an example of the revisionist bent of many historical fiction writers of the Interwar years.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan at all. Overlong and boring. In this case, I really don't care if it was written nicely or not. Finishing it was like finally getting out of a horrible, far-over-time work shift without having taken any break. Ahead of its time in the whole David being practically gay for Jonathan stuff (it was published shortly after World War II), but what good is that to me?

[Cas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I am no longer a Christian, I retain a love of Biblical characters. King David was as real to me as my own family, and I knew him as imperfectly as I knew them. Reading this humanized him and made his tragedy-filled life even more heartbreaking. David was not a saint, but a flawed man who struggled to balance what he wanted with what was right. I used to get angry with his behavior as a child. Some of the things he did were inexcusable in my eyes. Remembering his behavior while reading this book, I felt only compassion for a man who struggles as I do. His struggle to know God echoes my own efforts to understand spirituality.

I loved the writing style, too. Gladys Schmitt can evoke a scene as well as she can an emotion. Bethlehem and Jerusalem provide vivid contrast that helped me appreciate the extent of David's rise. I imagine Jerusalem as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I would love to see it with my own eyes to compare it to the image Ms. Schmitt provided.

[ALEARDO ZANGHELLINI · Rating 5 out of 5]

Running for more than 600 pages of fine print, this is mind-blowingly ambitious. Yet it's carried off with dazzling brilliance --from the profound treatment of existential and meta-ethical questions, through its psychological acumen and homoerotic lyricism,* to the successful use of archaic language to conjure up a lost world (without compromising accessibility).

You don't have to be religious to enjoy this book; in fact, this is an account of David's life that might well appeal to agnostics and even atheists more than religious dogmatists.

Is the rest of this author's output as awe-inspiring?


[* I only wish Jonathan had taken a little longer to kick the bucket.]

[Lewis P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Text messaging and instant messaging has virtualy retarded the writer, and anything keeping the writer from putting pen to paper has made the writer somewhat autistic in terms of beautiful english. "David the King" is a breath of fresh air in respect. Schmitt WRITES that book. There are many sub-themes covered, but the main one is the self-actualization of Man discovering his position and personhood in light of being a creation of God. It's a great book for English sake, ideology sake, and creativity sake.

[Rachel Detzler · Rating 5 out of 5]

starts out pretty slow but what it builds to is earth shattering. i think this book changed my life a little bit

[Barbara Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is only partially accurate and is much embellished as to story line. However, it made for good reading..The author did a good job of developing the characters and ax excellent job of description and emotions in the storyline

[Marsha Fort-Herren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have now read this book 2 times. First in the 1960s and again recently. It is that good! I loved it so much the first time that I looked so forward to reading it again. The writing is so wonderful that I ordered another of her books, Rembrandt, and found it to be just as wonderful.