Elizabeth's Women
Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen
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- نقد و بررسی
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نقد و بررسی
Starred review from August 2, 2010
Borman (King’s Mistress) recreates the life, times, and key relationships of one of the most iconic women in history: Elizabeth I. Although Elizabeth is famous for deriding her sex and flirting publicly with favorites like Robert Dudley, Borman explores how other women shaped Elizabeth’s personality early on. The beheadings of both her mother, Anne Boleyn, and stepmother Katherine Howard at Henry VIII’s behest, and half-sister Mary’s humiliating subservience to a foreign prince, made Elizabeth wary of men and convinced her that she must remain a virgin to succeed as queen regnant. Elizabeth shared a passion for religious reform and lively discourse with her stepmother Katherine Parr while her sister Mary’s inflexible Catholicism taught her to never openly commit to any single policy. Elizabeth inherited Anne Boleyn’s cruelty and vindictiveness, evident in her treatment of cousins who were prettier, younger rivals to the throne: Katherine Grey, who was imprisoned until her premature death, and Mary, Queen of Scots, also imprisoned and eventually beheaded. A standout in the flood of Tudor biographies, this smart book offers a detailed exploration of Elizabeth’s private relationships with her most intimate advisers and family members. 2 color photo inserts.
August 1, 2010
Another biography of Elizabeth Tudor! Historian Borman (Henrietta Howard: King's Mistress, Queen's Servant) claims a new approach by focusing on the women in the queen's life. During her perilous childhood, Elizabeth I (1533-1603) seemed more likely to lose her head than win a crown for it. Her mother, Anne Boleyn, executed in 1536, left behind a toddler--inconvenient for her father, Henry VIII, in his quest for a legitimate male heir and to the two half-siblings who proceeded her to the throne, Mary and Edward VI. After such a childhood, no wonder that the queen had peculiar relationships in adulthood with both women and men. With women she was competitive and contemptuous; with men, flirtatious but firmly virginal. Borman shies away from psychosexual analysis of this suggestive case study. Instead she novelistically recounts the mostly unhappy stories of Elizabeth's browbeaten ladies-in-waiting and other unfortunates in the queen's life, such as Mary Stuart. VERDICT When the historical record fails to dot an i or cross a t, Borman happily corrects the lapse here in her romantic history. This gossipy book will appeal to readers of historical fiction. Because Elizabeth much preferred playing with boys, a book about her women tells less than half the story.--Stewart Desmond, New York
Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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