Synopsis
Last in the line of succession to the English throne, Elizabeth inherited a country torn by religious differences, at war with Europe, and badly in debt. When she died in 1603, having ruled for forty-five years, her empire was solvent, the Spanish Armada had been defeated, the Church of England had been firmly established, and the men she favored, such as William Shakespeare, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Walter Raleigh, had made her reign the Golden Age still remembered today.
In this brilliantly conceived novel, Miles uses her acclaimed skills as a storyteller and historian to bring to life the woman behind the myth of the "Virgin Queen." By turns imperious, brilliant, calculating, and insecure, this Queen Elizabeth is as vividly alive today as she was in her own time. Nor is she only the public Elizabeth: She reveals her most intimate thoughts and fears as she struggles to balance her needs as a woman against her duties as England's sovereign.
Reviews
Popular historian ( The Women's History of the World ) and novelist ( Return to Eden ) Miles brings deep research to this iconoclastic but only partially successful fictional life of England's "virgin queen," Elizabeth I. Miles traces, through the queen's own voice, Elizabeth's turbulent years as a princess in Henry VIII's court, her uneasy status during the brief reigns of her brother Edward and sister Mary and her decades on the throne. The author leaves no event unreported, describing in detail the defeat of the Spanish Armada, Elizabeth's struggles with Mary, Queen of Scots, and the rise and fall of Essex. In a genre that often uses passionate love scenes to temper the drier affairs of history, a novel about the world's second most famous female virgin presents a challenge. There are love scenes aplenty, however, since Miles depicts the young Elizabeth as being as sexually obsessed as she is frustrated, her interest in men overshadowing affairs of state, religion and the succession to the throne. Miles is at her best in describing everyday Elizabethan life--religion, food, dress, illness. But her Elizabeth lacks the charisma to carry this lengthy chronicle, which is weakened by the device of having the queen, in italicized passages, comment from a pallid, distant hindsight on her past actions. As an entertaining look at Reformation England, this novel succeeds, but it fails at the more immediate task of creating memorable fictional characters from the leavings of history. Literary Guild and Double day Book Club selections; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From British novelist and nonfiction author Miles (The Women's History of the World, 1989, etc.), an impressively researched fictional portrait of England's great queen (15331603) as emotionally high-strung, thirsty for love, and a martyr to her role. In the story of Elizabeth's artful dodging on the way to the throne--coping with official ``bastardy,'' warring religious factions, power clashes around the ailing Henry VIII--Miles faithfully, and in Elizabeth's narration with spirit, follows every alarm and flight: summons to the putrid, dying King; the sad decline of brother Edward VI; the dangerous policy excesses of elder sister Queen Mary; the nightmare days in the Tower in sight of a scaffold. At last Elizabeth is Queen, exultant, ``married to England.'' At this moment the narrative begins to disappoint. For all her research and dutiful attention to world events, Miles tends to focus on Elizabeth's emotional rather than her intellectual life, scanting the political acumen that secured the throne, held off enemies abroad, and enabled England to prosper and colonize new worlds. Here, the monarch meets most crises by screaming and weeping--and of course there is that Big Question always hanging in the air concerning the Virgin Queen: Was she or wasn't she? In this portrait, the Queen has a schoolgirl crush on a powerful noble sent to the block and is sexually aroused by the doomed husband of Catherine Parr (Henry's widow), but her true love (and sole recipient of the royal favors) is Robert Dudley, courtier, soldier, and intermittent Tower resident. In the meantime there are perpetual crises: the problem of Mary, Queen of Scots (never seen), the invasion of the Spanish Armada, religious persecutions, etc. But love brings the monarch's confessions to their highest pitch. Not great, but not trash either: romantic pseudo-history, weighty in size, scope, and ambition--if not achievement. (Literary Guild selection; author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Historian Miles, who has written books on Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and women's history, here gives a portrait of Elizabeth I that is rich in historical detail. More importantly, her Elizabeth has an authentic voice. Raised by turns as princess, bastard, and potential traitor, Elizabeth does anything she must do to keep her head from the block except renounce her faith (which makes it odd that we get no sense of her as a spiritual person). Having achieved power, she will do whatever it takes to retain it, including denying her powerful sexuality and executing traitors, even her beloved Earl of Essex. Forthright, salty, sensual, regal, and occasionally foolish, this is as real as a character created by words can be. For all historical fiction collections. [Doubleday and Literary Guild selections; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/94.]-Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Ia.
--Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Ia.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Historian Miles' novel is in the form of a memoir that Elizabeth I is writing near the end of her long and amazing life. Through Elizabeth's eyes, the reader sees the life-and-death court intrigues, the religious conflicts, and the prerogatives as well as the high price of power. In addition to being faithful to historical fact, Miles presents a wealth of colorful detail. The personalitiesElizabeth's father, Henry VIII, her sister, Bloody Mary, her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, and the restare vividly portrayed, as are the sights, sounds, and smells of the Tudor era. Miles also interprets the inner woman, from the frightened girl called away from the security of her exile at Hatfield to present herself at court, to the mature queen: scholarly, vain, shrewd, deeply attuned to such things as the language of dress, capable of great passion, but learning never to let her passions rule. Miles weaves Elizabeth's passions throughout, as various courtiers attempt to marry her off, and the men she loves betray her, prove inadequate, or must be sacrificed for the political good. Miles answers in her own way the question of whether the Virgin Queen was really a virgin. Despite its length, this convincing novel never falters. Mary Ellen Quinn
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