England's Elizabeth: An Afterlife in Fame and Fantasy

by Michael Dobson, Nicola J Watson Dr, Nicola J. Watson

Book Overview

No monarch is more glamorous or more controversial than Elizabeth I. The stories by which successive generations have sought to extol, explain, or excoriate Elizabeth supply a rich index to the cultural history of English nationalism--whether they represent her as Anne Boleyn's suffering orphan or as the implacable nemesis of Mary, Queen of Scots, as learned stateswoman or as frustrated lover, persecuted princess or triumphant warrior queen. This...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198183771
• ISBN13: 9780198183778
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.6" x 5.7"

Customer Reviews

Not just Elizabeth but why she matters

Anne Barton, an emerita Cambridge, England professor of literature and history, called this book 'scholarly, wide-ranging, lively and witty', and she doesn't give out praise lightly: she also described it as 'a fascinating cultural history of England itself in terms of its obsession with Anne Boleyn's resilient daughter.' This was in the London Review of Books, which rarely gets that sort of thing wrong, so I bought it. And she was dead right. This is a stunning book -- broadens your whole sense of history. And such a joy and a stimulant to read. I can't think how they'll ever follow it, but thank goodness they wrote it.

Gloriana in all her posthumous glory!

This is a dazzling piece of cultural history about all the things people have wanted to be true about Elizabeth I whether they are or not, with fantastic pictures drawn from the plays and novels and movies in which her endlessly glamorous afterlife has been lived. It's a great book about why this enigmatic, dangerous woman matters and has mattered: it's funny, it's heartfelt, and it's scholarly too. Perfect for the thinking Glenda Jackson/Bette Davis/Cate Blanchett fan in your life, and a penetrating, witty meditation on fame, womanhood, and history.