Customer Reviews

Elizabeth and Essex: A Tragic History

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this is a lovely book. The author's mastery of the English language is a pleasure to savor. I will keep this book to re-read and I'm sure I will enjoy his way with words and his way with a story again and again. He makes his characters come to life. If you love Elizabethan history, if you love the English language, read this book, you won't be disappointed. I wish I were articulate enough to do justice to his art.

Strachey is deeply sympathetic of both Elizabeth and Essex, recognizing their strengths and their tragic shortcomings. Most modern biographies of Elizabeth rake her over the coals for her famously dithering and constipated decision-making process, but Strachey makes a good case for indecision as a political weapon, and cites this quality as part of Elizabeth's genius. The relationship between this hugely complex 70-year old queen and the magnificent but deeply flawed earl is dissected factually and emotionally. An amazing achievement. Jill Masters has a beautiful, silky voice and brings real poignancy to this subtle work.

this is the story of the "love"/relationship between queen elizabeth the first and robert deveraux,the second earl of essex. lytton strachey has written this as a grand ,sweeping novel,mixing in lots of true life facts with his own way of telling their' story. it makes a great read. it has a sort-of insider/tabloid/talk show-type feel to it-and THIS really happened-to these people! it is a fascinating book.
as i read it,i couldn't help but feel futility because, i knew robert would crash and burn at the end. i wish he had tried to save himself,but,alas..this is tragedy on a grand scale. do not miss this one!

once upon a time it seems there was this fella who thought you could actually write creative and lively non-fiction. his name was lytton strachey and he carried his thought out onto paper. all of his books are wonderfully written non-fiction. why oh why do so few non-fiction writers swing for the fence with their writing? is it editors? i know nothing about the inner-workings of the book business. it just puzzles me why almost all non-fiction writing is so uncreative, so unimaginative. lytton strachey, God bless you man! wherever your soul may be.