Queen Elizabeth I [Paperback]

J.E. Neale (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 424 pages
• Publisher: Academy Chicago Publishers (August 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0897333624
• ISBN-13: 978-0897333627
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #248,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #17 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( E ) > Elizabeth I
  • #18 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > British > Elizabeth I
  • #79 in Books > History > Historical Study > Essays

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A scholarly and compelling biography, June 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Queen Elizabeth I (Paperback)

In recent years, Neale has been overshadowed a bit in the world of Elizabethan biography. More dry and less flattering works of the lady in question have eroded his mostly complimentary analysis of her, and his perspective has come to be regarded as old-fashioned. Yet even the harshest critics of Elizabeth acknowledge the debt owed to Neale. Thankfully, his erudition is strong, and, while newer, more skeptical biographies may challenge his love for that Queen, his scholarship must stand intact. I rather think that contrary historians have inverted the Neale perspective: they maintain that his worship for Elizabeth blinded him to her flaws. But, read this book. His admiration stems from his delving into the reign. He sees where Elizabeth goes wrong, but is always aware of her greater achievement, and brings home to the reader just how singular this monarch truly was. Moreover, the book is enjoyable. One feels and is moved by the author's own joy in his subject matter. Would that some modern biographies possessed this talent!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on QEI, June 18, 2003

By 

M. A Newman (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Queen Elizabeth I (Paperback)

Although hardly a year goes by without someone new coming up with another biography on Queen Elizabeth I, this probably is the best of the lot. Many of the subsequent volumes that have appeared after Neale generally owe him a debt of gratitude at least for assembling the basic facts of the life of the Virgin Queen.

Elizabeth's life has been told many times, her parents, Henry VIII and Anne Bolyn's ill-fated marriage, imprisionment during the reigns of both siblings, Thomas Seymour (whose sister replaced her mother in Henry's bed-would any soap opera try this plot twist?), Thomas Wyatt, William Cecil, Robert Dudley, Mary Queen of Scotts, the Spanish Armada, Shakespeare, and Gloriana. What Neale does quite well is to provide some real insight into the life of this the best of Britain's rulers and to place her actions in context. Some might think that Neale's treatment is too positive, I think the tone of the book is consistent with the greatness of this woman who, unlike her modern day namesake, ruled as well as reigned.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best biography that bases all on documented evidence., December 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Queen Elizabeth I (Paperback)

As someone with years of interest in Elizabeth I, a facinating and complex monarch at a time when monarchs were really responsible for their countries, I have read almost every biography published in the last thirty years. This book clearly labels speculation as speculation and states as facts only information obtained from written material. It probably provides the clearest account of what actually occurred that we can obtain from this distance in time.