Customer Reviews

Queen Elizabeth I

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

Neale's book comes from an older world of historical writing, and would not satisy the demands of current historians. It tells the story of Elizabeth I as a loving tale of a personal friend, focusing on assessments (or presumptions!) about character. The book makes Elizabeth seem a strong and deserving leader. The book reveals little, though, of the details and especially the implications of political decision-making. A war, or a raising of taxes, is seen as meaningful only as a development in some relationship between Elizabeth and some other nobleman. This work would be of almost no help to someone trying to understand the developments in English politics in the 1500s. As a personal drama, though, (perhaps as a soap-opera), this is an engaging and informative read.

I just find it really interesting the Sir John Neale (the author of this book) was able to write a personal review for Queen Elizabeth I after having passed away some 24 odd years ago. Neat trick... Anyways, very interesting book, although it does have a tendency to be slow in spots.

After having read everything I could get my hands on about Elizabethan England reading this book was very refreshing. Delving into the social and political realm of Queen Regina is what this book is all about. Well written and easy to read it gives a new perspective on the trials and tribulations of a very courageous and smart lady.

J.E. Neale, Elizabeth I's most famous modern biographer, is not an author who is easy to read for the modern scholar or anybody who regards the Virgin Queen as anything short of a goddess. His style of history has vanished, I'm glad to say. His worship of Elizabeth and his nationalistic biases make this a very tough read and not a very worthwhile one. Anne Somerset's modern biography would be a better use of the reader's time.