The Queen's Bastard [Unabridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Robin Maxwell (Author), Steven Crossley (Narrator)

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Recorded Books; Unabridged edition (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0788743872
• ISBN-13: 978-0788743870
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,251,993 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous historical novel!, August 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Queen's Bastard (Hardcover)

I loved this novel! Robin Maxwell is a master stroyteller and has triumphed with this book. I started reading the book on Thursday and finished it Sunday, as I could not put it down! I like her premise, the plot is intelligent, her characterizations of all the historical characters is right on--I was impressed. I agree with the other reviewer who would like another novel on the further adventures of Arthur Dudley. I have immersed myself in the history of Tudor England since age 8. I have read every intelligent historical novel I could get my hands on about the period. Plus, I have a master's degree in British history. So I consider myseslf an expert on the subject. This novel was hands-down one of the best I have ever read.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing . . . and possible!, August 9, 2004

By 

Carolyn McKenzie "Read-a-holic" (Wauwatosa, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Queen's Bastard: A Novel (Paperback)

I love books that take history and suggest something that is not what the history books tell us, yet is presented in such a plausible manner that you cannot help but think, "What if?" "The Queen's Bastard" is such a book, suggesting as it does that a love child was born to the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I.

I found the story fascinating, moving as it does through so many historical settings and describing them as I might have seen them then. I adore the descriptions of people, fashions, customs, meals, all of which pull the book together and enmesh the reader in the world of Elizabethan England.

I confess, my favorite summer activity is going to Renaissance Faires, and I adore the Elizabethan period, so perhaps my viewpoint is skewed. But if you are the same, grab this book for a good read, though you may wish to start with its predecessor, and read the two straight through.

Happy reading!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vivid and compelling, October 4, 2004

By 

K. Huff (Radnor, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Queen's Bastard: A Novel (Paperback)

What if Queen Elizabeth had had a child with her lover, Robert Dudley? Robin Maxwell draws upon this question as she creates the character Arthur Dudley, born a (...) to the Queen and switched at birth by a lady-in-waiting. Arthur grows up in the gentrified household of the Southern family, leading a life like that of any other English boy: riding horses, going to school, and having all kinds of troubles of his own. As an adult he participates in the wars in the Netherlands, fighting against the Spanish, witnessing years of bloody battle. It is not until he is an adult, however, that Arthur learns who his real parents were, and his "memoirs" tell us about his life leading up to that momentous occasion.

This realistic novel places the life and times of Queen Elizabeth into a clear, definitive, albeit fictional, focus. Many authors have tried to recreate Elizabeth as a person, and not many can do it as easily as Robin Maxwell did here. Life at court is visibly rendered, as are the scenes in battle that Arthur Dudley witnesses.