Robert, Earl of Essex, captured Elizabeth I's heart--and almost cost her the throne. Their relationship courted disaster, eventually leading the flamboyant earl to the block. Though fabled in romantic legends, he's even far more interesting in real life. Written by the bestselling author of The Year 1000, Sir Walter Ralegh, and Majesty, this study brilliantly interlaces the personal with the political.
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About the Author
Robert Lacey, a former magazine editor and journalist, is the author of many best-selling works of biography and history. Following his success Sir Walter Ralegh (Phoenix Press) Robert Lacey wrote Majesty. Published on the occasion of the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, it is the definitive study of the British monarchy, on which subject Lacey continues to lecture around the world. Winning renown for his original and painstaking research, Robert Lacey has gone on to write authoritative and successful works on Saudi Arabia, the Ford family, the gangster 'Little Man' Meyer Lansky, Princess Grace of Monaco and Sothebys. He also wrote and presented the BBC television series Aristocrats. Most recently his fascinating description of life at the turn of the first millennium in The Year 1000 has been a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic.
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More About the Author
"It's all here," says Tom Brokaw " - Islam, the family tree, a sea of oil and money to match, palace intrigue and the place of Osama Bin Laden. This is high drama and an epic tale. Dazzling - on every level". Robert Lacey is an historian and biographer whose research has taken him from the Middle East ("The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Saud") to America's Mid-West ("Ford: the Men and the Machine"). "Majesty", his pioneering biography of Queen Elizabeth II, is the definitive study of British monarchy - a subject on which Robert lectures around the world, appearing regularly on ABC's Good Morning America and on CNN's Larry King Live. To research and write his latest book, "Inside the Kingdom", he went to live in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for three years. You can read more about Robert's new book - and also view his acclaimed TV film report for PBS NOW on Saudi extremists - on his website www.insidethekingdom.net
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Francis Bacon's quote was worth the price of the book,
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This review is from: Robert, Earl of Essex (Hardcover)
First, there is much about this book to commend it. As noted above, it contains some interesting and insightful comments by Essex's contemporaries. The writing is clear and occasionally rather musical. The life of Robert, Earl of Essex and the last of Elizabeth's favorites, is described in considerable detail. The image of a man of great charm but stunningly bad judgement emerges, sometimes in spite of all this detail. What I found off-putting was the tone of some of the writing -- a sort of headline hyperboly. And characterizations tend to become caricatures: at one point, the author evokes the image of Elizabeth's successor as "young King James cavorting with his boyfriends." The Scottish king was in his late thirties when he succeeded to the English throne -- hardly young in the Renaissance world. And the author misses a potent parallel: according to many historians, it is likely that James Stuart's physical relationships with his male favorites were not much different from those of the late queen with hers. James VI and I was undoubtedly attracted to handsome young men, and certainly carried on passionate friendships, but it is by no means certain that physical liasons developed. Nor is this the only personal judgement offered up. Elizabeth is "nasty, vicious and self-centered." This snapshot opinion is bolstered with documented events and considerable speculation. The author repeatedly and matter-of-factly informs us of this complicated monarch's motives and feelings and thoughts. Sometimes her mood is not difficult to discern; Elizabeth had a famous temper and wasn't above shrieking at a courtier or boxing a lady's ears. These moments are described with relish, and they do indeed flesh out the author's portrait of an aging, difficult woman. The author's depiction of the internal Elizabeth, however, can be exasperating. Most jarring perhaps was the assertion that Elizabeth took up with Essex because "she had nothing to lose." This, when the cover's subtitle breathlessly promises that her "affair" with this young man "nearly dethroned her," is not only presumptous, but contradictory. On the other hand, readers whose primary interest is political intrigue are likely find this book of value. If its goal was to show the uncertainties of fortune and the odd machinations of Elizabethan society, it succeeded admirably. There are few books available on the life of Essex, and this one is worth a look.
3.0 out of 5 stars
average effort,
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This review is from: Robert, Earl of Essex: An Elizabethan Icarus (Paperback)
robert deveraux is my most favorite elizabethan man. i thought this book was good but, i still believe that a BETTER one could be written. i still don't have a clear idea of what made robert "tick" so to speak and "why" did he do some of the things he did? i wanted this book for my "elizabethan book collection" and fits in very nice with the others. i would recommend this book as a starter for someone who wanted to learn about robert deveraux. also some of it is very interesting and full of insight. my only complaint is the author has made some rather mean-spirited comments about sir robert cecil regarding cecil's slight build and hunched back. the author also is suggesting that there is something"evil" about cecil which,i do not believe and have never heard of this.
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