Helpful Score: 3
I adore this book. I enjoyed the liberties she took with Elizabeth's life along the way. A wonderful novel that imagines her journey from childhood to the crown. I anxiously await Weir's next novel.
After thoroughly enjoying Weir's first foray into fiction ('Innocent Traitor'), I was looking forward to her fictionalized story about Elizabeth I. I finished this in two days and am disappointed.
Weir took liberties with Elizabeth's story which didn't sit well with me. Although she explained why she did it in her afterword/author's note, I still am not comfortable with the events she portrayed. Yes, it IS fiction, but like Robin Maxwell's book 'The Queen's Bastard' which took the liberty that Elizabeth and Robert Dudley had a child together, I couldn't stomach the fiction Weir wrote about.
While I'll give Weir a chance if she should write another fictional work, I do think that her non-fiction is leaps and bounds better than this novel.
Weir took liberties with Elizabeth's story which didn't sit well with me. Although she explained why she did it in her afterword/author's note, I still am not comfortable with the events she portrayed. Yes, it IS fiction, but like Robin Maxwell's book 'The Queen's Bastard' which took the liberty that Elizabeth and Robert Dudley had a child together, I couldn't stomach the fiction Weir wrote about.
While I'll give Weir a chance if she should write another fictional work, I do think that her non-fiction is leaps and bounds better than this novel.
Helpful Score: 1
Ok book. Disappointed that book never reaches into timeframe of Elizabeth's reign. Remember that it IS fiction...so liberties are taken with historical accuracy.
Another good historical fiction by Alison Weir. At a few points in the book I thought it was very similar to other books on Elizabeth's childhood, but there are definitely several plots in this one that are not like any others. Very entertaining. I didn't want to put it down.
What can possibly be left to say about Queen Elizabeth I that hasn't already be said? For the fervent fan of the monarch, about all that is left is for the author to handle the story skillfully, or to attempt to find an unexplored viewpoint.
Weir has chosen the former here, and does a fine job of inhabiting both the world and the mind of the young Elizabeth, from the death of Ann Boleyn to the death of Queen Mary Tudor. The historical material is presented, along with fictional speculation about Elizabeth's relationship with her stepfather, Thomas Seymour, and the princess / lady / princess / heir-to-the-crown's internal struggles with the notion of marriage. Or not.
The thing one takes away, always, from well-told history (or historical fiction) about this remarkable woman, is how well she played a very real -- and very dangerous -- Game of Thrones, and did so from the moment of Henry VIII's death, when she was but fourteen years old.
'The Lady Elizabeth' would be a fine introduction into historical fiction of the Tudor era, and an enjoyable interlude for readers already familiar with the story.
Weir has chosen the former here, and does a fine job of inhabiting both the world and the mind of the young Elizabeth, from the death of Ann Boleyn to the death of Queen Mary Tudor. The historical material is presented, along with fictional speculation about Elizabeth's relationship with her stepfather, Thomas Seymour, and the princess / lady / princess / heir-to-the-crown's internal struggles with the notion of marriage. Or not.
The thing one takes away, always, from well-told history (or historical fiction) about this remarkable woman, is how well she played a very real -- and very dangerous -- Game of Thrones, and did so from the moment of Henry VIII's death, when she was but fourteen years old.
'The Lady Elizabeth' would be a fine introduction into historical fiction of the Tudor era, and an enjoyable interlude for readers already familiar with the story.
