Helpful Score: 9
This follow up to 'The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn' is intriguing, well-written and plausible. Maxwell created a story that is laden with historical detail, enthralling and with characters that really come to life. Well done!
Helpful Score: 5
Fictionalized account of an historical character -- Arthur Dudley, who claimed to be the son of Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley. Maxwell sets up a believable scenario for the child's birth and concealment, but where this novel really shines is in the character study of the queen, and of her lifelong love affair with Dudley.
Helpful Score: 2
Historic fiction advancing the popular theory that the "virgin" Queen Elizabeth gave birth to a son by her long-time lover, Robin Dudley, following a secret pregnancy. Very interesting perspective of how the child was possibly secreted away and raised by a guardian so that even the parents didn't know of his existence.
But once grown, the story of the son's young adulthood as a talented horseman in the army bogs the entire book down for so long you just wish the enemy would kill him!
He eventually becomes a spy and the action turns to Spain where the story picks up again as he falls in love with a Jewish woman masquerading with her family as prominent Catholics. The story is made even more interesting once his father and mother become aware of his existence.
If you love the "royals" of England and read biographies as well as fictional depictions of their lives, this is a great book to explore, just be aware that you may trudge thru the middle of it!
But once grown, the story of the son's young adulthood as a talented horseman in the army bogs the entire book down for so long you just wish the enemy would kill him!
He eventually becomes a spy and the action turns to Spain where the story picks up again as he falls in love with a Jewish woman masquerading with her family as prominent Catholics. The story is made even more interesting once his father and mother become aware of his existence.
If you love the "royals" of England and read biographies as well as fictional depictions of their lives, this is a great book to explore, just be aware that you may trudge thru the middle of it!
Helpful Score: 1
Very interesting, although I find it hard to believe it could really happen.
really great historical novel. could not stop reading
From the back cover:
Historians have long whispered that Elizabeth "the Virgin Queen's" passionate, lifelong affair with Robin Dudley, Earl of Leicester, may have led to the birth of a son, Arthur Dudley. In this exquisite sequel to The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, Robin Maxwell fashions a stunning fictional account of the child switched at birth by a lady-in-waiting who foresaw the deleterious political consequences of a royal bastard.
Set against the sweeping, meticulously rendered backdrop of court intrigues, international scandals, and England's battle against the Spanish Armada, The Queen's Bastard deftly juxtaposes Elizabeth and Leicester's tumultuous relationship with the memoirs of the adventurous son lost to them -- yet ultimately discovered.
Historians have long whispered that Elizabeth "the Virgin Queen's" passionate, lifelong affair with Robin Dudley, Earl of Leicester, may have led to the birth of a son, Arthur Dudley. In this exquisite sequel to The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, Robin Maxwell fashions a stunning fictional account of the child switched at birth by a lady-in-waiting who foresaw the deleterious political consequences of a royal bastard.
Set against the sweeping, meticulously rendered backdrop of court intrigues, international scandals, and England's battle against the Spanish Armada, The Queen's Bastard deftly juxtaposes Elizabeth and Leicester's tumultuous relationship with the memoirs of the adventurous son lost to them -- yet ultimately discovered.
