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Elizabeth & Leicester: The Truth about the Virgin Queen and the Man She Loved by Sarah Gristwood
joyejenkins's review against another edition
1.0
I have always loved reading about English history. I guess I had high expectations about this book. It was well researched but so boring. It was a laborious read. I was hoping for .... Just more.
mercipourleslivres's review against another edition
3.0
I ended up skimming the rest of this once I hit the half-way point. While the book was well researched it wasn't very gripping. I wanted to read about Elizabeth and Robin...instead I got the entire socio-political climate of Europe with copious footnotes. Perhaps all these asides served the greater purpose of adding context to their relationship, but I found it dull and a bit of a slog. The author even managed to squelch any intrigue that remained regarding the death of Amy Robsart. Oh well. This was a very well written book, I just wasn't in the mood to devote so much of my time to it.
aradeia's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
5.0
I remember the day I finished this book. I was sitting in a quiet cafeteria on my lunch break. For weeks, I'd taken this book along with me and read a few pages to pass the hour. I made slow and steady progress. And then I arrived at the final few pages. It was almost over, and I hadn't even realized it, because I'd thought there were still a couple more chapters given the length of the appendixes and notes at the end. I remember reading the last lines and feeling so sad to have finished this excellent book at last.
Gristwood's Elizabeth & Leicester was the first nonfiction book I'd read, cover to cover, by my own volition. That's testament to just how readable this book is. Gristwood's writing felt conversational--it pulled me in.
What I appreciated most about this book is how sensible Gristwood's arguments are. Despite the book's sensationalist subtitle ("The Truth About the Virgin Queen and the Man She Loved"), Gristwood doesn't dramatize her subjects or their lives. When it comes to Elizabeth and Leicester, that's a pretty common trap to fall into. Instead, I remember Gristwood's arguments as reasonable and realistic. This is because she recognizes their relationship as a decades-long entanglement that changed over time and circumstance. Makes sense to me. As she says right on page 3: "This is no easy Romeo and Juliet love story." Plenty will always remain unknown about Elizabeth and Leicester. Gristwood writes with that in mind, and does very well presenting sensical and thus convincing arguments based on what we do know, or feel more sure of.
One of my favorite points Gristwood made in this book was how Elizabeth may have had mixed feelings about marrying Robert. In fiction, I feel like I'm often told Elizabeth longed to marry him, but had to let her head rule her heart. Instead, Gristwood takes Elizabeth's insistence on remaining single seriously. Gristwood reminds us that marrying Robert could have been disastrous for Elizabeth personally and politically (if there's a difference to be made there at all) as Elizabeth would have well known. And maybe, Gristwood suggests, when Robert became suspected of murdering his first wife, part of Elizabeth may have actually been relieved. After that, she could never marry him, or else risk ruin. The choice was made for her. I would never have thought of that myself, and it makes a lot of sense to me.
This is a book I'd definitely recommend to anyone interested in learning more about Elizabeth and/or Robert Dudley. This is an excellent, unromanticized account of two fascinating lives.
Gristwood's Elizabeth & Leicester was the first nonfiction book I'd read, cover to cover, by my own volition. That's testament to just how readable this book is. Gristwood's writing felt conversational--it pulled me in.
What I appreciated most about this book is how sensible Gristwood's arguments are. Despite the book's sensationalist subtitle ("The Truth About the Virgin Queen and the Man She Loved"), Gristwood doesn't dramatize her subjects or their lives. When it comes to Elizabeth and Leicester, that's a pretty common trap to fall into. Instead, I remember Gristwood's arguments as reasonable and realistic. This is because she recognizes their relationship as a decades-long entanglement that changed over time and circumstance. Makes sense to me. As she says right on page 3: "This is no easy Romeo and Juliet love story." Plenty will always remain unknown about Elizabeth and Leicester. Gristwood writes with that in mind, and does very well presenting sensical and thus convincing arguments based on what we do know, or feel more sure of.
One of my favorite points Gristwood made in this book was how Elizabeth may have had mixed feelings about marrying Robert. In fiction, I feel like I'm often told Elizabeth longed to marry him, but had to let her head rule her heart. Instead, Gristwood takes Elizabeth's insistence on remaining single seriously. Gristwood reminds us that marrying Robert could have been disastrous for Elizabeth personally and politically (if there's a difference to be made there at all) as Elizabeth would have well known. And maybe, Gristwood suggests, when Robert became suspected of murdering his first wife, part of Elizabeth may have actually been relieved. After that, she could never marry him, or else risk ruin. The choice was made for her. I would never have thought of that myself, and it makes a lot of sense to me.
This is a book I'd definitely recommend to anyone interested in learning more about Elizabeth and/or Robert Dudley. This is an excellent, unromanticized account of two fascinating lives.
cleheny's review
4.0
This is a well-written analysis of Elizabeth's most important emotional relationship, as well as the most enduring one of her lifetime. Gristwood may sometimes give the Dudleys the benefit of the doubt, but she does not appear particularly biased, especially in light of the beating that Leicester's reputation has taken over time. I liked her thesis that Leicester grew apart from Elizabeth over time, and may have been largely content to do so. I wish Gristwood spent more time on the relationships between Elizabeth's councilors, as I felt those sections gave me greater insight into the Elizabethan court.
collegecate's review against another edition
3.0
Slow read, but I finally got down to finishing it. The author manages to give every side of every debate fair hearing while leaving the reader free to decided what is true. Better than the last book I read by her.
allyriadayne's review against another edition
3.0
I've been reading this book for a long time. It was a pretty fast read until it hit the middle and then I lost my place in the book, and then this week I started reading from I place I vaguely remember. Not to say this was bad or anything, just that the subject was not one of my favorites. Elizabeth's reign is not one I'm specially interested so I don't really read much about this time period or her. but this book gave me a good general view of what was happening in England's politics. I mostly picked it up because I was curious about Elizabeth and Robert Dudley's relationship, how it was knowing she was a queen and wouldn't marry just anyone but allowing this man to be that close, maybe for love or companionship.
Sarah Gristeood is a good writer, very sympathetic.
Sarah Gristeood is a good writer, very sympathetic.
librarianonparade's review against another edition
3.0
Elizabeth and Leicester, the Virgin Queen and her 'sweet Robin', are one of the great romances of history, immortalised in history books and Hollywood movies alike. Most people have some awareness of their relationship: the great queen and the man she loved but could never marry; the age-old question of whether the Virgin Queen truly was a virgin and whether she and Leicester were lovers...
Unfortunately much of what is known about their relationship is little more than myth, fabricated over the years to fit the romantic narrative. There's the youthful passion, the drama of the death of Leicester's wife, the on-off-on-off nature of their entanglement, Elizabeth's dangling of foreign marriages, Leicester's covert relationships with other women... No wonder Hollywood loves Elizabeth, enough to make several movies about her and Leicester.
In this book Sarah Gristwood sets out to get to the truth, charting their decades-long relationship whilst cleaving as close as possible to documentary fact. It's a thoroughly enjoyable read, well-written, comprehensive, and with an ever so slightly sentimental style that suits the topic.
However, apart from the enjoyability of the read, as history it concerns me. The author's training as a journalist and not an historian is obvious. The lack of foot or end-notes in this book particularly - I have no problem with history aimed at the lay reader but when an author is writing on a topic as smothered in historical supposition and amorous gauze as Elizabeth and Leicester, the very lack of that academic supporting evidence only weakens the impact. A section on sources and further reading does not quite suffice to make me feel I could rely on this book with any certainty. In large part this book is based on other secondary sources, with little primary material and nothing new in the way of historical research.
Unfortunately much of what is known about their relationship is little more than myth, fabricated over the years to fit the romantic narrative. There's the youthful passion, the drama of the death of Leicester's wife, the on-off-on-off nature of their entanglement, Elizabeth's dangling of foreign marriages, Leicester's covert relationships with other women... No wonder Hollywood loves Elizabeth, enough to make several movies about her and Leicester.
In this book Sarah Gristwood sets out to get to the truth, charting their decades-long relationship whilst cleaving as close as possible to documentary fact. It's a thoroughly enjoyable read, well-written, comprehensive, and with an ever so slightly sentimental style that suits the topic.
However, apart from the enjoyability of the read, as history it concerns me. The author's training as a journalist and not an historian is obvious. The lack of foot or end-notes in this book particularly - I have no problem with history aimed at the lay reader but when an author is writing on a topic as smothered in historical supposition and amorous gauze as Elizabeth and Leicester, the very lack of that academic supporting evidence only weakens the impact. A section on sources and further reading does not quite suffice to make me feel I could rely on this book with any certainty. In large part this book is based on other secondary sources, with little primary material and nothing new in the way of historical research.
sarah2696's review against another edition
5.0
This isn't a love story with a happy ending. After years of having Robert on a string, Elizabeth is left grief stricken by his death whilst England celebrates victory over the Spanish. Alone she grieves and, Gristwood suggests, perhaps regrets not marrying Leicester when she had the chance. Theirs is a classic example of courtly love with the added bonus of the two genuinely seeming to care for one another; Elizabeth's love for Robert and Leicester's undoubted loyalty to his queen something much more than just courtly games to pass the time.
Gristwood states in the afterword that only now can historians question the relationship between Elizabeth and Leicester and not feel that if she were guilty of 'immorality', it would make her any less worthy of rule. What does it matter, really, if Elizabeth had slept with Leicester? What would it change, really? Her lack of commitment to anything suggests she wouldn't have married him anyway and though I remain convinced by the myth of the Virgin Queen, I think it's time that the focus of her relationship with Leicester is on something other than how physical their relationship ever got. Thankfully, this is exactly what Gristwood does, never dwelling too long on the did they or didn't they and instead showing us the relationship between the queen and her principle favourite as one of feeling, love, and loyalty amidst the backdrop of the Elizabethan court.
Gristwood states in the afterword that only now can historians question the relationship between Elizabeth and Leicester and not feel that if she were guilty of 'immorality', it would make her any less worthy of rule. What does it matter, really, if Elizabeth had slept with Leicester? What would it change, really? Her lack of commitment to anything suggests she wouldn't have married him anyway and though I remain convinced by the myth of the Virgin Queen, I think it's time that the focus of her relationship with Leicester is on something other than how physical their relationship ever got. Thankfully, this is exactly what Gristwood does, never dwelling too long on the did they or didn't they and instead showing us the relationship between the queen and her principle favourite as one of feeling, love, and loyalty amidst the backdrop of the Elizabethan court.
briarfairchild's review against another edition
2.0
This was interesting, but Gristwood seems to favour the most unlikely theories and to put forward almost entirely speculative arguments in support of them.