Elizabeth I: A Novel

by Margaret George Narrated by Kate Reading

Overview

The New York Times bestseller from Margaret George-a captivating novel about history's most enthralling queen, the legendary Elizabeth Tudor.

England's greatest monarch has baffled and intrigued the world for centuries. But what was the Virgin Queen really like? Lettice Knollys-Elizabeth's flame-haired, look-alike coussin-thinks she knows all too well. Elizabeth's rival for the love of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and mother to the Earl of Essex, the mercurial nobleman who challenged Elizabeth's throne, Lettice has been intertwined with Elizabeth since childhood.*

This is a story of two women of fierce intellect and desire, one trying to protect her country, and throne, the other trying to regain power and position for her family. Their rivalry, and its ensuing drama, soon involves everyone close to Elizabeth, from the famed courtiers who enriched the crown to the legendary poets and playwrights who paid homage to it with their works.*

Filled with intimate portraits of the personalities who made the Elizabethan age great-Shakespeare, Marlowe, Dudley, Raleigh, Drake-Elizabeth I provides an unforgettable glimpse of a woman who considered herself married to her people. A queen who ruled as much from the heart as from the head.

Editorial Reviews

JULY 2011 - AudioFile

Richly detailed, George’s historical novel about the final 25 years of Elizabeth I’s reign portrays a queen driven by intelligence and sometimes-misguided stubbornness. Narrator Kate Reading subtly differentiates the novel’s two points of view—that of Elizabeth and that of her out-of-favor cousin, Lettice Knollys. Reading also provides slight characterizations for the many notables interwoven in Elizabeth’s life: William Shakespeare is sharp-witted and languorously sexy; Francis Bacon is unassumingly wise. Reading portrays a queen whose formidable leadership is punctuated in later years by occasional uncertainty about her choice to remain a virgin queen. As Elizabeth ages, and clings to her infamous vanity, she fears that her conquests are overshadowed by her mortality. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Library Journal

George has fictionalized Henry VIII and Mary, Queen of Scots, with breathtakingly detailed success, so why not Elizabeth? This re-creation of the queen and her era is told from the perspective of her lookalike cousin Lettice Knollys, who's also in love with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Fans of historicals will love; with an eight-city tour.

JULY 2011 - AudioFile

Richly detailed, George’s historical novel about the final 25 years of Elizabeth I’s reign portrays a queen driven by intelligence and sometimes-misguided stubbornness. Narrator Kate Reading subtly differentiates the novel’s two points of view—that of Elizabeth and that of her out-of-favor cousin, Lettice Knollys. Reading also provides slight characterizations for the many notables interwoven in Elizabeth’s life: William Shakespeare is sharp-witted and languorously sexy; Francis Bacon is unassumingly wise. Reading portrays a queen whose formidable leadership is punctuated in later years by occasional uncertainty about her choice to remain a virgin queen. As Elizabeth ages, and clings to her infamous vanity, she fears that her conquests are overshadowed by her mortality. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169296495
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	04/05/2011
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	911,612

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