Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart: On the Perils of Marriage
by Anka Muhlstein
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
I relished this double biography of my favourite two historical figures, vastly superior to others I've read.
Ankha Muhlstein's exquisite voice took a couple of short chapters to shape my mind around, but that initial perseverance was more than worth the patience. Like other French born authors, I so admire, her distinct, erudite English, once briefly accustomed to, shines from the pages, a literary treat that retains academic soundness. Her word economy is excellent, her sense of form sublime.
Unlike popular favourites like Lady Antonia Fraser and Alison Weir, who are perhaps more able to ride on past success as they progress through lengthy careers, lesser-known historians must work harder to strike and maintain that delicate balance of high calibre referencing with engaging literary style. Few succeed as well as this writer, as qualified and experienced as the divas but perhaps just less drawn to the spotlight.
The narrative alternates, chapter and verse, between the two queens, dipping randomly into each one's perspective. This makes for an edifying comparison of two starkly contrasting icons who never met, their inextricable lives vividly juxtaposed in perpetual hindsight.
That I have never felt able to side with one queen or the other is perhaps what keeps me intrigued to dig ever deeper into their history. Despite both their personal shortcomings Mary is so irresistibly likeable, Elizabeth so formidably astute. Each became legendary. Both deserve the respect that saw them immortalised in marble, side by side in Westminster Abbey.
A gripping journey all the way (if slow at the outset, the stage is thereby well set, with all background thoroughly fleshed out). The couple of brief editorial mishaps, typos which are not the author's fault, are forgivable in such a magnificent tome.
Loved this masterful piece of storytelling, meticulously detailed and faultlessly accurate, will definitely be tempted to read more of this author's historical biographies whatever the subject.
Seriously impressive.
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