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The Elizabethans, by A. N. Wilson
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A time of exceptional creativity, wealth creation, and political expansion, the Elizabethan age was also more remarkable than any other for the Technicolor personalities of its leading participants. Apart from the complex character of the Virgin Queen herself, A. N. Wilson's The Elizabethans follows the stories of Francis Drake, a privateer who not only defeated the Spanish Armada but also circumnavigated the globe with a drunken, mutinous crew and without reliable navigational instruments; political intriguers like William Cecil and Francis Walsingham; and Renaissance literary geniuses from Sir Philip Sidney to Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. Most crucially, this was the age when modern Britain was born and established independence from mainland Europe―both in its resistance to Spanish and French incursions and in its declaration of religious liberty from the pope―and laid the foundations for the explosion of British imperial power and eventual American domination. An acknowledged master of the all-encompassing single-volume history, Wilson tells the exhilarating story of the Elizabethan era with all the panoramic sweep of his bestselling The Victorians, and with the wit and iconoclasm that are his trademarks.
- Sales Rank: #1163576 in Books
- Published on: 2012-04-24
- Released on: 2012-04-24
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.17" h x 1.45" w x 6.48" l, 1.56 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 448 pages
From Booklist
A political and cultural surveyor of England’s Elizabethan era, the prolific Wilson, author of three dozen novels and histories, brings erudition and judiciousness to this ever-popular topic. Whether plumbing the mind of the Virgin Queen herself, characterizing her courtiers, or capturing England’s social ferment through the prelates, poets, and buccaneers of the period, Wilson exudes energy that matches the excitement and anxiety Elizabethans felt about their times. How individuals responded to precarious exigencies, such as Elizabeth’s succession and adjurations to adhere to Elizabeth’s official church, elicits Wilson’s incisive imaginings of Elizabethan mentalities in a superstitious and violent age. Hence he dwells on the magus John Dee, recounts draconian methods and instances of justice, and addresses harsh English policies in Ireland, stridently supported by the anti-Irish Edmund Spenser. Yet Spenser also wrote the allegorical Faerie Queene and so embodies for Wilson the difficulties contemporary readers confront in understanding complexities within the Elizabethan mind-set. Viewed through the likes of Marlowe and Shakespeare, Drake and Raleigh, the elements that awe or appall moderns become manifest in Wilson’s supple and fluent synthesis. --Gilbert Taylor
Review
“A scholarly, thorough and yet highly approachable overview of the life and times of Queen Elizabeth I...The Elizabethans is written in a style that moves easily along yet does not shy away from decisive analysis and interpretation.” ―Arthur L. Schwarz, Washington Independent Review of Books
About the Author
A. N. Wilson is an award-winning biographer and a celebrated novelist. He lives in North London.
Most helpful customer reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
The Elizabethans by A.N.Wilson is a long glance through the keyhold of history into the age of Elizabeth I (reigned 1558-1603)
By C. M Mills
This year marks the 60th year jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. She is a great queen and so is her namesake predecessor Elizabeth I (1533-1603). Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn who was beheaded in 1536. A.N. Wilson looks at Elizabeth's long and successful reign through his new 432 page book "The Elizabethans."
The book is divided into four sections and 29 chapters. The sections are: "The Early Reign"; "1570's"; "1580's" and "The Close of the Reign." The chapters resemble essays on a particular subject of Elizabethan Life. Among the topics covered are
a. The conflicts between Church and State and the duel between Roman Catholic Spain and Church of England Great Britain. The threat of the Spanish Armada is dealt with.
b. The lives of great Elizabethans are explored including Sir Francis Drake; Sir Walter Raleigh; Richard Hooker; Phillip Sydney and Essex (the last of her courtiers who was in love with Elizabeth) and Robert Devereaux her dear Robin.
c. Literary life is examined with a great chapter analyzing "Hamlet" and the London Theatre of Elizabeth's time. We learn about Christopher Marlow, Ben Johnson and Thomas Kyd.
d. The Irish situation rife with rebellion against the English is well covered by Wilson.
Wilson's history is well written, witty and will add to your knowledge and appreciation of the importance of the Elizabethan age. It was a time when the modern world was being born in growing secularism, skepticism, urbanism and a growth in British trade and colonial influence across the globe. Elizabeth was well served by wise counselors such as William Cecil and Francis Walsingham. The British Empire (named by Dr. John Dee) was making the little island off the coast of continental Europe into a world power.
The book may be read, with interest, from cover to cover or the reader may pick and choose. The book is an excellent resource for college courses on English history, Shakespeare or the life of Elizabeth I. Highly recommended!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Informative summary of Elizabethan's reign
By R. S. Wilkerson
The Elizabethans can best be described as a series of essays covering significant events and issues of Elizabethan's reign (1558-1603). There is no unifying theme, except chronology. Wilson divides the book into the successive decades and subdivides each decade into chapters covering the most historically significant events or issues. The lack of a unifying theme makes the book a little hard to follow, although each chapter, often quite detailed, is interesting and informative in its own right. It's targeted at a British audience, not an American one. Wilson seems to see himself as something of an iconoclast, trying to reinterpret some of the received wisdom.
Wilson tries to explain how a small island nation became a world leader in exploration, literary arts, colonization, drama, and a number of other key areas, including political theory, showing through his discussion how Elizabeth's era generated such powerful cultural changes and, through those changes, introduced the modern era. I suggest that the book would have been much improved if he had followed this theme throughout rather than trying to cover so much in such a short book.
The religious conflicts of Elizabeth's era are the most frequently discussed topic and might be as close to a unifying theme as Wilson has. In one way or another, the religious conflicts contributed to the other major events and conflicts. It's not a book for someone new to the Elizabethan period. The information and even many of the digressions are certainly informative, but some grounding in the period is useful if only to help the reader keep track of the players, especially when Wilson starts talking about how his interpretation differs from the standard view. He's a good writer and the essays are sound. I gave the book four stars because it provides a good summary of the Elizabethan era and good introductions to its most significant figures.
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Somewhat informative but difficult and scattershot (2.75*s)
By J. Grattan
This moderate length book is not without its insights concerning the Elizabethan period, several of its leading figures, including, of course, Elizabeth, and the principal developments and controversies of the times, but the book is not all that easy to follow, seems rather scattershot, and at times overwhelms with excessive and uneven detail. The author suggests that the Elizabethans had an historical impact that lasted into the 2oth century.
Perhaps the dominant problem of the entire period was brought about by the refusal of Henry VIII to accede to the dictates of the Pope, and thereby forming his own Church of England in the 1530's. From that point, depending on who was king or queen, England was divided into believers or non-believers; the punishments for being on the wrong side were nothing short of cruel. Second, the Irish resented British involvement in their affairs every bit as much as they did in the 20th century and had to be frequently suppressed. At times Elizabeth took a somewhat moderate approach to these "difficulties," but she could also be harsh in her judgments.
The author spends a great deal of time detailing the rising supremacy of the English on the seas, which not only enabled success in colonization, but also in the slave trade and in piracy. The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 confirmed that supremacy. Elizabeth benefited from a succession of able administrators, as well as from more heroic individuals who advanced England's causes on the seas and in battles.
While she was the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth was also a notorious flirt, having several favorites during her reign. It is difficult to say what the exact nature of her relations were with these men, but it is clear that she was extremely unforgiving when they forsook her, moving on to other women. It is clear that Elizabeth was quite sharp, speaking several languages, but she had a noted temper. Anyone crossing her could easily end up rotting in the Tower of London. Or in the case of Mary, Queen of the Scots, be kept under house arrest for years, before being beheaded.
The Elizabethan period was one where writing began to flourish primarily in the form of poetry and plays. Yet authors were subject to the restrictions of the times, especially in regard to religious orthodoxy and in criticism of the current regime. The punishments for violators ranged from fines, presses destroyed, hands cut off, and beheading. The author also finds it worth mentioning that the Elizabethans were inordinately preoccupied with sex, both in their writings and in practice.
The book is not uninformative, but there is no recognizable systematic approach - way too much jumping around in both time and place. And one is inundated with names. Individuals are interchangeably referred to not only by their actual names, but also by their title. And most of them seem to be related in some manner. Charts are needed to keep up with them. Despite all of the place names, not one map is included.
Perhaps the Elizabethans did have multi-century impact, but it seems rather evident that Elizabeth's regime had completely run out of energy by the time of her death in 1603. The book is a tossup as to whether it is more informative or irritating. One suspects that more readable, comprehensive histories exist about the period.
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