I continue to enjoy these books, however, with this one, I cannot remember the last time that I so deeply loathed practically all it's characters.
This is the story of Elizabeth I's love affair with Robert Dudley her first two years on the throne. While it seems that his love for her is genuine, it is also clear that he intends to acsend to the throne as her husband (except for the little problem that he's already married).
I've always been under the impression that Elizabeth I was a feminist for her day, but in this fictional portrayal I found her to be rather pathetic. She comes across as a smart girl, but more or less a figure head and a pawn between her advisor (Cecil) and Robert Dudley. On top of that, as soon as she begins her affair with Robert she turns into some helpless, lovesick teenager, reminiscent of a cheerleader on prom night too weak to tell her date to wear a condom.
Robert Dudley is disgustingly arrogant and self-entitled. A complete Lothario, I found his arrogance toward his affect on women to be nothing short over-compensating. I respected Elizabeth I's intelligence far less for falling for his conceit and even worse for continually putting up with his outlandish demands.
Dudley's wife, Amy, is a horribly sad (yet more than likely, accurate) depiction of women in that time. Marrying young for love, it's clear that they did not think through the fact that Dudley was an ambitious courtier and she was contented to stay in the country. She was emotionally dependent on her husband to an impossible degree. Aside from not understanding his state of sexual affairs, in complete denial of the vast differences between their tastes for life. I wouldn't call her a pathetic character, but she was too clueless for her own good. And I must say that almost every time she came to the page I wanted to bitch-slap her across the face and knock some sense into her.
Despite all of my character attacks, it was a good read with an interesting plot. While I did not like any of the characters as people, they served their purpose for a calculating story. However, I felt that each character had a great deal at stake and the ending seemed a bit quick and poorly formed in comparison to the rest of the plot's richness.
Grade: C+
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