
England's Elizabeth
An Afterlife in Fame and Fantasy
Michael Dobson(Author)
Oxford University Press
Published on 1. February 2003
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-0-19-818377-8 (ISBN)
Description
No monarch is more glamorous or more controversial than Elizabeth I. The stories by which successive generations have sought to extol, explain, or excoriate Elizabeth supply a rich index to the cultural history of English nationalism - whether they represent her as Anne Boleyn's suffering orphan or as the implacable nemesis of Mary, Queen of Scots, as learned stateswoman or as frustrated lover, persecuted princess or triumphant warrior queen. This book examines the many afterlives the Virgin Queen has lived in drama, poetry, fiction, painting, propaganda, and the cinema over the four centuries since her death, from the aspiringly epic to the frankly kitsch. Exploring the Elizabeths of Shakespeare and Spenser, of Sophia Lee and Sir Walter Scott, of Bette Davis and of Glenda Jackson, of Shakespeare in Love and Blackadder II, this is a lively, lavishly-illustrated investigation of England's perennial fascination with a queen who is still engaged in a posthumous progress through the collective pysche of her country.
Reviews / Votes
The authors of this work have handled most of the disparate mass of information with skill. American Historical Review ... the pictures wonderfully illustrate her incarnations. England's Elizabeth dazzles. The Independent magazine Their book is an excellent example of a distinctly modern (indeed post modern) genre of biographical writing Dobson and Watson are balanced and incisive Jonathan Bate The Sunday Telegraph England's Elizabeth is a scholarly, wide-ranging, lively and often witty book that will be read long after this quatercentenary year, which has provided its occasion, has passed. Anne Barton, Guardian Unlimited a compelling book, energetically and often wittily written, and drawing on a wide range of media History Today The presentation's most revealing movements range well beyond the field of Renaissance studies, endowing the book with an unusually broad appeal. Sixteenth-Century JournalMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Illustrations
8pp colour plates and numerous halftones
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
647 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-818377-8 (9780198183778)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
11/2002
1st Edition
Oxford University Press
€40.47
Available for download
Persons
Content
List of Illustrations; Chronology; Introduction: The Queen is Dead, Long Live the Queen; 1. Gloriana Revives; 2. The Private Lives of the Virgin Queen; 3. Good Queen Bess and Merrie England; 4. The Faery Queen and Victorian Values; 5. An Empress and her Adventurers; 6. Elizabeth Modernized; Afterword: Virginia in the New World; Notes; Index