Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Another book on the Tudors?

THE TUDORS: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty by G.J. Meyer, 2010.
An excellently written, fresh look at the five monarchs of England known as the Tudors. In a single volume, the author provides an enlightening, myth-debunking, enthralling narrative that covers all the Tudors from the founder of the dynasty, Henry VII, to the last of them, the glorious Elizabeth I. Great description but not so overloaded with detail that the reader gets bogged down, Meyer makes good use of his sources and recent scholarship on this era of English history. All the sinners and saints, statesmen, lovers, victims, the wives of Henry VIII, the Lady Jane Grey episode, Mary I's fatal Spanish marriage, the boy king Edward who wanted a second Protestant Reformation in England--it's all here and done up in very readable and entertaining style. One complaint I read recently was that the author presents too many bad (negative) aspects of these monarchs; I disagree, his goal is to de-romanticize them and make them more human. There were also complaints of events/issues/important figures being left out, but honestly, it's a survey type book, and some things have to be left out. The subtitle is misleading in that sense. I found the book well worth reading, and I would recommend it even for Tudor addicts who think they know all there is to know about them, and even though the length (600+ pages) could be off-putting, I would recommend it to anyone who wants a good general introduction to the Tudors, their lives, and that period of English history.

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