“A Spellbinding Tale of England’s Most Passionate Queen-and the Three Men Whose Destinies Belonged to Her Alone.” “Fast-paced…one of the most fascinating monarchs in history.” “-New York Times Book Review” “A stupendous achievement…a book that captures Queen Elizabeth I completely.” “-Mainstream Historical” Beloved for its stunning storytelling, “Legacy “offers an exquisite portrait of the … “offers an exquisite portrait of the queen who defined an era. Tracing the unlikely path from her tragic childhood to her ruthless confrontations with Mary, Queen of Scots, and capturing in all its glory her brilliant reign as Europe’s most celebrated queen, “Legacy “peels back the layers from a mysterious monarch and satisfies the questions of history.
Winner of the Georgette Heyer Historical Novel Prize and the Betty Trask Award, “Legacy “gives us Elizabeth the woman: proud, passionate, and captivating in her intensity. She inspired men to love her with bewitching devotion, no matter what the cost, but the depth of her love for England required a sacrifice that would haunt her to the grave.
“Full of dramatic twists and turns, not to mention a scintillating central character and colorful supporting cast. Readers will lose themselves for hours in this richly entertaining novel.”
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Over the centuries, many books and essays have been written about Elizabeth I’s life and times. Some of the books are factual, but often read like a college textbook. Other stories dramatize Elizabeth’s life, while remaining true to most of the historical milestones and facts associated with her.
Susan Kay’s book Legacy falls into the latter category. In her life before and leading up to her accession to the throne of England, Elizabeth Tudor sidestepped various plots and intrigues, some of which she almost paid for with her own life. Her origins are equally fascinating, as she could claim Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn as her parents. What child of these two larger-than-life personalities could help but be strong herself, as well as being exceptionally brilliant, cunning, manipulative, vivacious, flirtatious, humble and reverent – all at the same time?
Legacy is a masterpiece in the dramatic retelling of the extraordinary life and times of Elizabeth Tudor. The book begins with Elizabeth housed in the Tower of London, where she has been imprisoned by her sister, Queen Mary, for supposed treasonous offenses to the crown (namely, plotting and aiding radicals who wished to dethrone Mary herself and place Elizabeth in her stead). Elizabeth is in her early twenties in the brief prologue. The fear she feels is the result of knowledge that her mother, Anne Boleyn, had last come to the Tower just before being executed on order of Henry VIII. Then the book jumps to Chapter One, when Elizabeth is not yet three years old. The occasion is the last she will ever see her mother, and the mood is set with premonitions of the coming events. Princess Elizabeth – as she was then – was angry at her father for ignoring her in the gardens at Greenwich Palace, but her mother Anne Boleyn remonstrates that the King had merely not seen her. Elizabeth doesn’t believe her. As her mother moves away with her servants, Elizabeth’s last image of Anne Boleyn is as she is surrounded by the ladies-in-waiting and swept away in a vision of black silk and shadowy silhouettes.
As Elizabeth’s father remarried several times afterward, she was alternately cast aside, bastardized, ostracized, returned to favor, and restored to the succession by the time Henry VIII, died in 1547. Elizabeth lived through both the reigns of her brother, Edward VI, and sister, Queen Mary I, and became Queen in her own right in 1558. Susan Kay’s writing is excellent. It is expressive, but not overly narrative. You can sense the moods of the characters and situations clearly, yet there is always the underlying hint of instability in Elizabeth that I found to be disturbing and disagree with.
I have read the history of Elizabeth many times over. Needless to say I have covered most all of the books written about her, including heavy historical pieces as well as the dramatized versions of Elizabeth’s life. I would agree that Elizabeth may have been mercurial, forceful, high-strung and perhaps a bit brutal, but I find it hard to swallow that she had a serious mental imbalance as Legacy suggests. Ms. Kay not only hints that Elizabeth was on the precipice of insanity, she writes several scenes depicting such. The “hysterical” scenes are the only part of Legacy that I disliked. While the particular scenes were written very well by Susan Kay (and were almost moving in a sense), I wholeheartedly disagree with this predisposed premise of Elizabeth’s character.
It is the only flaw in Legacy by Susan Kay. As this is a minimal point throughout most of the book – except near the end – it is safe to assume that Legacy is a fine read and one you won’t soon forget. For as she mesmerized people in her own lifetime, the retelling of Elizabeth and her story only grows more fascinating and compelling with the passage of time.