ELIZABETH I

Richly detailed, George’s historical novel about the final 25 years of Elizabeth I’s reign portrays a queen driven by intelligence and sometimes-misguided stubbornness. Narrator Kate Reading subtly differentiates the novel’s two points of view—that of Elizabeth and that of her out-of-favor cousin, Lettice Knollys. Reading also provides slight characterizations for the many notables interwoven in Elizabeth’s life: William Shakespeare is sharp-witted and languorously sexy; Francis Bacon is unassumingly wise. Reading portrays a queen whose formidable leadership is punctuated in later years by occasional uncertainty about her choice to remain a virgin queen. As Elizabeth ages, and clings to her infamous vanity, she fears that her conquests are overshadowed by her mortality. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2011]