Charles II : his life and likeness

This biography of Charles II was published in 1960 but has the feel of a book decades older. This could be attributed to the style of the hardcover, the look of the dust jacket, the black-and-white photographs of portraits, or the writing style itself. Nevertheless, it is a very readable book, telling the story of Charles' life from the death of Charles I to the death of Charles II with plenty of anecdotes and historical context where warranted, with a smattering of explanatory footnotes and a generous amount of narrative asides.

At some points the book could be considered excessive in its praise of Charles' tolerance and open-mindedness, or that could just be me wondering how such a tolerant, open-minded person could have actually show more existed in the world of the Restoration. The part of the book that deals with the struggles between the Whigs and the Tories makes worrisome reading, especially with regard to the unabashed zeal with which the Whigs declared war on Catholic conspiracies real or imagined.

The bibliography consists of "selected sources" in which the author lists which of the over 60 books he read on his subject were most useful to him in completing his own book. The footnotes that exist in the book are used more for explanation than citing sources, but Pearson does not make up conversations between the various historical figures in the book. The quotes used in the book appear to have been taken directly from the primary sources, which are mentioned whenever a quote is used (e.g. "Charles wrote to his sister about the issue, stating that…")

On the whole, this is a good biography of Charles II, and now I want to read more about his successors, especially Queen Anne. show less