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Elizabeth: The Golden Age by Tasha Alexander
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Elizabeth: The Golden Age (edition 2007)

by Tasha Alexander

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745357,743 (3.59)5
The reign of Queen Elizabeth I was a time of war, passion, and spectacular achievement. Elizabeth: The Golden Age finds Elizabeth facing bloodlust for her throne and familial betrayal. Growing keenly aware of the changing religious and political tides of late sixteenth-century Europe, Elizabeth faces an open challenge from the Spanish King Philip II, who is determined to restore England to Catholicism with his powerful army and dominating armada. Preparing to go to war to defend her empire, Elizabeth struggles to balance ancient royal duties with an unexpected vulnerability: her love for the seafarer Sir Walter Raleigh. But he remains forbidden for a queen who has sworn body and soul to her country. Yet as she charts her course abroad, treachery is the rot behind the glittering royal throne. Her most trusted adviser uncovers an assassination plot that could topple the throne, and the traitors may even include Elizabeth's own cousin Mary Stuart. Based on the sequel to the Academy Award®-winning Elizabeth, Elizabeth: The Golden Age tells the thrilling tale of an era--the story of one woman's crusade to control love, crush enemies, and secure her position as a beloved icon of the Western world.… (more)
Member:Whisper1
Title:Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Authors:Tasha Alexander
Info:It Books (2007), Edition: First Edition, Paperback, 304 pages
Collections:Your library, I Own, To read
Rating:
Tags:TBR, ADDED April 2010, Tudor History, I Own

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Elizabeth: The Golden Age by Tasha Alexander

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A pleasant book. It presented Elizabeth as more emotional and with feelings that we don't normally associate with her. The author does state that it's a very fictional story and not historically accurate. I enjoyed reading it although it's not on my "favourites" list. ( )
  scot2 | Sep 28, 2019 |
I wasn't too impressed with this book. There wasn't a lot to this story which probably isn't surprising since it is a novelization based on the screenplay. The characters of Elizabeth and Raleigh seemed wooden and the inner thoughts attributed to them did not convince me. Then at the end of the book the author admitted that some of the book was not historically accurate. Of course, those were the parts that seemed the most interesting to me.

I think if you've seen the movie you probably wouldn't need to read the book and, having read the book, I'm not really interested in seeing the movie. I suspect that the costuming would be the best part. ( )
  gypsysmom | Aug 9, 2017 |
A word of warning: you need to be careful when representing historic figures – and also when you’re reading them. It is easy to mistake a fictional account of real events for what really happened. But this is only how the author wanted Elizabeth and other figures to appear. While I’m sure she has done her research (I assume so anyway), there is no one alive today who really knows what Elizabeth was thinking or feeling. Just something to keep in the back of your mind when you’re reading this.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age is part of the story of Queen Elizabeth and focuses on the threats of assassination she faced from her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, and her conspirators, from the Spanish king Philip and also on Elizabeth’s love affair with captain and explorer of the new world, Walter Raleigh. I really enjoyed Matthew Reilly’s The Tournament, a fictional imagining of an event from Elizabeth’s childhood, and my aunt, who bought me the book, thought I would enjoy this too.

What I didn’t mention (if you haven’t worked it out already), is that it is a film novelization. Not only do we have Cate Blanchett on the cover, but we also encounter the clumsiness of structure, plot and dialogue that is so often found in other film novelizations. I haven’t read one film novelization done well. You can translate books to movies, but it just doesn’t work the other way. That is true for Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

I would love to read an actual historical novel, based on more than just a movie, about this time in Elizabeth’s life. I have always been fascinated by her, the strong, determined queen of England in the 1600s. She has always seemed so interesting to me. This novelization was just not well done, I felt characterization was poor and the setting inadequately described. You are not describing a time by simply describing what the characters wore in every scene. It takes more than that. There was a little too much ‘show and tell’ in this book for my liking. Such an important figure in history and I felt she was not done justice. There must be other works better written and better representations of the queen as a monarch and as a woman, I would suggest readers interested in this time find those instead! That’s what I’ll be doing. ( )
  crashmyparty | Jun 12, 2014 |
The book is a novelization of the screenplay by the same name. Suffice to say, it was a quick read, short on historical detail - blame the screen play! - as well as taking certain liberties with historical time lines. The story focuses on Elizabeth I's reign when Spain's King Philip II sent the Spanish Armada in a determination to remove the protestant queen from the throne of England and restore England to Catholicism. The movie/book takes some liberties by inserting Sir Walter Raleigh into the battle with the Spanish Armada and probably other shifts in history that I wasn't really paying attention for.

A good, quick, fun read that skims the surface of the relationship between Elizabeth and her cousin Queen Mary of Scotland, religious turmoil of the time period as well as a romantic dalliance with Sir Walter Raleigh. ( )
  lkernagh | Sep 13, 2010 |
If you have seen the movie you will pretty much know how this book will go. This book was adapted from the movie.
Queen Elizabeth I must defend her country from King Philip II of Spain, who wants to convert the world to Catholicism.
She falls in love with a sea pirate by the name of Sir Walter Raleigh. She is betrayed when he falls for one of her courtiers Bess.
Mary Queen of Scotland tries to murder her and is beheaded.
England goes to war with Spain.
Excellent retelling of the story of Queen Elzabeth I. I wish I had read the book first though. ( )
  KathyWoodall | Apr 7, 2008 |
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The reign of Queen Elizabeth I was a time of war, passion, and spectacular achievement. Elizabeth: The Golden Age finds Elizabeth facing bloodlust for her throne and familial betrayal. Growing keenly aware of the changing religious and political tides of late sixteenth-century Europe, Elizabeth faces an open challenge from the Spanish King Philip II, who is determined to restore England to Catholicism with his powerful army and dominating armada. Preparing to go to war to defend her empire, Elizabeth struggles to balance ancient royal duties with an unexpected vulnerability: her love for the seafarer Sir Walter Raleigh. But he remains forbidden for a queen who has sworn body and soul to her country. Yet as she charts her course abroad, treachery is the rot behind the glittering royal throne. Her most trusted adviser uncovers an assassination plot that could topple the throne, and the traitors may even include Elizabeth's own cousin Mary Stuart. Based on the sequel to the Academy Award®-winning Elizabeth, Elizabeth: The Golden Age tells the thrilling tale of an era--the story of one woman's crusade to control love, crush enemies, and secure her position as a beloved icon of the Western world.

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