Booking It: Elizabeth I

Margaret George does not shy away from historical giants. The Elizabethan period was rich with these giants in politics, literature, philosophy and science. George tackles them all, exploring Raleigh, Shakespeare, Drake, Bacon and more through the eyes of Queen Elizabeth I and her cousin, Lettice Knollys.

This is typical of George’s novels, which include The Memoirs of Cleopatra, The Autobiography of Henry VIII and Mary Called Magdalene. In her latest work, Elizabeth I, she uses two first-person narrators, audaciously trying to get inside the head of an enigmatic monarch and her little-known relative. The novel is bold and it pays off. One of the major strengths of the story is the blending of the personal narratives with the political, a combination made possible by the intimacy of the first-person narration. It quickly becomes evident that although Elizabeth and Lettice perceive each other as rivals, they share many opinions and think in many of the same ways. Yet for the time period spanned by the novel, Lettice is banned from the court that Elizabeth presides over, giving the reader two characters with vastly different perspectives and access to different sets of information.

Upon starting the book, I was a bit disappointed to find that the story began already well into Elizabeth’s reign, skipping over her childhood, the reign of Queen Mary I (better known as Bloody Mary) and Elizabeth’s ascension to power entirely. The building action and climax of the novel focus primarily on the life of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex and England’s long struggle with Spain and Catholicism. It was a smart move to limit the scope of the novel, and George certainly had more than enough material without adding more than explanatory paragraphs concerning Elizabeth’s younger years. Still, including such a formative part of the history of both Elizabeth and England itself could have added a great deal of depth to the character. Elizabeth and Lettice both lament the loss of a time when they were friendlier with each other, but they start the book already embittered, so this loss is not fully felt by the reader. Similarly, Elizabeth has a great deal of affection for a number of her older courtiers, particularly Robert Dudley, that the reader does not necessarily feel or understand because their past relationship is only summarized briefly, if at all. It can also be difficult to keep characters straight when George interchanges the use of last names, first names and titles.

That said, Elizabeth I is an excellent book. George has a particular ability to bring to life these baffling historical giants. Her descriptions provide detail about build, posture, wrinkles, bad habits and fashions, her dialogue gives them voices that make them relatable and real and her plot makes sense of their actions. George draws the parallels between Lettice and Elizabeth beautifully. Their interactions with Robert Devereux are some of the book’s strongest moments. Neither of them are blind to his faults, but both want to forgive each other and believe in Devereux, showing their similarities both in political shrewdness and emotionality. The interplay of these two sides of the women is what makes the novel compelling.

Of course, George takes a fair number of artistic liberties, both in her presumptions of how the women felt on specific matters and in certain cases with actual historical events. Some of these I personally find too fanciful, although to my knowledge everything she included could possibly have happened. In any case, the story needs to be read as historical fiction, not as a perfectly correct recounting of facts. It is ultimately about trying to understand two extraordinary women as people. The fact that they did exist and helped shape history is amazing, but almost secondary to the story. As a novel, the book works wonderfully.

George’s choice to use Lettice Knollys as a narrator for half the book was perhaps the most formative part of the novel. Unlike the title character, few people know her by name and even fewer would be able to give a lengthy account of her life and character. The decision to use her probably sprung, at least in part, from the book’s focus on Devereux, but it was also clever for another reason. It gives a perspective on Elizabeth I’s life that few people would know anything about. Although the reader may well be familiar with the writings of Francis Bacon or the life story of Sir Walter Raleigh, Lettice would almost certainly be new. And she is a wonderful, layered character. She always has her own opinions, she is endlessly planning for herself and her son and she has a complex relationship with Elizabeth that holds tension throughout the novel. George clearly did her research and made several shrewd decisions about what to include in her novel that left us with an incredible story, populated by fantastically complex and fully human characters.