Title: Mary Stuart
Author: Stefan Zweig
Series: -
Genres: Historical
Publisher: Grasset
Release: March 2004
Source: Paperback
Pages: 406
// Goodreads //
BLURB:
Queen of Scotland and the Isles By Stefan Zweig. Originally published in 1935. Foreword: The clear, the manifest, is self-explanatory but mystery is a spur to creative imagination. Always, therefore, figures and events that are shrouded in mystery demand elucidation and stimulate the ingenuity of the artistic mind Among historical problems that call unceasingly for solution, the tragedy of Mary Stuart ranks as a crucial instance. Surely of all the women who have made their mark in the world, no other has been the theme of so many dramas, novels, biographies, and discussions. Throughout four centuries she has allured poets and tor mented the fancy of men of learning. Still, today, her story has again and again to be retold. Because that which is confused craves for clarity, that which is in darkness strains towards the light. The answers to the riddle of Marys life and character are almost as contradictory as they are manifold.
EXPECTATIONS: Before going
into the book I of course knew about the life of Queen Mary Stuart from school,
various and numerous documentaries and school. So I went into this to deepen my
knowledge about her life.
THE WORLD: The plot in
this book takes place before Mary is born, after, during her entire life and
after her death. The surroundings is 16th century England and France, also
Scotland, and you can totally see how different countries lived in medieval
times well renaissance as well, how different everything in the country was.
CHARACTERS: The book
talks basically about Mary Stuart, how she was, what she did, how she basically
came to be a Queen and I have to tell you that this woman was not blessed to
have an easy life. She basically grew up away from her mother, never knew her
father and became a Queen when she was only 6 days old. I mean can you imagine
this? Since this is a historical book, I have to say that I really like Mary, even
though I think she did made horrible decisions in her life. But let me get into
this more deeply. Mary, to my understanding never truly experienced what love
meant, so she spend her life searching for it and literally lost her head over
it. I don’t really think she understood to her full potential that some of her
actions caused people to be hurt and caused her to lose the crown. To me it
seems that after she comes back to Scotland, from France, she kind of focuses
more on her own life and not the life of her country. She marries a very stupid
and arrogant man, she gets into an affair with another very arrogant man and
eventually has to run away from her own country and she runs away to Spain or
France or where ever but to England, where everyone want her dead! Truly I think she was more of a Queen of Heart that Queen of Mind.
However, I did enjoy reading
about her, about how lively and bubbly she was. How well read and educated she
was. And it’s so strange to actually realize that a lot of historians are
saying that The Tudor dynasty died with Elizabeth but that’s not true actually.
Mary was A Tudor, she was Henry VIII’s grand-niece if I’m not mistaken, she was
his sister’s granddaughter, so technically her son James I who succeeded
Elizabeth was also a Tudor, through his mother’s side. Mind – Blown!!!!
ROMANCE: This book
doesn’t focus on Mary’s love life. We do get to learn about her marriages, her
son, her affairs but really romance is not a big part here.
GOOD: The facts
were interesting
BAD: It was
longer than it should have been.
OVERALL: I would
actually still recommend it for someone if they are interested in Mary Queen of
Scots.
What do you think about MARY STUART?
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