Elizabethan challenge

Alright folks, since Tim mentioned that he was thinking about retiring groups that weren't active within a certain period of time, in an effort to get this group going, I'm issuing a challenge.

Read four books about the 16th century this year, and post here about your reading - what you plan to read, what you did read, what your opinion of the books was?

Any takers?

Sounds like an interesting idea.

I'm sure I'll read plenty of books set in the 16th century this year, so am happy to take part. I post all my reviews on this site as well.

John

Excellent!

I'm going to sit down tonight and go through the (large) TBR pile and pick one out to start on.

Does After Elizabeth count? It covers Elizabethan England (albeit the end of the period), but is about the early 17th century.

Sure! After all, everything in the early Jacobean period was still late Elizabethan or heavily influenced by the past, bar the government.

I've settled on 'Think on my words' Exploring Shakespeare's language - new for Chrismas :-)

Easily done! I will probably start with one I have about Jane Boleyn.

What about the early Tudor period? Actually, I'm reading Blood and Roses now. It's history that tells about "one family's struggle and triumph" during the period of the War of the Roses, from Richard II through Henry VI. The Paston family kept a lot of letters, etc. gathered over four generations that gives us many otherwise obscure details about what it was like for an upper middle-class family (if there had been such labels then) during those years.

Anything sixteenth-century was the original premise, but I see no problem with Henry VII - in fact I recently bought a bio of him myself: Henry VII by Chrimes.

Shall we say the "long" sixteenth century (1450-1640)?
:-)

The Pastons are fascinating - I have a couple of versions of their letters too.

I just finished Think On My Words by David Crystal and found it quite fascinating.

The basic premise is that Shakespeare's plays do not need to be dumbed down or "translated" into modern English to make them accessible to students, because the language of Shakespeare is not that different from modern English - not enough different to really cause a problem. Crystal then does a detailed analysis of the points of difference between the English of Shakespeare's time and modern English, with some very interesting statistics, thanks to modern computer analysis of the plays.

I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in the subject. It was very readable. As an added bonus, has a list at the back of "false friends" - words whose meaning has changed radically since the 16th century.

This is a theory I've long subscribed to--but, unfortunately, my students don't seem to agree. This semester, more and more of them were using "No Fear Shakespeare."

This is also my main gripe about the majority of Kenneth Branagh's films. He seems to feel that contemporary audiences need to be smacked over the head in order to understand Shakespeare. He makes all the decisions for them and leaves nothing whatsoever up to the imagination.

My main complaint about Branagh's films is that he doesn't really seem to understand the lines - he just gabbles the words, but none of the subtext gets through.

Agreed; maybe that's because he thinks audiences are too stupid to comprehend a subtext.

Hmmph. If that's so, he has no business to be doing Shakespeare at all.

Reading Authority and Disorder in Tudor Times these days when I am in the mood for reading some non-fiction. Last time I read one of the Cambridge books, I ended up tracking down a big part of its bibliography. And looks like I will do the same again :)

A Year in the Life of Shakespeare is a good read about this time period.

I read that last year, and enjoyed it very much. Lots of interesting things to think about.

I've finished Under the Molehill, a very interesting sequel and revision of the material covered in Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair by John Bossy.

Next up is The Life and Carreer of William Paulet c.1475-1572 by David Loades.

#19 - did he really live to be 97?

I've been reading a lot of Tudor material recnetly, but mostly Henry VIII and the middle Tudors.

Yes, he did - he was famous for living to such a great age. He served under all the Tudor monarchs from Henry VIII to Elizabeth.

Remarkable - one very rarely sees people living to such a great age in the pre-industrial era, except perhaps religious people, who would have lived a life free from some of the stresses and strains of life in the outside world and lived in a more generally mutually supportive atmosphere (a generalisation, no doubt, but I think this is broadly true). I always thought it remarkable that the 2nd and 3rd Dukes of Norfolk lived until their 80s, being at the forefront of turbulent political events.

I've just re-read to the top of the thread and seen that your challenge was books from the 16th century not necessarily Elizabethan. I have recently read Robert Hutchinson's books on Thomas Cromwell and the Last Days of Henry VIII, Chris Skidmore's on Edward VI, the Lost King and in fiction, C J Sansom's Revelation and Alison Weir's Lady Elizabeth (forgot about that while I was typing my message last night) and Garrett Mattingley's Katherine of Aragon. (touchstone for this last taking ages to load). All very good in their own ways, though Hutchinson's style is a little too sensationalist for me at times. I have posted reviews of all these on this site.

John, would that last one happen to be Catherine of Aragon by Garrett Mattingly? (your touchstone goes to a Jean Plaidy novel)

The Garrett Mattingly book looks interesting. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for mentioning it.

I've read that one; it's quite good. I also have his book on the Spanish Armada.

#23 - yes, it is, the touchstone wouldn't link. It's very good, if a little dated in some of its judgements and coverage. Probably time for a more updated assessment of her role, the best recent account is probably the releavnt section in David Starkey's book of the Six Wives.

On the Spanish Armada, I have this more recent book, one of the authors of which is a marine researcher, which makes for a interesting interpretation of the evidence in terms of the recovered cannons and so on.

>25 john257hopper: Is that Armada book related to the TV documentary that was aired some years back? I thought it was absolutely fascinating. Some great stuff about how the English used their knowledge of local currents, and the amazing discovery of a huge cache of King Philip's correspondence being used as toilet paper in a Spanish shop!

#26 - I don't think so, I don't remember the latter detail!

Well, I'd guess you would remember that if it was there - I certainly did! The narrator was the one who made the discovery. It was a fascinating program, evenly balanced between the English and Spanish sides, with a lot of interesting detail that was new to me.

Just finished The Life and Carreer of William Paulet c.1475-1572 by David Loades, and getting on with The Sisters of Henry VIII by Maria Perry, which has been dormant for a while.

(Dunno why the Paulet touchstone won't work.)

Just finished The Sisters of Henry VIII, so completed the challenge just under the wire!

How's everyone else doing?

does reading genuine Elizabethan books count?

Absolutely! Finest kind! :-)