The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (Penguin Classics)
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Witty assessment of post-Civil War industry and politics. A classic.
  • "For men are subject to their own impulses as soon as they have parted company with reason"
  • Let's Do A Deal
  • Greed
  • A Tale of Today
The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (Penguin Classics)
Mark Twain , and Charles Dudley Warner
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Twain, MarkTwain, Mark | Classics | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
19th Century19th Century | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
19th Century19th Century | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ClassicsClassics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Twain, Mark | ( T ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
PaperbackPaperback | Twain, Mark | ( T ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:
  1. The Financier The Financier
  2. The Incorporation of America [25th Anniversary Edition]: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age The Incorporation of America [25th Anniversary Edition]: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age
  3. America in the Gilded Age: Third Edition America in the Gilded Age: Third Edition
  4. The Innocents Abroad: or, The New Pilgrims' Progress (Modern Library Classics) The Innocents Abroad: or, The New Pilgrims' Progress (Modern Library Classics)
  5. New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865-1905 New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865-1905

ASIN: 014043920X
Release Date: 2001-08-28

Book Description

First published in 1873, The Gilded Age is both a biting satire and a revealing portrait of post-Civil War America-an age of corruption when crooked land speculators, ruthless bankers, and dishonest politicians voraciously took advantage of the nation's peacetime optimism. With his characteristic wit and perception, Mark Twain and his collaborator, Charles Dudley Warner, attack the greed, lust, and naivete of their own time in a work which endures as a valuable social document and one of America's most important satirical novels.

Download Description

The elders of the party were not long in discovering the fact, which almost all travelers to the west soon find out; that the water was poor. It must have been by a lucky premonition of this that they all had brandy flasks with which to qualify the water of the country; and it was no doubt from an uneasy feeling of the danger of being poisoned that they kept experimenting, mixing a little of the dangerous and changing fluid, as they passed along.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Witty assessment of post-Civil War industry and politics. A classic........2007-06-14

Witty, engaging and expertly crafted, The Gilded Age reveals Twain's and Warner's cynicism of American business practices (rampant, unrestrained speculation) and Washington politics post-Civil War. For the most part, the main characters are rather flawed. The sometimes loathsome sometimes loveable Col. Eschol Sellers is a well-meaning huckster. Many of the figures on the periphery are out-and-out crooks, dishonest, slimy sorts that would do or say anything for a buck. The only winner in the end is Philip Sterling, the only character willing to work hard to make an honest fortune.

Some critics have said that this book was Twain's answer to Ben Franklin's elevation of the so-called Protestant work ethic and something of a critique of American capitalism. That conclusion, in my view, is misguided. While Twain's and Warner's contempt of corruption and dishonest business dealings is glaringly obvious from the way the stories are told, they quite as obviously seem to honor those who truly earned their fortunes or made something of themselves by honest, productive effort. Sterling is an example of that. That is the essence of the Protestant work ethic.

Social commentary aside, like Twain's other work, The Gilded Age is terribly funny. About every other page, one of his brilliant witicisms will make you laugh out loud, a situation that can be a bit awkward when reading the book in public.

4 out of 5 stars "For men are subject to their own impulses as soon as they have parted company with reason".......2006-10-09

Literary legend has it that Twain and Warner's wives had prompted these two authors to work together on The Gilded Age. Some versions of the story have it a dinner party challenge-- where the two men were dared to work together in order to produce a novel better than the popular fiction that their wives were reading. Whatever the true cause, it is an interesting experiment. The Gilded Age is a book worth reading, particularly if you are interested in the history or the popular novels of the 1870s.

The story follows the fortune of the good but silly Hawkins family and their children, both biological and adopted. The Hawkins family is chiefly concerned with the idea of making their fortune, and invest a huge amount of hope and trust in their twin poles of "the Tennesee Land" and the schemes of their family friend, Colonel Beriah Sellers.

The plot is extremely melodramatic, much in keeping with popular fiction of the day. Hidden identities, lost parents, ruined women and handsome cads populate the storyline. Mixed in with this is the classic Twain "pen warmed up in Hell"-- he takes on the corruption of the era, pointing his venom at Congress, the railroad, and at the "reconstruction efforts" theoretically designed to improve conditions in the south while actually being little more then efforts to line pockets, thinly disguised.

It is occasionally an uneven ride. The melodramatic plot and characters are often a very odd fit with the vicious,dry and funny commentary that is made about corruption and public morals. I think it is more enjoyable if you have had exposure to contemporary writers such as Mary Jane Holmes. I kept thinking of this as The English Orphans on crack to try to keep the context in mind.

Despite the uneven quality, I really enjoyed the book. The political commentary may miss on some of the specific scandals, but the general points should still be pointy enough to make current politicians wince. And, like most Twain efforts (even a co-authored book like this one) it is often riotously funny.

The introduction to the Penguin edition claims that the Gilded Age will never be forgotten for three reasons:

-- its association with Mark Twain
-- the accomplishment of having given a title to a political era
-- its status as a shockingly accurate mirror of period corruption

I will not argue with that analysis.

Highly recommmended. Kudos to the Penguin Classic edition for the genuinely helpful introduction by Louis J. Budd and the useful notes and appendices at the back of the book.

4 out of 5 stars Let's Do A Deal.......2004-05-25

"The Gilded Age" is a story of corruption and get-rich-quick schemes in the USA after the Civil War. The fulcrum of the book is the Hawkins family, and in particular Laura - a Washington lobbyist whose personal life is deeply flawed. But beyond the Hawkins family, Twain and Warner introduce a cast of characters all of whom have a stake in the expanding US economy (through more or less shady dealing) or in the deep corruption of the political system. It is as if the whole economy was one great poker game, with most of the players cheating shamelessly.

At times "The Gilded Age" is a very uneven novel, perhaps to be expected in a collaborative work. The early chapters especially have a very disjointed feel: time and location leap about too much, the narrative creaks. It was as if the authors had not yet sorted out who the main characters were to be, nor where the majority of the action was to take place. Indeed, as the novel develops, the main scene changes from the mid-West to Washington DC. Once this shift has taken place, the novel becomes more settled, with more scope for satire and character development.

How effective is the novel? Well, many of the references and allusions have lost their impact due to the passage of time, and the limitations of the collaborative nature of the book (as mentioned above) limit rather than help. I prefer Gore Vidal's "American Saga" novels, but in its favour "The Gilded Age" (perhaps due to its proximity to events) does have a feel of authenticity, and does provide another warning that pursuit of money and personal gain to the exclusion of other societal values is highly damaging.

G Rodgers

4 out of 5 stars Greed.......2004-02-18

The post-Civil War years were a time of rapid industrialization in America, aided and abetted by burgeoning plans to build a transcontinental railroad. Many people saw an opportunity to get a piece of the action, to speculate with family savings, the little that there were, in hopes of making millions of dollars in return. Investing in coal mining was one example. It is against this background that _The Gilded Age_ takes place.

Many in Congress saw an opportunity to support various projects that were supposedly for the public good, e.g. building a university for the newly freed slaves upon land, located in Tenneesee, bequeathed by a family patriarch to his children. These schemes were also meant to line many people's pockets. The novel's Senator Dilworthy supports various liberal causes and "family values," i.e. Sunday school education, but is also thoroughly corrupt.

_The Gilded Age_ is meant to be a morality tale where everyone receives his just deserts: the evil or those just plain greedy are punished, including a vengence seeking young woman deeply wronged by her married lover, and the good and the conscientious are rewarded. While the book occasionally gets bogged down in the scandalous details of this young woman's love life, _The Gilded Age_ is often an interesting, lively and educational glance into the manners of 1870s America.

5 out of 5 stars A Tale of Today.......2001-07-17

The literary criticism you can get from the Oxford edition (check your local library); the commentary is thorough (which parts did Twain write? which parts Warner?) and informative. My reasons for recommending this book have nothing to do with its literary value (spotty) and everything to do with its subtitle. Every now and then an old book teaches us that much of what we take to be modern and sophisticated is truly old hat. One of the best descriptions of the Cold War was written by Thucydides, and one of the best depictions of the go go dot.com economy was written by Twain. Substitute web sites for depots and bandwidth for rails and the conversations in this book could have been overhead on cel phones in San Jose. IPO's and bubbles are not twenty-first century innovations: as Twain shows us,it may be possible to get rich from hard work, but it's more tempting to get rich by looting the pockets of the uninformed. Senator Dilworthy's dedication to pork evokes Byrd, and we learn lecherous behavior in Congress didn't start with Condit. An entertaining validation of Ecclesiates: there truly is nothing new under the sun.
My Summer in a Garden (Modern Library Gardening)
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Not Your Usual Garden Book
  • Behold the onion....
  • Only read Warner
  • Philosopher's Garden
My Summer in a Garden (Modern Library Gardening)
Charles Dudley Warner
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

EssaysEssays | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Home & Garden BooksLook Inside Home & Garden Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:
  1. We Made a Garden (Royal Horticultural Society Classic Garden Writers) We Made a Garden (Royal Horticultural Society Classic Garden Writers)
  2. The Gardener's Bed-Book: Short and Long Pieces to Be Read in Bed by Those Who Love Green Growing Things (Modern Library Gardening) The Gardener's Bed-Book: Short and Long Pieces to Be Read in Bed by Those Who Love Green Growing Things (Modern Library Gardening)
  3. Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden (Modern Library Gardening) Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden (Modern Library Gardening)
  4. The Gardener's Year The Gardener's Year
  5. In the Land of the Blue Poppies: The Collected Plant-Hunting Writings of Frank Kingdon Ward (Modern Library Gardening) In the Land of the Blue Poppies: The Collected Plant-Hunting Writings of Frank Kingdon Ward (Modern Library Gardening)

ASIN: 0375759468
Release Date: 2002-02-19

Book Description

Oft quoted but seldom credited,Charles Dudley Warner’s My Summer in a Garden is a classic of American garden writing and was a seminal early work in the then fledgling genre of American nature writing. Warner—prominent in his day as a writer and newspaper editor—was a dedicated amateur gardener who shared with Mark Twain, his close friend and neighbor, a sense of humor that remains deliciously fresh today.

In monthly dispatches, Warner chronicles his travails in the garden, where he and his cat, Calvin, seek to ward off a stream of interlopers, from the neighbors’ huge-hoofed cows and thieving children, to the reviled, though “propagatious,” pusley weed. To read Warner is to join him on his rounds of his beloved vegetable patch, to feel the sun on his sore back, the hoe in his blistered hands, and yet, like him, never to lose sight of “the philosophical implications of contact with the earth, and companionship with gently growing things.”

This Modern Library edition is published with an extensive new Introduction by Allan Gurganus, author of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All and The Practical Heart.

Download Description

The love of dirt is among the earliest of passions, as it is the latest. Mud-pies gratify one of our first and best instincts. So long as we are dirty, we are pure. Fondness for the ground comes back to a man after he has run the round of pleasure and business, eaten dirt, and sown wild-oats, drifted about the world, and taken the wind of all its moods.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Not Your Usual Garden Book.......2004-05-13

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN is a slim volume in a series of neglected gardening classics being reprinted by Modern Library, however, to suggest the subject of the book is limited to gardening is to do it a great disservice. In the guise of a week-by-week account of one summer in his garden Charles Dudley Warner waxes philosophical on religion, society, animals, schoolboys, hunters and neighbors as well as plants. Its style will feel familiar to readers of the later literary garden-musings of E.B. White and Elizabeth Von Arnim. Although Warner died in 1900 his language is remarkably fresh and the complaints and joys of gardening familiar. The side comments on women's suffrage only remind one with surprise that in spite of the similarities he was living in a very different time.

I found the book when tracking down the following Warner quote, "Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently!" and in reading the book discovered other gems such as, "Nothing shows one who his friends are, like prosperity and ripe fruit. I had a good friend in the country, whom I almost never visited except in cherry-time. By your fruits you shall know them." It is the gentle humor and subtle wisdom of his observations that elevate Warner's book above the ordinary. Being, at present, a city dweller transplanted from childhood gardens, I found reading the book a great comfort.

4 out of 5 stars Behold the onion...........2002-05-18

Charles Dudley Warner appears to have lived an enviable life. He was educated when most men did not have an opportunity to become educated. He was editor and publisher of the 'Hartford Courant' and lived in Hartford next door to Samuel Clements. Warner was not only a neighbor but a good friend of Mark Twain with whom he co-authored THE GILDED AGE, and with whom he seems to have shared a sense of humor. Warner's writing is insightful and funny, but not always politically correct according to 21st Century U.S. standards. Allen Gurganus introduces the book with an overly long essay.

In MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN Warner shares 19 weeks of life in his garden (one growing season). His garden is located in Hartford at the edge of a game preserve. During the course of the summer, President Grant is in Hartford and stops by for a visit. As the men sit in Warner's yard, Grant says he can hardly wait to retire to his own garden as he is fed up with politics. Warner has been fighting pusley in his garden and he and Grant discuss the advantage of inviting immigrants who eat pusley and would soon rid the country of both problems.

Warner has various encounters with: hunters tracking quail who stray from the game preserve, one of whom claims he is looking for a lost chicken; small boys who eat berries from his vines and gather nuts from his trees; birds who attack his pea pods, the neighbor's hens who range too freely until he is looking for one to fill a pot; and the owner of a cow pastured in his yard. In spite of drought, theft, and green worms, at the end of the summer Warner is able to put aside enough vegetables to feel he has accomplished something and then his wife Polly takes credit for the work.

Of interest to me is that more than 100 years after Warner published his book, U.S. gardeners can still complain about some of the same things Warner complained about--and more. Most gardeners know that the U.S. has been infested with a whole array of pests and diseases that were not around when Warner gardened. For example, three new plagues including the Varroa mite have attacked American honey bees since the 1980s. Partly these attacks are owing to the introduction of containerized shipments that cannot be inspected and may hold verboten materials (plants, animals, insects). Partly these problems are owing to flagrant violations by individuals who believe U.S. laws concerning the transport of "foreign" plants do not apply to them. Warner's worries about green worms in his celery, witch grass in his potato hills, and pulsey seem mild in comparison.

5 out of 5 stars Only read Warner.......2002-03-13

I was intrigued by the title and sold by the exerpt. Charles Dudley Warner is fun. But skip the opening 30 pages or so. It's not that the other gentlemen don't write well, but they're not exactly fun. Besides, I didn't buy it to read a discussion of his more boring, 'professional' work in all those pages numbered with tiny Roman numerals. So go directly to Warner's first essay (which is the exerpt) on page 11.

5 out of 5 stars Philosopher's Garden.......2001-08-02

Nicely written and witty book about the pleasures of gardening and its relationship to other aspects of life.
My Summer in a Garden [EasyRead Comfort Edition]
Average customer rating: Not rated
    My Summer in a Garden [EasyRead Comfort Edition]
    Charles Dudley Warner
    Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

    GeneralGeneral | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
    Biographies & MemoirsBiographies & Memoirs | Large Print | Formats | Books
    Font Size 13Font Size 13 | Alternative Formats | Formats | Books
    ASIN: 142500637X
    Release Date: 2006-10-01

    Product Description

    A wonderful book by Warner that showcases his love of nature. He shares his experiences that he enjoyed living close to nature for 19 weeks. The focal point is his garden where several famous people visited him including the American president Ulysses Simpson Grant. The book contains vibrant descriptions of flora and fauna as well as the author\'s views on life and other issues. Riveting!
    Washington Irving
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Washington Irving
      Charles Dudley Warner
      Manufacturer: Hard Press
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback
      ASIN: 1406928224
      Release Date: 2006-11-03
      My Summer in a Garden [EasyRead Edition]
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        My Summer in a Garden [EasyRead Edition]
        Charles Dudley Warner
        Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback

        GeneralGeneral | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
        Biographies & MemoirsBiographies & Memoirs | Large Print | Formats | Books
        Font Size 11Font Size 11 | Alternative Formats | Formats | Books
        GeneralGeneral | Biographies & Memoirs | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
        All 4-for-3 DealsAll 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
        ASIN: 1425001998
        Release Date: 2006-10-01

        Product Description

        A wonderful book by Warner that showcases his love of nature. He shares his experiences that he enjoyed living close to nature for 19 weeks. The focal point is his garden where several famous people visited him including the American president Ulysses Simpson Grant. The book contains vibrant descriptions of flora and fauna as well as the author\'s views on life and other issues. Riveting!
        The People for Whom Shakespeare Wrote
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          The People for Whom Shakespeare Wrote
          Charles Dudley Warner
          Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Paperback

          GeneralGeneral | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | Classics | Comic | Contemporary | Literary
          All Amazon UpgradeAll Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
          Literature & FictionLiterature & Fiction | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
          Historical FictionHistorical Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Historical Reproductions | Formats | Books
          ASIN: 1402178514
          Release Date: 2001-02-19

          Product Description

          This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1897 edition by Harper & Brothers, London and New York.

          Download Description

          The question is often asked, but I consider it an idle one, whether Shakespeare was appreciated in his own day as he is now. That the age, was unable to separate him from itself, and see his great stature, is probable; that it enjoyed him with a sympathy to which we are strangers there is no doubt.
          Being A Boy
          Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
          • Charming
          • One of the greatest books ever written
          Being A Boy
          Charles Dudley Warner
          Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Paperback

          GeneralGeneral | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
          FictionFiction | Boys & Men | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
          ASIN: 1419109537

          Book Description

          One of the best things in the world to be is a boy; it requires no experience, though it needs some practice to be a good one. The disadvantage of the position is that it does not last long enough; it is soon over; just as you get used to being a boy, you have to be something else, with a good deal more work to do and not half so much fun.

          Download Description

          One of the best things in the world to be is a boy; it requires no experience, though it needs some practice to be a good one. The disadvantage of the position is that it does not last long enough; it is soon over; just as you get used to being a boy, you have to be something else, with a good deal more work to do and not half so much fun.

          Customer Reviews:

          5 out of 5 stars Charming.......2004-09-01

          Charles Dudley Warner (1829-1900) is largely forgotten today, remembered for his coauthoring of The Gilded Age with Mark Twain, if at all. However, if you have heard the axiom that, "Politics makes strange bed-fellows," then you have heard of Mr. Warner, for it comes from his remarkable book, My Summer in a Garden.

          In this book, Mr. Warner reminisces about childhood in rural New England. With a charming sense of nostalgia, the author tells of a young boy's hopes and dreams, his hard work, his hard play and his easy loafing, his delicious triumphs and his shameful mishaps. Overall, I found this to be a wonderfully charming look at being young during a bygone day and age, and of being young even today. I loved this book and highly recommend it to you.

          5 out of 5 stars One of the greatest books ever written.......2000-01-22

          This book is a wonderful read; simple yet complex at the same time. It is an indepth look at exactly what it's like growing up as a young man, full of first experiances. His views of society are insightful yet subtle as they are interjected periodically in the middle of a story. I could'nt help but feel a strong connection with the author. It's like his experiances back then are the same we face today. A delightful book, and a must read for any young man. Get a hold of this book any way you can!
          The adventures of Colonel Sellers,: Being Mark Twain's share of The gilded age [1st ed., 1st issue] a novel which he wrote with Charles Dudley Warner
          Average customer rating: Not rated
            The adventures of Colonel Sellers,: Being Mark Twain's share of The gilded age [1st ed., 1st issue] a novel which he wrote with Charles Dudley Warner
            Mark Twain
            Manufacturer: DoubleDay
            ProductGroup: Book
            Binding: Unknown Binding
            ASIN: B0007DTJEI
            The American Italy (Our Italy)
            Average customer rating: Not rated
              The American Italy (Our Italy)
              Charles Dudley Warner
              Manufacturer: McIlwaine & co
              ProductGroup: Book
              Binding: Unknown Binding

              HistoryHistory | Subjects | Books | Africa | Americas | Ancient | Arctic & Antarctica | Asia | Audiobooks | Australia & Oceania | Europe | Gay & Lesbian | Historical Study | Large Print | Middle East | Military | Military Science | Russia | United States | World
              GeneralGeneral | Italy | Europe | Travel | Subjects | Books
              ASIN: B00086VINY
              American Men of Letters: Edgar Allan Poe
              Average customer rating: Not rated
                American Men of Letters: Edgar Allan Poe
                Charles Dudley Warner
                Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
                ProductGroup: Book
                Binding: Hardcover
                ASIN: B000JK7DM4

                Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart
                Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
                • Lots of information; leaves you to make up your own mind.
                • Another Marian Apologist
                • Mary as never seen before - an excellent account!
                • Mary's Heart and Mary's Head
                • The New Woman, indeed!
                Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart
                John Guy
                Manufacturer: Mariner Books
                ProductGroup: Book
                Binding: Paperback

                GeneralGeneral | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
                GeneralGeneral | British | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
                GeneralGeneral | Royalty | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
                WomenWomen | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
                ScotlandScotland | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
                GeneralGeneral | England | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
                Tudor & StuartTudor & Stuart | England | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
                GeneralGeneral | World | History | Subjects | Books
                Look Inside History BooksLook Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
                Similar Items:
                1. Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens
                2. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn
                3. Mary Queen of Scots Mary Queen of Scots
                4. Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley
                5. The Life of Elizabeth I The Life of Elizabeth I

                ASIN: 0618619178

                Book Description

                In the first full-scale biography of Mary Stuart in more than thirty years, John Guy creates an intimate, gripping portrait of one of history's greatest women and depicts her world and her place in the sweep of history with stunning immediacy. Bringing together all surviving documents and uncovering a trove of new sources for the first time, Guy dispels the popular image of Mary Queen of Scots as a romantic leading ladyachieving her ends through feminine wiles and establishes her as the intellectual and political equal of Elizabeth I. Through Guy's pioneering research and "fabulously readable" prose, we come to see Mary as a skillful diplomat, maneuvering ingeniously among a dizzying array of factions that sought to control or dethrone her. An enthralling, myth-shattering look at a complex woman and ruler and her time, Queen of Scots "reads like Shakespearean drama, with all the delicious plotting and fresh writing to go with it" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

                Customer Reviews:

                4 out of 5 stars Lots of information; leaves you to make up your own mind........2007-06-25

                Guy's life of Mary Queen of Scots is written in a "Just the facts, ma'am" spirit that, while not slaking my thirst for a more judgmental approach, did allow me to form my own.



                The predominant tone is one of a knight gallant leaping to Mary's defense, such as in the lengths to which he goes to prove that the documents incriminating Mary in her 2nd husband Darnley's murder were forged, but to his credit he doesn't skirt over the unsavory details of her life, and in fact adds to them. But I must say, it is time for historians to discard the objective approach of the 20th century and let their belief in the supernatural once again reign, as we are once again entering supernatural times ( they all have been, really, but the devil's greatest trick -- you know the rest ).



                The six-foot, redheaded Mary -- too bad Nicole Kidman didn't play this part -- was thought by almost everyone in her time to be a "witch." I'm tired of this kind of accusation being glossed over as a mere superstition of the past, that feminist theory has rendered forever outmoded. Is it perhaps the heathen present and not the religious past which is ignorant? Why did this charge follow her so doggedly?



                It is clear to me, as a Christian who believes in such things, and has some experience with witches myself, that the relationship between Mary and Bothwell was indeed one that can only be described as a Satanic seduction, something that the Scottish nobles and even the populace immediately apprehended when they posted the famous drawing of the mermaid and the hare ( with, as Guy points out, phallic swords surrounding it ) all around Edinburgh. Bothwell was the Colin Farrell of his day, except murderous and unstoppably ambitious for political power, and there is no doubt that the relationship between him and Mary was based entirely on his sexual hold over her. He barely tried to conceal that he didn't even love her.



                It is fascinating to think that one of Catholicism's last, best hopes before the Protestant takeover was defeated by a mesmerizing appendage, but those who can read between the lines will clearly see the evidence of its truth. And what is a witch if not a woman who lets lust drag her and her countrymen into the abyss? Bothwell, who should be remembered as one of the great hommes fatales of history, had absolute power over Mary and within months destroyed her life and her hopes. His involvement in the assassination of Darnley is much less disturbing than an anecdote Guy relates where he literally kills with a single blow one of Mary's loyal retainers -- the old man had dared to wish her good luck on a journey.



                And yet even this didn't stop her from marrying him. Didn't even faze her. She persisted in her "love" for Bothwell even in the face of the unanimous disapproval of her court and of the people, until she was like a cornered rat, alone with her morbid obsession. The once-noble and cultured queen was reduced within months to a frumpy mess, her looks gone, being heckled by peasants and shouting crude obscenities at them from the roof of her castle ( Guy shows how Bothwell's vulgarity infected her ). The story ends with Bothwell and Mary being forcibly separated and pledging their eternal fidelity to each other -- which he instantly broke with a Danish woman, whose dowry he stole! This finally ended his rake's progress.



                What this book made me realize is that the rivalry between Elizabeth and Mary has been entirely trumped-up. They were not rivals; Mary was nothing more than a cautionary tale for Elizabeth, who was much more evil than Mary but also much more shrewd. ( Elizabeth's real rival was the ghost of Isabella of Spain, as she, with the help of her cryptic spies, undid the effects of Isabella's glorious reign. ) The real story here, which hopefully future historians will take up, is the stunningly rapid descent of Mary into blind sexual insanity, and how it forced the last bastion of the Catholic faith in the British isles to deliver herself meekly into the hands of her enemy. Catholics treat Mary almost as a saint due to her supposed piousness in captivity; she should be considered the greatest of traitors. Would history have been entirely different if she never met Bothwell, or is a witch is a witch is a witch?

                1 out of 5 stars Another Marian Apologist.......2006-12-05

                It is harder to imagine a woman history has been kinder to than Mary Queen of Scotts. She is always the tragic women, betrayed by those she loved, and executed by her cruel, vicious, and nefariosu Cousin Queen Elizabeth. Guy does little to change this classic tale, despite the fact that history doesn't match up with it. Mary Queen of Scotts knowingly married her second husband's murderer and assented to the murder of Elizabeth who kept Mary alive, albiet in a very comfortable captivity, at great risk to her own [Elizabeth's] life. I don't think Mary, Queen of Scotts is a totally unsympathetic figure; she loved bad men and was betrayed by them. She was betrayed by her half-brother the earl of Moray, and she died with great courage. That said, she is not a flawless saint, no matter how much Guy wishes to make her one. (Also he makes the errenous assumption that if the the casket letters are fake, which he convincingly shows to be forgeries, Mary is automatically vindicated from the murder of her husband. Something on which the evidence is quite inconclusive.) For a more balanced look at Both Queens, I would reccomend both Jane Dunn and Alison Plowden's duel biography. And please do not say history has not been kind to this woman.

                4 out of 5 stars Mary as never seen before - an excellent account!.......2006-07-26

                I thoroughly enjoyed John Guy's biography of Mary Queen of Scots. The only flaws are that Guy insists that Mary's prayers before death were for a public show of her Catholicism. I don't think so - people about to die don't act that way. Also, he says that when Mary was kidnapped and raped by Bothwell, she must have enjoyed it because she did not cry for help. Sorry, but studies of rape victims have shown that even today women are afraid to go to the police. In those days, a woman was heavily stigmatized when violated against her will. But other than those flaws, this biography is a work of profound scholarship, depicting the details of Mary's daily life as I have never before read anywhere else. Guy also shows that Mary was a clever and even a savvy politician, as clever as Elizabeth her rival, although she fell through treachery and one lost battle. Very sad but very enlightening. Recommended.

                5 out of 5 stars Mary's Heart and Mary's Head.......2005-12-07

                John Guy's biogaphy is one of the best works of scholarship I have read in a long time. His book gives us a non-romanticized vision of Mary Queen of Scots, a woman raised in France (and married, briefly -- before being widowed -- , to the dauphin and then king of France). After his death, she returned to Scotland and learned a fast lesson is Scottish Politics. More of a fragmented land of kin groups, revenge and blood feud than anything she encounted in France, Mary coped as best she could.

                Guy does not gloss over her disastrous marriages, first to the dissolute Darnley and then to the man who probably assisted in the murder of Darnley, the brutal Bothwell. He does, however, provide a convincing portrait of her stamina, intellect, and will.
                Mary has been constantly compared to Elizabeth, but here she comes across as an a woman who acts, whereas Elizabeth seems more of a ditherer, often overbourne by her adviser, Cecil. This may be giving Elizabeth less credit than she deservers, but the new perspective is refreshing.

                I found this (long) biography hard to put down. While the opening seems almost formulaic, once Mary is in Scotland, the prose picks up and we are exposed to documents that have had little or no scrutiny in the past. If I have one objection, it is that the wild excitement of the events of Mary's life are sometimes rendered in too factual of a tone. Occasionally, the rainbow of her life is lost in the stones of fact.

                5 out of 5 stars The New Woman, indeed!.......2005-05-12

                When I was a kid, my grandmother gave me the then-new biography of Mary by Lady Antionia Fraser. Growing up in a family of Scots descent, I remember my eagerness to read about the national heroine - and what a disappointment! I couldn't understand how such a flighty girl thought she could run a country between worrying about pretty frocks, decorating castles and torrid love affairs. Served her right, I thought, to come to such a tawdry end.

                Now as an adult, I have an adult's view in 'Queen of Scots'. Discovering Mary's education began reforming her in my eyes. I gained a new understanding of Scottish politics and, not for the first time, deplored the way greed sold the land and people of Scotland to the English time and again. Although I've admired Elizabeth's resolve, Gee shows she behaved like a 'frail woman' more often than she and her modern spin doctors would like known. Mary is rehabilitated in my eyes, and I find it fitting the present British monarchy goes through her line and not Elizabeth's.

                The book begins and ends with Mary's execution, but it's not that tragedy for which she should be best known. Mary is a heroine because she valiantly tried to put the principles of government she studied as a child in France to use in steering the nation of Scotland into the Renaissance and establishing it as an equal among the nations of Europe. That the greed of her advisors and political neighbors reduced her to a prisoner and Scotland to dependency is a history lesson that should not be forgotten.
                Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart
                Average customer rating: Not rated
                  Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart
                  John Guy
                  Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
                  ProductGroup: Book
                  Binding: Paperback
                  ASIN: B000XIPQMQ
                  Historie of the life and death of Sir William Kirkaldy, of Grange, knight,: Wherein is declared his many wise designs and valiant actions, with a true ... the honour to defend for the Queen of Scots
                  Average customer rating: Not rated
                    Historie of the life and death of Sir William Kirkaldy, of Grange, knight,: Wherein is declared his many wise designs and valiant actions, with a true ... the honour to defend for the Queen of Scots
                    Harold Murdock
                    Manufacturer: The Club of odd volumes
                    ProductGroup: Book
                    Binding: Unknown Binding

                    EnglandEngland | Europe | History | Subjects | Books | 18th Century | 19th Century | 20th Century | Ancient | General | London | Medieval | Norman | Tudor & Stuart
                    ScotlandScotland | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
                    ASIN: B000889KO6

                    Books:

                    1. The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation
                    2. The Journals of James Boswell: 1762-1795
                    3. The Light Bearer
                    4. The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling
                    5. The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin
                    6. The Myth of Hitler's Pope: Pope Pius XII and His Secret War Against Nazi Germany
                    7. The Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law (Oxford Law Handbooks)
                    8. The Politics of Retribution in Europe
                    9. The Rejection Collection: Cartoons You Never Saw, and Never Will See, in The New Yorker
                    10. The Road to Mayerling: The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria

                    Books Index

                    Books Home

                    Recommended Books

                    1. Doctor Strange: Beginnings and Endings
                    2. 40 Over 40: 40 Things Every Women over 40 Needs to Know About Getting Dressed
                    3. SolidWorks 2006 Tutorial
                    4. The Forgotten Memoir of John Knox: A Year in the Life of a Supreme Court Clerk in FDR's Washington
                    5. The PMP Exam: How to Pass On Your First Try
                    6. A Good Year
                    7. Who is Israel
                    8. Wall Street Capitalism: The Theory of the Bondholding Class
                    9. The Amoral Elephant: Globalization and the Struggle for Social Justice in the Twenty-First Century
                    10. Mr. Spaceman