Philippa Gregory 是講宫庭故事的好手。她的作品集中在描述16世纪英国都鐸王朝(Tudor Dynasty 1485-1603)亨利八世和他的六个老婆。故事流畅，對歴史事件和人物有下功夫精心研究，是我很喜欢的當代女性歴史小說作家。
這本小說的歴史背景發生在1558年秋天，25歲的伊麗莎白女王一世剛登基，局势仍不穩定。全國上下最迫切希望他们年軽的女王趕快選個丈夫，早日生下王子，免除將來王位承傳的紛争。但是伊麗莎白遲遲不在衆多追求者中做决定，一般認爲她是爲了Robert Dudley，女王的騎士统領(Master of the Horse)。他是伊麗莎白最寵愛的朝臣(courtier)，他的家族曾在前朝愛德華六世(Edward VI：伊麗莎白的弟弟)顯赫一時，後來他的父親因叛國罪被砍頭，他自己和其他兄弟則囚禁在倫敦Tower十幾個月之後才獲釋放。
Dudley 和伊麗莎白的關係親密到什麽程度，從當代一直到四百多年後的今天仍是一個謎。而另外一個歴史謎團則是Amy Dudley (Robert Dudley 的妻子 ) 突然死亡的原因。 這本小說甞試解開這兩個謎，我覺得非常有意思。讀到最後有種恍然大悟的感覺。伊麗莎白有當時女人少有的智慧和性格，加上她的心機和手段，才有可能在十六世纪男人的世界中平穩掌政，终於讓英國繁榮强盛起来。
爲了更了解伊麗莎白和Dudley的關係，我現在看：Elizabeth & Leicester: Power, Passion, Politics (非小說）。我看歴史小說最终總會找真實歴史來延伸閲讀，又是不同的感受。
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dudley,_1st_Earl_of_Leicester
Another portrait of Robert Dudley (1560)
Queen Elizabeth I of England (1575)
More info at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I_of_England
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Book Description: (from chapters.ca)
In the autumn of 1558, church bells across England ring out the joyous news that Elizabeth I is the new queen. One woman hears the tidings with utter dread. She is Amy Dudley, wife of Sir Robert, and she knows that Elizabeth''s ambitious leap to the throne will draw her husband back to the center of the glamorous Tudor court, where he was born to be.
Elizabeth''s excited triumph is short-lived. She has inherited a bankrupt country where treason is rampant and foreign war a certainty. Her faithful advisor William Cecil warns her that she will survive only if she marries a strong prince to govern the rebellious country, but the one man Elizabeth desires is her childhood friend, the ambitious Robert Dudley. As the young couple falls in love, a question hangs in the air: can he really set aside his wife and marry the queen? When Amy is found dead, Elizabeth and Dudley are suddenly plunged into a struggle for survival.
Philippa Gregory''s The Virgin''s Lover answers the question about an unsolved crime that has fascinated detectives and historians for centuries. Intelligent, romantic, and compelling, The Virgin''s Lover presents a young woman on the brink of greatness, a young man whose ambition exceeds his means, and the wife who cannot forgive them.
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