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The First Elizabeth

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The First Elizabeth

By: Carolly Erickson
Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
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About this listen

In this remarkable biography, Carolly Erickson brings Elizabeth I to life and allows us to see her as a living, breathing, elegant, flirtatious, diplomatic, violent, arrogant, and outrageous woman who commands our attention, fascination, and awe.

With the special skill for which she is acclaimed, Carolly Erickson electrifies the senses as she evokes with total fidelity the brilliant colors of Elizabethan clothing and jewelry, the texture of tapestries, and even the close, perfumed air of castle rooms. Erickson demonstrates her extraordinary ability to discern and bring to life psychological and physical reality.

©1983 Carolly Erickson (P)2012 Audible, Inc. Europe Great Britain Historical Politicians Politics & Activism Royalty Women
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The incredible amount of detail is the best thing about this book. On the other hand, and even for someone like me who loves the detail, and is very interested in this era of history, sometimes it did become a bit dull.

The narration is good. However, the actor has a distinct mid-Atlantic accent. He is (or was) British, but now lives in the USA. So there were moments when the narration veered unexpectedly into Loyd Grossman territory.

Not bad. A good ‘set sleep timer’ book, too.

Great for Detail

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Well written and researched. Well narrated. Definitely a book I would recommend to anyone and hope they liked it as much as I did.

Elizabeth. Her life and court.

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A fascinating round up of what is known about Elizabeth and her motivations and well worth reading (yourself, in book form!) but the narrator appears barely human at times. There are pauses where there should not be, mis-pronunciations (“dye-fuse” for diffuse, “pews I-laynimous” for pusillanimous are just two I’ve heard in the last few minutes but so many more bizarre things) and a weird deadpan delivery - I would not take another audiobook by the same narrator, it gets between listener and text.

I thought it was read by a computer.

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