Antonia Fraser
Autor von Marie Antoinette
Über den Autor
Antonia Fraser is the author of numerous internationally bestselling biographies, including "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" and "Cromwell: Our Chief of Men". (Publisher Provided)
Bildnachweis: Susan Greenhill
Reihen
Werke von Antonia Fraser
The King and the Catholics: England, Ireland, and the Fight for Religious Freedom, 1780-1829 (2018) 104 Exemplare
The Pleasure of Reading: 43 Writers on the Discovery of Reading and the Books that Inspired Them (2015) — Editor & Introduction — 82 Exemplare
The Case of the Married Woman: Caroline Norton and Her Fight for Women's Justice (2021) 43 Exemplare
Mary, Queen of Scots: A Poetry Anthology 2 Exemplare
Annals of such patriots of the distinguished family of Fraser, Frysell, Sim-Son, or Fitz-Simon, as have signalised… (2010) 1 Exemplar
'TRADE SECRETS, CLEANING' 1 Exemplar
Cromwell, Volume 2 1 Exemplar
Cromwell, Volume 1 1 Exemplar
Have a Nice Death 1 Exemplar
King James VI of Scotland; I of England 1 Exemplar
Cromwell The Lord Protector r 1 Exemplar
The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England — Herausgeber — 1 Exemplar
The Warrior Queens | Mary Queen of Scots 1 Exemplar
Boots 1 Exemplar
Flying Finish 1 Exemplar
Zugehörige Werke
What Might Have Been : Leading Historians on Twelve 'What Ifs' of History (2004) — Mitwirkender — 185 Exemplare
The Virago Book of Ghost Stories: The Twentieth Century, Volume 2 (1991) — Mitwirkender — 97 Exemplare
Women of Mystery II: Stories From Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (1994) — Mitwirkender — 53 Exemplare
Great Mystery Series: Top Female Sleuths by 8 of the Best Women Mystery Writers (1991) — Mitwirkender — 6 Exemplare
Reader's Digest World's Greatest Biographies: George Washington | Mary Queen of Scots | Colin Powell (2001) 6 Exemplare
Great Mystery Series: Eight of the Best Mysteries by the Top Women Writers [audiobook] (2000) — Mitwirkender — 3 Exemplare
The execution of Mary Queen of Scots : an eyewitness account by Sir Robert Wingfield of Upton (1587) — Vorwort — 1 Exemplar
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Wissenswertes
- Rechtmäßiger Name
- Fraser, Antonia Margaret Caroline
- Andere Namen
- Fraser, Lady Antonia
Pinter, Lady Antonia - Geburtstag
- 1932-08-27
- Geschlecht
- female
- Nationalität
- Großbritannien
- Geburtsort
- London, England, UK
- Wohnorte
- London, England, UK
- Ausbildung
- Oxford University (Lady Margaret Hall ∙ History)
Dragon School, Oxford
St. Mary's School, Ascot - Berufe
- historian
crime writer
aristocrat
biographer - Beziehungen
- Fraser, Flora (Tochter)
- Organisationen
- Weidenfeld & Nicholson
British Crime Writers Association (chairman) - Preise und Auszeichnungen
- Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2011)
Norton Medlicott Medal (2000)
Order of the Companions of Honour (2018)
Fellow, Royal Society of Literature (2003)
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1999)
James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1969) (Zeige alle 9)
Wolfson History Prize (1984)
Enid McLeod Literary Prize (2001)
Gold Dagger Award (1996) - Kurzbiographie
- Lady Antonia Fraser, née Pakenham, was born in London to an aristocratic English family. Her mother was the distinguished biography Elizabeth Longford. She was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford, St. Mary's School, Ascot, and Oxford University. She is the author of major historical biographies, including Mary, Queen of Scots (1969), The Weaker Vessel (1984) and The Wives of Henry VIII (1996), as well as a popular mystery series featuring British television personality and investigative journalist Jemima Shore. She is a past chairman of the British Crime Writers Association. Lady Antonia married her second husband, the late Harold Pinter, in 1980, and is sometimes known as Lady Antonia Pinter. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2011.
Mitglieder
Diskussionen
BRITISH AUTHOR CHALLENGE JUNE - FRASER & CONRAD in 75 Books Challenge for 2016 (Dezember 2016)
Rezensionen
An exceptional modern day introduction into King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, expertly told. A superb primer and introduction to White's "The Once and Future King."
The life and death of Mary Stuart remains one of the most movingly tragic life stories I know. More than fifty-five years after publication, and forty years after I picked up a copy at a library sale but only now got around to reading, Antonia Fraser’s biography is apparently still the best “life and times” for the general reader. Fraser provides a readable narrative, covering Mary’s mistakes yet remaining overall sympathetic. As far as I can tell, she also did an impressive amount of research, resulting in a detailed narrative that runs 555 pages without counting an appendix, notes, and index. That makes for a thick book, perhaps one reason it took me so long to set aside the time to read it. And even now, I’ll confess I skimmed her discussion of the casket letters, crucial though they are to how one views Mary. I took in enough of Fraser’s discussion to trust her conclusion at the end of the chapter.
Fraser presents Mary as an attractive personality. She had barely been born when her father died, making her queen of Scotland. Her actual reign was brief, though, starting when she returned, still a teenager, as the widowed dowager queen of France. It did not go well, but what are you to do if you are destined by birth to rule an ungovernable country?
Perhaps Mary’s worst blunder was when she escaped her Scottish imprisonment and fled to England rather than France. This presented her cousin Elizabeth with an intractable problem whose solution seems inevitable in retrospect. For Many was, in addition to being the deposed queen of Scotland and the dowager queen of France, the next in line to the throne of England. A fatal complication was that Mary was Catholic. Thus, in the eyes of all the English who clung to the old faith, she—and not the excommunicated Elizabeth— already was the legitimate queen. As long as Mary remained alive, she was thus a factor in every plot to assassinate Elizabeth.
This led to framing a law that made not only assassins but also those in whose name they concocted their plots guilty of treason. Clearly, the law was meant to bring the downfall of only one person, leading to a trial that Fraser calls “one of the strangest judicial proceedings in the history of the British Isles.”
In a chapter entitled “The Uses of Adversity,” Fraser describes how Mary’s character was deepened by the long years of captivity in ways typical of the long line of imprisoned philosopher-monarchs. She also shows how Mary ensured that the death she knew she could not escape would fit the pattern of “the classic Christian manner of martyrdom and triumph.”
To that extent, Mary won. Her execution remains a blot on Elizabeth’s reputation. Meanwhile, as Fraser points out, all subsequent British monarchs, beginning with Mary’s son James, have descended from her, not Elizabeth.
My only reservation about Fraser’s portrayal of this remarkable person is that Mary comes off as more modern than the times in which she lived. She is clearly Fraser’s kind of Catholic — tolerant, discrete, yet unwavering. Fraser’s sympathy for Mary makes not only Elizabeth but even more so Scottish reformer John Knox inimical to her. Perhaps Fraser has accurately depicted Mary (she presents her case convincingly). But it’s also true that biographies inform us not only about their subjects but also about their authors.… (mehr)
Fraser presents Mary as an attractive personality. She had barely been born when her father died, making her queen of Scotland. Her actual reign was brief, though, starting when she returned, still a teenager, as the widowed dowager queen of France. It did not go well, but what are you to do if you are destined by birth to rule an ungovernable country?
Perhaps Mary’s worst blunder was when she escaped her Scottish imprisonment and fled to England rather than France. This presented her cousin Elizabeth with an intractable problem whose solution seems inevitable in retrospect. For Many was, in addition to being the deposed queen of Scotland and the dowager queen of France, the next in line to the throne of England. A fatal complication was that Mary was Catholic. Thus, in the eyes of all the English who clung to the old faith, she—and not the excommunicated Elizabeth— already was the legitimate queen. As long as Mary remained alive, she was thus a factor in every plot to assassinate Elizabeth.
This led to framing a law that made not only assassins but also those in whose name they concocted their plots guilty of treason. Clearly, the law was meant to bring the downfall of only one person, leading to a trial that Fraser calls “one of the strangest judicial proceedings in the history of the British Isles.”
In a chapter entitled “The Uses of Adversity,” Fraser describes how Mary’s character was deepened by the long years of captivity in ways typical of the long line of imprisoned philosopher-monarchs. She also shows how Mary ensured that the death she knew she could not escape would fit the pattern of “the classic Christian manner of martyrdom and triumph.”
To that extent, Mary won. Her execution remains a blot on Elizabeth’s reputation. Meanwhile, as Fraser points out, all subsequent British monarchs, beginning with Mary’s son James, have descended from her, not Elizabeth.
My only reservation about Fraser’s portrayal of this remarkable person is that Mary comes off as more modern than the times in which she lived. She is clearly Fraser’s kind of Catholic — tolerant, discrete, yet unwavering. Fraser’s sympathy for Mary makes not only Elizabeth but even more so Scottish reformer John Knox inimical to her. Perhaps Fraser has accurately depicted Mary (she presents her case convincingly). But it’s also true that biographies inform us not only about their subjects but also about their authors.… (mehr)
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HenrySt123 | 25 weitere Rezensionen | Feb 23, 2024 |
HenrySt123 | 25 weitere Rezensionen | Feb 23, 2024 | Written as children’s fiction and may be a good way to introduce younger f9lk to the tales tale but not a good read for me in that it oversimplified the tale and as a result lost a lot of its appeal.
I read it hoping to see if it was want I had read as a teenager but unfortunately it wasn’t, next read is the roger lancelyn green King Arthur version, hopefully a better treatment of this classic myth
I read it hoping to see if it was want I had read as a teenager but unfortunately it wasn’t, next read is the roger lancelyn green King Arthur version, hopefully a better treatment of this classic myth
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This one has a strong grounding in Roman Catholicism, and is set in a convent. It is written in a "high British" style, slightly formal: "As I made the preparations for my nocturnal adventure,..." reminiscent of Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey series. Once you get into the rhythm of the words, it reads very cleanly. It is well written, the main characters are well drawn, though the secondary characters less so.
The mystery is not the main point of the book, though it does build suspense well. The satisfactory nature of the resolution will, in part, depend on your sympathy with the spiritual views presented.
Based on the synopses of the next few books in the series, it looks like Fraser relies heavily on her strengths writing about history, at the expense of the mystery side. As a mystery fan, I will not be seeking out the rest of this series.
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