Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles Author:Stefan Zweig To all the admirers of Stefan Zweig's brilliant and charming biographical skill, to the thousands of readers of his internationally famous Marie Antoinette, it must be an occasion for rejoicing that this author now presents Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles, a work which he describes as the "sister book" to his most famous work. With the same... more » psychological insight, the same wise sifting of evidence, the same clear and dispassionate analysis of a strange and disturbing career, he gives us the life of Scotland's tragic queen. Of his heroine the author says: "The subject of Mary will always be fascinating because of a certain quality of mystery and secrecy about her. All the tragedy of Mary's life was packed into two years of her forty-four - the two years of great passion with Bothwell." Mary's career was long and acrimonious dispute with Elizabeth, of whom Zweig gives an equally fascinating portrait. In the end it brought her to the block, but the reader may well wonder whether Mary's death scene was not also the scene of her greatest triumph.« less
A fascinating read. I always wondered how England's history might have differed if Mary had been the one to win the kingdom and Elizabeth the one to die. In a very odd way, Mary died a martyr's death.