THE PAGEANT OF STUART ENGLAND

by Elizabeth Burton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 19, 1962

Full of charivarl charm and a lively, lucid prose, Elizabeth Burton's ""almanac"" of high life and low amongst the Jacobeans is a fitting runner-up to her Elizabethan pageant, so well-received a few years ago. If it lacks the latter's more pithy wit and sustained vitality, that's due more to the differences between Gloriana and Stuartiana, than to either Miss Burton's scholarship or sensibility. As usual, this is an odds and ends assortment, a social look at things as they must have been, and not a cultural or historical resurrection; thus the half-amused, half-intrigued detailing of homes and furnishings, mammoth feasting or starving, of sinful pleasures or simple ploys, of gardens or gardeners, primpings, perfumes, drugs and do-dads, all interspersed with innumerable quotes (Milton, Pepys, Congreve), excellent drawings, and the comings and goings of Anglican and Puritan, Tories and Whigs, Kings and Parliaments. The over-serious should be duly bored; others may be put off by the underlying femininity of tone; most, however, will find it a royal pudding, flavored with facts and fancy.

Pub Date: Nov. 19, 1962

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1962

Categories: NONFICTION