LADY QUEEN ANNE: A Biography of Queen Anne of England

Substantial and diligent, this is written for those who can handle a large amount of information--not all of it essential--and who want a sense of the period as well as an understanding of a nominal historical figure. The major incidents of Anne's time (1665-1714) were often beyond her ken but they are included, subordinately. Frequently, the attempt to condense material results in the stuffed sentence: ""In an obscure house in a quiet London suburb, John Milton was reaching the end of his long struggle for truth and liberty against evil and tyranny, a struggle handicapped by blindness but never by despair."" Nevertheless it is quite adequate in characterizing the rather dull Anne; her reliance on Sarah Jennings Churchill; Protestant/Catholic enmity; colonial developments; and, to a lesser extent, the Whigs and Tories. There is little on economic conditions or everyday lives. Supported by quotations from many sources--contemporary witnesses and subsequent research--it is commendable as a reference, and the attribution of motives is restrained.