ELIZABETH AND LEICESTER

Waldman has given us Sir Walter Raleigh and England's Elizabeth, and now he writes of the famous and puzzling pair, well-matched, Elizabeth and Leicester. A cautious, scholarly appraisal of the period, the lusty energy of the Renaissance, the growing pains of a country on the verge of industrial and maritime supremacy. It is a book about the period that brought them to their ith rather than a book about them as human beings; but you do sense another Elizabeth than the one capable of raising England to the position it has since maintained, you do get thirty years of conflicting political ambitions, intrigue, revolution, war and love. Occasionally, Waldman is factual and documentary at the expense of narrative interest, vividness of characterization and even -- at times -- of reader interest.