The History of England

Jane Austen's History of England is concise and gives a good insight into her opinions. I find her hatred of Queen Elizabeth I to be really interesting, as I have always admired her as a queen. Nevertheless, Austen's particular opinions on Charles I and his parliament will prove particularily useful for writing of my A-Level history coursework!

For the Lesley Castle unfinished novel in letters, I found it really interesting to see how these female “friendships” transpired, they seemed wholly based on societal expectations, customs, and particularily selfish desires rather than compassion or care for their correspondant's feelings with constant comments on other womens beauty and character that in todays light seem unwarrented? Either way, I enjoyed reading in the period's style and the gossip ☺️

A book of two separate parts - published as a Penguin 60s Classic.

The first part - which gives the book its title - is an irreverent and amusing summary of the line of succession of the English Throne from Henry the 4th (who took power in 1399) through to Charles 1st (who reined from 1625 to 1649 when he was executed). More than anything it serves to remind us what a boring period we have lived in, with regard to the British Monarchy - with the current Queen in occupation over 63 years. Austen's short summary tells of the turmoil and constant change!

The second part is a self proclaimed ‘unfinished novel in letters'. Letters sent variously between the characters of the novel provide the narrative and the letters often contradict each other when explaining the two sides of the same situation - lots of gossip, backstabbing and self serving. Not really my genre, but an interesting way to have written a novel, and short & fast moving enough to finish quickly.

I was disproportionately annoyed with the spelling errors - every occurrence of friend, believe (etc) were printed with the I & E transposed. I have no idea why the publishers left it this way - I suppose it was supposed to be quirky?

Nevertheless, somewhere between 3 and 4 stars - rounded up as I did enjoy the royal rundown.

Shelved as fiction (the second part definitely is) because there is enough untruthfulness and opinion in the royal part.