Penguin Archive
1 total work
The History of England by a Partial, Prejudiced and Ignorant Historian
by Jane Austen
Published 17 April 2025
During his reign, Lord Cobham was burnt alive, but I forget what for.
In Jane Austen’s breezy and entirely biased telling of English history, Mary, Queen of Scots is a scandalously wronged victim, Elizabeth I is a wicked villain and most historical facts and dates are cheerfully disregarded. It is accompanied here by other riotous early pieces in which young women steal money, escape from prison, agree to marry two men at once, faint and repeatedly ‘run mad’.