Riverworld Series / Philip Jose Farmer

2 primary works

Myself My Enemy

by Jean Plaidy

Published September 1983

One of the country's most widely read novelists - the first volume in the Queens of England series.

Despite the dangers of practicing her faith in the staunchly Protestant England, pretty Queen Henrietta Maria refuses to cast aside her Catholicism, so she finds little favour among the people. She is impetuous and loving, fond of fashionable clothes and gossip, and Charles, a family man of principle and integrity, is entirely devoted to her.

But their happy if controversial marriage is soon under threat when Henrietta is renounced as a puppet of Rome and charged with leading Protestant England back to Rome.

Soon her enemies swarm and the spies in her household prove too much. Only her loyalty and love for Charles can hope to keep him from the road to regicide.

Queen of This Realm

by Jean Plaidy

Published 14 February 1985

In this "memoir" by Elizabeth I, legendary historical novelist Jean Plaidy reveals the Virgin Queen as she truly was: the bewildered, motherless child of an all-powerful father; a captive in the Tower of London; a shrewd politician; a lover of the arts; and eventually, an icon of an era. It is the story of her improbable rise to power and the great triumphs of her reign--the end of religious bloodshed, the settling of the New World, the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Brilliantly clever, a scholar with a ready wit, she was also vain, bold, and unpredictable, a queen who commanded--and won--absolute loyalty from those around her.

But in these pages, in her own voice, Elizabeth also recounts the emotional turmoil of her life: the loneliness of power; the heartbreak of her lifelong love affair with Robert Dudley, whom she could never marry; and the terrible guilt of ordering the execution of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. In this unforgettable novel, Elizabeth emerges as one of the most fascinating and controversial women in history, and as England’s greatest monarch.