“We gladly recommend the book not only as a romance but also as history, inasmuch as it gives a far more truthful picture of the great sacrilege of the sixteenth century than most of the (so-called) histories of the period.”
+ – Sat. R. 101: 369. Mr. 24, ’06. 240w.
Benson, Rev. Robert Hugh. Queen’s tragedy. $1.50. Herder.
The court setting is a prominent feature of Father Benson’s portrayal of Queen Mary, against which background he outlines her as “human and a woman.... First love, a passion for Philip of Spain in the breast of a woman of thirty-seven, is tragedy in suspense from its commencement, and the novelist makes her foolish heart flutter before us till we need the annalist to reduce the temperature of our pity.” (Ath.)
“Whatever else may be thought of Father Benson’s latest historical novel, no one will fail to find it fresh, suggestive and interesting.” J. H. Pollen.
+ – Acad. 71: 63. Jl. 21, ’06. 1090w.
“The writing at the end of the book is fine and grandiose.”
+ Ath. 1906, 2: 37. Jl. 14. 310w.
“Though it is a creditable piece of work is scarcely on a level with either ‘By what authority?’, or ‘The king’s achievement.’”