Negative Positive
Title: Outstanding historical work
Review: Much written history is well documented, but dry reading indeed. Hogge's work is well researched, but flows as well as a historical novel, despite the fact that it is pure history. I picked up this book, intending only to browse through it (because of my interest in the Gunpowder Plot) but wound up reading the entire thing, because it is such a good read. Many historians know their material well, but that doesn't mean that they can write . . . . Hogge is not only an accomplished historian, she is an excellent writer as well. I learned a great deal about the religious divides of the period, as well as the fact that the Gunpowder Plot was not an isolated incident, but the outgrowth of more than 40 years of religious conflict in England. If you have any interest in Elizabethan/Jacobean history, this is a "must read."
Is the review positive or negative? 