Poor Penelope: Lady Penelope Rich - An Elizabethan Woman.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip (absence of publisher's price) to dw/dj.Bright,crisp, clean,glossy laminated,subject's colour portrait illustrated upper wrap,publisher's b/w advert to rear panel; with negligible shelf- wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top edge lightly dust-soiled and minimally aged,fore- edges brighter and cleaner; contents bright,tight and pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - possibly an unread copy? Bright,clean,sharp-cornered,publisher's original plain orange cloth boards with bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain white eps.UK,slim 8vo HB+ dw/dj,1ste dn,iv-xiipp+1-230pp [paginated] includes author preface,contents+illus lists/tables,acknowledgements,table of events,Devereaux family tree,16 chapters,12 b/w contemporary illus/plates/map etc., interspersed throughout the text and the book,an appendix,notes,works of reference,an index,plus [unpaginated] dedication,and title page.
To her Elizabethan contemporaries,Penelope Rich was the 'fair woman with a black soul' the 'heart-stealing goddess',the 'nymph of Aurora's court'.She made lovers of some of the greatest men of the reign and plunged into the trammels of amorous and political intrigue with a recklessness and effectiveness that gave her a major role in the history and literature of her day.
The most celebrated beauty of the age; mistress and inspiration of Sir Philip Sidney;subject and heroine of many a genius of the English Renaissance,including Shakespeare and Hilliard; paramour and later wife of Lord Mountjoy,the conqueror of Ireland; sister and fellow-conspirator of Robert,Earl of Essex; mother of eleven children,six of them illegitimate; succubus and cynosure of the court; in every department of her life Penelope Rich was prodigious.In an age of restricted opportunities for women,she exploited and transcended her womanhood, contending with men in power and love on equal terms.She was second only to Elizabeth I herself in importance among women of Elizabethan England.Whether defending her reputation against Puritans, her fortune against litigants,her hold on lovers against rivals,or her life against political adversaries,she was a tenacious and redoubtable Amazon.Her story illuminates every aspect of her times.
Sylvia Freedman has taken a fresh look at the sources in writing the first biography of Penelope Rich since Edwardian times.For the first time,Lady Rich is placed in her proper political and intellectual contexts.The innumerable myths surrounding her are dispelled.And the web of her complex and enthralling career is unravelled with a deep sensitivity for her predicament as a woman and a faithful understanding of the tenor of her age.
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