Mary Queen of Scots Author:N. Brysson Morrison The life of Mary, Queen of Scots, is the first for the general reader in more than twenty years. Miss Morrison comes to her biography with the perception and insight of a distinguished novelist, and with the deep understanding of a fellow Scot. — From her father, Mary, Queen of Scots, inherited the Stewart Blood, with its mixture of charm and pa... more »ssion, its wayward weakness allied to great nobility, and the recklessness of all those who go their own way. From her French mother Mary inherited the unbounded Guise ambition. From both Stewart and Guise she inherited undiluted personal courage. Her journey through life, which began in Linlithgow Palace and ended on the block at Fotheringay, lasted forty-five years; and within the compass of these forty-five years -- when England was flourishing under Elizabeth I -- a tidal wave of change shook Europe. Because she was a queen, Mary took the shock of the tumult. Because she was the woman she was, she contributed forcefully to the happenings around her. But she was neither the saint her admirers have gilded her nor the scarlet woman painted by her detractors.
For Miss Morrison, time not only spotlights the turbulant past but also acts like a lens through which it is seen in perspective, and Mary's enchantment, that bewitched men while she was living, still reaches us, undimmed by the centuries. With its rich re-creation of the scene and narration of events, this is a fine, fresh-minted biographical study of one of history's most poignant and controversial personalities.« less