Sir Walter Raleigh - Hardcover

Trevelyan, Raleigh

3.97

72 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 071399326X ISBN 13: 9780713993264

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2002

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Sir Walter Raleigh is in many respects the foremost example of an English renaissance man. An accomplished explorer and soldier, he was also a writer of great skill, a courtier, and a sometimes ruthless administrator. For the Victorians he represented the gentlemanly ideal of disinterested loyalty to the crown; a mixture of medieval chivalry and a very modern will to knowledge. More recent studies have focussed on his proto-imperialist attitudes and sought to reveal the tensions between Raleighand Elizabeth. In both readings Raleigh's singularity can be lost. Neither a public school educated civil servant, nor a fascist in doublet and hose, Trevelyan's Raleigh is a brilliantly realised portrait of the man and his age.

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Review:

As his name suggests, Raleigh Trevelyan is a distant relation of his biographical subject Sir Walter Raleigh. Perhaps that partly explains the dedication and hard work behind the brilliance of this vividly written and exhaustively researched biography of "a hero who was held out as a symbol of the Elizabethan Renaissance". Trevelyan manages to carefully revise the romantic myth of Raleigh, whilst also reminding his readers that "we cannot fail to be awed by the vastness of his aspirations."

Most people recognise Raleigh as the man who laid down his cloak for Queen Elizabeth and introduced tobacco into England. While both stories are far from the truth, Trevelyan points out that they both reveal defining elements of this flamboyant and extraordinary poet, courtier, soldier, explorer and politician. From relative obscurity Raleigh used his "vanity and ambition" to work his way into Queen Elizabeth's affections, embarking on a spectacular career putting down rebellion in Ireland, looting the Azores, founding the first English colonies in America, and setting sail twice in his search for the fabled El Dorado.

In England his judgement was less assured, and was often "embarrassingly cringing". He married for love and fell out with Elizabeth, and then proceeded to alienate the new king, James I, who threw him into the Tower of London, before finally executing him in 1618. Trevelyan concludes, "his performance on the scaffold was a great piece of theatre, but it is impossible not to be won over by it." This captures the spirit of this magnificent biography. Impeccable in its research and beautifully written, it captures the complex, multi-faceted nature of Sir Walter Raleigh. --Jerry Brotton

Synopsis:

"You have lived like a star at which the world has gazed", said the judge at Sir Walter Raleigh's trial. "He was fortune's tennis ball", said another contemporary, to many others he was an arrogant liar. Regarded by the Spanish as the most hated of pirates, Raleigh had a thirst for wealth and power that was coupled with extraordinary creative energy. Soldier, explorer, parliamentarian, chemist, reputed atheist, patron of poets and himself a fine poet, Raleigh is the epitome of the English Renaissance man. A glittering courtier in the shark pool of Elizabethan politics, he could also be a ruthless administrator. For the generation of Republicans after his death on the scaffold, Raleigh was a hero; for the Victorians he represented the gentlemanly ideal of disinterested loyalty to the crown, while more recent studies have focused on his imperialist attitude and the tensions between himself and Elizabeth I. However he is seen, Raleigh cuts as controversial and tragic figure now as he did in his own times. This is the first major biography of Sir Walter Raleigh for many years.

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