The Life and Times of Charles II

by Antonia Fraser

A definitive series on the monarchs who changed English history

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography

223 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1992

About the author

Antonia Fraser is the author of many widely acclaimed historical works, including the biographies Mary, Queen of Scots (a 40th anniversary edition was published in May 2009), Cromwell: Our Chief of Men, King Charles II and The Gunpowder Plot (CWA Non-Fiction Gold Dagger; St Louis Literary Award). She has written five highly praised books which focus on women in history, The Weaker Vessel: Women's Lot in Seventeenth Century Britain (Wolfson Award for History, 1984), The Warrior Queens: Boadecia's Chariot, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Marie Antoinette: The Journey (Franco-British Literary Prize 2001), which was made into a film by Sofia Coppola in 2006 and most recently Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King. She was awarded the Norton Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2000. Antonia Fraser was made DBE in 2011 for her services to literature. Her most recent book is Must You Go?, celebrating her life with Harold Pinter, who died on Christmas Eve 2008. She lives in London.

Reviews

[Finn]

Charles was my favourite monarch as a child and to be fair, he is probably worthy of such a title. As much as he deceived his people and didn't care much for politics, he provided some much needed stability, though only briefly. He undoubtedly deserves the title of 'Merry Monarch' and he's so real for going on morning walks. Not sure why he was such a slag and he probs shouldn't have given Barbara that castle, she's so evil for destroying it.

[Jodi]

Antonia Fraser pulls in a remarkable number of portraits and drawings to illustrate her text but not much new material. A respected author (I have what I would consider a definitive book on Mary, Queen of Scots) but this outing was too general. Of course, that could have been the intent but an over-sized book of 257 pages could offer a bit more.

[Khrisered]

Very interesting, helps to see Charles from another perspective-much trivia in text!