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The Winding Stair: Francis Bacon, His Rise and Fall
The astonishing Rise of England's most Dynamic man
It was a cruel and brilliant age: poetry and philosophy blossomed as never before, the plague cast a shadow of death everywhere, and in the palace, the courtiers vied in ruthless contest for the royal favors of James I, the willful and capricious successor to the great Queen Elizabeth.
Francis Bacon had survived the transition from Tudor to Stuart, and now he began his meteoric, doomed rise from Solicitor General to Lord Chancellor, and finally, to the Peer of the Realm. Skilled in the ways of the court, ruled by a boundless passion for knowledge, nearly ruined by scandal, Francis Bacon lived through England's most tumultuous era to become the most extraordinary man in an extraordinary age.
It was a cruel and brilliant age: poetry and philosophy blossomed as never before, the plague cast a shadow of death everywhere, and in the palace, the courtiers vied in ruthless contest for the royal favors of James I, the willful and capricious successor to the great Queen Elizabeth.
Francis Bacon had survived the transition from Tudor to Stuart, and now he began his meteoric, doomed rise from Solicitor General to Lord Chancellor, and finally, to the Peer of the Realm. Skilled in the ways of the court, ruled by a boundless passion for knowledge, nearly ruined by scandal, Francis Bacon lived through England's most tumultuous era to become the most extraordinary man in an extraordinary age.
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
15 people are currently reading
201 people want to read
About the author
Daphne du Maurier
472 books9,828 followersDaphne du Maurier was born on 13 May 1907 at 24 Cumberland Terrace, Regent's Park, London, the middle of three daughters of prominent actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and actress Muriel, née Beaumont. In many ways her life resembles a fairy tale. Born into a family with a rich artistic and historical background, her paternal grandfather was author and Punch cartoonist George du Maurier, who created the character of Svengali in the 1894 novel Trilby, and her mother was a maternal niece of journalist, author, and lecturer Comyns Beaumont. She and her sisters were indulged as a children and grew up enjoying enormous freedom from financial and parental restraint. Her elder sister, Angela du Maurier, also became a writer, and her younger sister Jeanne was a painter.
She spent her youth sailing boats, travelling on the Continent with friends, and writing stories. Her family connections helped her establish her literary career, and she published some of her early work in Beaumont's Bystander magazine. A prestigious publishing house accepted her first novel when she was in her early twenties, and its publication brought her not only fame but the attentions of a handsome soldier, Major (later Lieutenant-General Sir) Frederick Browning, whom she married.
She continued writing under her maiden name, and her subsequent novels became bestsellers, earning her enormous wealth and fame. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn, and the short stories The Birds and Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight. While Alfred Hitchcock's films based upon her novels proceeded to make her one of the best-known authors in the world, she enjoyed the life of a fairy princess in a mansion in Cornwall called Menabilly, which served as the model for Manderley in Rebecca.
Daphne du Maurier was obsessed with the past. She intensively researched the lives of Francis and Anthony Bacon, the history of Cornwall, the Regency period, and nineteenth-century France and England. Above all, however, she was obsessed with her own family history, which she chronicled in Gerald: A Portrait, a biography of her father; The du Mauriers, a study of her family which focused on her grandfather, George du Maurier, the novelist and illustrator for Punch; The Glassblowers, a novel based upon the lives of her du Maurier ancestors; and Growing Pains, an autobiography that ignores nearly 50 years of her life in favour of the joyful and more romantic period of her youth. Daphne du Maurier can best be understood in terms of her remarkable and paradoxical family, the ghosts which haunted her life and fiction.
While contemporary writers were dealing critically with such subjects as the war, alienation, religion, poverty, Marxism, psychology and art, and experimenting with new techniques such as the stream of consciousness, du Maurier produced 'old-fashioned' novels with straightforward narratives that appealed to a popular audience's love of fantasy, adventure, sexuality and mystery. At an early age, she recognised that her readership was comprised principally of women, and she cultivated their loyal following through several decades by embodying their desires and dreams in her novels and short stories.
In some of her novels, however, she went beyond the technique of the formulaic romance to achieve a powerful psychological realism reflecting her intense feelings about her father, and to a lesser degree, her mother. This vision, which underlies Julius, Rebecca and The Parasites, is that of an author overwhelmed by the memory of her father's commanding presence. In Julius and The Parasites, for example, she introduces the image of a domineering but deadly father and the daring subject of incest.
In Rebecca, on the other hand, du Maurier fuses psychological realism with a sophisticated version of the Cinderella story.
She spent her youth sailing boats, travelling on the Continent with friends, and writing stories. Her family connections helped her establish her literary career, and she published some of her early work in Beaumont's Bystander magazine. A prestigious publishing house accepted her first novel when she was in her early twenties, and its publication brought her not only fame but the attentions of a handsome soldier, Major (later Lieutenant-General Sir) Frederick Browning, whom she married.
She continued writing under her maiden name, and her subsequent novels became bestsellers, earning her enormous wealth and fame. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn, and the short stories The Birds and Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight. While Alfred Hitchcock's films based upon her novels proceeded to make her one of the best-known authors in the world, she enjoyed the life of a fairy princess in a mansion in Cornwall called Menabilly, which served as the model for Manderley in Rebecca.
Daphne du Maurier was obsessed with the past. She intensively researched the lives of Francis and Anthony Bacon, the history of Cornwall, the Regency period, and nineteenth-century France and England. Above all, however, she was obsessed with her own family history, which she chronicled in Gerald: A Portrait, a biography of her father; The du Mauriers, a study of her family which focused on her grandfather, George du Maurier, the novelist and illustrator for Punch; The Glassblowers, a novel based upon the lives of her du Maurier ancestors; and Growing Pains, an autobiography that ignores nearly 50 years of her life in favour of the joyful and more romantic period of her youth. Daphne du Maurier can best be understood in terms of her remarkable and paradoxical family, the ghosts which haunted her life and fiction.
While contemporary writers were dealing critically with such subjects as the war, alienation, religion, poverty, Marxism, psychology and art, and experimenting with new techniques such as the stream of consciousness, du Maurier produced 'old-fashioned' novels with straightforward narratives that appealed to a popular audience's love of fantasy, adventure, sexuality and mystery. At an early age, she recognised that her readership was comprised principally of women, and she cultivated their loyal following through several decades by embodying their desires and dreams in her novels and short stories.
In some of her novels, however, she went beyond the technique of the formulaic romance to achieve a powerful psychological realism reflecting her intense feelings about her father, and to a lesser degree, her mother. This vision, which underlies Julius, Rebecca and The Parasites, is that of an author overwhelmed by the memory of her father's commanding presence. In Julius and The Parasites, for example, she introduces the image of a domineering but deadly father and the daring subject of incest.
In Rebecca, on the other hand, du Maurier fuses psychological realism with a sophisticated version of the Cinderella story.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
did-not-finish
March 23, 2014I'm sorry, as great a fan I am of D du M, this is tedious in the extreme. I yield at 25%, there's been nothing but long-winded bits about how scholarly Bacon is, how dutiful he was, what little we know, what little we don't know (was I reading Alison Weir?). Those truly interested in Bacon's later years might want to give this a go. Every one else, pass. Life's too short.
Kindle copy obtained via library loan.
Kindle copy obtained via library loan.
September 7, 2016
This book described Francis Bacon's life's - the famous English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist, and author. More details can be found at Wikipedia.
As a philosopher he played an important role as advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution, even if this influence occurred only father his death.
As a biographer, Dame du Maurier doesn't start to describe Bacon's life since his childhood. On the contrary, this biography starts when Bacon was 40 years old, on the death of his brother. And his last years are described quite shortly in my opinion.
Certainly, this is not the best Bacon's biography ever written since Dame du Maurier was not a master historian and/or biographer.
There is an interesting article written by J.G. Crowther, author of "Francis Bacon: the First Stateman of Science and published by the New Scientist.
An interesting link should be mentioned here: Francis Bacon Society which provides tons of information on Bacon's works.
Francis Bacon, Viscount St Alban c. 1618. Unknown: National Portrait Gallery, London.
As a philosopher he played an important role as advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution, even if this influence occurred only father his death.
As a biographer, Dame du Maurier doesn't start to describe Bacon's life since his childhood. On the contrary, this biography starts when Bacon was 40 years old, on the death of his brother. And his last years are described quite shortly in my opinion.
Certainly, this is not the best Bacon's biography ever written since Dame du Maurier was not a master historian and/or biographer.
There is an interesting article written by J.G. Crowther, author of "Francis Bacon: the First Stateman of Science and published by the New Scientist.
An interesting link should be mentioned here: Francis Bacon Society which provides tons of information on Bacon's works.
Francis Bacon, Viscount St Alban c. 1618. Unknown: National Portrait Gallery, London.
February 9, 2017
It might have been better to read Golden Lads first. I did not find this as easy a read as her fiction, The Glassblowers, which made the French Revolution seem like it was occurring over my kitchen table. This is a fascinating tale of an ambitious man. It is probably distinguished by a lot of research, including some historical context for the Bacon Shakespeare controversy, as well as the historical placement and performance of plays I studied in high school.
July 13, 2016
The new Virago reprint of Daphne du Maurier’s The Winding Star: Francis Bacon, His Rise and Fall, which was first published in 1976, features an introduction by novelist Francis King. The book’s title is derived from one of Bacon’s quotes: ‘All rising to great place is by a winding stair’.
King writes that as well as du Maurier’s admiration for Bacon’s essays, she may well have been driven to write The Winding Stair about him by way of the ‘rumours, current even in their lifetimes, that the two Bacon brothers had, as members of the intimate circle of Robert Devereux Earl of Essex, been involved in homosexual intrigues and even activities. Throughout her life, the subject of homosexuality fascinated du Maurier’. Whilst King’s introduction is well written and informative, it does seem to end rather abruptly, which is a shame.
In introducing her own work, du Maurier writes: ‘Many accounts of the life of Sir Francis Bacon have been written for scholars, but du Maurier’s aim in this biography was to paint a vivid portrait of this remarkable man for the common reader, and to explore his considerable achievements: as a writer, philosopher, scientist and politician, he was truly a Renaissance man’. A timeline of Bacon’s life has been included – a useful tool, particularly given the lack of chronological structure within the biography itself. In true du Maurier style, The Winding Stair does not begin with Bacon’s birth; rather, she has chosen a pivotal moment in his life – the death of his brother, Anthony – as her starting point.
Whilst The Winding Stair is a very informative book, parts of it do tend to feel a little dry and stodgy, particularly in comparison to du Maurier’s other biographical works. Elements of her scholarly research are strong, however; the political and social situation throughout Bacon’s life has been well realised, and the historical detail which has been woven in – from King James I’s coronation to the oubreak of the plague in the city of London – does help to set the scene well. Quotes have been included, both from Bacon’s own work and from other sources.
Du Maurier has focused upon the bigger issues in Bacon’s life – becoming Solicitor-General under King James I when he was forty five, for example – as well as those which are certainly more trivial, such as the history of his handwriting, and how it altered over time: ‘From the hurried Saxon hand full of large sweeping curves and with letters imperfectly formed and connected, which he wrote in Elizabeth’s time, to a small, neat, light and compact one, formed more upon the Italian model which was then coming into fashion’.
My personal interest in The Winding Stair was piqued the most in those sections which mentioned Shakespeare. As a figure, I feel that he came to life far more than Bacon did throughout the biography. Whilst I found the beginning of the book rather too stale, it did become more readable as it went on. Considered in its entirety and in comparison to du Maurier’s other biographies, however, this is on a par with Gerald: A Portrait; in no way does it reach the compelling heights as her work on Branwell Bronte.
King writes that as well as du Maurier’s admiration for Bacon’s essays, she may well have been driven to write The Winding Stair about him by way of the ‘rumours, current even in their lifetimes, that the two Bacon brothers had, as members of the intimate circle of Robert Devereux Earl of Essex, been involved in homosexual intrigues and even activities. Throughout her life, the subject of homosexuality fascinated du Maurier’. Whilst King’s introduction is well written and informative, it does seem to end rather abruptly, which is a shame.
In introducing her own work, du Maurier writes: ‘Many accounts of the life of Sir Francis Bacon have been written for scholars, but du Maurier’s aim in this biography was to paint a vivid portrait of this remarkable man for the common reader, and to explore his considerable achievements: as a writer, philosopher, scientist and politician, he was truly a Renaissance man’. A timeline of Bacon’s life has been included – a useful tool, particularly given the lack of chronological structure within the biography itself. In true du Maurier style, The Winding Stair does not begin with Bacon’s birth; rather, she has chosen a pivotal moment in his life – the death of his brother, Anthony – as her starting point.
Whilst The Winding Stair is a very informative book, parts of it do tend to feel a little dry and stodgy, particularly in comparison to du Maurier’s other biographical works. Elements of her scholarly research are strong, however; the political and social situation throughout Bacon’s life has been well realised, and the historical detail which has been woven in – from King James I’s coronation to the oubreak of the plague in the city of London – does help to set the scene well. Quotes have been included, both from Bacon’s own work and from other sources.
Du Maurier has focused upon the bigger issues in Bacon’s life – becoming Solicitor-General under King James I when he was forty five, for example – as well as those which are certainly more trivial, such as the history of his handwriting, and how it altered over time: ‘From the hurried Saxon hand full of large sweeping curves and with letters imperfectly formed and connected, which he wrote in Elizabeth’s time, to a small, neat, light and compact one, formed more upon the Italian model which was then coming into fashion’.
My personal interest in The Winding Stair was piqued the most in those sections which mentioned Shakespeare. As a figure, I feel that he came to life far more than Bacon did throughout the biography. Whilst I found the beginning of the book rather too stale, it did become more readable as it went on. Considered in its entirety and in comparison to du Maurier’s other biographies, however, this is on a par with Gerald: A Portrait; in no way does it reach the compelling heights as her work on Branwell Bronte.
April 24, 2019
Oh my gosh! I did not know Francis Bacon! Most people will probably think that duMaurier was a little too tedious in the writing. I know it was tedious, but I still liked it.
The Winding Stair does not begin with Bacon’s birth; rather, it starts from a pivotal moment in his life – the death of his brother, Anthony. There was so much English history presented in Bacon's story: Queen Elizabeth and her last years; the Cecils (uncle and cousin to Bacon); King James I; Gray's Inn; York House; Charles I ..... on and on. I became seeped in all of the history.
I liked the book because it brought together so many pieces of English history during the early 1700s.
The Winding Stair does not begin with Bacon’s birth; rather, it starts from a pivotal moment in his life – the death of his brother, Anthony. There was so much English history presented in Bacon's story: Queen Elizabeth and her last years; the Cecils (uncle and cousin to Bacon); King James I; Gray's Inn; York House; Charles I ..... on and on. I became seeped in all of the history.
I liked the book because it brought together so many pieces of English history during the early 1700s.
August 15, 2018
Du Maurier brings her skills as a novelist to bear on the life of Francis Bacon showing both his good side (his limitless curiosity) and bad (his ambition and vanity) and paints an off-putting picture of court life, with its endless jockeying for favour and elaborate conventions of subservience and superiority. Edward Coke, the great jurist, comes poorly out of the book as an ambitious, cruel and ruthless court operator.
April 24, 2021
Well researched but disappointing and boring. It feels she was aspiring to be more than a novelist but this effort proved her success was where it belonged, which wasn’t writing scientific biographies.
January 21, 2021
I didn't love this bio, but I did think it was well done and gave a very interesting glimpse into life in the 1600's.
February 22, 2024
I can't tell if she pulled half of these stories out of her rear end.
In chapter 3, Prince Henry wants a new dog so he puts 3 in a cage with a lion and the last one to live he makes his pet. . . then he's described as having been a compassionate dog owner to said pet following its survival test.
I have questions about that.
1. How does one pull a lion off of a dog mid-attack without getting hurt
2. Why not use a more humane way to decide which dog you want rather than feed their siblings to lion
3. Why not put 2 dogs in lion cage instead of 3 , that way each dog gets to run along a different wall/corner
4. How big a cage are we talking? 10 feet? 50 feet?
5. Do you measure lion cages, in feet or meters?
6. How do you measure whether Henry was a compassionate dog owner? How many dog treats does he have to give Fido to offset feeding 2 of his brothers to the lions?
7. What gender were the dogs? After all, killing off 2 female dogs would be a very bitchy thing to do
Then we get into King James' wedding in Oslo. Here's what Du Maurier says about the festivities during their wedding celebration (also chapter 3):
"King James ordered four young negroes to dance naked in the snow before the royal carriage to amuse the crowd. The negroes died later of pneumonia."
Questions about this too.
1. Where did they find 4. . . in Oslo?
2. Why did they have to dance with no clothes on?
3. What kind of crowd did they invite to their wedding that would take amusement in that?
4. Why was there not a medical checkup on the dancers after their performance?
5. How long after their dance did they die? Days? Weeks?
6. Where is Du Maurier's source that this ever happened?
7. If this was said to have taken place 400+ years ago how come nobody else has made this claim?
I was equally surprised in chapter 20 a six foot sturgeon is reported to have lept into a fisherman's boat, thus offering itself up as a meal for the King and his men. All my time in Saskatchewan and I've never seen a sturgeon do that, but after further research I found it to be possible.
In chapter 3, Prince Henry wants a new dog so he puts 3 in a cage with a lion and the last one to live he makes his pet. . . then he's described as having been a compassionate dog owner to said pet following its survival test.
I have questions about that.
1. How does one pull a lion off of a dog mid-attack without getting hurt
2. Why not use a more humane way to decide which dog you want rather than feed their siblings to lion
3. Why not put 2 dogs in lion cage instead of 3 , that way each dog gets to run along a different wall/corner
4. How big a cage are we talking? 10 feet? 50 feet?
5. Do you measure lion cages, in feet or meters?
6. How do you measure whether Henry was a compassionate dog owner? How many dog treats does he have to give Fido to offset feeding 2 of his brothers to the lions?
7. What gender were the dogs? After all, killing off 2 female dogs would be a very bitchy thing to do
Then we get into King James' wedding in Oslo. Here's what Du Maurier says about the festivities during their wedding celebration (also chapter 3):
"King James ordered four young negroes to dance naked in the snow before the royal carriage to amuse the crowd. The negroes died later of pneumonia."
Questions about this too.
1. Where did they find 4. . . in Oslo?
2. Why did they have to dance with no clothes on?
3. What kind of crowd did they invite to their wedding that would take amusement in that?
4. Why was there not a medical checkup on the dancers after their performance?
5. How long after their dance did they die? Days? Weeks?
6. Where is Du Maurier's source that this ever happened?
7. If this was said to have taken place 400+ years ago how come nobody else has made this claim?
I was equally surprised in chapter 20 a six foot sturgeon is reported to have lept into a fisherman's boat, thus offering itself up as a meal for the King and his men. All my time in Saskatchewan and I've never seen a sturgeon do that, but after further research I found it to be possible.
March 18, 2024
One probably shouldn't judge biography by how appealing it makes its subject sound, but du Maurier failed to make Francis Bacon either interesting or likeable so far as I was concerned. (And she clearly subscribes to the conspiracy theory that Bacon or at least *someone* more elevated than boring old plebian Shakespeare must have written the plays performed by Shakespeare's company, which gets quite annoying quite quickly, especially as she is not prepared to come out into the open and explicitly say so...)
The self-serving Bacon really doesn't come across as a very attractive character, however hard the author argues on behalf of Genius (mainly expressed in his written works, apparently, even those churned out in a matter of weeks in order to raise money). His politics consist of whatever he thinks is most likely to please, he remains professionally frustrated until a late age, and his marriage to a supposedly malleable child bride appears to have been a predictable disaster. The most generous point du Maurier manages to make in his genuine favour is that, in a world where treason meant the scaffold, the people whose convictions Francis Bacon secured on behalf of James I had an amazingly high survival rate for the era. Having got them condemned he consistently managed to avoid getting them executed as a result.
But I'm afraid I failed to care at all about Bacon's tortuous progress through life or his books of abstruse thought. I'm a little curious about the preceding bookGolden Lads, which is apparently about his little-known elder brother (with whose death this biography opens!), but only to see if the author managed to make something more interesting out of it. I get the impression that her historical novels were more successful than her attempts at respectable history.
The self-serving Bacon really doesn't come across as a very attractive character, however hard the author argues on behalf of Genius (mainly expressed in his written works, apparently, even those churned out in a matter of weeks in order to raise money). His politics consist of whatever he thinks is most likely to please, he remains professionally frustrated until a late age, and his marriage to a supposedly malleable child bride appears to have been a predictable disaster. The most generous point du Maurier manages to make in his genuine favour is that, in a world where treason meant the scaffold, the people whose convictions Francis Bacon secured on behalf of James I had an amazingly high survival rate for the era. Having got them condemned he consistently managed to avoid getting them executed as a result.
But I'm afraid I failed to care at all about Bacon's tortuous progress through life or his books of abstruse thought. I'm a little curious about the preceding bookGolden Lads, which is apparently about his little-known elder brother (with whose death this biography opens!), but only to see if the author managed to make something more interesting out of it. I get the impression that her historical novels were more successful than her attempts at respectable history.
February 4, 2021
Surprisingly dull and dry account of Francis Bacon's life, with none of the color or lively style one might expect from a novelist. In their Tudor biographies Carolly Erickson, Tracy Borman, and Mary Lovell are much more able to capture the intriguing atmosphere of Renaissance England and to make their subjects come alive. Du Maurier is admirably scrupulous about sticking to the facts; she avoids the fiction-writer's temptation to write about scenes that probably happened or to tell (without any evidence) what a historical figure was thinking on certain occasions. However, she does not make Bacon into a compelling, fully human protagonist, and the other figures in the book remain sketchy at best. This may be inevitable in a case like Bacon's wife Alice - - du Maurier notes that we have virtually no information about her thoughts and feelings, since her correspondence has not survived - - but the same blankness occurs when du Maurier writes about well-documented figures like King James and the Duke of Buckingham, who could be fascinating but who emerge here as near-ciphers.
December 16, 2024
I picked this book up due to my love for the author and her works of fiction. She does an admirable job building out characters from history, but ultimately she fails to compensate for the fact that Francis Bacon's life is simply not that interesting.
It reminds me a little bit of Hamilton's life story: polymath who is a good writer and talker eventually rises through the ranks and gains political influence until political scandal causes his downfall. What makes this story much duller (and will probably never be adapted into a broadway rap musical) is probably the fact that there is no war, womanising, or blackmail. Shame.
It reminds me a little bit of Hamilton's life story: polymath who is a good writer and talker eventually rises through the ranks and gains political influence until political scandal causes his downfall. What makes this story much duller (and will probably never be adapted into a broadway rap musical) is probably the fact that there is no war, womanising, or blackmail. Shame.
September 26, 2023
Biography of Francis Bacon which leaves me wanting to read more about the subject of this book and also more Daphne du Maurier. Bacon himself comes across as a tortured soul with a big ego balancing greatness with a thirst for power and more than a little insecurity.
June 14, 2025
Here we have another biography by Du Maurier. This book is in the life and times of Sir Francis Bacon. Although a good read, if you like biographies, I found the biography of her father much better and engaging to read.
April 7, 2023
Oh my gosh! I did not know Francis Bacon! Most people will probably think that duMaurier was a little too tedious in the writing. I know it was tedious, but I still liked it.
The Winding Stair does not begin with Bacon’s birth; rather, it starts from a pivotal moment in his life – the death of his brother, Anthony. There was so much English history presented in Bacon's story: Queen Elizabeth and her last years; the Cecils (uncle and cousin to Bacon); King James I; Gray's Inn; York House; Charles I ..... on and on. I became seeped in all of the history.
I liked the book because it brought together so many pieces of English history during the early 1700s.
The Winding Stair does not begin with Bacon’s birth; rather, it starts from a pivotal moment in his life – the death of his brother, Anthony. There was so much English history presented in Bacon's story: Queen Elizabeth and her last years; the Cecils (uncle and cousin to Bacon); King James I; Gray's Inn; York House; Charles I ..... on and on. I became seeped in all of the history.
I liked the book because it brought together so many pieces of English history during the early 1700s.
October 22, 2023
A very readable historical book on Sir Francis Bacon. It seems the only time he ever let his intelligence lapse was when he was devastated by being accused of bribery. It's actually too sad that he never had children to carry on his genes. Although there were no specifics of his meeting William Shakespeare, there was found in his letters wordings from Shakespeare that were not published in Francis' lifetime.
April 8, 2016
Starts with the death of his brother Anthony, a supporter of the disgraced Earl of Essex. Bacon's climb to power, his relationships with family, king and aristocracy vividly portrayed stressing some very tiny coincidences - timing of publications etc. in connection with Shakespeare's work. (His much younger wife did marry her steward only 10 days after his death so was there some collaboration on Twelth Night??) I learnt more about this fascinating period straddling the end of Elizabeth's reign and James I/Charles I. Duke of Buckingham was one his main supporters, then later came his downfall which he didn't anticipate, as he felt so secure showing a basic flaw in his character, as his going with the flow and doing what was expedient. His young friend, who is not remembered for anything in particular, called him the greatest wit of the age. The Stratfordian question will carry on forever, but she has researched this subject meticulously and unearthed information about the brother from documents in France for her first book on the subject of the Bacon brothers.
January 4, 2016
In trying to read everything of Du Maurier, I finally came to this book. Dry and a slog. But of course it wasn't a novel, but rather an academic study. But she didn't succeed in making me care for Francis Bacon; i.e., in bringing him to life. So perhaps as a historian she merits 5-stars for this (I have no idea what a professional historian would say in that regard), but because it was tedious for me to read (not that I'm incapable of enjoying a good historical biography), my actual inclination would be a 1-star rating. So, let's say 3-stars, just to be fair.
December 20, 2009
This was written too much like a textbook for me. I didn't even finish it.
abandoned-didn-t-finish
February 27, 2012I left this on a baby change table while waiting in the queue for the ladies toilets at LAX. Someone else may be desperate.
Read
February 17, 2019Didn't quite catch my imagination. 'Eminently quotable' Bacon did not come alive.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews