Review by Maya Cherny
Handsome, roguish, flamboyant, arrogant, charming, hotheaded and impulsive - this is how I would describe Robert Deveraux, lord Essex, knowing his short-sighted decisions, rush actions and untimely demise. But was he always destined to become such person?
Not every child becomes an adult, but every adult was a child once. In the course of life and serious “adult” -relationships, feelings, choices, deeds, actions, affairs. It easy to forget that everything starts in childhood and every grownup is impacted by its events.
What do I remember as a child? Why is this particular memory stuck? What earlier memories I would like to forget and what is the reason? Was I essentially the same person at 10 as I’m now?
These questions flooded my mind when I started to read “Essex” by Tony Riches. Already at the first pages my original impression of the persona started to crumble. Meet a gifted child of 11, losing his father and having estranged mother, torn out from his family and thrown in welcoming but unknown household.
Navigating through his own insecurities, learning to find ways to support, to assert himself, to gain knowledge how to survive and strive within intricacies of the court - this was Essex’s maturity age. Nevertheless, he never became an adult.
He was as close as a son to Elizabeth I, as could be, always trying to win her attention, her approval, hurt with the lack of it. His self-centered approach, often sign of a spoiled child, would be his downfall.
His bright ideas, often with wrong reasoning, followed by rush decisions, which were rarely thought through, and carelessness of consequences lay his life path. Come to think of his behavioural extravagance - was it in part attention craving, unfulfilled in childhood?
Short, tumultuous and sparkling life of Robert Devereaux in “Essex” by Tony Riches will keep you engaged and entertained.
Maya Cherny
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for commenting