![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Her self-appointed task is above all ``to explain. In addition, Fraser's thoughtful narrative probes the serious issues raised by the event. As the Queen grew old, men everywhere were filled with foreboding about the future.'' Individual plotters (including ``Little John,'' the near-dwarf who created hiding spaces for Catholic priests, the charming Guy Fawkes, and Robert Catesby, the plot's charismatic leader) and the society in which they moved take on the depth and dimension of real life. ``The end of the sixteenth century,'' Fraser notes, ``was an uneasy time in England. Fraser's account of this dramatic incident is distinguished by her perspective on the larger issue of treason and on the vexed question of faith and patriotism. Guy Fawkes Day, on November 5, is England's annual commemoration of the failed 1605 plot by a small group of English Catholics to blow up the House of Parliament with King James I present, in an attempt to bring back Catholicism as the state religion. Early 17th century England's complexities and dangers are rendered both comprehensible and relevant in the skilled prose of a veteran mystery novelist (A Splash of Red, 1981, etc.) and popular historian (The Wives of Henry VIII, 1992, etc.). ![]()
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