Torrid, tortured, and notorious -as romances go- indisputably was the affair between Elizabeth I, Queen of England, and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. It started in 1587, when she was fifty-three and he was merely nineteen. The affair lasted five years. Essex was beheaded for treason in 1601. The book brilliantly exposes the details that led to Essex's demise. A master of the English language, Lytton Strachey renders in unbridled fast-paced -for a history-based narration- powerful and exquisite scenes of individual love, individual power-and power politics. As the story progresses, a retinue of courtiers pass in review: Francis Bacon, Walter Raleigh, Robert Cecil, and many other important players. Given the age difference and the lovers' explosive characters, the affair was doomed from its very beginning. But what is important about this "tragic history," is that it provides panoramic vistas about the glamor and mystique of the Elizabethan age.