Queen Anne

"""Winn skillfully paints the court, its players, and its culture-from thanksgiving services to birthday celebrations-in vivid detail.""--Mary K. Brantl, The Historian ""[A] riveting, indeed unputdownable, study of politics and the arts in [Queen Anne's] era... I finished the Winn Queen Anne with a war whoop of joy.""--Grey Gowrie, Essays in Criticism ""Winn is an ace at picking up on subtleties in the period's music and poetry, giving readers a feel for the political and religious turmoil that infected Anne's court....His writing and commentary, along with the musical samples found on the accompanying website, bring the queen's history to life.""--Publishers Weekly ""[Winn's] talent for descriptive prose and deep knowledge of literature, music, architecture, interior design make this book a rare treat, as he immerses the reader in the life, manners and preoccupations of the period. Especially strong is Mr. Winn's treatment of matters musical, an aspect of the book greatly enhanced by a marvelous accompanying website, where recordings of works by Handel, Henry Purcell and other notable composers of the Stuart era can be appreciated with expanded commentary.""--Wall Street Journal ""Queen Anne: Patroness of Arts is much more than a fascinating study of the Queen's cultural patronage and inspiration to early eighteenth century artists. Winn restores Anne to her rightful place in British political history, revealing her contributions to the creation of the modern constitutional monarchy and the unification of Great Britain....Readers of Queen Anne: Patroness of Arts will never underestimate Queen Anne again.""--Carolyn Harris, Royal Historian ""Winn amply demonstrates the queen's literary and cultural engagement, especially with the theatre, church music and the emerging genre of opera....The brilliance of Winn's book lies...in its illumination of the evidence it marshals. It is above all through his mastery of the literature of the period, and his ear for its cadences and echoes, that Winn lures us into the texture of the age.""--Literary Review ""[James Anderson Winn] contends that art and politics reflect each other. And his interesting book certainly convinces the reader that the arts were central to Anne's life and rule.""--The Independent ""[Winn's] latest book, Queen Anne: Patroness of Arts, is a masterpiece....[A] better, more comprehensive, and more searching general-audience study of Queen Anne than anything done before on this oft-studied monarch.""--Open Letters Monthly ""Winn is able to demonstrate the centrality of the arts in understanding the nuances of social and political life in the reigns of the late Stuart monarchs. I doubt there is another critic so adept at reading the poetry, music, and painting of the period....Not least because it recognizes the importance of the arts for understanding the tensions and conflicts that Anne was forced to negotiate, Queen Anne: Patroness of Arts is a magnificent contribution to our understanding of her life and times.""--Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theatre Research [Winn] has produced a book of unparalleled depth and insight...[H]is historical research on all aspects of the period, including its political turmoil, is impeccable, and yet his writing has essayistic clarity throughout.""--The Times Literary Supplement"